Day 10 - January 18, 2011

What a crazy day!

I believe today was the most difficult/important shoot so far.

We were deep in the heart of the Red Light District to shoot gun and chase scenes along the canal.  We had a permit to use guns and shoot blanks out of them for five hours but we had 9 hours of shooting ahead of us, so if we didn't stay on point the day could go sour very fast.  And on top of this little predicament it had just started to rain and get windy when we arrived on set at ten to seven in the morning.  And on top of the unfortunate weather that was already occurring, the driver that was meant to pick up the directors and producers and the camera equipment that we were meant to use had over slept and was an hour and a half late, so that really botched our timing and everyone was in a terrible mood from the mounting delays and screw-ups that had happened all before nine in the morning.

I on the other hand had a case of 'Schadenfraude.'  Seeing as Avenue Q is one of my favorite musicals, this name came to me right away.  It's direct German translation, according to the song, is 'happiness at the misfortune of others' which couldn't be more apt at explaining how I felt.  I had gotten plenty of sleep, I was on time to set, I felt in control of all of my duties and seeing everyone else scrambling around made me happy that I wasn't stressed and that I wasn't having those problems.  If that makes me a terrible person then fine but I wasn't going to let everyone else's mood ruin my genuinely happy mood!

Side note:  The only kind of crappy thing to happen to me that morning was that when I got up at 6:30 to take a nice, warm, relaxing shower, I came to the stark realization that there was no hot water coming out the the shower head.  Being a trooper I pressed on with the shower because I would rather be cold for a moment then feel gross on set all day.  But as I was shivering under the cold water I look down to my feet and realize that brown water is pooling around my feet.  Not immediately pulling out of the water because when I dye my hair, several days after the water when I wash my hair with be a murky brown from the dye.  But then I remembered that I have NOT dyed my hair since...oh I don't know, since a month after I moved to NYC...so once I remembered that I quickly removed myself from the brown spray.  Pissed because I was now cold, wet, covered in what must amount to canal water and with no way to wash off the canal water that was already on me I was in a bit of a pickle.  But the shower Gods decided to smile on me because then all of a sudden it turned warm and clear.  But at the end I don't really know who to thank for this turn of events but I was sure grateful that it did!

Moving on, since we were shooting on the main drag of the Red Light District, we were required to pay off the 'pimps' of the women that were in the window that may or may not be able to be seen in the peripheral of the cameras.  I thought that was a fun little tidbit.  And we also had to block off a whole street.  And of course as chance would have it the more that you don't want people walking down a certain street the more that people are curious and want to do it.  It's like when you tell your teenage daughter not to do something, the more she will in turn want to do it.  So needless to say the chaos was growing in the streets as the day progressed and it was becoming increasingly harder to keep the passing pedestrians off the bridges and streets we were using.

Because of all of the aforementioned problems we were running behind schedule and the first thing to go was lunch.  Everyone outside was not allowed lunch, not because the production staff is mean but because we only had a permit to shoot here for one day and if we didn't get it we were pretty much screwed.  I was cold, wet and hungry but at the end of the day it is what had to be done to get the shots we needed.

And now I come to the part of the day that I am not really sure I enjoyed but it is something that has never been done in the Red Light District and I practically was forced to do....

We have come upon the scene when the lead actor gets pushed up against the Red Light windows, three of them to be exact, and since we were paying the pimps to use this space we didn't have any ladies to fill the windows when the actor gets pushed up against the windows.  Amy and Carlijn already knew that they were going to be Red Light girls and they were having trouble finding someone to fill the last one.  They weren't going to use me because I have a speaking role coming up in a week that it would be obvious if they used me in both places.  But, in sheer desperation they asked/told me that I was going to be the third girl but that they were going to film it so you wouldn't see my face.  Lovely.  In the sense of the Red Light District, what I was wearing was very conservative, but the crowd that gather outside the windows while we were filming and the whole crew, some of which I have become fast friends with, were watching intently as the shooting of the scene progressed.  The silver lining in this scenario is that not one film, not one, has been able to do what we were able to do that day.  Tourists are not allowed to take pictures and no one that is not a 'paid lady' has ever been in those windows.  So in that sense it was kinda cool to be on the other side of the glass but as a whole, I am quite content with my lifestyle choices and the fact that I will never call that my profession.  So there is my confession.  I was in a Red Light window to film a scene.  Take with that what you will because I am not entirely sure how to spin it right now.  But below are two pictures that were on my camera after this experience.

 Carla helping me get ready.

Jason with Amy and Carlijn in the windows.  I was in the one that was behind Jason.

After filming, Amy and I went out with the typical director/producer crew for Mexican food.  I was disgustingly full by the end of the meal because the tacos were massive (they actually give you directions on how to roll a taco, strange) and we were drinking pitchers of the best margaritas that I have ever had!  Amy and I decided to call it an early night and were both in bed by 12:30 even though we have the day off tomorrow.  Wanted to spend the day sleeping in and seeing sights rather than being hungover.  But I still have several meetings tomorrow so it's not like its an official day off.

Hope you had fun reading this particular post!

Love,

-M

Day 9 - January 17, 2011

Even though I was fairly responsible the night before I still slept through my alarm and had only twenty minutes to shower before everyone was headed to set.  I was able to fudge with that time some because we didn't need a car and were able to walk to set.  So since everyone was walking and I already knew where we were filming so I left by myself when I was ready and I was still early.  I am really getting the hang of rolling out of bed twenty minutes before call and still looking halfway put together.  I have a feeling when I go back to the states that I will regress to my old habits.  But for now it is really working out for me.

Today we were set to film in the Red Light District again but this time from the point of the view of a boat in a canal.  And the thought of driving through the canal in a little motorized boat seems like a fun and exciting idea but as the weather in Amsterdam usually seems to be, it was cold and rainy today.  I felt so terrible for the two lead actors that had to be in this little rickety boat all day in cold and wet costumes.  I was just glad to be relatively dry.

I was finally in my element today.  I fully understand and am excelling at my jobs so not once today did I feel lost or without purpose, so that was nice.  But the walk between the holding room and the set was directly through the prostitute windows of the Red Light District.  So I passed these women so many times throughout the day that they probably thought I was trying to make some money on their stomping ground.  And when it was about noon here I new that in Wisconsin time that it would have been about 5 in the morning there and I knew it was pretty early but took the risk and tried ringing my mom, and of course she answered!!!  It was the first time that I actually got to talk to her, which was really nice, but I was standing outside the holding room and I had a bunch of naked women staring at me while talking to my mom.  I can definitely say that I have never been in a situation like that before, and it was weird talking to my mom about both my Grandmas and such while prostitutes are staring at me.  And even though it was an awkward situation, I couldn't help but feel bad for them because, they honestly just look really sad sitting in a little room with a window that was also a door, sitting there in nothing or next to nothing, while trying to tempt perverts on the street.  Sad.  But with talking to other people on set, some of them really love what they do so I guess in this situation you just think yourself "To each their own."  It may not be for you but some people clearly enjoy it.

We filmed for seven hours in the Red Light District before moving set to the producers house to shoot the last part of the canal scene.  That was a fairly short take and dinner was ready for us inside, complete with apple pie!  Not as good as the kinds that I have had in the states but it was wonderful to eat something that I recognized :)  I came home to the hotel after dinner to find Amy practically pulling her hair out because she wasn't required on set and she was bored out of her mind.  So we went grocery shopping, and then she went out to eat with several other people from the hotel while I finally got to sit on my bed and write the past blogs that I so desperately needed to catch up with.  Very relaxing and a stress reliever because I wanted to catch up with the days before I got too far behind.

So now that I am caught up to the best of my ability I wanted to take this moment to say that I miss all of you that are reading this and I hope to talk/see you soon!  Hugs and Kisses from Amsterdam!

Love,

-M

Day 8 - January 16, 2011

Today was an absolutely glorious day!

I think the world was making up for my bad decisions from the night before.

I went to bed at 9:30 the night before and did not stir once until my alarm went off at 9 o'clock the next day.  We had a 10 o'clock call and the holding room was actually in our hotel because we were planning on shooting right outside our hotel so I got to sleep in, not pile into a van with a dozen grumpy people in the morning and it was projected to be a short shooting day.

On 'the planning' which is what Dutch people call what we would refer to as 'a schedule' it said that we were going to shoot from 10 until 2 in the afternoon.  And along with being a short day, everyone was in a shiny mood and the actor we had on set, who is apparently a very well known actor in Belgium was an absolute thrill to have.  That's one of the things that I can't understand over here, these famous people come to set but I don't know who any of them are so I can't stand in awe of them because I have no idea who they are.  They may find my lack of knowing who they are offensive but how am I supposed to know any better?

We wrapped filming by 2 and it was turning into a gorgeous day.  Pretty much everyday that I have been here it has been cloudy or rainy or both but today was a much different picture.  It was sunny, warm and absolutely beautiful.  And I was by no means going to waste this opportunity to see daylight.  Amy, Matt and I went to a cafe to just grab some human food that wasn't Kraft Services.  I ordered a Cheeseburger because I was just craving something from the homeland but I was a little surprised when my burger arrived and it definitely didn't taste like the burgers I am used to eating back in the states.  This tasted more like a veggie burger to my disappointment, and the more I thought about it that if it was in fact meat, what kind was it?  I stopped that train of thought right there in its tracks because I didn't want my burger to take a second visit to the outside world.  The burger was tasted fine but the texture was weird, well just leave it at that.

Then the three of us walked further south of the central Amsterdam that we had become so acclimated to.  The further south you go from central city the wider the canals get and the more the scenery changes.  Instead of cobblestone markets and castles in the center of squares there are parks and greenery to walk or run through.  A few picture of southern Amsterdam below:

After we were finishing enjoying what was left of daylight, Matt headed back to Rotterdam while Amy and I headed back to the hotel to do a much needed organization hour.  We were convinced that the mouse we spotted in our room a few days earlier was responsible for some of our missing stuff that it was high time that we organized the chaos that was our suitcases to see if the mouse really was to blame.  And you would not believe how much difference having your suitcases organized relates to your mental health.  After I had everything accounted for, sorry for jumping to conclusions mousey, my life just felt a little less stressful and I wasn't tired and I was ready to go back out around Amsterdam.

Amy and I then ventured down to the Leizeplein where Alison, lead actress, told us there were several wonderful shopping opportunities and if you know me at all you know that I never turn down a shopping opportunity.  It was a rather far walk but the view as so wonderful that I hardly even noticed.  And by happy coincidence we ran into Alison shopping while we were walking down there, out of the 2 million people that live in Amsterdam we run into Alison, so she took us on a stroll to the hotel where she was staying.  And she is not staying in the same hotel as us because she is important and she was in the Best Western on the other side of the city so we accompanied her back to her hotel but we refused to go inside because if we saw how nice of a place she was staying in we may never want to leave her place to come back to ours.  So we dropped her off, said goodbye and continued our shopping.  I bought a sweater, some postcards (if you are special enough you may get one in the mail) and a lighter.  Pretty boring stuff I bought but I figured I'd buy more souvenirs closer to when I am leaving, so if you have any special, legal, requests for gifts, let me know!

After shopping we stopped at a little Italian place which wasn't great by any means but it was cheap and that seems to be my driving force as of late so I didn't really care.  While we were eating the wait staff was clearly talking about us and laughing because multiple times we heard 'American' which obvious finger points at us.  But whatever, Amy and I just took it in stride, ate our dinner and left.

On the way home we got a call from the producers and directors saying that they were coming over to our place to party.  We had no knowledge of this but when we got back to the hotel they were already drinking at the bar in lobby.  The hospitality that I spoke of in a previous post about the people who run this place was really in full swing this night.  Everything was on the house and after they ran out of beer they started breaking out the more potent stuff (whiskey, vodka and rum).  Learning from my previous mistakes I stayed down and socialized with the 15 crew members that had congregated in the bar but I didn't get so silly so that I wouldn't be able to function on set the next day.  But half of the people who were partying didn't have to go to set so when I went to bed at midnight they stayed up and continued to get crazy.  Below are many, many pictures of the crew socializing that night.

From Left to Right: Arie (D.O.P), Amy (Art Director), Steve (Assistant), Hinji (Stills), Ticho (Continuity), Michael (Editor), Doug (Producer)

 Super Steve and Myself

 Amy and Super Steve

 Rob, Michael Wright and Amy

 Four drinks for two people, that is hospitality

 Serious discussion between director and producer, while beers were being poured

Amy, Eric (Friend of Producers, from Midwest!) and Doug

And that was the end of the crazy night.  Til we meet again.

Love,

-M

Day 7 - January 15, 2011

The day of being completely useless.

Because I decided to stay up so late the night because I felt like a walking zombie all day.  I was terribly, terribly tired and somewhat hungover.  Now I tried to not let it be that obvious that I wasn't in perfect form but I think when I fell asleep while guarding the set door was a pretty clear indicator that I had had too much fun the night before.  I was made at myself that I felt so lousy because where we were shooting today was one of the nicest places that we had been to in awhile.  It wasn't cold, it wasn't outside, no one had partook in a live sex show and their were even clean toilets and a couch!  Simple I know but you take advantage of these luxuries until they are no longer an option.

Regardless of how I felt today I actually got a lot done and a lot of things taken care of.  I was trying to wrangle up 150 extras for a club scene that is going to happen soon.  And you would think that it wouldn't be hard to find 150 people who would want to be in a feature film but the directors and producers more specifically had a very clear idea of what type of person they wanted and there aren't just model types walking around Amsterdam, so the hunt continues.

Lunch time is usually my favorite time of day.  But today it was so for very different reasons.  Lunch time now became nap time and it was much needed.  After my hour respite I was in a much better place to finish out the day.

We didn't finish out our day until 7:30 and when Amy and I finally got back to the hotel we both were in desperate need of food because I hadn't eaten lunch all day since I had forgone lunch and Amy is just always hungry so we made the trek to Albert Heijn supermarket to pick up a quick dinner, came home and ate while watching Harry Potter YouTube videos and then we were both in bed by 9:30 that night.

The longest day of my most recent memory of life had finally come to an end.  Thank goodness.

Love,

-M

Day 6 - January 14, 2011

Well, I must preface this post with a warning about the location that we were filming at today.  We were filming at a live graphic show.  That is all I really need to say about it and everyone can use their imagination about what went on there at night.

With that said I should also mention that nothing was going on their when we were filming.  The whole place was closed strictly for our filming purpose.

We were filming at Casa Rosso today.  It was a nine o'clock call so it wasn't that much of an early call and it was in walking distance of the hotel so we also didn't have to get up even earlier to catch the van to set.  Casa Rosso is in the center of the Red Light District and it is apparently so popular that their are 3 other Casa Rosso's within the Red Light District.  They get your attention in front of the establishment by having a giant pink flourescent neon elephant emblazoned on the whole facade of the building.  If that doesn't grab your attention then the nude pictures on the walls where you buy your tickets certainly will.  And with all of that and our film crew walking all about it we had quite the audience trying to get into Casa Rosso to see what was going on.  Good thing we had Erwin, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, on the scene to keep the nosey people at bay.

We only had three scenes to shoot at this location but they were ones that had to be shot at several different angles so it did not go as fast as I had anticipated.  It was also quite a different atmosphere than the shoot that we had been at the day before.  Rotterdam was freezing, wet and full of supposed spirits while Casa Rosso was hot, rather sweaty and the lingering thought of things that had happened in this place before we arrived.  Even now I am not sure which place made me more uncomfortable.

But I did have a new job detail today.  Ticho, the man who is usually in charge of continuity and script supervision, was unable to be on set today so that job now fell into my hands.  It was nice because I was allowed to be in front of the monitor all day watching what we were shooting and I was constantly having to be focused so it made me feel busy, useful and it made the day go by quite fast.  Below are several pictures from our time at Casa Rosso.

 Director Michael Wright giving an interview to an invited reporter.

 The stage where the 'acts' occur every night.

 Gaffer Marie taking stills of the scenes.

A picture of the Red Light District at night.  If I would have gotten caught taking this picture a pimp would have come out and made me pay, apparently.

At four we switched locations to an internet cafe for a small scene.  The whole set up, filming and take down only took one hour so at 5:30 we went next door to a restaurant called Toom for some appetizers.  This place looked like it was taken either right out of Wisconsin so some Southwestern themed restaurant from the states.  It had spotted cow hide booths and several Native American paintings on the wall and other rustic furniture.  Needless to say I felt rather at home at this place.

 Amy outside Toom.

 

Jason and Marie going over the stills that they had taken that day.  And the lovely cow hide seats.

 One of the stars of the movie: Rik Sinkeldam

 Rob (Boomer), Niek (Best Boy, Ynze (Edit Staff) and Daan (Camera Assistant)

Amy and I, and yes I am as exhausted as I look :)

As the night progressed the producers and directors started buying us rounds and rounds of beer and a buffet of ribs.  Everyone was very happy with this turn of events at the restaurant.  As soon as we ran out of masticated cow we headed back to the hotel to continue to guzzle spirits with the hotel owner, which he gives us for free.  So regardless of how ill-kept the hotel I am staying in is, they certainly make up for it in their generous hospitality.  I sat at the bar with a bunch of guys from set chatting for a long time and then the man who records sound, Matt, and I went out for a couple of drinks by ourselves.  Matt is originally from London but now lives in Rotterdam and is excellent company because I think he understands the concept of sarcasm unlike every other European.  We strolled through central Amsterdam until three in the morning stopping at several pubs that we passed and I just had a fun time.  Perhaps a little too much fun because getting home at three in the morning can't be good when the van leaves at 7:30 in the morning.  Totally worth it but a bad idea nonetheless.

Love,

-M

Day 5 - January 13, 2011

Big day today!

We were off to film in Rotterdam today.  It was a fairly long car ride away.  Probably like the equivalent of driving from Madison to Milwaukee.  Which in retrospect isn't that long of a ride but when you are crammed in a van at 5 in the morning, it's not necessarily the most pleasant thing in the whole world.

The location we were shooting in was an old abandoned warehouse.  The crew that had been in Amsterdam a week prior to our arrival were warning us that Rotterdam, inside, was colder than the outside of the building.  We were warned and Amy and I both put on almost every article of warm clothing we brought.  The good thing was I never felt cold all day but that bad thing was I was wearing so many clothes that I looked like a big 'ol marshmallow.

We were also told that this place was seriously haunted and that one of the extras on the set who also was a driver and an errand runner for the crew said he spent one night in their with his friends and they taped it and the doors were banging and they could swear that they heard people talking.  One, I don't understand why someone would knowingly want to stay in a vacant warehouse for the pure fun of getting the shit scared out of them.  If I did that the only thing that would happen would be that I would become highly embarrassed because I would have defecated in my pants.  So neither Amy nor I were looking forward to our long day outside of Amsterdam.

The one beautiful thing was that I brought another package of handwarmers with me so they really saved in my life in the warehouse.  I still have 10 fingers and ten toes, awesome!

A lot of what we had to accomplish was fight scenes.  The protagonist and the antagonist did a lot of sparring and getting hit with giant sticks and bricks and hand to hand combat.  These types of scenes seem to take the longest to film because you have to do it from so many angles and there is a higher risk of something going terribly wrong.  The lead, Rik Sinkleman, got hit so hard in the arm that we had to take a half-an-hour break to get him bandaged up.  But he was certainly a trooper because as soon as we got him iced up he was ready to go again full force.  Quite the trooper indeed.

Being a huge fan of food, I always look forward to lunch.  But we got to set at 6 and we didn't get lunch until 2 in the afternoon.  I. Was. Very. Hungry.  But the nice thing about Rotterdam was that it had a huge table that we could actually sit all together and eat and chat and learn more about one another.  That sounds rather lame but it was really nice to get to know more about everyone and we end up talking a lot about the differences and similarities between our two cultures, Dutch and American, and I found/find that conversation absolutely fascinating because it is very superior of anyone to think that everyone around the world assumably has the same traditions and day to day life as yourself.

We didn't end up finishing filming until 9 and we still had to drive back to Amsterdam so needless to say I went straight to bed at soon as we got to our hotel.  And we had an early call in the morning so that was really the only realistic option.

I know I am very behind on keeping everyone updated on my day to day life but I have so much I want to write but so little time to do it!  So be patient and you shall receive in good time!

Love,

-M

Day 3 and 4 - The Day Of My Birth and January 12, 2011

Happy Birthday to me!!

Along with tooting my own horn I had a host of friends wish me a very Happy Birthday on Facebook.  This is traditionally what people do and it takes less that five seconds to post on someone's Facebook for their birthday but it sure does make a gal feel special.

So what were my special plans for the day you ask?

I had every ambition to go to the producers house to work on some casting, for extras we will need in crowd scenes, and I even woke up at 8, showered myself and was ready to go by nine, but when I called his phone no one answered so I took that as a sign that I should go back to sleep...so I did. 

When I woke again to the human world it was already one in the afternoon, whoops, but it was actually perfect because Amy had just gotten home from her meeting and Jason was actually at our hotel and as Amy scuttled off to another meeting, Jason took me on what I will call a "walking tour" of Central Amsterdam.

This tour however wasn't just for fun and sightseeing, we were taking a look at the locations which we will be shooting at in the next couple of weeks and he wanted me to get acclimated to what our sets would look like.  But while on the tour he also was a very knowing of all things history of Amsterdam which we were walking through.  It turned out to be a business and pleasure meeting.  But a tour through central Amsterdam would not be complete without a walk through the Red Light District.  So we did that as well.  Just what I wanted for my birthday, a chance to look at prostitutes in little glass rooms/windows with my boss on my birthday.  Lovely.

We at lunch, which I guess was more supper because it was getting late, at a Thai restaurant.  Not being a huge spicy Thai fan but not one to pass up food i obliged and had spicy shrimp soup that was actually very good.  From the Thai restaurant we walked to Centraal Station, yes with two a's, and bought myself a tram card and a much needed Americanized Starbucks Coffee.  From there it was time to head back to Jason's house with computer in tow to work on casting extras.  I spent the rest of the afternoon/night combing through the script trying to figure out what characters weren't accounted for yet.

Then I went out for pizza with the editor, one of the producers and the assistant director.  The pizza was actually quite terrible, because there was entirely not enough cheese on it, but the company was rather nice and it was nice to get an insight from the crew running the process on how they actually thought it was going.  I felt like I was in the trust tree.  But I won't be ruining that trust by talking about things that happened over dinner, because I actually signed a confidentiality waiver saying I wouldn't.  Got to keep to the code!

We thought about going out clubbing tonight for my birthday but everyone seemed a bit tired from the long day so I made them promise me a rain check.

Tomorrow don't film until the afternoon so who knows what I will do before crew call.


Love,

-M

P.S. Below are the only two pictures I took from the walking tour, stupid of me not to take more but it happens.

I just now realized that I messed up my days and I forgot January 12 and I realized why...we didn't start til night time so I slept in all morning and then went to call at 4:00 and we shot a car scene all night in a pretty sweet looking Audi.  But nothing much to report on that day.

Love again,

-M