Blades, Blood and a Monster Under the Bed

Tuesday was an interesting day. I had fair warning of it from Joe Z. at least, on Monday. Production was going to sacrifice a bull in order to bless the taping of the third season of 'CM'. Yup. Sacrifice a bull. We got to work and there it was, ignorantly standing there, tied to a tree. Everyone was waiting for Joe to arrive to start the, er, 'festivities'. I suddenly remembered that I had some very important work that needed attending to right away. Chris stayed to watch and took pictures. I guess that's one more life experience that Chris is richer by. I don't feel a great loss. I know myself and from what Chris said, I would have had a rough time of it (it took the bull 10 minutes to die). Well, I hope all the hoopla worked, and we get our stuff soon. Yessiree. Would be nice to do make-up with, oh, I dunno, a makeup kit.
I spent the better part of yesterday under a hospital bed; it's a scene where a man who's committed suicide is placed in a bed and his wounds continue to bleed profusely. The actor was hooked up to tubing and I was 'attached' to the tubing with syringes, pumping the blood. Because the shot was pretty wide, there really wasn't any place for me to hide save under the bed, so I hung out there for a couple of hours. It wasn't so uncomfortable except for the fact that I really really really had to use the restroom and I was laying flat on my bladder..! Actually, most of the crew forgot that I was under the bed and I scared the crap out of a few of them when I crawled out, covered in blood splatter. :)

Despite the awkward language barrier, I'm really enjoying the crew here. Egyptian people, and Cairenes in particular, have a terrific sense of humour and love picking on each other. They're pretty sarcastic- just my type of folks! I feel right at home!
I think (one of) the hardest things about living in Egypt is the taboo of publicly displayed affection. Chris and I are very affectionate and it's difficult to remember that anything more than linked arms or hand-holding is staunchly looked-down upon. Even a shared kiss between a married couple is a no-no.

Lights, Camera...Action??

Soooo. We're on our second day of shooting. NO MATERIALS. NONE. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH. Everything is still tied up in customs somewhere. They've probably decided that Chris and I are threats to national security and they're tracking our every move right now.

FORTUNATELY, Kevin, the makeup artist before us left a few things with his local assistant, Ibrahim; a partial Kryolan greasepaint palette, some spirit gum, an Illustrator palette and a bit of liquid latex. Definitely better than nothing!

Our first day on set was like every other first day on set- lots of kinks to work out and an attempt to coordinated every one's 'rhythms'. We're almost there on day two. The feeling on set is pretty laid back. It's nice not having to oversee both the beauty and the effects departments. While our work is an integral part of the show, there is an element of subtlety that the show's director and producers wanted to maintain. Also, showing a great deal of graphic images on television is a relatively new concept here in Egypt and the Middle East. For example, one of the characters is supposed to have overdosed on her medication and she has been repeatedly vomiting on herself. We dressed her nightgown with 'prop yak' (tinted latex and chunks of bread) accordingly. Waaayyy to much they told us. For some reason, the audience here will have an easier time with blood than they will vomit. Huh. Well there you go.

Speaking of what they can and cannot show on tv, it's interesting to see how they censor televised movies from the U.S.. I was watching 'Van Wylder 2' (there. was. absolutely. nothing. on.) and they cut all and any kissing scene, even the most innocent peck on the cheek. Left in all the swearing though. When this show ("Critical Moments") will air in Saudia Arabia, they censor it so that you never see a woman exposing any more flesh than her hands and face.

When we first got to Cairo, I was really self-concious about not having my head covered. One of the crew members (a Cairene- born and raised- as is 90% of the crew) assured me that it didn't matter because I was from the west and they don't expect that level of modesty from us. I didn't know whether to be reassured or somewhat offended... Actually, you see alot of women without headcoverings. Egypt is very liberal- relatively speaking. Relative that is to the rest of the Islamic-dominated countries. I actually like the way things are here. There's something to be said for modesty. Walking around Burbank and bearing in mind what I expected the 'dress code' to be in Egypt, I was, sorry to say, a bit ashamed to see what some, ahem, "young ladies" were wearing. I saw one girl who was wearing shorts smaller that some boyshort undies I have.
Anywho, who am I to judge? Opinions are a different matter- and you know what they say opinions are like...