Ouarzazate Belly

Hi, Maddy here again blogging from the Big Book Media office in Brighton. Unfortunately Charlie spoke way too soon in her blog about how smoothly the shoot is going as both her and James have come down with what looks like terrible food poisoning. So I'm going to blog about the launch party and Christmas cards and hopefully they'll be on the mend soon and will send more shoot news.

Liz has asked me to put the final Christmas card art work in my blog as she has been meaning to post on this but the office has been really busy and she hasn't got it up yet. We have the actual cards in the office now! They were delivered last week and our first box is going out to Bristol Cathedral to go in their shop this week. Their are four cards in our box with a picture from the last shoot on each and gold foiled text over the picture with the quote from the Bible that the image depicts. Then the quote is mirrored on the back of the card in grey on black,they look really beautiful. I have put the artwork for each card on the right of this blog so you can see what they look like, then I will blog with a photo of the cards in my next blog.

In the office everyone has been working really hard on preparing for our launch party which is next week at a church in Westminster. At the launch three of the films we have made will be shown and champagne and canapes (Moroccan themed!) will be served. Robbie has been working the hardest of us all posting and e-mailing out invites and following up with phone calls. We have invited clergy and religious media groups who will hopefully love the films and think the products are great! We will also have displays up showing photos from each of our shoot of shooting and behind the scenes also the Three Wise Camels products that Guy the Illustrator has been working on - Sunday school packs and support tools and information on our website. So we have lots more to do before next week!

The final photo in my blog is our invite which we have been sending out for the last couple of weeks. Maddy

Kingdom of Heaven

Hi all, it's Charlie (Production Manager) here with my first blog from the second Big Book Media shoot, my job has been a much more lovely experience this time round. We have been working with a guy called Hamid who is my Moroccan counterpart and who has his own production company out here - 'Irene Productions'
(he is our Line Producer for the shoot).

Filming has been fantastic so far, we are having a really smooth shoot.

This Sunday was our day off - I arranged a tour for Selva (actor who plays Jesus, James (Production Assistant), Deane (DTI) & Kathy (Photographer) to look at the 'Kingdom of Heaven' set and 'The Journey to Mecca' set which are both at Atlas Studios (which Mike, Art Director and Hamid created) and also a Jerusalem temple set at ECLA Studios. Deane was in heaven over how fantastic the sets were and how they had been created in terms of using the sun and light for filming!!

In the afternoon I bumped into Hannine in Ouarzazate town who is Mike's assistant in the art department but isn't working on this shoot for us as she is pregnant. She lives in Agadir but has come down to Ouarzazate which is her home town where her family live to give birth. There is a fantastic midwife in Ouzarzazate - she's called Rosie and is originally from Brighton! What a small world it always turns out to be. We are all wishing Hannine good luck and we can't wait to hear news of her baby.
The photo on the right is of Mike Fowlie and Hannine working on the last shoot.

In the evening myself, Hannah and Kathy went shopping for the UK Launch Event (which is on 10th Nov in London), our bartering skills were very very good, we bought some beautiful things. In the last shop where both Hannah and I bought bracelets they served us mint tea and called us both fatima's, which we found out is a very big compliment as it means our bartering skills are as good as the locals.
The photo on the left is Hannah in the last shop looking at bracelets and the photo is below is both myself and Hannah bartering!

After a very successful day off it was back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep in before the start of week two of shooting.
Charlie

''Another Time, Another Place, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes''

Hi again, James here with my blog from day two of the shoot, it didn't rain today which was a pleasant surprise for all of us! We spent our morning shooting in a local town called Fredragon, which went really well but we overan on time which was a bit frustrating for the local people here in the town - there was a build up of tractors and donkeys around us by the end of the shoot all waiting to get on with their work.
The photo above is myself, Mbarek Mahmoudi and Kathy in a car early morning on the way too set - hence we are bleary eyed, especially Kathy though that may have been the camera flash in her face!! Mberek is a famous Moroccan actor.
The photo on the right is Hannah on set - she sensibly has her socks over her trousers to try and keep the mosquitos out which worked to a degree but they are super mosquitos so not foiled that easily!
The mozzies attacked all of us today when we headed out into the desert this afternoon to shoot - they really are evil, we all have very bitten legs and ankles, Kathy has been hit badly with short trousers on (she won't make that mistake again!) and also Selva our Jesus has taken a bit of a mozzie battering while being filmed at the top of the mountain in the desert. Photo of Selva below on the mountain.

After an excellent lunch we did a lot of crane shots and all got blinded by the smoke machine (hence my reference to Bryan Ferry's Hit Song in my blog title!), but it looks amazing on camera so well worth it! I am going even more pink I've lost my sun cream so will have to try and get some more, Charlie offered me her sun oil, but I wasn't that sure about that so I left it and am even more pink now - I'm pretty sure it will go brown, at least I hope it will - the Moroccan crew here are already comparing me to Ricky Martin!!
After a break for a fantastic custard & apple cake we did the last shot of the day.
This was a time lapse shot which had Jesus sitting in the same position for about 15 minutes! The photo below is of Deane and the smoke machine with clouds of smoke coming out!

All in all I have had an excellent day and we even wrapped 10 minutes early! Speak to you tomorrow!