Steve arrived two days ago and we have been prepping for the shoot and also taking some time to let Steve get accustomed to siberia and the russian alphabet.
He spent some extra time in Moscow, as his flight got delayed, then he got stuck at the domestic moscow airport.
I felt bad for Steve, since he had to sit at airport while we were wating for him in a small cloud of mosquitoes at the native camp (we had stayed there over night since its close to the airport).. but I felt even worse after hearing his transit story.
When Gus and I went through Moscow, we had no problems. We just walked right through passport and custom control. In fact, gus was walking a bit in front of me during customs and I got stopped with the cart of baggage. The Russian gaurd said “eh! whats in this!”.. i said. “uhh.. i dont know?”. We called gus back, he through a bag through the X-Ray machine and said, what is this. We said tripod, he said “fine” and we were done. Acting naive is a good way to get out of trouble, especially if you dont know the language. We took a cab, waited in line at the other airport and we were done. It was a bit boring, so it wasnt enough to mention here.
Steve had a bit more trouble than us.
After busting through a 500 person passport control line, he waited 45 min for his luggage and then got a full search in customs. He walked out into the Moscow airport and then got a barrage of “cabby” guys asking where he wanted to go. I had sent him some advice ahead of time and told him NO MORE than 30bucks for the cab. So he followed my advice and talked a guy down to $30. He took him to the parking lot where a tax cab swerved into the road and parked to pick him up. The taxi guy moved quickly and threw all of this luggage into the back. Steve was a bit concerned as everything moved a bit fast, he wasnt sure that everything was there (it was, though). They get in the car, start to pull away, and a bus pulls up to block the cabby in.
The driver gets pissed. He is fuming and screams at the bus, but to no avail. The passengers start to file out and hold up the cab even more. Steve is a bit concerned and annoyed, but the driver is very angry, to say the least. He gets out of the car, goes around to the bus driver and begins to scream at him. The taxi manager (the guy who setup the ride for steve) gets in the middle to prevent a fight.
an example...
They continue to argue. The driver comes back into the car. He reaches over to the glove compartment and pulls out an awl or a sharp pointed piece of metal used for doing something not to be done in a car. The driver takes the awl and plunges it into the tire of the bus. Of course, everyone is pissed even more at this point. BUT, the cab escapes and a normal 15 minute taxi ride from the airport to the opposite airport takes steve around 6 minutes. luckily for Steve and the cabby, no police were on the way.
At that point, things settled and steve arrived. He was happy to see us, tired yes, but we had no shivs and were not blocked by any buses.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating and letting steve sleep. I had been ironing out a schedule for the shoot, Irina was wrapping up the treatment, and Gus and Anfisa went to prep the SUV for the ride…
We continued that till last night, when we went to the beach and had a fire. Some pictures will be included soon..
Things are going well.. the shoot starts tomorrow with us starting the trip to Dolinovka.
