Hold on to your Potatoes!

Ernie writes-

The European shoots were a complete success! I'd like to acknowledge all those who were involved:

Tom, Claudio, Alan and the staff at La Pietra in Florence.

Full Report:

We filmed in three cities in Europe: Paris, Florence and London. I won't divulge the premise of these scenes just yet, but I'll tell you that they play an integral role in the final act of "Niente: The Movie." I'll also tell you that our good friend Sir Rutherford Welch makes a cameo in the London scene.

PARIS:

It was my first time visiting the city and I was focused on shooting the movie. Oh well, there will be another time to more of the touristy things once "Niente: The Movie" makes it big and I buy Versailles with all the money I make.

Despite the fact that I didn't get to do much site seeing at places such as the Louvre, we were still in Paris non the less and filming at some pretty land-mark sites.

First, we went to the Eiffel tower where I was bombarded by scammers. A woman approached me and asked if I spoke English. Instead of just walking away, like I should have, I replied with a "Yes." She handed me a note that explained that her brother was killed in Burma, she has been living in Paris for three months, she has no friends or family and needs cash for food and shelter. It would have been more believable if there wasn't a similar looking woman, with the same note asking the same question to another English speaking tourist not 10 feet away from where I was standing. I walked away and by the time I was standing directly under the tower, I could see more than 20 of these girls walking around and approaching tourists. If you go to Paris and are approached by one of these people and they ask you if you speak English just say "No, I speak American." Directly translated from American into English this phrase means, "I have no money for you unless you are selling hot dogs."

Second, I visited Notre Dam. This was a quick shoot, but a good one. The architecture truly amazing, I wish I had time to step inside but I distinctly remember spending a better part of non-shooting time discussing plans for the Florence shoot. Oh well!

All in all Paris was great. My French was still holding pretty well so I had no troubles there. Leaving Paris, the impression that stuck out most in my mind was that NYC tries to hard to look like Paris and Paris does a better job of being Paris. This is a good thing for France. Carrot.

FLORENCE:

Again, little time for touristy stuff but my jaw dropped when I turned the corner and saw the D'uomo. What a site. I can only imagine what else Italy has to offer.

This was a two day shoot and again I will not reveal too many details that may give away the story but I will say I played an key role in this scene portraying God/Jesus on the campus of La Pietra, a school in central Florence.

Day one, I was wearing nothing but a loin cloth, standing on a balcony at La Pietra. Tom was directing the scene so, of course, there were many takes (Tom is a nit-picky Director). Between you and me I think he just wanted me out in public, half naked for as long as possible and in front of a camera. I'm sure I made a fantastic first impression on the people at La Pietra as this was my first day on the campus as well. I was then standing at the end of a long drive way doing a crucifix-like pose standing front of an open gate. And yes, I was still half naked. I'll be sure to get some photos up for all you Ernie fans out there. That is if Tom will ever take them out of the shoe box under his bed. A strange place for production stills, don't you think? It's okay I'll get them some how, I think he has some hidden in a magazine in the bathroom too.

Day two, we did a few more shots in the drive way, except this time there was a little bit of trouble. Apparently one of the security guards had no idea that we were filing that day. The guard freaked out and shut the gates while we were filming. He was going to call the cops and and the hospital because he told one of the staff that he saw an insane kid who was half naked and looked like Jesus of Nazareth standing in the middle of the drive way. I later discovered that he was going to call the hospital to have me taken away to psychiatric ward as he thought I might have been a mentally miss-arranged kid that wondered on to the campus. All was resolved, but imagine...I could have spent time in a Florentine mental asylum! How awesome would that be!?

The weather was giving us a hard time on and off, but we managed to make the shoots work. Woo-hoo!

LONDON:

This was a very easy shoot and a lot of fun. In this shoot Sir Rutherford Welch is standing in front of Buckingham Palace. Little did we realize, the flag was raised on the roof of the palace. This means that the Queen is home. This was also the day that there was a ceremony going on, as several dignitaries were being brought to the Palace by horse drawn carriage. This was preceded by a march of the royal guards and the band. What did we do? We filmed the scene anyway. Effectively half of few hundred tourists had their eyes affixed on the ceremony while the other half were pointing, laughing and or making a confused expression on their face as they looked at me dressed as Ruthy Welch. What a way to plug the movie! I remember my production assistant explaining that if anyone would have asked him, he would say that he doesn't know me. Luckily we were not stopped by any police and all went according to plan.

Tom and I are very satisfied with the way shoots went. We'll be reviewing the dailies when Tom gets back next week. I'll be sure to put up some photos once we've reviewed the footage. See you all very soon!

Euro-Itchy and Scratchy Land!

Ernie writes-

I'll be pushing off to meet with Tom and a small crew for some shoots in London, Paris and Rome. We'll be sure to bring back plenty of photos! See you all soon!