Hello!

So instead of spending time by the pool with my colleagues after work I chose to have a night in with food and photoshop and of course you guys, my cherished readers. Thank you for being here. 

So the week 4 has ended and now as I was going through the photos I realised how much we have done in the past week. We shot some impressive action sequences, explosions and special effects all while enduring the crazy weather Sahara was blessing us with. I saw a real life sand tornado this week! 

I am keeping up with my daily reading and it gives me a bit of a separation from this world. Also I am looking for a positive word to describe that I am tired, as just repeating it makes me feel even more tired. In the collection of photos this week there is a rather raw facial expression of my tiredness. Keeping it real for you.

All in all things started to move along, I am having some strange dreams, usually involving at least one of my colleagues depriving me of something, be it water, aircon remote or telling me that we don’t have time to pick up scenes we haven’t shot. Even in my sleep I’m fully submerged into this experience.

In real life news, my sister is doing better and I am so so happy for her, earlier this week together with her boyfriend she has planted two trees for the babies lost. Very symbolic. My mom is healthy and so is my brother. I am lucky.

Hope all of your families are safe and healthy. 

Love to you all and talk to you next week!

***

Monday. My eyes are so watery. I am tired and for most part it is due to sleeping only for 4 hours last night. Today we did a shorter day, but that meant that we didn’t get much of a lunch break. Eating on set between the decorations. I got upgraded to the front seat of the car for video village and it was pretty comfy. My kidney stone reapeared today and I was in a lot of pain for the first half of the day. Other than that the day went well, the sceene we shot today was pretty fun, a lot of cast and talking so took the whole day to shoot.

Tuesday. New location today. Right in the desert at the bottom of what used to be a sea or ocean I don’t even know. What I do know that there was another massive sand/ dust storm and we all turned pretty much green. Algee? Maybe. Well my video village was in one of the cars so I actually managed to avoid the worst, but ah that was grim really. We shot during the short intervals of no storm and actually managed to achieve some decent stuff. The fact that we had an action sequence to shoot instead of our usual 8 minute dialogue scenes helped us a lot. I am exhausted now though. Also I got a job offer which I feel like I don’t want to refuse, but it would mean that I will have to start the prep while I am still shooting in Morocco. It would be savage as a friend of mine pointed out, but.. it is another job abroad, a big fantasy high-end tv gig, just like I wanted. Also would really help me financially to get my grandpa a new place. Yea my grandpa is in a bit of a struggle at the moment. Family things don’t stop regardless of where I am and I know it would make it so much easier for my mom. So yea let’s see. I will keep you posted of course, but for now, good night!! Hopefully no more strange dreams tonight. Love!

Wednesday. Exhaustion levels over 9000. Another sandstorm, literal sand tornado just about passed us by. Even the local crew say they have never experienced that before. It is literally madness. I was rather safe in the car, but still it is hard. 2 more days and we get one day off. When I think about it I just wanna cry. So I won’t think about it. I need hugs. The things we do for entertainment.. or art.. Yea guys I hope you gonna enjoy this show. Ah yes few people didn’t turn up on set today including our medic, because they were unwell. That sums it up hey.

Thursday. Today felt brutal. I am showered and clean now so all is well. We were at a new different location and the morning was rather beautiful. BUT. As always after lunch the massive storm began and we were all in the dunes. No car for me this time, so suffered with everyone which was kinda nice. Silver lining hey. We ran one hour longer than planned, because we literally had to burry one of the actors alive. I have never seen anything like it and it was something. I mean that guy did so well. There were tubes for him to breath through before his face got covered and once the action was called it was taken out, the fake wind started followed by more of the fake rain. He held his breath long enough for us to achieve some nice shots. Impressed, also very first time I have done it. Was chatting to our producer who is well more experienced that me aka in his 70s? Not sure and he said it was his first time doing that too. Interesting day which got topped off by one of the guys getting us all ice creams on our way back home. I am glad I feel better today. This job is cool even if I moan about it. Another day tomorrow and then a one day weekend.

Friday. Last day of the week. Probably the easiest day of the whole Morocco shoot so far. Rather pleasant weather, no massive sandstorms apart of the rain and wind in the desert in the early hours of the day. We wrapped half an hour later, but completed the call sheet. Success. Had a little social gathering at the hotel in the evening. Peace.

Saturday. If I was to sit down earlier today to write this, it would have been a much happier post. Life is so so fragile. I am in a bit of a shock and disbelief. I have been thinking about death a lot and it is one thing when I think of my own and completely something else when it touches people you care about. Good people. Tragic things happen to good people. Earlier today I found out that my fellow script supervisor on this job has lost her boyfriend to a drunk driver last night as he was filming on another film shoot. I saw her, we sat, I hugged her and I know there are no words I can say which will make her feel better. There are no words in this situation. Just isn’t. A young life has ended and the loss of that life will alter hers too. When people talk about having superpowers, instead of flying or teleportation, more than anything I would love to be able to take peoples pain away. Honestly, there is nothing more I would want.

Sunday. Sitting here munching on a massive bar of Lindt chocolate with cherries. Today we were filming outside the Berber village on top of a rather steep hill. Sunrise from there was beautiful. Windy, but very beautiful. In the end the day was good, we achieved everything and once again rolled into overtime. It is starting to be more of a pattern and that’s not very cool. Also they have added an additional day of filming next week which will mean another 6 working days for us followed by a “rest day” after night shoot which counts as a seventh working day with again only one day off. Anyway, boring talk, but the spirits within the team are crumbling a little because of it.

Highlights:

  • Sunrise in the desert.
  • Burying an actor alive.
  • Film industry.
  • Beautiful shooting locations.
  • Everyday is an adventure and a fight.
  • So we were filming in this abandoned hotel. The story was that some Italian man started building it even though everyone told him that it is a wrong place for it as it will get flooded. So yea it did get flooded and the hotel was never finished. We made it look more ruined of course, but still it was a pretty interesting location to shoot at. Also it had snakes! Luckily I didn’t see any or they didn’t see me that is.

Cheers with a glass full of resilient elephant!