Travel writer and journalist

Month: February 2014

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Japse to Jaipur

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JAIPUR

Hot off the plane to Jaipur (via a 7 hour stop off in the traffic of 6am-smog-opolis, Mumbai), I was taken to the production offices. Arriving by taxi, I was driven to a hotel on the other side of the Pink City. Through the giant pink gates of the old town there were a number of the city’s most beautiful buildings. From the colonial Albert museum to the sandstone beehive of the Hawa Mahal, the city is full of buildings that have vibrancy and contrast to makes Jaipur exotic even by Indian standards.  


If it was a safari, I could have gone home after seeing a camel, a wild pig and an elephant in the streets  within the first 10 minutes.

However, the real reason for visiting this cinematic city is to act as a script supervisor on the film UTOPIA with Word Film production company… and the very real incentive of curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The film involves The story of Janan, an Afghani woman, who is given permission to travel to the UK undergo fertility treatment.
Pursued by an obsessive sperm-donor, we find her in Jaipur, where she is adopted by Rahul, the reluctant taxi driver.
Isn’t that clearer? If you require more of an overview to appease your interests more info can be found on the film’s website and Facebook pages.

Hawa Mahal


Having spent the past couple of days hiding in odd areas of a film-set revising script editions and keeping continutiy, I have found the odd spare moment to abuse my charge of the continuity-stills camera and take some “holiday snaps”. I aim to keep more of a production log on this website if I find the time and the internet to keep uploading my finds on a regular basis.

Scene one. Scene one. Take one. Day one.

Painted Indian Elephant

The taxi being given directions.

The doorman to the hotel and his cameao.

Hiding from hailstones

Sunshine on Leith

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Leith Theatre and Burns Night ’14 an Immortal Memory

I made the journey up to Edinburgh last weekend. Armed with a kindle copy of the Kilmarnock Edition and a quick-wiki page open on the poet’s life and times, I had travelled up to meet with some friends and take part in a Rabbie Burns Supper. Apart from attending Will Frazer’s blurry-but-brilliant Burns-Night reunion, there was another, ulterior, motive for the weekend in Auld Reekie. On the Monday, Sophie and I took the bus to Leith to go and check out developments at the Leith Theatre Trust.

http://www.leiththeatretrust.org/
The theatre caught my attention last year whilst working on the INFERNO. The venue had been one of the restoration projects alongside Aberdeen’s Tivoli Theatre, to come off of the “TBaR” (Theatre Buildings at Risk) list last June when the trust took over from the Edinburgh Council’s Culture and Leisure Committee. There had been rumours of the location being used as a Fringe venue as early as this year. Sadly there had been some setbacks in restoring the main theatre (as is all too familiar with restoration projects). However, with the Thomas Morton Hall restored ready and its fantastic setting an original theatre foyer and entrance, we though it definitely worth a visit. You too can have a snoop on the trust’s website with panoramic tours of the venue’s spaces, here: Virtual Tour. It’ a great way to have a look round to save yourself the hassle and the hard-hat, as for the foreseeable future the Main theatre will still be a work in progress.
The Crush: a greeting from another time of Turnstiles and Ticket-booths
Venus and the boar; no hard feelings over Adonis. 

The Leith Theatre, was commissioned in 1920 to celebrate the borough of Leith’s incorporation into greater Edinburgh. It is a good looking piece of architecture built with the Theatre and the Thomas Morton Hall on separate wings, either side of the “Crush”- a foyer with a rather striking statue. Upstairs, still belongs to Edinburgh council and functions as a marriage registry office.
The workers of which were very helpful in finding our way to the theatre but took some convincing when telling them we were, in fact, just there to visit the Theatre Trust and not a couple eloping from England. (A common problem in Scotland apparently.)

As to the venue, we will have to see as to what stage Holocaust to the Highlands is in, come Summer. With the first deadline for registry already passed, though still in February the Edinburgh festival is fast approaching.
Until then there will definitely have to be more trips up to the city on reconnaissance for Fringe venues. Got festival fever!

 
The Thomas Morton Hall. 

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Update: News coming shortly Re: film-making adventures. Can’t wait!