Hello Everyone. Now that the Winter Olympics are over and I missed Canada doing something no other country has ever done, I am happy to report that we have completed the shooting of Season 1!
Here’s even better news. I have been asked by the Executive Producer to direct Season 2. I obliged and we have already been shooting Season 2 for the last two days.
I would call this a directing boot camp of magnitude. I don’t have all the statistics but I am pretty sure that it normally takes directors several years to chalk up directing 26 episodes. Not only is the schedule grueling but the challenges of working with an extremely low budget are many that creates a necessity level like none other. And you know what is said about necessity, it is the mother of invention.
Here’s a challenge that most directors doing a North American TV series wouldn’t run into that I had to work with last week. We had to shoot what were three different locations in the script - a hotel room for a weekend stay, a photo exhibition at a gallery or museum and a marketing release at a ballroom. I was given one location that I had to turn into these three. And, to top it off, I had not seen it at all until I walked in the door to shoot at 6 a.m. We had 14 pages to shoot that day. Most TV series shoot around 8 pages a day back home. I had such a fun day! Truly!
The first challenge I had asked of me was, “Where do you want to shoot the marketing scenes?” Now do get me right, I am not complaining in the least. Because, I can tell you, half the fun I am having is coming up with what I call “instant locations.” And this one was particularly challenging. So, where to shoot this big scene? I looked around with the DOP, who had not seen the location beforehand either, and we knew that the only place to shoot it would be on the outside patio. But the problem with that was that it happened to be raining that morning. Yeesh! And, get this, it was also supposed to be a night scene! So looking at what was in front of us, the DOP spotted three tents out on the lawn. He suggested we bring them right up to the building and onto the patio and then black out around them and shoot toward the building. I gave the okay and we started to move. We managed to make it all work. We shot night for day when outside on a patio while it was raining at a location we had not scene beforehand. That truly is a feat.
Then, we had to shoot a bedroom. But this location didn’t have a bedroom. So I scouted around quickly and decided on a room for a bedroom. The budget, being as it is, required that the Executive Producer donate her bed for the scene. So in it was loaded. And, you guessed it, it worked.
That was not the end of the problems that were solved but you get the flavor. It was a day of being completely alert and on our toes and everyone contributing to their utmost ability.
Now if that isn’t a director’s bootcamp, I don’t know what is.
I have attached some more photos. This week I had very little time to much other than shoot and write notes for the editors. And, I must say, some of the footage we are getting for the later episodes is fabulous. I am happy to put my name to it.
My return date is April 9th. Looking forward to seeing you all when I get back.
Neil
Here is a Kenyan apartment. This is William's. He's a doctor.
Shooting at the drug dealer's warehouse. That's his stolen car!
World's smallest slug. I've never seen one so small. Just had to take a shot of it.
Dennis the boom operator. This time he's awake.
Setting up to shoot in a designer dress shop.
Very early morning shooting.
Our Executive Producer Dorothy Ghettuba.
Small bird with a hooked beak. Kenya has more than 1400 different bird species.
The joy of waiting!
Gigantic wind turbines just outside of Nairobi.
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