The last scene we shot in New Dolinovka was three women – chatting, doing laundry, bickering over gossip.  We ran two cameras, as no one wanted this to go longer than needed.  As you may have noticed, New Dolinovka is not exactly the safe haven for mosquitoes, quite the opposite, obviously.  So having 4 people standing, outside, without any nets, for a an hour or so is basically like throwing them to a pack of wolves.  So we worked fast and shot with the main camera and used my camera to pick up any inserts we might need.

I ran to a building about 300ft away and setup the shot through a window.  I sat there waiting for the “rolling!”, “action!”.. but things were moving slow.  I could hear the chatter, but I had no idea what they were talking about.

Then a car rolled up with two guys that were supposed to come a bit earlier.  They had come fresh from their afternoon cocktail and were ready to shoot apparently.  I, viewing from a “crows nest” of sorts, had absolutely no idea what was going on.  One of the men had a guitar in hand and I was concerned he was going to slam it to the ground in some happy revelry.

The woman continued chatting – talking in Russian of course – of the prices of bread, a certain lady in the village whom they had strong and differing opinions of, and, of course, the behavior of the new gentlemen guests to the shot.

Needless to say, the shot came out beautifully and quite natural.  It couldn’t have happened any easier, despite it taking about an hour and a half to shoot.  But not to worry, none of the actors were bothered by the mosquitoes, they were having too good of a time.

As soon as we got in Dolinovka, we were discussing what to shoot from the script first. I really pushed to shoot the hardest shots first – one with the massive amount of live, wild animals. Call it masochistic, but I thought organizing the hardest and shooting the most difficult would be best for organization and make the rest of the shoot look like a cakewalk.

Noone else agreed and everyone thought we should get our bearings straight and then get the horses.

Almost a week later, we were ready for our horse shoot. The problem was – we had no horses. Irina, being who she is, was viscious in her desire to get these horses ready for the shoot. So she had made some connections and heard of a man in the larger town about 45km away that had some horses and maybe a truck. She took Anfisa, the day of the shoot, and drove to Milikovo to negotiate with him.

Irina would like to take the story from here -

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So we have been here a little over a week.  The mosquitoes have been awful. and awful. and awful.

The people that live here are anything and everythign but that.  They are pretty amazing people.  Everyone has been helping us, smiling, laughing at us because we dont speak russian but eager to help us at the stores or try to understand us.  People have had us for tea, we’ve played with their children, we’ve drank beer and vodka, and tonight we are having a big party with them in the town “club”.  Obviously mosquitoes are around about 3 months of the year, so this place must be pretty great 9 months.  There are occasionaly blackouts of phone and electricity, there is no gas station, and no major stores.  Ice cream and some items have to be ordered and shipped in the following day.  And the nearest town is about 45 min away.  But really, its no problem.  Everyone here knows each other, if you need a ride, a phone, som gas, anything, just stop the person on the street, they are very likely to help you.  Its quite the contrast from NY.  Granted, people are nice there too, but to walk into the mayors office and ask the secretary if there is anyone that can drive you to the neighboring town, have her call around, and then get a ride within 3 minutes, is something that would never happen in NYC.  I doubt bloombergs secretary would even let me in the building looking like I do no, with no shower!

Anyway, its great here.  Dolinovka is hardly “the ass of the world”… but i kinda get why the locals call it that.  It scares the real “asses” away..

[View with PicLens]

Yesterday, I was in the hall way and Anfisa came in with the battery for her Nikon Camera.  Gus had a similar Nikon Camera and wondered if his charger would work with hers.. He got the charger from his room, brought it to her and compared the two.  His charger had three prongs on it, while her battery only had two. Common sense would then insinuate that the two arent compatible.  Anfisa insisted and said in broken english to just try it anyway.  I took them from the two and plugged them in.  Suprise! it worked. and the battery was charging. 

At this point I told Gus, “for some reason, beyond all rationale, as SOON as you disagree with a russian woman (meaning irina or anfisa, as the two closest at the present moment), whatever the disagreement it, it immediately becomes true in their favor. 

Ill illustrate another example.

About a year and a half ago, I got this image in my email from irina. She said “we are going to Russia and this is what I want to do.” You can imagine my [obnoxious] response.  Not only where there poorly photoshopped horses in a abandonned building but, really, what the hell was she talking about.  So I of course questioned, there were some disagreements, but things kept rolling.

Yesterday we shot this:

And spent about 8 hours shooting other scenes like this over and over again.

So, just beware. When you come across a Russian Woman telling you that something can be done that seems completely irrational, just agree.  That way both of you are right or both of you are wrong.

We sat at a small cafe very contemporary Hotel in Petrapovlovsk. The man we were meeting with was a nice businessman who owned a couple hotels in Kamchatka. Irina had met him about two years ago when she came here to visit with Gleb. She and Gleb wanted to stay at the most expensive hotel in Petro and thats where they landed. They met this man, then, ironically, Anfisa in the same hotel. So one might say this is where it all began.

We had just stopped by to say “hello”, thank him for his help, potentially setup an interview and use the wifi. He sat down with us for tea, told us about the hotel and described Dolinovka for us, very frankly. We had heard it before, but he reiterated – Dolinovka is often called by locals of both Dolinovka and Petrapovlovsk “the ass of the world”. He told us we were extremely brave for going there to shoot the village. We nodded, laughed nervously and I, at least, got a bit anxious about what we were getting ourselves into.

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We spent the day shooting alot of the current village. Its amazing, people are really nice and receptive to us filming them and talking to them.  Everyone seems really astonished that anyone would want to make a film out of Dolinovka.  In Petrapovlovsk, most everyone we told that we were traveling up here to film told us that Dolinovka is called the “ass of the world” and that it is the “worst place to go”.  I could agree in some aspects, but the people are pretty amazing and nice.  Irina has some of them standing in the middle of fields of tall grass with air thick mosquitoes with no gear, no nets and next to no insect spray.  We however, are quite the opposite.  We look like those guys from ET that come to clean the house and lock elliot away.

We’ve decided that, for the most part, we are shooting in the mornings for 4-5 hours, taking a mid day “siesta” and shooting again for another 4-5 hours.  Its funny – after doing some production in NY, we are ALWAYS chasing the sunrise and sunset. Here, it is far from a problem.  The sun rises at 6AM and it sets at around 1145PM.  a solid 17 hours of sun. 

We end most of our shoots around 10pm, with plenty of light to keep going, although much of our patience for mosquitoes had set a long time ago.  So perhaps, instead of the light, that is what will rise and set like the sun in NY. 

MQ for Old Dolinovka: 7 (although steve had a top five moment with them)

Our first shot was on the way to Dolinovka, on the side of the road. It was a bit of a scramble as we weren’t sure whether or not we were going to find what we wanted.  I had actually fallen asleep during the constant barrage of noise from the gravel road and was quickly woken up when we realized we had found what we needed-an abandoned horse on the side of the road name lucet.  I was helping steve unload the tripod when i was abruptly stopped at the door of the car by Lucet who was trying to have a midday snack on my blue hoody.  Other than that, she was pretty nice for a “wild” horse.

We shot several shots there and in some other locations on the way, picking up some solid footage. 

After we arrived at Dolinovka, we scouted New Dolinovka the next day.  We spent about 4 hours walking around, taking photos, seeing abandoned buildings etc. 

As you will find out in later posts, I’m sure, the mosquitos are NO JOKE here. Dolinovka basically has that cloud around it that pigpen has in Charlie Brown.. except instead of dust its mosquitoes and any other annoying insect friend they have.  So for each of these production Notes I will rate our mosquito quotient for the shoot on a scale of 1-10…

On Road Shoot MQ: 3

New Dolinovka MQ: 8 (at one point it was a solid 10, but i ran back to the car with my tail between my legs.. i may be getting pegged as the mosquito wimp.)

The trip to Dolnovka was to take about 7 hours, but no one would commit to that. Anfisa thinks its a bit of bad luck to say when you will arrive after a long trip. She had told us normal stories of the trip taking 5-6 hours based on the terrain and stops.. she also told us one story of the trip taking 24 hours because the car broke down (because of 2 or 3 flat tires) and they had to keep pumping up the tires, driving for 3 minutes and then stopping and pumping them up again. Anifisa said the road was non-existant at a point during the trip.. just gravel and a path. We had heard that it was bad so many times, that it was becoming more of a curiosity than an anxiety. We got up on thursday at 5AM for the trip to Dolinovka. We left our apartments at 630ish and were on the road by 9. We had some tests to run before we left (i.e. making sure the lights we brought actually work).. After some tire changing and some quick stops, we left. Anfisa told us that the road we were on was “kaput” at km marker 110. At that point there would be nothing and it would be bumpy and rugged. The picture is around mile 110. The trip itself is about 330km. The road was indeed. Its about a 1 and a half lane road that is the only road up the “spine” of kamchatka. It connects several towns and villages to Petropavolvsk (where we have been staying) and Osso (a larger village in the north). Dolinovka is about 2/3 between the two. The road was like riding in the back of a yellow school bus driving through a corn field – with no corn. At one point, there was a large truck driving in the middle of the road, tossing up so much dust that you couldn’t see but 3 ft in front of the windshield. Anfisa did an excellent job passing him, but it was a bit strange. We arrived however, right on time, with really no problems. Anfisa’s mother greeted us, showed us to our new digs (we each get our own room in a elementary school boarding house!) and we had a great dinner….