James Bond & Siena!!

So for those of you who don't know, they're filming a large portion of the next James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, in several parts of Italy.  The closest they are to Viterbo, is Siena.  This is also the site of the biggest sequence they are filming over here.  ANYWAY, this past Thursday & Friday, I went up to see if I could see anything.  Well, I'm happy to say that I got to see several things.  I got to see two stunts filmed - part of a rooftop chase where Bond chases a guy across a roof while shooting, and then they jump to another building.  Pretty sweet.  The crew has 5 cranes set up around the edges of the area they're filming in, for "flying" the camera for overhead shots, as well as for safety purposes for the stunts.  Boy, they are tall.  Big, and tall.

So whilst I was hanging around at the edges of the set/area they had blocked off, I ended up talking to the Head Rigger (the crew that runs the cranes they use for cameras and flying stuntmen from one roof to the other) several times over the two days that I was there. He's a British guy who's very nice.  We talked for about 10-15 minutes the last time I saw him, and well, over the course of our conversation, I let it slip that I am a film major who's about to be done with college and that I one day hope to be able to work on a set like this.  I mentioned other things that let him get the idea that I was someone who knew a little bit about the movie industry (including knowing who the stunt coordinator is - no one knows them, unless you're a nerd like me), and that I wasn't just some gawky, star-struck tourist.  That I was there to see anything and everything I could, and I was simply in awe of the scope of what I was witnessing.  So after all this, he motioned to a guy standing about 20 feet away, who turned out to be the Production Manager for the Italy section of the filming.  

The guy I'd been talking to (Peter Graphum by the way) asked the Prod Mgr if, when they return to Siena next month to finish the sequence in another part of town, I could possibly come on set and "help out"!!!!  Without hesitation, the other guy (Gianlucca?) said "Yeah, we'll give him one of the necklace crew tags and everything." (!!!!!)  At this point, I nearly fainted.  Peter then turned back to me and said "well there you are mate.  Just come and find me - I'll be near one of the cranes - we'll get you all set up.  You can spend the day on set, helping out, and you can get a good idea for everything else that's going on, not just the rigging."  

I thanked him profusely, and told them both to expect me back on at least one of those days - May 13-17th.  My mom, step-dad & Sarah will all be in Italy at that time, but they all understand the scope and magnitude of this opportunity, and are showing full support.  Now of course, it could end up raining the day that I go back, and so nothing could happen, or it could end up being the door opening to get my foot in and never look back.  Or it could end up being somewhere in the middle.  But how cool would that be if I got to help out in some capacity, and therefore be able to say that the first movie I ever worked on was a bloody JAMES BOND movie!!!????

Spring Break with Dad!

So as you all know by now, I'm not the most prompt person in the world.  I mean, when it comes to being on time for class, work, appointments, etc., I'm always on time, if not early.  But when it comes to sitting my lovely butt down at the computer and typing about what I've been doing....well we've established that's not necessarily my forte.  So without any further ado.... I bring you - "My 2 weeks later Spring Break adventure with Dad post."  

Hey all, how's it going?  Fabulous.  So as you might have guessed due to the intro, 2 weeks ago was Spring Break.  My kick ass father (henceforth referred to as "Dad") came to spend the week with me.  We were both very excited about it, seeing as how over the years we've done many a trip together.  Mostly road trips around the US, but one short trip to the Netherlands a few years ago.  The biggest difference with this trip was that for the first time, I was going to be the trip leader.  In the past, we've either gone to a new place for the first time together, or Dad was leading the trip, with me as the navigator.  This time, the tables were turned. (Nice alliteration there huh?)  

We spent the first couple of days in Viterbo, hanging out at my apartment and going out during breaks in the rain.  Not the best weather for the beginning of the trip, but it did get better.  Tuesday rolled around and we rented a car and drove south.  We stopped at Anzio Beach along the way, to pay respects to his (step)dad and my Grandpa who fought there in WWII. The town itself shows no signs of battle, and there was only a few small monuments (British though) to show that anything happened there.  Today, the town is a pretty little beach town, and not much else.  Oh well, at least we went at all.

We drove on, and reached our ultimate destination - the lost city of Pompeii.  We got lucky with our hotel that we had booked online, since the place turned out to be right next to 

the main entrance to the ruins.  

Wednesday we spent walking inside, just walking around for several hours.  It turned out that the last week of March was Italian Cultural Heritage Days, and so every monument, museum and ruin-area was free admission.  We talked it over and decided to grab a tour guide for what would've been the amount of our tickets.  It turned out to be the two of us and a couple from Dallas.  Let me tell you - Pompeii is....wow.  So beautiful.  I had no idea it was so well preserved.  I half expected it to be like the Forum in Rome - bits and pieces of buildings and columns lying around, but there were entire buildings still intact, complete with frescoes still painted on the walls.  It was amazing.  (Sarah had told me that it was up to me to decide if we should see when she comes at the end of the semester, and now of course the answer is "hell yeah!")

On Thursday we drove back to Viterbo, and hung out for the evening, while making our plans for Rome over the weekend.  We spent Dad's remaining 3 days in Rome seeing as much as possible.  He obviously wanted to see the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, and I showed him a bunch of other stuff too.  Something I hadn't seen yet, that we found, was the site of Julius Caesar's assassination.  Pretty cool.  

All in all, we had a great trip/time together.  I got to practice my Italian more than I'd thought I would, and Dad was impressed with that.  We talked about many things while hanging out - the future, Sarah, history, Sarah, etc.  And it was fun using my Italian (what little I have) to help us out, and not seem like stupid Americans.  I even had a pseudo conversation with a very old Italian man on the bus in Rome one night.  So that was pretty cool.