13 May 2007

One night in Bucharest...

Lots more to come on Egypt, but first a quick report on something quite cool that happened this week. I've recently acquired the rights to a new 5-part TV programme that will air on the BBC this autumn (and also in the US on PBS, so watch this space for details...). A great opportunity came up to bring a key customer and account manager out to the set, and spend the day with the cast and crew watching it all take shape (and hopefully gain some retail buy-in along the way). They're doing a lot of the filming in Romania, where there is heavy production these days, especially by Euopean companies. So on Thursday, to Bucharest we went!

The security at Heathrow was even worse than usual, and as a result we were massively delayed and didn't arrive at our hotel until 2am. We had a jam-packed agenda on Friday, spending the morning watching the 'dailies' from Wednesday at the post-production house, touring the production studios and set (also filming there was a new Kiefer Sutherland movie for Fox "Mirrors"), learning all about the reign of the horrendously evil dictator Ceauşescu and driving by his monster palace (the largest building the world, second only to the Pentagon!), before heading over to spend the afternoon on location where they were shooting a few of the major scenes.

We were lucky enough that the scenes they were filming featured all 4 key cast members, including amazing industry vet Robert Carlyle ("Bobby" to his friends). He is incredibly intense and his acting blows you away. The cast and crew were so welcoming, all coming over to introduce themselves (including quite famous directors and actors). I blushed when this quite-famous and oh-so-cute English actor came over to say hi. After an 8am start, they didn't wrap until nearly 8pm, but it was a truly incredible experience to be there. We were then whisked off (after a quick pit stop at the hotel to wash our feet...I'd been standing in dirt all day in heels!) to one of the city's nicest restaurants where were the guest of the CEO of the film studio. You know you've had a nice evening when you look down at your watch and 3 hours have passed and you hadn't even realized. The stories these guys told were fascinating (such as making movies underground during the reign of Ceauşescu). 'It couldn't have been a nicer evening,' I thought to myself as we headed back to the hotel...but it didn't end there.

We decided to have a quick drink in the hotel bar before heading up to bed. As we walked in, we saw a few members of the crew we'd met earlier in the day, who welcomed us with open arms. A little while later I noticed the quite-famous and oh-so-cute English actor was also there. 'Eleanor!' he said, 'Come join us.' Yes, darling, you don't need to ask me twice... So the 5 of us guests mix and mingle for a few hours and generally have the nicest time. We chatted with the special effects guys (known as the 'Bang! guy'), the Best Boy (yes, there really are best boys), the Director of Photography, and of course, the quite-famous and oh-so-cute English actor, who it turns out also has a house in LA very close to my old apartment. They all decided to head out to a club, and invited us along. Everyone else from our group decided to turn in, but my colleague Yvonne and I weren't ready for the night to end, so we all headed off together. We spent a few more hours mingling, sipping cocktails and generally just having a pretty surreal experience with a group of what couldn't be nicer, down-to-earth people. It was almost like the anti-Hollywood. At one point, we looked down at our watch and realize it was 4am. We had to be on the shuttle in 2 hours for our flight. Uh-oh. So we quickly said our goodbyes, and exchanged emails with a few people and headed back to the hotel.

After a whopping 90 minutes of sleep we arrived at the airport, where we boarded the plane quite bleery-eyed. The Director and Best Boy were sitting right in front of me, and we chatted about bonus material for the DVD before falling promptly to sleep. It was all a bit surreal, but that was 36-hours well spent, I'd say!

Post-production house (can anyone say 'Gaudi' influence??)



Ryan and I in front of "London in 2012" scene backdrop



Group photo in front of set used in 'Cold Mountain'


One side of monster-Palace. The pictures just can't do the scale of this place justice!


Boulevard leading up to Palace. Built to be like Champs Elysee (only longer & wider...just to prove a point)

posted by Eleanor @ 10:06 am 0 comments

06 May 2007

In Egypt, they just call it "cotton"

As I was walking up the stairs to the plane yesterday, to board the big 'XL Airways' 767 plane and mentally preparing for the 5-hour charter flight, I looked down at my shoes. It was the first time I'd worn them, and was quite excited to be sporting these new pink, peep-toe shoes just in time for summer, admiring how the white piping would show off my (sure to last no more than 3 days) new tan. Then I did a double-take at them. With the exception of their bright pink colo(u)r, they appeared remarkably like something my grandmother used to wear. She called them 'house shoes' and I believe are really more like slippers, not to be worn out of the house, but rather, inside the "house" (as the name implies, I suppose). Yes, the £17 new shoes I am so proud, of, rated one of HEAT magazines "must have" items for summer...and they're really just an old pair of house shoes! Gotta love fashion trends! And so, I digress...my trip to Egypt is probably much more exciting to write about, so I shall!

At the recommendation of an Australian colleague of mine, who also desperately misses the sunshine and beach, I planned a week-long holiday to Sharm el-Sheikh, a diving resort on the tip of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Sitting right on the red sea, it is a resort town, laden with miles and miles of beaches. It might be familiar to you as the site of the massive bombing that happened in July 2005, right after the London bombings. As such, the security is intense, and I couldn't have felt safer. All of the hotels are guarded, with metal detectors and security staff literally every 10 paces. My hotel was right on the beach, and I honestly had no need to leave (there were also 4 pools!).

Usually when I go on a vacation to a new place (on a new continent, no less!), I am decently prepared. (Not as prepared as you, S Choi!), but I've usually at least bought a Lonely Planet and looked at a map. This time, however, I was so mentally exhausted, to be honest I hadn't so much as even looked at a website. All I was concerned with was: had I packed enough bikinis and suntan lotion? Seriously.

I landed Sunday evening and was greeted at the airport by the tour company I had booked my holiday with (and about 9,087 Russians, who apparently also get really good packages to Sharm). They (the tour co, not the Russians) also met me the next morning at the hotel to give me maps, information about excursion, and a strict warning not to drink the water, drink anything with ice or even so much as a salad (or anything washed). In light of not wanting to do much at all, instead of opting for the amazing-sounding day trips (via planes) to see Cairo, Luxor and the pyramids, I booked 3 rather low-key excursions, spread over the 7 days I would be there.

The staff at the hotel could not have been nicer, very welcoming and friendly. I had breakfast included, and I quickly learned that this would be the best meal of the day, and over-ate as much fruit, yogurt and cereal as I could manage to keep me going. I got cover-to-cover through 4 books and 3 magazines over the course of the week, and even managed to build a little tan.


The Sinai penninsula is 80% inhabited by 'bedoins' (desert nomads), with the majority of Egyptians coming over to work in the tourist areas and bring money back for their families. These guys could not work any harder; they work 7 days a week (generally 16-18 hr days) for 2 months at a time, then get 10 days off to go back to their families, before coming back to do it again. You'd see the same guys in the restaurant at 6:30am serving breakfast, and still there at 10pm serving dinner. One of the strangest things is that, with the exception of the tourists, there were no women anywhere. All employees were men, and being a Muslim country there were subtle indications, such as a tiny sign indicating the direction to Mecca on the desk in my hotel room, special things in the bathrooms, and a pretty high tax on alcohol.

My first excursion was an evening 'stargazing' trip in the Sinai desert, and it was amazing. We saw Saturn, Sirius and the moon (super up close) through high-powered telescopes, and learned about the constellations in view. Since we were in the eastern hemisphere, everything was flipped over in reverse from what I am usually used to seeing, which was pretty cool. As part of the evening, we sat in a bedoin tent and had some traditional tea (good for stomach aches, apparently) and made bread with them (I helped!). Some of the guests smoked the 'Shisha' pipe and we were treated to a dance by some of the tribe members.
It was an amazing evening, by far my favorite of the trip. I've just realized that this post is getting a bit long, so I will write more later. (Actually, I really just want to go down to TopShop and check out Kate Moss's new line, which launched while I was away!) More later... (PS, I've just realized that you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger)

posted by Eleanor @ 8:32 pm 0 comments