WRAPPED in Beijing. The Banana Heads Home.

I'm flying back to Vancouver on Thursday.

There’s something imminently sad when a film finishes shooting. Shooting a film is kinda like going to war. It’s hard and grueling work- and not at all glamourous- you wake at 4am and sleep after 15hours of battling- but everyone is there with you all battling in the same army; the camera crew, the lighting crew, the production crew, the actors, the wardrobe crew etc…. for two solid months, day after day, you eat with these people, you stand around and joke with them, you suffer as they do when it’s cold and other weather related ailments- and when you wrap at the end of every day you pat each other on the back for a job well done.

Of course there are the melodramas – people bicker, there are complaints, gossip flies around,  the lead actor grows a gargantuan sized head and starts sleeping with one of the supporting actresses and it further inflates his already unbearable ego, the director throws a tantrum and everyone tiptoes for the day….etc etc…

But for the most part it’s good. Very good. These people become your family for those two months. You learn what aggravates them and what makes them laugh- you form bonds with them. They become your sister soldiers and brother soldiers.

And when it’s all over – everyone moves on to other projects- and you may see them again but it’ll never be quite the same because circumstances have changed, and for all the dramas that transpired- all you remember is the good times you had and then you feel sadness that you’ll never be able to revisit those times again except in your memories.

Bittersweet huh?

But for the most part I am amped to get back home.

This picture is exactly how I feel.  So many times over.

S*

798- the artists community- Beijing.