20 February 15 – Friday – DAY FOURTEEN A solid two weeks without a break is really tougher than we thought it would be. It’s more because of the monotony of the sewing shop than anything else. Here I am in Myanmar and what do I see? Mostly these four walls. Even if I were […]
19 November 15 – Thursday – DAY THIRTEEN I sit in front of the sewing shop as distant bells strike the hour. It’s Grandma’s death day, so that seems fitting for the somber quality of the morning. After murky dreams I awake to yet another day. The sameness of the shoot has set in. We […]
18 November 15 – Wednesday – DAY TWELVE Back to school! Apparently our presence here is a bit troublesome. The school has been very gracious with us so far, and we’re back for a second helping. They tolerate us rather well, though, and if we’re a big inconvenience they do not let us see that. […]
17 November 15 – Tuesday – DAY ELEVEN It’s another day in the marketplace. This time we follow Gilbert doing the same things that Tinmar Aung did. It’s another eight minute shot following someone as he goes around buying things. The path is slightly different (it’s supposed to be years earlier) and now we’re doing […]
16 November 15 – Monday – DAY TEN The shoot is halfway finished. Since we leave November 29 it’s more like just over the hump, timewise. Gavin is worried he doesn’t have the film yet but that seems totally normal at this stage. We are quite sure that whether or not he does have a […]
15 November 15 Sunday – DAY NINE I begin the day by making stupid sound effects with Tinmar Aung. After she sets her own mic (which is beginning to be a morning ritual for us both) I have her do a test level, show her the meters, and often put the headphones on her so […]
14 November 15 – Saturday – DAY EIGHT It’s Cecilia’s birthday! She wants no one to know, just business as usual. And it sure is, as prosaic a day as they’ve all been here in Pyin Oo Lwin. By now any exotic/special nature of what were doing has worn off – we’re still open to […]
13 November 15 – Friday – DAY SEVEN Friday the 13th is unlucky, but seven is supposedly lucky, so what does that mean for our film today? Nothing so far. I still have this virus, and a bad, bad hacking cough. There’s no telling if it’s bronchitis. In truth, I ended up ill and wheezing […]
12 November 15 – Thursday – DAY SIX I wake with a deep cough. I feel okay, basically, a bit run down. The cough is a bad omen, though. These days if I get any upper respiratory infection it goes to a bronchitis pretty easily. It’s the result of being a poor young man who […]
11 November 15 – Wednesday – DAY FIVE Last night was the worst yet. Though I spent ten hours in bed, most of that was not sleeping but rolling around from side to side, punctuated by a few moments of actual refreshing sleep which inevitably descend into fever dreams. Since I’ve been spending so much […]