Secret to being lucky?

Location Bar near apartment | Mood Jubilant | Date 26 February 2006
Filed in:
Author (full name): 
Franny Armstrong
Location: 
Bar near apartment
Mood: 
Jubilant
Soundtrack: 
English tourists shouting at French waiters in English
Ailments: 
Sore calves
Date: 
26 February 2006
Current crisis: 
None whatsoever
Current silver lining: 
Celebratory beer - most unusual Spanner Films behaviour
Next job: 
Trying train timelapse again tomorrow morning at 8.07

Lucky we had pro-skier & cameraman Tchouky on La Vallee BlancheLucky we had pro-skier & cameraman Tchouky on La Vallée Blanche

Stumbling and sliding down a steep narrow ridge between two ropes, with 1000 metre drops on either side instantly becomes a lot less scary when your insane cameraman ducks under the safety rope and runs down the vertical slope to get a better shot. That's my kind of attitude to the safety/shot ratio.

Lizzie and I were a bit of a dead weight to the filming today as we were concentrating on a) not falling in any crevasses, b) not falling over cos if we did it takes ages to get up cos of the altitude making your body feeble, c) staying behind so we can follow their tracks, d) keeping in front so as not to get in shot, and e) directing.

Luckily Tchouky the skiing cameraman is a total pro - as is Fernand - and it was a gorgeous sunny day, so they pretty much went ahead and did their own thing, occasionally shouting warnings of approaching crevasses. This tactic worked very well apart from the one time Tchouky needed a lens cloth or something and I went running over to him, sans skis, and promptly fell knee-deep in a baby crevasse. He happened to be filming at the time, so this will no doubt make it into the Making Of doc.

We totally lucked out, man, on the weather and so have agreed to not grumble the next 5 times the weather spoils our filming. Which I guess is the secret to being lucky: appreciate it when things go in your favour, don't whinge too much when they don't, and bingo, you're a lucky person.

Crevasses on the mer de glaceCrevasses on the Mer de Glace