Horsey ATM

BERLIN — An early-morning German bank customer had a bit of a shock when he found a horse already in line at the automatic teller machine in front of him. It seems the horse's owner, identified only as Wolfgang H., had a bit too much to drink the night before and decided to sleep it off inside the bank's heated foyer, police said Tuesday.

Shoot Day 3

Yesterday we had fire again. But unlike the last time we were in Argentina, this fire was controlled and meant to happen. We started the day with flaming hay bails launching over a cliff and falling into pigpens below. The sound of the pigs being carted away to safety in the morning was deafening and ghastly.
We then proceeded to the main square for some more fun with huge wheels, oil cans and cars. Special effects set up six cars on their ends and we toppled them at dusk. And then had some more fireworks.
After work, the electric crew and I adjourned to the nearby bar Fredirico lll for a cerveza and they taught my new dirty phrase. They have been teaching me one swear phrase a day to use on other crew members. Always fun but I am waiting to get my face slapped.
It was the producers birthday yesterday and the director and second unit director sang "Happy Birthday" to her in their native dutch. We then did it in Spanish and English......

Shooting Day 2

With the concept of this commercial a huge domino festival, everything is being stacked and toppled. From refrigerators to antique hutches, the whole town is taking part. It takes about two hours to set up one of these massive and long "domino" paths. Today's 300 meter down hill topple went past a butcher store, complete with 6 halfs of beef and a whole pig. By lunchtime, the beating sun on those carcasses created a smell that was getting fairly rancid. I did however get the opportunity to operate a few shots and Juliana (pictured above) was my obliging assistant camerawoman.
Here are some pics pf the crew around the set today.

Salt Flats

Some of us treked 250 km away from set today to see the amazing salt flats they have near Jujuy. Again, like everything in Argentina, it's about scale. These are about four times the size of Utah's famed flats. Ari the key grip, Carlos the local gaffer and Mathias the camera operator and I started our three hour journey around 8:30 yesterday. Mathias has all the toys. He normally would use the kite to pull his trike around but there was not enough wind. So we hooked up a rope and pulled everyone around. It was alot like waterskiing. I got up to 60 km/hr. Then Ari had to do better @ 80km/hr. But Carlitos won @ 100km/hr. It was great fun. And after lunch, the wind had picked up enough that Mathi could zip around the flats with his kite.

Lunch

We took alittle break after a few spins around the flats to get a bit to eat. The local restaurant @ the flats is made entirely of salt. Salt bricks for the structure and the tables and benches are also made of salt. Unfortunately, it was closed. So a few kilometers away is a small town with no paved roads and all the houses are made of mud and straw. There were alot of lamas hanging about as well. There is one "restaurant" in town, Veronica's. We inquired about lunch but she had just sold her last bit of meat......but she said she could whip us up something nice. We communed with the lamas abit while she was cooking and then sat down for a brief chat with her husband. Bowls of rice covered with pappas fritas, fried onions, fried eggs and some fresh tomatoes on top. I looked at it a figured the imagined bacteria of the place will either kill me or not..... so I dug in.
Delicious. Veronica came out afterwards and chatted. Her grandfather founded the town in 1981. They have a bull fighting ceremony every August 4th. Although they only tie red bandanas to the bulls horns and the brave try to retreive them. Much more humane than the spanish sort. Her daughter just accepted to medical school in Cuba.
They offered us beds to rest and did not want to cahrge us for lunch. But we paid and got back to the Salt Flats for a little more fun before the ride back to Iruya.

Iruya Cemetery

We missed the big Easter parade they have here in the village which supposedly includes carrying a lucky 14 year old boy strapped to the cross simulating Jesus' plight being carried behind the life sized Mary litter, also carried by many men. Our hotel sits next to the cemetery and we explored a little yesterday. All over the countryside at Easter time, relatives adorned the graves with brightly colored plastic flowers. Very pretty. The head stones ran the gamut from simple wooden crosses to more eleaborate shadow boxes.