So the weather decided to cooperate this week and we had nothing but glorious sunshine. Unfortunately, we spent most of the week deep in a forest where there were just spots of sunlight here and there, and the crew, when not working, would gather in those spots for some lovely warmth. So despite seeing people in shorts and tank tops on the drive home, I spent all day in my long-johns (under the jeans, of course) and a polar-fleece jacket.But I have to say that place, where we spent the first half of the week, was enchanting. Not a half a mile from a fairly busy road, I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. When you look over to Maple Ridge from a high point across the river, you will see snow capped rugged mountains in the distance, flat acres of blueberry and hay fields in the foreground, and a few cedar covered hills in between. It was at one of those hills where we were buried deep in the woods. I discovered, much to my surprise, that the hills are all moss-covered rock and boulders - more like what I am used to seeing on Vancouver Island. The trees sprung up between drifts of fern, their huge roots wrapped around the rock they were perched on and roping down to the soil below. Although the whole of the forest seems to climb up-hill from a distant perspective, we actually walked downhill into the grotto we shot in and were then at a cliff on one side, and a gentle incline on the other down through the fern and trees to a field about 100 yards away. The whole place was private property and I imagine that the kids growing up there must have a ball playing outside. If I had grown up there, I would have spent all my free time chasing the pools of sunshine with a good book.
The second half of the week, we shot at a cabin buried in the same woods, just on the other side of the hill. When I went inside, I noted the border painted on the wood floor and asked the art department if they went to the trouble of putting it there. It was a border of native symbols and scrolling in black and red paint. He told me that it was already there, that it was done for the Twilight movie. The cabin was used as the werewolf's hide-away. If you saw the second movie, it was the one where all the bare-chested guys went for a snack of muffins served by a girlfriend of one of them. We are using it as a hide-away for an old man who is living 'off the grid'. It is part of a compound of several acres with about 4 houses on it. This one is uninhabited but would make a great little writing retreat. I don't know if it has electricity, we have lights inside but they are most likely powered by our generator. But I'd stay there with some Coleman lanterns. There is a proper oven, although no fridge, so I imagine that it's wired for electricity and it's turned off due to no occupant. There's a wood-burning stove that would keep one toasty warm on a cold night. But I am guessing there's lots of spiders and probably mice, so maybe not so great after all.
It seems that our DOP, Kim Miles, tends to work on shows where, at some point, an eating challenge is made and he must compete. I am sketchy on the details as to how this one came about, but it was decided that a few of the guys were going to eat balut. Balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. They asked the craft services gal if she would be up to boiling the eggs for the challenge and she agreed, as long as the embryos were dead already. I guess they were because at the end of the day, an egg carton appeared at the village (the cart with the monitors) and inside were half a dozen large duck eggs. The challenge was on. When Kim got his egg, he hemmed and hawed and then made the mistake of looking at Bill's egg once it was bitten into. That was it. He couldn't even crack the shell. I made the mistake of looking over at Bill's egg and started to gag. I wasn't even eating it and I almost threw up! Then the 2nd AD, Lori, came along and said she would eat one. I was horrified. Turns out, she has traveled a lot to strange lands and eaten really disgusting stuff. She said the most interesting was deep fried scorpion. I can't fathom why anyone would want to even try that. Anyhow, she ate the whole thing! I couldn't even watch or I was afraid I would lose it right there.
