9 days in Baghdad

We left Cairo on the 6th of January and came back on the 15th.
The visa to shoot in Iraq is not that easy. And you should be aware that if you're there for a period longer then 10days you should do an "Exit Visa" from a security center in Baghdad otherwise you wouldn't be allowed to leave.
The shoot went smoothly. Our Iraqi crew was always overprotective and filled our days in fear. When you have the right security papers you could shoot wherever you like. Sometimes army guys came with us and secured the shoot.
In General the Iraqis where genuine, generous, lovely and very understanding. We where really welcomed everywhere we went ...
Check points are everywhere. we where searched 3 times a day, while we passed 20checkpoint a day or more ...
You loose lots of time in traffic when there's a check point. We lost half a day shoot caused by a curfew where authorities feared an escalade of combats that happened during the night. We where there before Elections so militias where fighting to gain ground ...
Sound Wise Shitty Generators lights up when Electricity cuts; and this happens every 2 hours approximatively.
we're shooting a feature, so there wasn't very good equipment there. Lighting or other...
I had my Block 26 wich worked pretty fine.
And a Last important comment is the way out for the airport: you should think of a margin of 2 to 3 hours for your way there. cause you get stopped and checked more then 5 times. (once by humans, by trained dogs, by Luggage checking, by close search...)
And we waited for 6 hours in the airport cause they couldn't give us the right time flight since it's a bit chaotic at the airport.
PS: Watch out for untrusted people. cause the main danger could come from poor militias who's getting poorer and they're only way to get good money is in Kidnapping.

Great experience, over all. Baghdad is really beautiful, Clean and resistant. Beside everything that's happening there. People are friendly, genuine, and full of life... Reminds me Beirut under siege.

In Egypt!

In Egypt now and for the next 4 months. For a feature shoot.
My New number here: 00 2 0195560187

Antigone

Sound Design, Creating Ambient sounds, Drones and textures for the Play "Antigone" by Sophocles.
Directed by Ania Temler.
Greetings to the swiss and Canadian Team!
http://theatreoikos.blogspot.com/

Beirut Wow

Post production/sound design (without the music) of the documentary "Beirut wow" as "Beirut and" in Arabic. For the Beirut cultural capital; Directed by Fadi Nasreldine.

Research shoot

6 days of shoot, as research for a documentary that will be completed later; for Little Big Films (France), directed by Flaurence Strauss. On the Iraqui Origins of a christian Lebanese Familly.

Up Grade! :)

Finally upgraded my Pro tools LE to version 8.0.3 .

And Bought The Complete Production ToolKit - (Which for those who know: I can open OMF files now, I can mix in 5.1 and 7.1) -[post updated in 7/7/2010]

Working on the accoustics now!

23Km

4 days of shoot on an interesting independent documentary. Between Anjar and Zahle. Directed by Noura Kevorkian and produced by SixIsland (Canada) www.sixisland.com