May, 2007

Childhood recurring nightmare comes true

Location Hotel room in Warri | Mood Really tired | Date 19 April 2006
Cold, hard custard and dry white bread for breakfast anyone? The plaintain is lovely.

Have we walked into a trap?

Location In chief's bed in village in heart of trouble area | Mood Surprisingly calm and clear-headed | Date 16 April 2006
Found our fourth Crude character yesterday. She is Layefa Malemi , a 22-year-old who has been fishing all day every day for the last two years to save up enough money to go to medical school so she can become a doctor and work in her village. She is quiet, calm, intelligent and funny. Absolutely perfect.

Hands in the air to "prove" you don't have weapons

Location In bed with Lizzie in hotel in Warri, Niger Delta. Not good idea to have separate rooms and the cockroaches have put her off another night on the floor. | Mood Angry | Date 16 April 2006
No weapons here

Flying over Nigeria's gas flares

Location Curiously carpeted bedroom, Port Harcourt, Niger Delta | Mood Nervous tension | Date 10 April 2006
Had a last-minute first taste of Nigeria at the visa office yesterday, where all paperwork is stamped with "this form is not for sale" and the visa man tried to sort a quick business deal - cash upfront - between us and his real or imaginary clubbing pals. (Our cover story being that we're on a mission to bring Nigerian house music to the UK, for our friend's (real) record label.)

How to tell if the AK47 pointed in your face is loaded

Location My ever-confused house, now doubling as military training centre | Mood Nervous tension bordering on hysteria | Date 5 April 2006
  After various friends and family calmly and touchingly and repeatedly asked me not to go to Nigeria, I thought the least I could do to take their concerns seriously was a Hostile Environments training course.

Star Wars alter-egos

Location Spanner office | Mood Confident | Date 31 March 2006
Crude structure in post-it notes on office wallHave spent the last five days with David The Editor and a huge pile of multi-coloured post-it notes working out Crude's overall structure, animation sequences and narrative arc

Signed-up snowboarding addict

Location Secret hut up mountain | Mood Ecstatic | Date 6 March 2006
Mountain Picnic with Fernand

Guarding a snowman to no avail

Location Morzine one bed | Mood Homesick | Date 5 March 2006
Lugging gear in the rain (again) Photograph: Charlotte Rushton  

Making a film shouldn't be all fun & easy

Location Four beds in a line in Monastery of St Bernard | Mood Happy, happy, happy | Date 28 February 2006
Got a bit of a running joke going with myself (sad, I know), to do something foolish every year on the 28 February. I set a very high standard last year, with an act of folly that couldn't possibly be printed. And this year seems to have come together at the last minute too.

Secret to being lucky?

Location Bar near apartment | Mood Jubilant | Date 26 February 2006
Lucky we had pro-skier & cameraman Tchouky on La Vallée Blanche