Time to Shop

Posted by robynh | Filed under Total Solar Eclipse: Live from China

In between tech meetings, script meetings, and emailing about fiber TOC numbers; I need to think about the crew. The 12 of us will be camping out for four days at the edge of the Gobi desert….and when I say camping, I mean literally living in tents. I have arranged for three meals a day to be delivered to us, but will they have plates? Forks? The people here aren’t big coffee drinkers, but most of my crew need a serious dose of caffeine in the morning: I brought coffee, but how to make it? Toilet paper is also an extremely rare commodity. So what does a producer do? Go shopping! The list looked like this:

  • Electric Kettle (need hot water for the coffee)
  • Coffee pot
  • 12 mugs, plates, forks/chopsticks
  • Cutting Board & knife (for cutting up watermelon and Hamigua)
  • Large Clock (so our ‘talent’ doesn’t run to over their time cues)
  • Large washtub (we need to wash the talent’s hair on webcast day!)
  • Soap, shampoo, toilet paper
  • Face powder (it could be 100 degrees, don’t want sweaty faces on camera)
  • Poster Board (to write notes to talent during show & to show changing shadows)

I figured I’d run in to the local Target-type store, and be back in a half hour for lunch. It turns out that folks here take their shopping very seriously. After I picked out my $6 wall-clock the sales girl went to the electronics department for batteries. She wanted to prove to me that it was is good working order. Another salesperson painstakingly pointed out the pros and cons of a dozen kettles before letting me decide which I wanted (”this one will only keep the water hot for an hour, but is made out of stainless steel, this one is plastic but will keep the water warm for 3 hours, this one has a one-year manufacturer’s guarantee.”) It took me three hours to get what I needed!

I am hoping we can squeeze in a few hours at the bazaar soon. I was there three months ago on a pre-production trip, and it is an entirely different shopping experience….

Permalink | July 28th, 2008

One Response to “Time to Shop”

  1. gry planszowe Says:
    August 15th, 2008 at 4:09 am

    Ciekawa strona, trafilem tu przypadkowo, ale od dzis bede wpadal czesciej, pozdro

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