So. Week 3 started with a day on set. Finally!

Big day with locked off street, car rig, fancy VFX shots for flipped screens, stunt driving, running and falling. (Well the last one was not intentional) Seriously it seems that the biggest danger in Bangkok is not some topical infection or disease, but a pavement!

Part of the scene involved one of the actors running down the street and as fate had it he tripped and fell half way through the shot. Cameras were rolling, sound recording, it looked pretty beautiful actually, so beautiful in fact that the director decided to keep the shot and mach things around it. The funny thing is that actors landing on the pavement happened behind one of the cars in shot and it looked as if it was done on purpose and he landed on a crash matt or something. Unfortunately that was not the case and we had to stand down for a bit while he received the medical care. Luckily it was not very serious and we carried on with the day. Well done him though!

Second part of the day was less exiting, but I finally got to meet our lead and did some emotional scenes together, which was cool. Unfortunately we will have to pick up some of those a month later, due to the other lead being currently unavailable. No one really likes when that happens, but those are kinda my moments. I have to step up my continuity game and take extensive notes and photos to help recreate it all at the later day, so when you are watching it, you’ll feel that it all happened at the same time.

I finished Sunday with 1km pool swim and felt pretty great.

Monday was yet again an office prep day for the freshly released episode. Felt pretty happy after reading it, as we are finally concluding the story and it is genuinely a good one.

Another 1km + swim after work and off to bed I went.

Tuesday was my favourite day on set so far. It felt as if we were on a field trip, because we travelled outside Bangkok to one of the floating restaurants for our shoot. It was beautiful, air was fresh and I finally felt like I am filming in Thailand. On top of that everybody had to take their shoes off, which was great, since it was hot and also so unusual for us who normally work under the strict rules of UK “health and safety”. 

Fun day which I once again finished with 1km + swim.

Wednesday – first time on this job when we had sequential days on set. Great! Slightly derelict location – hot, very hot. There was this moment when I was literally standing and talking (zero effort) to the B camera crew about the shot and I felt sweat dripping down my whole body as if I just completed one of the CrossFit WODs. Crazy! Also I did not feel particularly hot or anything, so all this sweat kinda took me by surprise. I think my brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening and just concentrated on getting me to cool down. Thank you!

By the end of the day I had no energy for my evening swim left so I went out with some crew for food and drinks. Our DOP uses the most colourful adjectives to describe the food he likes so it was a pretty funny night.

Thursday I was driven to the fancy chandelier hospital for my last Hep B vaccination and that’s as productive as I was. After it I was not feeling particularly well, so stayed in bed for the rest of the day.

Friday and Saturday went kinda as a blur too, as I was still not feeling very well. (Guessing the heat got to me) I binge watched a shameful amount of “Once upon a time” on Netflix and stayed in a constant hibernation mode with all of my phones on silent. 

Stuff I found interesting:

  • Video village monitors are being moved in wheelchairs. Effective!
  • Talked to one of the camera crew about all those colour coordinated t-shirts. Apparently, the idea came from various football teams. He said he might get some for me. Exciting!
  • Learned how to say “please/ excuse me” in Thai.
  • Working bare feet. It was awesome!
  • Fancy honey wagon! Fully air conditioned, flowers and all. “Love at first sit”
  • Got some new tattoo ideas.
  • Now that I am writing this diary I started taking more photos. 

Cheers with the glass full of elephant!