The Jungle Calls

So I decided last minute to go to Costa Rica for my vacation from my vacation. Where the first part of my adventure in the Caymans was scheduled to the hour, everyday.. I wanted the exact opposite for my next adventure. So I didnt make any hotel plans, or schedule any tours...just bought a ticket into San Jose, and tried to be open for opportunities.
I ended up meeting this Canadian woman on the plane and we ended up chatting the whole time. She was also traveling by herself, and going to a Global Humanity conference in three days. Once we landed, we shared a cab into town together and then went to dinner. She offered for me to crash at her hotel until I find something or figure out what I was doing. And as chance would have it, her room had two beds...to make a long story short...we ended up becoming best of friends. We did a Canopy tour, had a crazy all nighter of dancing with the locals, and also met up with her family member who owns an artist retreat there. In the first 5 minutes of meeting him, he asked if I would like to teach a painting workshop and I almost fainted! I'm going to take him up on it, but I have a lot of work to do

StingRay

I went to StingRay City today! They took us out on a Catamaran in the middle of the ocean, it actually gets really shallow- enough so that you can stand and play with the stingrays. It felt like a wet portobello mushroom. If you cant tell by my smile, I'm a little nervous and folding it in half like a taco

Travel time

So now that shooting is over, I am looking forward to actual sight seeing and possibly reading a book. The original plan was that Cindy and I were going to travel together, but she just got an amazing job opportunity, so she's heading back toNY today. I've decided to stay here with friends for a couple days , and then head to the airport and find a cheap ticket somewhere...

I've been using her computer since I've been here, but now that she's leaving, I'm not too sure what kind of accessibility I'll have..

But I'll touch base when I can, and will hopefully have some more good stories for ya!

Turtle Wrangling....

...aint no joke!!! it was the last day of the shoot yesterday, and those turtles bitch slapped and sliced every last one of us!
We ended up taking a company field trip to the local sea turtle farm-they were set up in huge tanks by size- smallest that we saw were about 18" diam. and the largest in the pool was 500 lbs..(I didnt get to see this one though..it could have been an urban myth)

There were 6 turtles selected for the casting- all about 24-30" wide and 30"-36" long. Heavy SOB's-about 150 lbs and SO strong. It took about 2-3 people to handle them.

So they were trucked over to the beach and set up near the water. The scene was that the boy in the movie was running down the beach and saw these turtles on shore and started playing with them.

There were about 12 of us placing these turtle in the sand, about 2 feet from the ocean (and their freedom) The difficulty was getting them into place, watering them down so they glisten, and then filming it fast enough before they made their break for the water.

By then end of the day, we all had looked like we got Zoro- marked with their flippers and shells. Not to mention being bathed in turtle goo.

but it was an awesome experience!- I'll have to upload photos when i get back.

Week 3- wrapping up

Week 3-
We finished up on Da Brac last night and flew into Grand Cayman this morning. We get Sundays off , and the whole crew spent it on the beach- Funny how a bunch of strangers can become family so quickly. Good people. The native Caymanians are really endearing and quirky, but I guess you get that way way living on an island for so long...Very colorful characters, they give the Ibethencos a run for their $. The really embraced us as family, letting us into their homes and their lives, their island, and their culture.
So I have service I my cell here- and I'll be here until Wed or so if you'd like to chat!
Tomorrow is supposed to be an easy day at the Turtle Farm. The Art Dept isnt really needed for sets, but we're going to be helping with wrangling sea turtles. They're pretty big- up to about 150 lbs and 2'-3'. We have to keep them from scampering off the beach with either wood boxes, or by sitting on them. Ride 'em cowboy!

Week 2- ...and ACTION!!

We started filming this week and we're off with breakneck speed. I just try to stay out of everyones way and be helpful when i can. We shot the house scene, a dock scene (which we had to remove a 12 foot wood ladder from the water and relocate it to another area..the thing must have weighed 200 pounds...we also had to remove a sign that was about 10 feet up in the air suspended between 2 poles and on the end of a curvy dock. (Side note, the owner of the dive shot..super hottie beach bum, chill guy...reminds me of the turtle in Finding Nemo, flirty too..my little Ray of Sunshine here)..also had to make anchor weights out of coral rock...hmm what else? we also shot a couple of scenes at a motel- one room was supposed to be a bedroom, so not a big design problem for us....but we had to make an office out of teh other one, which consisted of making a counter top/table- pillaging office items from the car rental place down teh street, and making a key holder out of driftwood...added green screen to a curved TV.
By the end of each day, everyone just wants to drink to get the edge off (people get pretty worked up in this industry) . I learned a new shot of absynth (gag reflex just kicked in) with a caramelized sugar cube on top...no bad if you shoot it fast..