Installment 5: Visitors to Lebanon

I've recently had visitors to Lebanon in the shape of my brother, Stephen:

My sister-in-law, Syliva:

And of our close friend, Caitlin:

Left behind with the grandparents were David, my 15 month old nephew...

and his half-brother/unwieldy lap dog, Hugo.

For me work has been a great way to see Lebanon. Now with five days off and visitors I was faced with becoming a tourist. So what does a tourist do in Lebanon? Our first response...booze it up, but all classy like....ie, wine tasting!

Lebanon is the oldest site of wine production in the world, evidently. There are a number of wine producers. We went to three.

The wine production happens mostly in the Bekka Valley, a spot i knew only from Robert Ludlum books as a location for Hezbollah terrorist training camps.

Terrorists: "Don't call us, we'll call you."

My favorite moment came when Sylvia was asked by the owner of the world renowned Chateau Mussar to characterize what she was tasting...

her response - "yummy."

So the winner of the least pretentious award goes to Sylvia Morales (that's right she kept her last name! She's bad ass my sister-in-law).

Wish i could say the same for the rest of us:

Chateua Kefraya in the Bekka Valley

Acting alternately very adult and very silly.


Puccini was never in Lebanon


My brother and our cab driver Tony


Sylvia laughing at posers.

Of course, there were other culturally significant actives to attend to in Lebanon. For example, the first thing most Lebanese will tell you to visit when in their country is Baalabeck, the site of Roman ruins rivaling any in the world.

We skipped it.

But there were other things to be seen.

There is an ongoing world wide campaign to select the new 7 wonders of the world: http://www.new7wonders.com
We visited one of the candidates, the Jeita Grotto.

It was certainly a stunning place.
However, at the moment not enough people seem to think it a wonder as it's sitting 8th in the voting. Well the Eighth wonder of the world ain't bad. Although, somehow i thought the position was already filled:

4.5 - Addendum

So as a supplement to the most recent installment...may i present Installment 4.5 (apologies BSG).

Taxi Ballad: A Few Frames

(Click on the picture to get the big version)

It's about a Lebanese Taxi driver, Yousef, who meets an American woman, Jordan, living in Beirut.

However Yousef keeps getting himself into trouble. He's rather antagonistic in the first half of the movie and gets into arguments with people such as this guy.

He does have a vivid imagination, however, recalling stories from his youth. Such as the theft of a car by this guy:

Beirut is quite photogenic.

Our taxi driver flashes back to his youth, recalling how he wanted to be a singer. His mother and aunt find him spellbinding, but he's wonderfully awful in actuality.


The young Yousef cheers on his idol in an arm wrestling match.


Grown up Yousef even goes so far as to try a pseudo yoga class to be around Jordan.


Some bonding at the dance club.


There's also the matter of the ex-girlfriend. She dumps him early on, realizing he's not going anywhere she wants to be.


But there's more American-Lebanese bonding at dinner one night.

So - there you go. Just a few examples of what it is i'm actually here to do.

Next up (I promise): Visitors to Lebanon

I guess that's one way to do it...

The movie has been renamed - Blood Taxi has become Taxi Ballad.

There was great excitement from our Lebanon crew to meet our American lead actress Karina. Here she is:

By the end of her two weeks here most every Lebanese man on the crew had a big crush on her. Note for American women...Lebanese men like you!

As you might suspect the movie on some level concerns a taxi cab. Our "hero" car is a 1960 Mercedes Ponton, or something...what do i know about cars. However, I do know that it's very pretty.

Unfortunately, our poor Ponton (whatever a ponton is...) has some problems.

On our first day, in the first hour of production we managed to break off the Mercedes emblem. 49 years with it and it takes us one hour.

Nevertheless we persevered - starting with shots of our two lead actors driving about Beirut.

Checking footage from the front mount. The guy to the right is the gaffer Michel. And to the left, in the sweater, is the producer Walid.

After a smooth few blocks the car breaks down. This would become a recurrent theme.

Nevertheless - after a push we're off again. Samer, our sound guy, hid in the trunk for the wide shots.

There are a variety of differences between making a movie in the US and in Lebanon:

1)In Lebanon, nothing happens quickly. In the US because of rental procedure it's important to make a movie as quickly as possible. Here a movie which would be shot in 3-4 weeks in the US will take us over two months. What this means for me - lots of time off. I'll talk more about this in my next installment.

2) What makes the slow pace of work here difficult is that, on a daily level, we continue working and working. Let me tell you, nothing makes you appreciate unions and what they've done for workers like working where there are none. Though I've tried to introduce the idea of a 12 hour day to production, it's an uphill battle. You shoot til you're done and there's no overtime pay for the crew.

After 19 hours of shooting:

Overall, things started pretty slowly and the first six days of shooting gave me cause for concern. However - things have gotten better, i'm hoping the trend continues.

One thing which certainly helped the crew's morale...the Ladies of Red Bull arrived!!! I must admit, I didn't see that one coming.

We shot 8 of 9 "days" at night. Shooting during the day is much, much better!

Daniel the director, myself and Cynthia the first assistant director.

It's also been raining a fair amount. Our production designer Nasri and his big umbrella:

One of the most important people on the production team is Adnan. He's one of those guys who doesn't have a specific title, but is somehow vital to every aspect of production. He reminds me of Paulie Walnuts...for many reasons, not the least of which is his fantastic fashion sense:

Anyway, production continues...and stops....and continues...and stops. I'm going to be here til May i've concluded.

Next time: Visitors to Lebanon

Pre-Production and Politics

A week or so ago things were a bit slow here in Beirut so I went out looking for some fun...
which is how i came to find myself at a political rally in remembrance of the assassination of Rafik Hariri a former Prime Minister of Lebanon. (Many think the Syrians had something to do with it...it's complicated.)

Hariri was killed with a very big bomb. It's rather the traditional way for Lebanese leaders to go, though his bombs was bigger than most...he was an important guy after all.

The intricacy of Lebanese politics is baffling and seems to have led to a permanent political stasis. Imagine a 7 way traffic intersection with no signal. Ostensibly each driver entering wants to get to his or her destination. However, as the crush of cars becomes intractable real progress grinds to a halt. The resulting mess leaves people more interested in the politics of the intersection and their final destination little more than a pipe dream. So goes Lebanese politics.

Somebody must have a theory linking a nation's traffic patterns with their political character...but i'll spare you any further attempt here.

Politics and automobile love merge.

One cab driver was so moved by the rally that he left his cab unattended for 10 minutes, blocking the one available lane and stranding hundred of cars (including this writer) behind him. This is the site of the assassination. The flaming statue is a memorial - the flames coming everyday at the moment the explosion took place.

The one benefit of the rally was I had no trouble parking.

Of course what's a political rally without a tank.

Or random pictures of seemingly bored Lebanese.

As for the movie.

We've delayed the start of it by about a week due mainly to rain.

Lebanese film making involves a number of facets not often seen in US production. One major concern: which political party somebody supports.

Every rental house, location and actor is evaluated on their political leanings. Some locations are just off limits because they're in Hezbollah controlled areas. It's not particularly unsafe but you'd rather have them with you than not - and our production company is not with them. However, certain key members of the production team do support the Hezbollah party...although political talk at work seems to be non-existent.

Few things in Lebanon are ever concrete - and even those elements you believe secure tend to disintegrate at the last moment. (An oft repeated quote by the likes of Woody Allen and Noah Baumbach characters rings all the more true in Lebanon. "If you want to make god laugh, tell him (or her) your plans.")


As a side note, the equipment house from which we're renting gear likes to put things in boxes.

Personally, i think it's a silly and overly complicated way to deal with gear, however it becomes more understandable when the inside of your truck looks like this:

We've done some scouting of locations. My method for remembering where the sun rises at each loaction:

Sometimes Lebanon doesn't feel that exotic:

(not my doughnuts!)

Next up:
Production begins! (It actually started a few days ago so, the next entry should be soon)