Click here to view a slide show of pics from Egypt
On April 4th, 2002, I am embarking on an adventure. I am doing the location sound for a project called "Wonders of Egypt". It is a documentary based on a book written by Lennart Moller called "the Case for Exodus". It is a fascinating subject that Lennart has spent many years working on, dealing with evidence of the crossing of the Red Sea by Moses and the Jews who left Egypt.
We are shooting four 1 hour shows (with the potential for 3 more later) over a period of 30 days, and mixing the shows here at Easy Street when I get back. We will be filming primarily in Egypt (Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, The Nile, Sinai - all over), and London. I will be attempting to upload a diary and pictures as I go - depending on the state of my Internet connection :-)
Techie sound geek stuff (please skip if not interested!):
They have already started calling me "Inspector Gadget" for the stuff I am bringing, but it's cool if you're into that kinda stuff... I will be field recording Lennart and possibly other on-camera talent, as well as ambient or wild sounds without AC power (a definite problem) and having to carry everything (so small/lightweight is another issue)
Here's the gear:
Apple Powerbook Titanium (yeah!) G4, 667, 512 Mb Ram, 30 Gig HD, etc.
120GB VST firewire drive for nightly backups and archiving under AC power.
Sound Devices USBPre. A very cool USB powered audio interface. Two XLR mic pre's, excellent AD/DA conversion, multiple outputs including S/PDIF - No AC power required.
Samson UHF micro 32 wireless transmitter/receivers. Both 9v battery powered and small.
Sony 3-ECM-44, 1-ECM-77(direct wired) and Audio Technica AT-831 lav mics, and Audio Technica AT-835 medium shotgun mic. Also taking a pair of VHF wireless mics (not mine) as backups.
Neumann TLM-103 mic for recording ambience (smallest nice mic I was willing to bring)
Sony mini DAT recorder
Okie method 12V power source! I bought a portable auto jump starting battery at Wal-Mart for $69 that is essentially a 19 Amp/Hr 12V Gel-cell battery in a nice plastic case and a handle on top. It has 2 cigarette lighter sockets on the front and some big jumper cable type clamps. I also have a 400 watt power inverter which gives me 400 watts of portable 110v AC for under 125 bucks. It is heavy (about 20 pounds), but well worth it. Comparable capacity, lighter (a little), and very slick looking field recording batteries with quick charger would have cost $1000 to do the same thing!!
I have tested powering my laptop with USB interface, recording audio for over 18 hours using the inverter! I expect even better results with my new 12V power cable for the laptop - which will avoid the power loss of using the inverter.
The field setup is: Wireless receiver(s) into USBPre to get audio into laptop using ProTools. Second wireless receiver on the camera. This will give me digital audio directly into ProTools, and the sound going into the camera for sync (since we don't have any other sync).
I use xthe DAT recorder only when laptop recording isn't possible or Laptop battery dies. I have stress tested my Okie method backup battery, so that shouldn't be a problem.
(semi?) Daily Diary
04/04/02 - I'm off! Thank you to everyone for your kind encouragement before I left - I already miss my girls. I'm writing this on a British Air 747 as I pass over Toronto at 643 mph, 37,000 ft, and 60 below zero, according to the nifty display in front of me. I started out with a bang when I got to the Check-in counter for American Airlines, that they would only allow me two checked bags and one carry on. Now, I had two carry on bags COMPLETELY crammed with electronics and my checked bags were also very full, one for big gear (batteries, chargers, boom, etc), and one for everthing else. I had to take everything out of the smaller carry-on bag and put it into the larger carry-on, after spending hours packing it just so. Luckily the bag had an expando zipper. This bag was now too big to be a carry on and it tipped the scales (theirs)at 41 pounds! But I had 20 thousand dollars worth of breakable/crushable stuff in there and I was going to take it on :-)
Dinner break - now over Halifax...
Then I went to security where a sign said remove any laptops from your bag then send the bag through. When my bag went in the infernal machine, the lady said "you need to remove the laptop - I can't see anything". I showed her the laptop I had already removed, and when she asked me if I had any electronics in there I said Yes. She told me I needed to remove the electronics - I said it's MOSTLY electronics... She said I needed to remove them here or someone would have to go through the bag. So I told her to let someone go through it so I didn't have to un-pack and re-pack IN THE LINE AGAIN.
Luckily (blessed and highly favored lucky), the guy who checked my bag had a theater background and recognized all the recording gear and mics and stuff, but he still took everything out and wiped each item with a bomb sniffer cloth, which took 30 minutes.
I had allowed an hour to get through security (used every minute), but my flight was leaving in 20 minutes now. I heard "last boarding call" for my flight as I ran to the end of the terminal with my 41 pound boat anchor.
The steward informs me I can't take my bag on because it's too big, I'll have to check it. He is surrounded by other irritated passengers whose carry-ons he is trying to remove. I explain that I have expensive electronics in here and they can't be checked (I'm thinking of Ben Stiller on the airplane in "Meet the Parents"). In the confusion, his attention turned to another guy - I just got on! And quickly put my bag (sorta) under the seat. A tragedy averted.
Snow caused us to lap Chicago a few times, so we were late, forcing me to run again to the international terminal @ O'hare. I have to go through security again - I thought I was cooked! I take out the laptop, the lady watches my bag go in... I'm on pins and needles.. and she just waves me through! I arrived less than 5 minutes before boarding and if I had gone through the security tear down I would have missed my flight. Well it's almost the 5th (passing over about where the Titanic sank) - signing off the short entry for today. It's gonna be a long page after 30 days :-O
04/05/02 - 9:45am We're making a 45 minute lap around the UK because of something. We have to be shuttled to our terminal when we land - the pilot doesn't know why and has never seen this at Heathrow. Luckily I have seven hours to make my next flight - no problem mate :-)
I looked all over Heathrow airport to plug in my laptop for a quick recharge. I finally found an outlet in the old part of the terminal. This place is cool - free carts, free internet kiosks (you're limited to 7 minutes but you can just do another 7 after), shops all over the place. Its 2:30pm UK time (7:30 am at home)and I'll be boarding for Cairo in a couple hours.
Well, I got to Cairo at 10:45 pm and met with the Spanish Inquisition. I met a local who handed me a phone from Rick(the producer), who said they were detained in customs for 2 hours the night before and the main camera and tapes were confiscated. It was declared that they were "smuggling" a camera in to sell it here. I was to be prepared for the worst. It's difficult traveling by yourself internationally and this was not helping. I bought my Visas, picked up my luggage and headed for the customs den. I was asked what I do, what I was doing here, and then directed off to the side so my luggage could be searched. They looked through my stuff - which was mostly a pile of electronics - asked "What is This!" a few times, then made a disgusted look and waived me through. Whew! glad to be over that.
I arrived at the Marriot Cairo about midnight and had to go through more metal detectors and hand my luggage over, just to come into the hotel. I unpacked and went to sleep about 2am - about 26 hours after leaving Minneapolis.
04/06/02 - Luckily today was just a scouting day so I got to sleep in a little and start preparing for tomorrow's first day of shooting by labeling tapes and charging batteries. Rick called and told me they would pick me up outside at 3 o'clock so we could go to a production meeting. I went out front and soon some guy is yelling at me from a van. I have no idea who the guy is, but he finally holds up a "Rick Garside" sign and I figure I'm supposed to get in. Then I go for an E-ticket ride through rush hour in Cairo. Thousands of cars nearly touching, People yelling out the windows, everyone honks the horn and the pedestrians just walk right down the middle of the road and cross randomly. I see a major collision where some guy's car hits a 2 foot high curb(!) and folds the front in like an accordian. His battery is broken open in the street and he looks a little woozy as they pull him from the car. Everyone else gets out of their cars and begins yelling at him. The driver of my van, who can't speak English, drives a while then stops quickly and begins pointing to an alley. I have my laptop with me and I assume he has taken me to be robbed :-) I went down the alley to a sign that said something Films and I figured this must be the place. Inside a run-down looking building, I find a full fleged production studio and they point to a conference room catered to the hilt - Now that's what I'm talkin about! Blah, blah, blah, we spend three hours discussing stuff we care about, but you wouldn't, and head back for some dinner. Oh, while I was in there they show me their audio suite and the guy is using ProTools on a Mac just like we have at home! I say "ProTools" to a guy who doesn't speak English, and he nods with a grin - The international language!
At Dinner, Tim (the Director from Minneapolis), orders the special - a Fondu using soup as the hot stuff. We are unaware that he is going to be brought all kinds of raw meat with the hot soup to boil it in. He gets his food first and we're all a little jealous. We are outdoors with a little breeze and he notices the soup isn't too warm, so he waits. And waits, and waits, and waits! Lennart finally rigs some menus as a makeshift heat shield to help the candle's heat get to the soup. It takes Tim one and a half hours to "cook" his meal - long after we are done. It's a story we can tell for a long time.
04/07/02 - We had our first day of filming in the Cairo museum today, with about 30,000 of our closest friends. It took us 2 hours to get in because of permits and negotiations. We passed an armed battalion on the way in (I'm not kidding), and our bags are thoroughly searched at 2 checkpoints, but we made it. Now comes the hard part. We are trying to film in one of the busiest museums in the world with only our wits to keep people out of the shots we want. The highlight was probably King Tut's room. I'll try to upload a few pics of that - it is spectacular. On the audio front, the museum was so chaotic that I only used the DAT recorder for sound and not the laptop. It just wasn't feasible for the probably 20 shots we did, because I would have to pack up and move for each shot.
Then we drove out to the pyramids to film the sunset and the night show. We also had dinner at the Pizza Hut (!) across the street from the pyramids - now that's local culture! We decided we were in the wrong place for the sunset and found out all 3 shows were in non-English languages, so we came back to the Hotel. I felt like Chevy Chase in the movie Vacation, where he runs up to the rim of the Grand Canyon, nods his head and then says, "Lets go, Kids". I was at the pyramids and didn't see anything...
04/08/02 - Today we went back to the Pyramids. I couldn't believe I was actually there. We filmed on and around the smaller two and some associated tombs of the Queens and the architect, and then went on to the Big Guy. Cheops, the mother of all buildings! We went inside to the burial chamber - it is an arduous climb up 2 sets of stairs. They are not stairs really. They are more like 150 ft. ladders laid down at about a 45 degree angle, with a ceiling height just taller than you are when stooped over - maybe 4 feet. It's so narrow that two people have to squeeze together to pass, so you can't really stop for a break without stopping everyone else. It is eerily dark and warm in the chamber, which is literally a "perfect" rectangle - composed of perfect equilateral and right triangles on all sides. Doing anything like this is very difficult here. We are constantly stopped, questioned and then our Egyptian production team has to come to the rescue and haggle/argue with the officials. They have been great. In fact, we could not be doing this without their help. I used that DAT only again during the day, because it was very difficult to see the laptop screen in bright sunlight. We also stayed for the laser/lighting night show which was worth coming back at night for. I used the laptop and Protools (finally) to record the music/dialog at the show with a Neumann TLM-103. It was really cool. A very long day day though.
04/09/02 - Skara (pronounce Sa car ah) today, where the stepped pyramid of the Pharoah Joser built by Imhotep is located. This is thought to be the first pyramid, built by the master architect and Doctor Imhotep. He has very many similarities to the life, charateristics and even dates as Joseph. So, we filmed everything there including an area not open to tourists, although we had 5 minutes to do it while an armed guard watched us. There is a lot of beaurocracy here, and everything we do must be argued about and then everything is searched. I think they are just trying to be safe, but the men's interactions here are very heated and it feels like we're in major trouble. In reality, this is just the way they communicate - but we are still not used to it. I didn't use the laptop today - just the DAT. It was windy and very sandy. I kept the laptop in the case most of the time and the top was still dusty. We got back to the hotel about 4:30 today and went to a reception thrown by the manager of the Hotel, and then I went back and cleaned/charged up all my gear for another day on road in Egypt.
04/10/02 - Today we went to the real people's Egypt - the Nile Delta region. We drove from Cairo to the Mediterranean where millions of people live in dozens of villages along the way. It was very poor, pretty dirty, and a little scary a few times, but the people are very friendly. We did interview a world famous archeologist (Mannfred Betek) at the site where he is excavating what might be a Hebrew palace. He was quite upset when we just walked up with gear and wanted to look around, so we all left except Tim who diplomatically arranged for us to interview him and film the site. Tim said it was a miracle we found him on the site in the first place and we got to do the whole thing! We also stopped and filmed Lennart at several spots on Lake Mazala, which some think might be the "Reed" Sea where the Exodus crossed - but none of us thinks so. We then tried to make the Bitter Lakes by sunset but ran out of time. This was another very long day - 6am to 8:30pm with no stops, for those of you who think it's a glamorous life :-)
04/11/02 - The Sinai desert was our destination today. Now this was interesting. It involved going through several military checkpoints and the Suez Tunnel to the part of Egypt that borders some "hot spots" in the world. We were searching for a particular mountain and picked up a local guide to help us find it. We spent a lot tense moments with the curtains in our van drawn so we would not be obvious. The guide then tells us that the military in the area is basically shooting first, then asking questions. There are military looking outposts on nearly every hillside - and then we come across a sign painted on a cliff that has a skull and crossbones and Arabic or Hebrew (we're not sure which) that said land mines in the area! So we were rather careful. It is a desolate place, and we got some great footage in which I am sure you could sense our tension.
Next we went to the sight of the Moses Springs and the Bitter lakes region. There we had a rather interesting encounter when someone thought Tim said something he did not - and again, more tension. I did some DAT recording and some on the laptop. At the resort we stopped at to film the Bitter Lakes area, I was in a beach chair by the water, with my laptop recording dialog wirelessly - Now that's the way to go. Started at 5am today, got home about 8:30pm. We need a break.
04/12/02 - We finally got a break today. We slept in, we listened to tapes, watched footage, and Lennart got sick. We are all being very careful to drink bottled water, to just eat at good places (like the Marriott that we are in), etc. But, you just can't help it when you're away from your home country for more than a week or two.
04/13/02 - We had an easy day today. Lennart was getting better but is still weak. Rick (producer), Jack (D.P) and I (?), went to the Delta region near Cairo and got some good B roll footage. I got some excellent ambient stuff, including one of the prayers that every Mosque broadcasts 5 times a day through completely overloaded P.A. speakers. We have been in places where there are many Mosques broadcasting and echoing over the village at the same time. It's a cool sound. Then we went into the market in Cairo and filmed all kinds of shops and people. Tomorrow we are flying to Luxor, which is about 350 miles from Cairo. I am trying to get the FTP to work tonight, because the Marriott has a business office with internet access and I don't know what I'll have in Luxor.
04/14/02 - Took a 7am flight to Luxor which is "upper Egypt" - even though it is south of Cairo - it is upstream on the Nile about an hour in the air. I arrived tired :-(
I got about 4 hours sleep after trying to pack the least amount of stuff I needed in some bags and everything else in others. I did this because we were told we could carry a max of 44 pounds of luggage each. Each of us probably has 140 pounds of luggage, or more. So, we packed what was essential to do one days' work and put the rest in a van that will arrive tomorrow. Mohammed says it will take the van 18-20 hours to get here! (Because you have to drive 350 miles up the Nile valley which is heavily populated with little villages basically touching each other.)
Luxor is much more relaxed than Cairo. There are a lot of tourists here and it seems to be the place where the Nile cruise ships dock. Out of our balcony in the Winter Palace Hotel, we have a great view of the sunset over the Valley of the Kings and part of the Carnac temple. It was a beautiful morning - 68 degrees, blue sky, and light winds. We went to Carnac from 11-2, taking pictures and scouting some locations. It is astounding. I will try to upload some pics. I have been unsuccessful in FTPing this update, but I got very close tonight at a Cyber Cafe down the block from the Hotel. Maybe I will get it to work tomorrow. This might end up just being something we read later...
04/15/02 - We are at Carnac today, filming Lennart all over both sites. He reminded me that he overslept and we had to wait on him :-O
We were allowed into some areas not open to the public, but we were always watched. There are armed guards that are there for our safety, which can be a little unsettling. We filmed a lot about Hotchepsut, whose images were systematically erased by Thutmoses III for some reason - he really didn't like her. We started at 6am today and it was very hot in the sun by 10:30. We filmed till about 1:30 (all sound on the DAT) and then took a little break. About 4:00 we went out into the gardens of our Hotel and filmed Lennart telling stories about the Kings, Queens, and Princes of Egypt. I used the laptop whilst reclining on the lawn - it was pretty enjoyable as work goes, and it allowed me to contemplate what Lennart is saying. We get into some interesting discussions with Lennart (the Proud Viking!) - he's really an interesting man.
Then we chartered a boat and went up the Nile a few miles and back, filming the people, the animals and the beautiful sunset. I took more than 40 pictures in about 90 minutes! And Jack Tankard (the DP) shot some really cool stuff, even hanging over the side of the boat for a while. No audio on the boat, although I had my stuff with me. We came in about 7pm ate dinner, showered, and went to bed. Tomorrow will be tough.
04/16/02 - We left for the Valley of the Kings at 5am today. The bridge across the Nile opens at sunrise or 6am, which ever comes later. We went into several tombs, 2 of them not open to the public: The destroyed tomb of Senmut and the abandoned tomb of Senmut (353). The first tomb had all evidence of Senmut chilseled away. The second tomb was a series of descents, maybe 250-300 feet down with incomplete carvings and reliefs, with the artists drawings of what the sculptors were to do next. It was like they took a break for lunch and never came back - EVER!
After climbing out of 2 tombs into 90 degree heat (by 9am!), we decide to go to the temple instead of hiking over the ridge to the other tombs. It gets hotter and hotter while we are filming, so only Jack and Rick decide they will hike over the ridge for some overhead shots of the valley. The rest of us ride in the van around the ridge to the other side - we are baked. We visited a couple of tombs on the eastern side and then we went into the most famous tomb of all, Tutankamun. Next was the tomb of Ahmenhotep III. It was spectacular beyond description. The walls are painted with figures and hyroglyphs that look like they were painted a few months ago - but it was 3500 years ago. They were 1500 years old when the Romans started making beatiful things! It was also about 110 degrees with 100% humidity down in the tomb. We were all dripping with sweat like someone had poured water on our heads. We got some great footage and pictures though. I used the DAT all day in the run-and-gun setup. I put the DAT and the wireless receiver on my belt, and the wires in my pants pocket so I can record on the fly while walking. The wireless tends to have a range of about 40 feet when Lennart is climbing down in a tomb carved from solid rock. So, I need to be able to walk with them as they film on the move.
Then, yust like that, we are done by about 1:00. We are all beat down by the extreme heat and lack of shade - even Jack the Iron Man is sweating. Tim and Lennart decide we should go to McDonalds for lunch. So we do. We talk about the Mayor McCheese hyroglyphs! Then, Tim, Rick and I go to the cyber cafe to read our e-mails before we head out for our normal second day of filming in the same day, at 3:30 :-)
We went out along the Nile in a van looking for some rural spots to film workers in the fields, sheep, goats, whatever looks or sounds interesting. I try for an hour to record sounds without getting a truck (with horn), or one of the crew/workers on top of the sound I am trying to record on the laptop. We finish up the day at about 7pm and at the production meeting it is decided that we will go to Aswan at 6am tomorrow. It is so glamorous isn't it?
04/17/02 - Well, we are leaving for Aswan in an caravan of tourist vehicles lead and mixed with armed troop carriers, because of some fundamentalists in the area. This doesn't seem to worry the group much, because although it sounds scary, we couldn't be much safer in this place. It takes about 4 hours to get here from Luxor. It seems much hotter here, very hot actually. The mid day sun will flatten you if you don't find a little shade. You can always tell places like this because the locals become scarce between noon and 3pm or so. We decide to rest up for a few hours and then take off in a boat at 3pm. We go toward the Aswan dam in a boat to the first cataract (Sehiel island) beyond the dam. Up on the rocks there are some inscriptions (ancient graphitti) that we are interested in. The really cool find was what the locals call the "Joseph stone" (Joser inscription - #81), because it confirms the (only) 7 years of famine in Egyptian history and, for us, ties in Joser, Imhotep, Joseph, and Moses. The local guide we have invites us into his home. After only and hour and a half of climbing these rocks, we are all very hot, and enjoy the best ice cold Coke that we have had in a while. His home is several room-sized concrete buildings. He takes us into the one with no windows and air conditioning! It has walls that are about 2 feet thick and is quite a relief for the sweaty film crew. We were going to leave and film Lennart on one of the islands, but as we are walking back to the boat we notice the left half of the sky seems to be getting smoky or something. It is a sand storm that hits us just as we get to the boat. It's not a particularly bad one, but it covers up the sun and the wind is blowing 20-40 mph. It will continue thru tomorrow afternoon...
Tonight I had a great time recording a local band in the Hotel. I brought down the laptop and the Neumann and set it on a small stand about 5 feet from the band (a 10 string something, flute, and percussion), and had Tim point the boom mic toward whoever was soloing. I didnt have a stereo pair of mics, but I couldn't bring the whole studio :-) I recorded them for most of an hour, and we only had a minor skirmish when one of the managers of the hotel appearently wanted a cut of what we paid the band. We were merely paying them for the right to use the music; we did not interfere with their performance at the hotel in any way. It turned out okay.
04/18/02 - We were going to go out this morning, but the sand had caused the sky to be, well, sandy. And the wind was blowing about 40 mph making it pointless to go out. So we stayed at the hotel, and I took the opportunity to edit and mix the music recorded from the night before and burned a CD for the band - all on the laptop - very cool. We had a nice lunch and went out about 3pm when the wind died down and the sky cleared up. We decided to take a boat to some rural "delta" looking spot. We found an island in the Nile that was quiet and empty - it was perfect. We filmed Lennart there until the sun went down and as we wrapped up, I spent about 15 minutes recording ambience. It worked out really well. I got wind blowing the palms, cows, a donkey whinnying, birds singing and great quiet! Then we had a nice ride back down the Nile. We had some hot tea (what the locals always drink) and I managed to knock over the tray while trying to take a photo of a bird flying by. Otherwise, it was a really nice ride.
Tim, Rick and I went out for an excellent dinner (did I say we were staying at the Old Cataract Hotel?), in the 1902 restaurant. Winston Churchill has eaten here and this hotel is where Agatha Christie either wrote or was inspired to write "Death on the Nile". Anyway, Rick ordered Pigeon (!), and I ordered chicken and we split them between us in case the pigeon was bad. It was actually pretty good. Then I went down to the lobby and gave the CD to the band I had recorded the night before. They were grinning from ear to ear as I played a couple of cuts for them on the Laptop. I think it made their day.
04/19/02 - Today we were slated to start our journey toward Nuweba, which is about 400 miles from Aswan, in the Sinai. We spent the morning packing up (our luggage takes up the inside and the roof of an entire van!) and we left at 1pm. We went back into the same armed caravan to go back to Luxor and then out to Herghada. The driving is cramped in a small toyota minivan-ish thing with 12 seats (!), so it is not particularly enjoyable. We stop a few times and switch to another caravan at Luxor. We drive until about 10:30pm without stopping for a meal; we basically stop for W.C. for 10-15 minutes every few hours. We get to Herghada (a very touristy resort town with 2 Mcdonalds(!), Pizza Hut and lots of modern shops) and finally get to the hotel, where we have to try to get out the least amount of luggage possible, because we are leaving at 6:30am the next morning. In the lobby is a cyber cafe and give the FTP a try - It worked! This is the first place I am actually able to upload anything. I meet the guy who runs it, and he has just married a woman from LaCrosse, Wisconsin whom he met on the internet!
I uploaded this doc and went up to bed after midnight.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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