A Ride With the Camera Cab.
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| A Casual Camel |
Yesterday, after fixing up a taxi with a camera rig, we took to the streets of Jaipur to compete with some of the busiest streets and the sketchiest traffic on the planet. Strapping our state-of-the-art RED camera to the side of a moving vehicle, we tried to channel the heaviest of the traffic away from the taxi. Recently informed by our producer that we had no reserve camera. One expensive mistake would set us back a day of filming until we could find a replacement from Delhi. Armed with this information we set off into tarmac no-man’s land, where road side markers, traffic lights and careful conduct are unknown. It is a roadway ruled by the horn.
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The Intrepid Auto…
and facing it
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| The mean streets of Jaipur. |
It was a challenging free for all but the car returned from the melee, unscathed. Having spent the morning getting film of our taxi and the vibrant old town, we were ready to drive our actors to the border of Pakistan. Well… as close to Pakistan as the art department could muster.
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| Taxi Film Unit |
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| The Rigours of Rigging. |
Having spent most of the afternoon travelling to location we arrived at a border control point, painstakingly set up by the art department. [NOT ACTUALLY PAKISTAN]. With a storm predicted and a single evening to capture the scene at sunset, we had to rush Here we put several of the more geriatric looking extras in position, guarding the outpost. The strategic placement of these sentries played a vital part in obscuring the fact our outpost was being manned by “Dad’s Army”.
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| “This is as far as we go.” |
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| Would you let me into your country? |
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| Spectators and a spectacle. |
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| Passport control. |
All in all we managed to survive our DIY Top Gear challenge, travel to something looking remarkably like the Pakistani border (I’m convinced) and take one or two great production snaps along the way.
So much is happening, at a rate that I am struggling to keep up to date with my blog-posts. However I can say that the next post involves attending an Iranian/Punjabi disco and me going to Indian Prison. I hasten to add the two events are entirely independent of one another.
Till then, Namnaste!
