A Blessing and a Curse
- 6 Feb 08, 10:08 AM
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
Being one of the two bilingual people on a shoot is hard. You are the one who has to be constantly aware of what's going on, in both camps, and non-stop translating what's necessary to make things work. You have to know a bit of both sides culturally, and even emotionally.
You have to know that Mr Boatman means a few hours when he says he'll come back soon. You have to know how to calm down one side that rightly wants a car to be there in time and a driver who simply does not see anything wrong in appearing one hour later.You will be the last one to sleep because at the last minute it's necessary to organise the food, the plane, the contributors for tomorrow. You might be the first to wake up so that you can pass on the news that the pilot of the plane from which we were to shoot our aerial shots has crashed when landing the night before, and the plane can no longer be used for that day's shoot (yes, we were about to fly with that pilot).
You are in troubleshooting mode for most of the time. But what a blessing it is to see the characters and subjects you researched being given a voice, and yourself, together with the others, discovering new things and appreciating aspects of the Brazilian culture.You also can have double the fun. You can laugh with the Brazilians, understand their ways and at the same time be part of the English crowd and their idiosyncrasies - enjoying drinking tea and eating marmite on a boiling hot day - and most importantly, understanding their humour.
You learn how to feel part of two very different camps and hope that things go as smooth as possibly.
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