Hello from Germany!

I was in Berlin at the start of the week, now I am in Hamburg and I have changed in total 6 hotels so far after getting to Germany. It is pretty intense. I haven’t unpacked anything yet as I keep having to pack again and again. It has been pretty nice though. It feels like I have been on this on much longer than I actually have, because of it.

The crew is predominantly German, we have few Spanish speakers in the camera department and British of course for the HODs. Everyone seems really nice and although it feels like things are a bit messy, especially transport wise, you kinda forgive it. It is not the easiest job logistically speaking. 

I made few new friends this week and it makes me happy. Also I realised that perhaps I should talk about the people I meet in a bit more detail as they are the ones who are making my life here as it is in a way. 

So anyway. Being back at work feels fulfilling. I did have some time to think about my life outside of it and analyse some of my childhood moments, I almost made myself cry with some of the realisations, but that might be for another time. I do feel like I am on a such a journey right now, it’s pretty interesting where it gets me.

BUT, thank you for coming back to my diary, I hope you are all well and healthy. Can’t believe that we are approaching year three of the pandemic in a few months! Stay strong and love!!

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Monday. A very good first day at work. Impressed by the breakfast selection, the crew super friendly, we got qtake and a high chair for me to sit. Feeling like a princess, warm and comfortable today. Had a social evening with my colleagues and had dinner after work at our new hotel. Practiced my German Dualingo and went to bed knowing that I will only have 4 hours of sleep. Still was pretty pleased.

Tuesday. Another job another boat day. Today gave me some Norway flashbacks as we were filming on the boat again. All was seemingly going well. I was very sleepy after having slept for only 4 hours. Breakfast was good, and I could keep my keto options interesting. Cast is actually very nice, I had one of the actors I actually know and like from one of the shows I used to binge watch. He also seems like a very nice person. Today we had a little covid scare, because apparently one of the shooting crew on the boat had a false positive. They wouldn’t let us of the boat while everyone was being checked out. It was a sunny day at the harbour so I didn’t really mind, had a chance to chat to that actor and the half hour went by quickly. The downside of that was, we didn’t complete our day, but no one was very worried somehow. Ah yes remember I was raving about having Qtake, so the equipment fell out of touch this morning and got damaged. It seemed to work ok in the second part of the day, but the operator was stressed for a good portion of the morning. A did an hour of dualingo German back at the hotel and washed my hair. No dinner this time, cause priorities, you can’t do it all unfortunately.

Wednesday. Spent the day on the boat, at first we were sailing, then we were stationary. A bit of stunts and so on, but for most part I was on my own as the location was so cramped I couldn’t be close to cameras. Just me and my monitor and the headphones to listen to what is going on on set. Lonely but comfortable. After work I ended up getting a drink with our story producer, she is really nice, we chatted a lot on our way from work and then continued with the gin and tonics. She wants to be a screenwriter, so it’s nice to talk creative things, although we talked just random everything. After that I just passed out in bed after a quick German lesson on dualingo.

Thursday. Continuous day, means quick lunch on the go. The day started very rainy and not promising at all, but the thing with this industry is that things can just turn around for the better any moment. It’s stopped raining, we did our low loader scenes, driving across the bridge which was under construction so we had to drive slow and you know what. The director initially was very upset that we will have to drive slow, but now more than ever I started valuing safety and if the circumstances made us slow down, I embrace them, it is probably for the better as the roads were pretty slippery from all the rain you know. At the end, no one watching this scene will ever think that the car was driving too slow and shots looked great. So everyone is a winner. In the afternoon we shot on a pier and all went well, so well in fact we wrapped half an our early. Yay us. I did nothing with my evening though, just practiced some German and mentally prepared to pack my suitcases as tomorrow morning before work we are moving to a new hotel for the weekend. Life on the road. 

Friday. Started the day in a very windy location under a bridge, moved to the beach for the second scene of the day, which was sunny, yet also very windy. Finally after lunch we traveled to another location which is a hospital. I quite like hospitals and I had a little realisation here. Well I am on a bit of an emotional journey right now, thinking about love I experienced as a child and being in this hospital made me think of all the times I have spent in one as a child and how I felt. It dawned on me here, that the reason I like hospitals is because it made me feel special and loved. I know it might sound a bit sad, but it really isn’t. I am happy about this discovery.

Saturday. Last night we had another move after work and checked into a new hotel. My room has fantastic views of the Baltic Sea. This town, which I keep forgetting what is called used to be a popular holiday destination for Germans living in the west side of Berlin, so it is full of old hotels and restaurants. Ever since the Berlin Wall was taken down it became less and less popular so you can kinda feel the weird eeriness as it seems that it has stopped in time. OK, but, today in particular I did absolutely nothing, just slept and rested looking at my glorious views. Ah yes for breakfast the hotel was serving champagne!

Sunday. Woke up early, but stayed in bed until almost midday. A colleague of mine invited me to go to another town close by – Lubeck. There is a Nordic film festival going on there. Also it is a hometown of one of the famous German writers Thomas Mann and my colleague is a big fan so he told me a lot about him and the place. Which was fun, kinda like having a private guide. So we went to see one German movie dealing about some sort of family, domestic and life purpose issues in the German countryside and then there was a screening of a Lithuanian classic musical. I have never seen it before so was excited to see. Of all the places, here in Germany I get to watch something from my homeland. After all that we had a pub dinner, very german, loads of meet and sourcrout and took a taxi back to our hotel. Taxi, because our train was cancelled. So although it was more expensive it was also way more comfortable and quick. I was out like a light once back in my room. Tomorrow we are moving once again. This time to Hamburg so I will have to wake up earlier to pack up.

Highlight:

  • in Germany there are no AD reports and if something happened on set, like an injury or technical incident, people come to me. Weird. Made me feel a little special though, more involved in the actual wellbeing of the crew and I liked it.
  • Germany is rather beautiful. Beautiful sunny days followed by the cold and windy moments which were still sunny. Wouldn’t get that in the UK.
  • Thinking about life a lot this week.
  • Oh my sister is expecting a baby girl! The results came back. Super excited. 
  • Have been practicing German on the dualingo all week. Proud that I managed to keep it up.

Cheers with a glass full of German elephant!