South Bound Elevator

There is the sound of idle construction going on around me, the odd banging of a hammer, the sawing of wood idle chit-chat of instruction or conversation. A constant hustle and bustle of activity of about one hundred people all busily going about their very important task. For each and every single one of them they are making a movie. The same movie.

From the set designer to the man making sure that when you walk from the vans to where they are recording you don’t walk in when they are in fact recording and thus become instantly a background cast member that makes no sense to the movie what so ever. To the people all working every single piece of equipment to the producers, directors and assistant directors that tell them what they want. To the actors. You know when you see the end of a movie and a thousand unknown names drift on by as you brush off the popcorn and get up to leave. These are those people and they are all around. I walk through as I make my way from the trailer to the main set as if this was in fact a perfect scene of a movie, I marvel at how everyone is working at their absolute 100% as I said they know they are making a movie and they need to do whatever it is at their absolute best because the precious time they have is disappearing fast and they all want to make the absolute best film they can.

Honestly, it’s quite infectious. Which is why I feel so damn bad for not sticking to my commitment to releasing a new post every single day. However, I am here now and you are reading this which means I did my job for today!! Hooray!

Ok lets get down to coffee because today I am having coffee on set! Today I am having French press coffee, after a short while a very enthusiastic person arrives and delivers me the coffee and instantly the hustle and bustle of the busy world around me fades away. You know what I’m talking about right? That first smell that hits you in the morning, making you pause for just a moment and enjoy life? If the answer is no then I suggest you take that moment, life can suck and be stressful so take that moment because it’s no one else’s than yours.

I take mine. Ohhhhhh I take mine!

Lets talk about the mug!
It’s well a Starbucks mug but because they (Starbucks) are not giving me any sweet sweet cash to have their photo taken I turned their mug around (take that mega corporations!!) however I do have to hand it to them, I may not be the biggest fan of Starbucks Coffee but I really do like their mugs. I own a few actually and walking past a place I often will just, somehow, find myself… with a purchased Starbucks mug.. and I don’t know… how… I bought it… Memory is all blank.

On this occasion, the mug is my lovely other half’s to which I used for such occasion. The ceramic is smooth and the cup is tall with the handle being so well designed you just know they used lasers and kick ass montage to make it!

I decide to drink the coffee straight and black.. For some reason, I call it ‘detective style’. I guess growing up watching grizzled detectives fight crime on TV and drink strong black coffee sunk in. So today detective style it was. The coffee was smooth and yet bitter with a wonderful taste. All of this I assume you guys couldn’t care about because I was on the set of the next up and coming movie and I assume the question of “What the hell man tell us about the movie!!” Is on your mind? Yes?? Yeah it is.. be honest 🙂

Ok I’m going to get this out of way right now.. Do I have amazing photos of the cast in really artistic and funny moments? Yes, yes I do! Can I share with them you now? No… no I can’t. They are in costume and sadly they can’t be shared until after the movie.. I’m working with the producer to see if some can be released but please don’t hold your breath.

What can I say? Hmmmm well the set that I was on looked amazing! Honestly I found myself just staring around marveling on how well the set designers were able create such, well art! Ok the movie stars the following people.

Director – Sreenu Vaitla
Producer (I have met) – Cheri
Thaman (Music Composer)
Vankat (Cinematographer)

Starring (but not all the cast, just the ones I have hung out with)
Ravi Teja
Ileana D’Cruz ( I think I’ve heard of her)
Vennela Kishore
Sunil

So that’s what I can tell you. Well actually I can mention that hanging out with them on set they were some of the most welcoming people I have ever met. Not because I assumed they wouldn’t it’s just that well making a movie is really hard work, again hundreds of people all working in unison to a single goal. Allot of stuff is happening all the time, we are nomads within a large room, constantly reshuffling from one location to the next as they rotate the camera from shot to shot. The energy and enthusiasm of each individual person is relentless, yeah I know I have gone and on about this but it really is. Oh and the sense of humor was there as well. There was one shot where they rehearsed a hell of a lot before they even positioned the cameras. Over and over and over again they worked their moves to perfection. Then once that was perfected the camera came in running along a long temporary rail track and on an big massive boom with humongous counterweights. They rehearsed and positioned the camera to absolute perfection, again and again and again they adjusted a little to the left, then the right then the left, a little more to the left PERFECT!!! They then shot the scene. It was acted perfectly!!!

Except the poor cameraman forgot to turn on the camera for recording.

I am ashamed to say this but for some reason, in such a fast-paced big budget high stakes production I expected an eruption! And that person to be as we say in Australia “torn a new one” (the new one being a new arsehole.. yeah it’s not a nice saying) however instead there was an explosion of laughter from all cast members all round! A humble apology and a quick reset and off they went! I had a grin from ear to ear during this moment. I’m sure there are times when moments are heated as we are all human after all but was I saw here was a kind of family ( an extremely large family) getting along and producing something that looks really amazing!!

I’m hoping for subtitles.. I couldn’t understand a single word…

So that was my coffee adventure for day four and five.. We head back to set tomorrow, to hang out some more, ill try to stop by another coffee shop on my way, if I do I will be sure to let you know 🙂

Cheers!

Andrew