We woke up for breakfast and were glad to find it was egg, beans on toast. I think the kitchen staff are getting used to our boring, unadventurous appetite but when your planned to be shooting all day, having a breakfast we're comfortable with was appreciated, it went down very nicely. Dayo had organised for us to set up and film a pre-production meeting that was going ahead for a Nollywood film, directed by a prestigious Nollywood Director who has had plenty of experience in today's top rated Nigerian films. The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 so an earlier leaving time than yesterday's with an earlier wake up call of 08:30(ish), I have fallen into 3rd place out of the three of us when getting out of bed and jumping in the shower (this is fine with me as it gives me half an hour extra in bed, those of you who know me would have no surprise here).
Jumping ahead to this evening's meal, we were chatting about Nigerian people's time keeping and managing skills - basically it's extremely difficult for them to have any. Apparently you will find that a lot of the time if you have a meeting planned or arrangements with someone, there is always bound to be someone who arrives late, the main cause of this is the traffic in Lagos. The traffic here run's throughout the day, everywhere you go, at any time you will get stuck in traffic, it amazes me how meetings can even take place. Well today was a great example of it with our first shoot cancelled due to the lady who we planned to meet having other arrangements and delays that would cause her to be 2 hours behind schedule, on top of this it didn't help that she was only able to tell Dayo this once we were close to the meeting point, he wasn't impressed. We were forced to go to plan B which was to go and pick up Dayo's business advisor who so happened to be in Lagos too for the next couple of days.
Whilst we've been driven around today, Sam and I have been shooting as much as we can. One person will be shooting at 25fps on the 5D Mark III whilst the other will be shooting slow motion on the FS700. The rushes are looking lovely, with our windows being tinted black for security and privacy they also add another stop or two in aperture for our cameras, on top of this when it rains the droplets can provide a hazy effect on our picture which has been happening a lot today due to a rainstorm half way through.
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| Photography by Sam Davis |
Our driver is called Sunday, a reserved character who rarely talks. The photo was taken by Sam who mentions in his blog; "A lot of Nigerians offer a very ‘real' photo - never posing or forcing a fake smile. This is his face for the majority of the time. Even when a large lorry comes speeding within inches of his car, he does not flinch. He simply honks his horn and pushes through." You can find a link to Sam's blog here;
http://absolute-piffle.tumblr.com/post/66862979250/l-a-g-o-s-again-i-find-my-self-in-lagos-nigeria
We picked up Dayo's business advisor and headed to a bank, at this point in time Sam and I had no idea what was going on, a feeling we're getting used to now, we understand the difficulties Dayo must be having almost improvising on the spot trying to find new plans, Sam and I being here is a constant reminder that each day that goes by without anything being filmed is a waste. We soon realised that Dayo and his advisor had an appointment with someone at the bank, a chance to try and explain his project which is currently looking for funding on top of it still being filmed. This meeting was a chance to organise a future gathering where Dayo can really present his ideas and previous work to a board of people from the bank and seek sponsorship that can help finish this feature length documentary, the documentary we're here to finish filming. Once the meeting had finished we headed to a nearby office where Dayo and his advisor could get an internet connection, a nearby office taking an hour to get to due to traffic. Their meet had been an encouraging one, they now had to send off an online pitch presentation by 18:30 to the bank in order to arrange a future meeting in Lagos before we head back to the UK.
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| Sam taking a nap in the car |
It was 14:30 when we arrived at the office. At 18:30 Dayo was pleased having just made the deadline. In the space of time between, Sam and I had quite a bit of time to spare in the car.
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| A man selling pirate dvd's of Thor 2 |
This evenings journey home took quite a while with rush hour traffic, having to cross a couple of lengthy bridges on the return trip that were well known for their awful hold ups. With thousands of slow crawling vehicles packed into 4 lanes, salesmen and women wavered in between offering cold snacks and drinks, objects that would be as handy as a mobile fan and as quirky as a framed painting of a flower. We haggled for a bottle of water, bag of sweet popcorn and the driest sausage roll. The traders would chase your car if you signalled showing interest, waiting for a chance to catch up as the traffic hits you again. I could never get bored of these journeys, with a camera that shoots slow motion at hand, you can always find interesting stuff going on.
Dinner was served as we got in, spaghetti and chicken in a spicy sauce. Embarrassing when it turns out they haven't put any spices of such in, it's just the kick of an african pepper, to me it's the perfect level of spice, as far as I'd go to enjoy. To Dayo and his family it's boring, I'm merely a weakling when it comes to spicy food. Another dip in the pool after dinner to cool us down in moonlight hours, sweet bromance between Sam and I. We logged our rushes for the day before heading to bed at 01:30.
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| Fast food on the Motorway |
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