Evening!

I am coming to you from my new, temporary airbnb bed in Tring. I have moved here today to save some time on the daily commute to work from London, as well as, having my friend drive me here every morning. Now I live just 10 min walking distance from the set and it is just great. Finally I will be able to lay in. Also, as much as I enjoyed having evening drinks after work with my friend, I also want a little detox, since I am not used to having alcohol every day. Overall my first week back at work felt like the show never stopped and as we are approaching the inevitable end of the whole filming I am getting a little emotional. I am so grateful for this project and people I have met along the way there are no words to describe the love I feel. I could add a bunch of hashtags and still it would not do it justice. I am incredibly lucky and count my blessings every day.

Hope you’re all doing well, staying healthy and have a chance to see your daily blessings too.

This is my week in summary:

Tuesday. After the first day it seems that we are back in a full swing. As if March was two days ago. Such a strange distorted time paradox. The location we are shooting at, is a some sort of museum/ big fancy estate. The weather has been surprisingly good as well, but we had all the interiors planned for the day, so it did not matter. Yesterday we finally shot a scene which was a direct continuity to the interior scene we did last year in November. Crazy actually to even think of that. Sometimes when I take detailed notes, I think that I will never end up using them since we are scheduled to complete something the same week, but this show has proved, that all the notes are important and I should not feel too silly going overboard with them sometimes. Anyway, today we also had some nice big dramatic moments I have been waiting for. We wrapped almost half an hour later, but achieved some nice performances in the end. My make up artist friend/ colleague (a different one in this country, than back home) gave me a lift back to London and another friend picked me up from there and delivered to her house. Working in London can be a logistical pain. Hope the next project comes in from somewhere else.

Wednesday. A bit of a rainy day. Came in half an hour later and spent a big portion of the morning waiting around for things to be set up anyway. Actually something did cause an unusual delay, but no one talked about it.. Curious. Also, we experienced Covid directorial influence, when two actors had to shake hands in the scene, but due to them being from different cohorts or something like that, they were not aloud to do it. Luckily it works for the story regardless, but still. Interesting… Wrap came a little bit later again today and by the time I was home, I was ready for bed. I pained my nails while catching up with my friend/ flatmate/ driver/ kindest human being, when finally at home and I consider that as a huge productivity for the evening.

Thursday. Beautiful sunny day in 1970s Paris. One of the reasons I love this job, we get to live in those different worlds for at least a little bit. As close to time travel as we can get. So yes, todays set was a beautiful Parisian cafe. Just by looking at it, I started craving coffee and croissants. Overall the day was a success, the sun stayed out until the wrap time, which was the whole 15 minutes early today.  A nice compensation for the previous days. Also my rides home have been really fun with my make up artist friend, we chat all the way through about life and love. I am not sure how old she is, but she has had way more experience in this industry and life so I kind of look up to her in that way. Her lifestyle is very similar to mine too, so it’s kinda like reverse projecting to how my life might turn out to be. In the evening I had a glass of wine with my flatmate friend. This week has been really good so far.

Friday. We wrapped the previous location yesterday and from now on will be basing ourselves in the small town called Tring. Today we are shooting some flashbacks and it is a nice change from the usual grim culmination of the show we’ve been doing so far this week. In other news a colleague of mine expressed interest in Keto dieting and Ive been sharing my tips and experience with him. Shame that this job is almost over as I won’t be able to see it through with him. Fun fact. Today we shot a wedding scene and I am pretty sure it was my first. So excited to be still having my firsts in this job. Also the french tutor who helps actors with their french lines was acting in the wedding scene as the one initiating it. I find it pretty exciting when friends from crew end up on the screen as well. After I have written this, we got some sad news from Bangkok that our colleague we worked with on this show in Autumn has passed away due to liver cancer. I cannot believe it yet..

Saturday. I can definitely feel that this is my 6th day this week. Also I am not sure if that’s the mask which I have to wear all day long at work, or anxiety which gives me trouble breathing. Probably the later.. I still cannot believe that the friend/ colleague has passed away so suddenly. Other than that the day at work was smooth. The DOP on this show who I worked with in Bangkok has put my name forward for the job he is doing now, so I might be staying in London a bit longer if that works out. Also a friend in Portugal been sending me photos from the beach and travel updates trying to peruse me to come for a visit. If time wise it will fit in between work I think I will go. #freelancing After the wrap a mini crew went out to for a few drinks to a local pub. So different from our Bangkok outings, yet still carried the same feeling. If all goes well next week we will warp this crazy show.

Sunday. I had a nice lay in as I took a rather expensive taxi from Tring to London last night. It was worth it though. My friends place feels like home now and weirdly all the Lithuanian adventures I had this summer feel like miles away too. Weird concept of time.. We went for a reformer class in a late morning and this time I did bring my camera. Hooray! In the afternoon we had bbq day planned and that was so so so nice. The weather played along, so it was a great success. We also watched this film I have worked on almost 3 years ago, which is yet to be released this Autumn. The producer who organised the interview for me last weekend has sent me a private link. Felt kinda special. The movie was good too, but I knew that already, it’s pretty current for 2020 actually and that’s bizarre in itself. 

Highlights:

  • Morning rides to work.
  • Evening rides and chats on the way home.
  • Reformer pilates
  • Garden bbq
  • Chats about life, love and death
  • Being back at work.
  • Feeling tired. (I know this might sound weird, but feeling tired from working I find so satisfying, that the rest I take after is even more enjoyable)
  • Colleagues, old and new.
  • Potential jobs.
  • Si! (Aka my helpful dop)
  • Love.

Cheers with a glass full of constantly moving elephant!