Prepare to Liftoff!

The countdown is on and we are approaching liftoff!  We thought we had our location nailed but, lo and behold, even though the hospital agreed to allow us on their premises to shoot, the amount of space they were letting us use was insufficient.  So after waiting over a week to see exactly where the hospital was going to let us shoot, we had to scramble for a different solution to our major location problem.

This is the hospital I really wanted to use but they couldn't accommodate us.

It's quite obvious as to why I wanted this hospital.  But, one of the major abilities of a filmmaker is to adjust and make what you have access to work at a professional level.

We did have a back-up hospital which I had inspected once before.  I went back and, with a little movie magic, we will be able to shoot our series there.  Right this minute, as I write this, the set crew are there painting walls, fixing floors and setting up railings.  

We turn over on Tuesday.  The Tech Recce (testing the camera gear, sound and lights on location before we shoot) is tomorrow as well as the finalization of the schedule for the next 6 weeks.  

Even though we have not started shooting the scripted scenes, we did manage to get a number of city shots for the opening titles.  We got permission to shoot from the top of the KICC building (Kenya International Conference Centre) on Friday.  The conference centre took 6 years to build - from 1967 to 1973.  The amount of wood in this complex is astounding.  It’s a combination of wood and concrete with the wood being much more than a trim-type feature.  It’s a world-class structure designed to attract the best of conventions. 

We have to buckle-down now.  We will shoot Tuesday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday off.  We’re shooting Sundays because one of our locations is only available that day.  So next week we start our 5-Day work week on Sunday the 10th of October.  

Here are a few pics:  

Myself and the DP checking out the KICC "showcase" meeting room.  

Some of the Nairobi skyline.