Friday, September 23, 2005
Chennai
I'm in the south of India now, Chennai (formerly Madras). I think this city is like San
Francisco - completely built up because of the tech boom. It's more prosperous than Bombay, where so many people live in slums and on the streets. Thursday we visited a
commercial set for an insurance company. They recreated a flood (from earlier this summer in Bombay) so they had a street built on an outdoor tank with overturned cars and carts strewn about. The extras were slogging through knee high water and the AD was yelling into a microphone. Felt very familiar! The extras get paid $12 a day. Next door in a stage they were building a train. The set was 1/4 built as of 4pm Thursday and they will shoot it first thing on Friday. Typically, Indian crews build a set in 3-4 days with 100 laborers a day. Damn. I'm learning more than I ever needed to know about Indian film!
I've been keeping up with the hurricane news via BBC news. The good and bad thing about foreign news channels is they are not afraid to show grusome pictures like the British soldiers being attacked in Iraq or the bus in Texas on fire. Plus, now I'm learning way more about what goes on in the rest of the world - places the US networks don't think exist!
I'm going shopping today with a friend of Sai's, who is a TV hostess. I gather she's the Katie Couric of South India. I'd better be careful - there's so much to look at & buy!
Francisco - completely built up because of the tech boom. It's more prosperous than Bombay, where so many people live in slums and on the streets. Thursday we visited a
commercial set for an insurance company. They recreated a flood (from earlier this summer in Bombay) so they had a street built on an outdoor tank with overturned cars and carts strewn about. The extras were slogging through knee high water and the AD was yelling into a microphone. Felt very familiar! The extras get paid $12 a day. Next door in a stage they were building a train. The set was 1/4 built as of 4pm Thursday and they will shoot it first thing on Friday. Typically, Indian crews build a set in 3-4 days with 100 laborers a day. Damn. I'm learning more than I ever needed to know about Indian film!
I've been keeping up with the hurricane news via BBC news. The good and bad thing about foreign news channels is they are not afraid to show grusome pictures like the British soldiers being attacked in Iraq or the bus in Texas on fire. Plus, now I'm learning way more about what goes on in the rest of the world - places the US networks don't think exist!
I'm going shopping today with a friend of Sai's, who is a TV hostess. I gather she's the Katie Couric of South India. I'd better be careful - there's so much to look at & buy!
