Here's a couple more shots.

The cave we shot in was quite beautiful, even when the demons arrived.

Some stunts, some SFX, and you get cool shots.

Here's some fellows trying vainly to stop the demons from crushing them and eating their souls...they fail.

And here's Richard and Nigel

Our intrepid American cast vs. our intrepid Bulgarian cast.

Tangi and Nigel. Tangi is using her powers to halt the demons.

Action shot of a warehouse firefight.

Some shots of the location. Bulgaria is beautiful in the spring, just as it is horrific in the winter.

Those BTR's cost only 2000 levs for 2 days.

A shot of the approaching machines.

Our brand new crane that took a week to ship and two weeks to escape Bulgarian customs.

The camp and the shooting locale, an hour and a half out of Sofia.

Cast later...

I had to work on set today. Basically, they dressed me up in a suit and forced me to play the role of spokes-"person." They had the set built far underground, in a total labyrinth of tunnels that are dug under the National Television Station yet never finished. It's a bit spooky down there, and not much in the way of treasure (no propoganda, for instance). There is one area that looks exactly like a cell-block, complete with bars only one exit, far from the thoroughfare. I asked what it was, and got "storage" in return. Cool.
Anyway, so we have a US government set being filmed down there, and the set did have an impressive, oppressive air. Or maybe it was just the dust.
To top off the irony tank, our extras and dayplayers were a bunch of Army and Marine officers from the Embassy.
We were stocked with a couple enlisteds, a gunney Sgt., even a Colonel, along with others whose rank I have no idea about (plus some Peace Corps volunteers). All making a high concept movie about demons and submarines in underground tunnels underneath the old national television station of one of our former arch-enemies' satellite countries.
We finished at midnight; just in time for Memorial Day.
That's globalization for ya.

It's been a bumpy ride so far.
Our camera lenses went to the wrong location. The schedule had to be changed to compensate for a shoot that was too ambitious early on. Last minute script notes from LA. Shipments arriving late. A PA broke his ankle; we put him down. Catering problems.
Speaking of which, the Line Producer cooked Mexican food last night, and then topped it off with blueberry muffins (go figure). I had bought him a 'muffin-top' muffin pan for Christmas [it is a shallow pan that makes only a 1/4 inch of muffin body and a huge crispy muffin top], and he used it to great effect.
There are no such things as muffins here. Savages. Even McDonalds is sans the Egg McMuffin, which isn't even remotely a muffin. KFC is minus their buttermilk biscuits. The Bulgarians really have to work on their junk food.
Oh, yeah, production...
All this is just assorted nonsense that doesn't necessarily hurt the show, but gives the 'behind the scenes' drones--like me--headaches.
And they shut off the hot water at my apartment again.
Still, there has been really good news that I'll share later, if I'm able/allowed.

Apparently, there is a new vodka in town, made here in BeeGee. Hang-over free vodka.
There is some skepticism, however, on this new vodka.
I'm not a big fan of vodka as a rule, and steer clear of it more often than not.
My investigation has shown that nobody I know knows of this Shock Vodka. I'm not sure if Bulgarians would even be inclined to drink it--but what do I know!
Actually, the last time I recall hearing about vodka was a couple weeks ago, when our 1st AD, Toshko, had one at a club, then had a headache and hives for two days.
The last time I had vodka was my first week here, in November of 2001. I woke up 16 hours later, with no idea where I was (only 2 days in that apartment at that time) or what time or date it was (it was 'dark'; that's all I could determine). I recall walking around the apartment saying, "hello?" in case someone else was there. Pathetic. Stupid Line Producer and his stupid night clubs...
Since I'm on the subject, the last funny vodka scene I've seen in a movie came from "The Barber of Siberia," which is a Russian-directed movie and thus 30 minutes too long and generally depressing. It was actually very good, though, and mostly in English. I won't spoil the scene for film purists out there, but I recommend that scene over actually imbibing vodka.

Also known as the Nokia 8910i.

I'm very pleased with my new phone, which I found at a lower price than what this original joker tried to scam me for.

Then, in Viagra-mode, we see the Nokia in all it's glory!

It changes from a girl size phone to a man size phone at the push of two buttons!
It's the little things...so to speak.

Picture of my nephew, or closest thing to.

His name's Erik.
This is one of the few digital pics I get from Erik's parents, because they are bad parents. I also note that they don't take pics of Erik wearing the things I got for him for X-Mas.
He turned 1 a few days ago. He never writes. Never calls.
Still, he's alright.
I hope that my cousin does not refer to her son's age as "12 months." I always find that weird.

You know, I've been here long enough that I sometimes forget things that Bulgarians do that would be considered highly unusual in the US of A.

For instance, today was my assistant coordinator, Daniella's, birthday. Birthdays are different here in the fact that presents are rarely given (and they're very small). Instead, it falls upon the birthday boy/girl to provide presents for everyone else! In all cases, chocolate.

So I arrive from location to the office, and find a box of chocolates in the bullpen, and know I should say "congratulations" and take a couple to eat.

And then there is the alcohol.

You should drink to the person (alcohol supplied by the birthday boy/girl). So on an empty stomach, in the morning, there is a bottle of Johnny Walker and a box of chocolates. Hey, it's your birthday. You have to drink a shot. At work. It's the rules.

I guess you can have more, but we uptight Americans frown on drunken employees with tools/heavy objects/payroll wandering around.

Anyway, there's your fun fact for today.

So we're getting our richly deserved problems:
0855: Alarm rings. Five minutes till the car arrives. Toothpaste, water, clothes, stumble out door.
0859: Still stumbling. Stumble into car.
0900: John, Line Producer, in van. "Morning. Morning."
"Colin Powell is coming to town tomorrow."
"...Hotels are all booked..."
"...Yeah, I heard..."
A moment of panic.
"When are our actors coming?"
"Today...and tomorrow..."
0903: Dial the Hilton.
0904: Screaming, yelling.
0905: Emergency override. Car divert to Hilton
0910: Arrive at the Hilton.
0915: Controlled chit chat. Begging, pleading.
0935: Attaches, assorted bureaucrats thrown out on street, as they should be. Replaced with my actors.
1000: Arrive at Studio. Stumble out of van.
1015: Field slew of emails. Forward medical forms, itinerary to coordinator. Finally get a view of contracts. Give perdiem info to accountant.
1022: Huge...HUGE...extras being fitting for demon costumes (one guy must be nearly 7 feet tall). Have styrofoam weapons (swords, maces, hammers). Look awesome. Mariana Make-Up adds special demon contact lenses. Look frighteningly awesome.
1034: Break into craft service, get some bottled water.
1100: Walk the set. Find one of the PA's scanning the floor like a chicken looking for seed. PA's do weird things, so I pass him. Set. Entourage of extras in demon costume walk by with 1st AD.
1103: Camera room. Tell DP that crane not arriving until day 2. Will rent elsewhere for day 1, although we'll undoubtedly get some monstrosity shaped like a crane.
1110: Walk off set. PA still looking at floor. I bite:
"What are you doing?"
"One of the men lost a contact lens."
"Our special lenses, the fire-eyes?!"

He nods.
"It's been five minutes and it's gone already!"
He nods.
1112: Mariana Make-Up has head in hands.
"Mariana, go buy some more spare contact lenses. At this rate, we'll need about TEN THOUSAND of them."
"I don't think they have ten thousand." She was serious. It's a Bulgarian thing.
1220: Kodak reps, Richard and Dimana, stop by, try to guage our love of Fujifilm. "More films coming, if you can match 'em," I say. Pleasantries. Dimana is wearing a distracting blouse over her distracting...pleasantries.
1230: Tyrone, casting director, pops in "Living in Oblivion" into VCR.
1234: Line Producer storms in after "loud, tense, impolite" discussion with accountant over original invoices for shipped items. The fury swings it's way around to me, but by that time, I'm already out the door, leaving them to deal with it.
1320: Stupid Bulgarian partner tries to nickel and dime 50 bucks for one of the drivers who didn't work the day he claimed. Sent packing.
1322: "John, aren't you picking up Richard Grieco in five?"
John flies out door.
1335: Tyrone asks about lunch. What do I look like, catering?
1336: Producer asks me about key to craft service. What do I look like, catering?
1337: Pick up latest schedule.
1338: Art Dept rushes up to me.
"I have a problem. I can't find John."
"He went to pick up the actor."
Art Dept rushes off.
1339: Had nice long talk with 1st AD.
1339.30: Interrupted by DP.
1340: Told the coordinator to order some KFC. Richard Grieco arrives. Appears stunned that he can smoke anywhere.
1341: Art Dept finds Line Producer. Relief all around. Asks for new wheels on some carts, which I had scoffed at.
"What about the wheels you already have?" John asks.
"They don't work."
"They don't work?! They're f*cking wheels! Show me these non-working wheels!"
That didn't go anywhere.
1342: Asya 2nd AD charges in with Day One Call Sheet.
1348: Double check Cast Day Out of Days to Call Sheet...they've stapled the papers to the Additional Labor Day Out of Days...
"Asya, find a PA and kill them. I don't care who." As an afterthought, "And fix these papers!"
1349: Papers fixed.
1359: KFC arrives. Eat. Fast.
1403: Make-up still tinkering with demon make-up.
1407: Discuss with John the speed and feasibility of our MU team putting these demon extras into costume every morning and keep schedule.
1410: Mariana MU agrees to get another MU asst for the 15 person day.

1411: Ty pops in "A Civil Action."
1412: Wardrobe has a few extra items, such as Dr. Scholl's inserts, to purchase for Mr. Grieco.
1413: New Call Sheet Day One, revised, signed. 06:30 crew call for tomorrow.
1415: Grieco sent to the Hilton.
1445: I begin to panic. No problems for 30 minutes.
1450: Comforted a distressed Mariana Make Up.
1510: Line Producer arrives back.
1511: Make-up is still tinkering with some demon extras. They work next week.

1525: Producer comes in to watch part of "A Civil Action." Has no sympathy for the defendants in the case, who were "whining" about how Travolta is giving up on them after he got his ass handed to him by Duvall.
1533: Line Producer leaves to "do some stuff." Immediately, I expect one thousand people to 'need to talk to the Line Producer'...which means that they will hunt me down and torture me with their meaningless affairs. Bah!
1545: Worked out the extra room for the make-up. Why I'm still dealing with this at a late date frustrates me...I won't get into that, kids.
1558: The DP (Lorenzo) came in, excited, about how he ran a test with his film up at the lab and came up with a great look for the 2 minute flashback sequence.
1610: Got to the 'end' of "A Civil Action." Mighty pissed off at the 'ending.'
1614: Read some comments on my blog. Angered at the dismissal of the genius that is Sophie Ellis Bextor.
1616: Camera Dept needs more KimWipes, dulling spray, velcro
1617: Asked Teodora Coordinator if Daniella Assistant knows the ins and outs of making the sides for the next day. Answer unclear, will try again later.
1622: Faxed Film/Video Transfer request sheet to Boyana so telecine knows what to make out of our negative.
1630: Corralled into dinner with Richard Grieco. 8pm...er...20:00.
1640: First clap of thunder. Will rain soon. Call sheet for tomorrow says "sunny." *sigh*
1641: Producer and accountant in "heated discussion" about computer viruses. The Producer demands the death penalty for computer virus-makers. The accountant is arguing against. Suspicion falls upon the accountant.
1644: First flash of lightning we see.
1645: Break into catering again. Am caught by catering. I get a Coke anyway.
1646: Go back to Teodora. She is now teaching Daniella the process for making sides. Good girl.
1647: Boyana telecine calls and is confused about the fax I sent over and the number of VHS tapes they should make. Corrected and moving on.
1648: Teodora emails me asking if I have any chocolate in my office and if she can have some. What am I, catering?
1655: Stedicamera operator arrives.
1659: Raining.
1700: Producer is invited to have dinner with Colin Powell (amongst others) tomorrow evening. I wasn't invited...
1702: Spike CGI wanders in before he calls a meeting with his team. Eats some M&M;'s (I have chocolate), and leaves.
1703: 1st AD exits the building.
1715: Entering strange, possibly psychotic dreamstate listening to pitter-patter of unscheduled raindrops.
1718: Copy machine breaks. Repairman called. Fortunately, all copies made for tomorrow.
1720: Producer wonders when I'm going to be ready to leave.
1725: Ask Coordinator, 2nd AD if there is anything else. Nothing else.
1730: Ready to leave.
1735: Waiting for Producer
1740: Leaving
1745: Free Time
2000: Dinner

If I were in charge, I'd have the game be for the Minister's job. But then again, I'm evil.
"This is my "Sports Minister?" You shame your family for three generations with that pass!"

Prep is going so smoothly it's scary. No really. It's terrifying. There should be plane crashes, customs officials drunk on power, brawls amongst crew, exploding cars, missing papers...that sort of thing. We're all out of our element, like trying to breathe underwater.
[Side note: Indeed, we are all a bit stunned at these..."see-sons"...that are occuring in Bulgaria. My life in South Texas and Southern California makes these..."see-sons" very frightening. I can almost see the plants growing, and flowers blooming...and plotting]
It's quiet. Too quiet...
Oh sure, there were some hijinks. Art department decided to spray paint in the main hallway next to the make-up room, nauseating the make-up girls.
Here's a thumbnail of Key MU (post-nausea):

Our Bulgarian partner started on one of his power trips, but was slapped down.
Notes for the script came in late, thus changing the schedule, and the day out of days.
I can see one noteworthy problem upcoming. I've yet to see iteneraries for any of our actors. Thus, I assume that we will have less than 24 hours notice before actors land in Sofia. That should cause some precious, precious chaos that is our life.
Speaking of cast, Richard Grieco stars with...ta-da...Nigel Bennett! We probably wouldn't have to pick Nigel up at the airport and he'd get to the Hilton without trouble...though we wouldn't dare!
Our stage isn't much to see, as they're still building (we start on location, so this isn't a problem). Here's a terrible shot of a passageway filled with sawdust.

Here's a thumbnail of the minisub we're building:

In the movie, there will be three of these (we build one only) dropped via helicopter to the haunted submarine, attaching like ticks to the hull.

We'll just shoot on blue screen and call it a day.
...And then these guys take over:

Our CGI team is kept unfed and in the dark.

Don't worry, they love it.

And here we have another passage:

And another:

And the end of one:

That's what controlled chaos looks like, kids!

Sorry, guys. Out of commission from a vicious illness. Seriously, this is the sickest I have ever been in my life. It was actually a bit scary, and even after the meds, I still feel weary.
They thought it was SARS. That was unpleasant. After a hospital visit and some lung X-Rays, however, they decided that it wasn't.
Actually, I dreaded the hospital visit. I don't like hospitals as a rule, but I'd never been in a Bulgarian one. It was small, but modern, and clean. No broken windows, no wooden chairs, no smears on the floor, no rotten ceiling tiles. I'm like Mom in Dexter's Laboratory, so all of this was important.
And the hospital visit, plus X-Rays, came out to 34 lev. That's about 20 bucks! That made me feel better.
Anyway, back to business today. The show has been pushed by a few days to Thursday, so I've got time to finish up all the stuff that needs be done.
Most of our specialized make-up and prothetics came in today (there are some demonic creatures in the movie), and the cast should be resolved by tonight.
Will update when I have more info.
**jkrank out**

Here is a various group of snapshots I have taken lately. More will come, but this should hold you over for a while, I suppose.

Here's a thumbnailed pic of bookworm Cheyenne I promised some people a while back

Another shot of women, via the stalker-cam.

Here is Asya, our 2nd AD, and often requested for more photos. She's been promoted from 2nd 2nd. We were curious how she would do at this much harder position. She was good.

Our ol' Coordinator, Teodora, with the peace sign (she was a pro-war Bulgarian) and her new assistant, Daniella.

A better shot of Daniella.

Alright, here are some men. I must add a disclaimer that I don't walk around taking pictures of men as a rule. So this is really the best I can pull off, for now.

Our 1st AD, Toshko, who is shaking his fist at the director. You're in Marlboro country, ladies, with Toshko.

Sufo is our Transpo Captain. He's single, reflective, and drives a Mercedes.

Our Line Producer, John, and his girlfriend, Marie. Posted for kicks.

Tomorrow, pics of the set, and assorted other things that I took before my batteries died.

Two words:

Drunken Orgy.

That's what would have happened, if not for the fact that I am a big loser who doesn't have friends who would participate in that sort of thing.

Actually, when I think about that last sentence, maybe the latter is just cover for the fact that I am a big loser.

We had another small dinner party, with Iva cooking lasagna. Let's hope it was as good as her chicken.

Here she is working over a bowl of meat.

This is not a fetish site, Hosting Matters.

Here we have Nellie looking at a Victoria's Secret catalog. There are no such stores here in Sofia, but I get these catalogs in LA (I wonder what my landlord thinks of that), and brought one over. The catalogs are worth their weight in gold here. An unscrupulous person might even use them to their advantage, in working out some sort of deal to get clothing ordered and into Bulgaria for...well, it's nothing.

Oh, and here's Nellie after a few bottles of wine.

The lasagna was excellent, but there was far too much, leaving me with leftovers. God knows what I should do with them. I suppose heat them, somehow, and then eat them. I guess.

The new recruit's name is Rob. You couldn't ask for a better name for hilarity here in Bulgaria. Glad he found out early on.

Apparently, it was either illegal or maybe just seriously frowned upon for Bulgarians to name their children any 'western name' under communism. Thus, they named their pets western names. The police dog's name here is 'Daisy.' There are many dogs named 'John.' My coordinator has a cat named 'Sarah.' The 1st AD's dog's name is 'Adam.' One of the PA's wants to name her new dog 'Jeff.' Key MU's cat is 'Michelle.'
No one in their right mind would name their pet 'Rob,' however.

Alan K Henderson has his 2nd annual prize for the Advancement of Liberty on his site. His pic is more impressive than the minimarch in Sofia.

[I think that white banner on the pic says "Security for Bulgaria"]
"The troubles of this country can no longer be resolved by the resignation of a single minister [Borissov]. Go must the prime minister and the whole government!" Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party's Supreme Council said.
According to their site, "More than 180 of the participants at the meeting signed...and formed a 'BG Coalition for Peace.' The coalition ['representatives of the academic circles, artists, singers, actors, journalists and other prominent Bulgarians'] will organise mass demonstrations against the war in Iraq."
That was so 37 days ago.
The last news placed on the BSP was from March. Nothing of note appears to have happened in the war since that time.
One worthy note, however, from a speech from the BSP:

"Not even one free person supports an unscrupulous dictator like Saddam Hussein who has even encroached his own people."

But no one believes that it is possible democracy to be implanted by use of violence and watered by use of bombs.