NANJING / END OF PRODUCTION

Nanjing was the last production stop on the shoot for "Play Money." Unfortunately I do not have any still photos from Nanjing. If you happen to watch my China 5d montage, you'll see some beautiful tree lined streets (which is Nanjing). I will say that Nanjing was one of the pretties cities I visited while in China! Nanjing is only about 3 hours away from Shanghai by fast train. Its also on the rail line between Beijing and Shanghai, making it pretty easy to get too. If you are planning a trip to China and are only going between Beijing and Shanghai, consider a quick stop over in Nanjing. I would say its worth it!

Like I said Nanjing was the last stop on the shoot. After about 14 days straight of shooting, it was a great feeling to wrap up the China production portion of the film. Since I do not have any photos from Nanjing, I'll post some "behind the scene" photos.

Anthony Gilmore, Director / Producer of Play Money. (Changsha)

Anthony and Jared, one of our main subjects. Jared is American but currently works in the RMT industry in china. He also speaks fluent meridian. (Changsha)

That would be myself trying to blend in... isn't working, is it? (Changsha)

This was our production Jeep in Beijing. We got a lot of looks in this thing. The guy who owns this is an American photographer living in Beijing named Mitch Pe Masilun, Check out his photo site.(Beijing)

Chairman Mao, enough said! haha. (Beijing)

HVX200a, Letus, Canon Lenses, Zacuto Support, Marshall Monitor, Kino Flow Diva, Boom, Lav, Sachtler Sticks... this is what our interview set up looked like (Rural Beijing). This was our camera "A" set up....

...and our B-camera was a Canon 5d mkII, which was suppose to keep us low profile, but I guess people in Changsha don't often see red headed foreigners shooting video with a still camera (photo via Anthony's iphone, Thanks Anthony!).

CHANGSHA!!!

After Beijing, or next production stop was Changsha (which is in south central China). Changsha proved to be a very interesting city, mostly because it does not get many foreigners. In Beijing I got a few funny looks, in Changsha I got a ton! Changsha is also defined by its spicy (and oily) food and extreme summer time heat. Although the food was some of the best I had on my trip, after a few days it had my stomach totally torn up!

We were only in Changsha for 3 days. I really wish I had more time to shoot photos here. After spending a week in Beijing, it was visually refreshing to see some grit and grime. Compared to Beijing, Changsha was even busier, with lots of little narrow alleyways which would have been fun to explore.

While its not a popular tourist spot, I'm really happy I got to see Changsha. By the end of my trip, Changsha felt like the only "real" city i visited. If you ever travel to China, you should try picking some random large city to visit. (China does have something like 49 cities with over a million people, while the US only has 9). Visiting a random city vs Beijing or Shanghai will most likely give you a totally different experience... but be warned, english menus are not as easy to find!

Changsha had a very interesting night life. Lots of KTVs and other "clubs."

After nearly 10 days in China, this was the first that there was anything remotely close to "magic hour." Great end of the day light does not exist in Beijing.

The best part about having someone with you who speaks Chinese, is being able to eat in small back alley restaurants.

I had some of the best Tofu in China. I've been a vegetarian for over 12 years, so i know my tofu!

BEIJING PART 2

Ugh, I've been back from China for a while now but I've been so busy with gigs and catching up on work I've been having a hard time getting the rest of the photos edited. So hopefully within the next few days I'll have all the photos up. Here are a few additional shots from Beijing. The majority of the time I was in Beijing I was shooting video, so unfortunately I do not have a ton of stills from Beijing. The government shut down the entire downtown area (including the metro lines and bus lines) to have a dress rehearsal of their National Day parade (which is Oct 1st). This photo was taken right before I was told that i was "forbidden" to be in that area... oh the irony of the Policeman's choice of words.

A mother and daughter wait for the daily flag ceremony at Tien'man Square.

New army recruits at the Forbidden Palace.

Homeless, Beijing

The one similar trait i noticed between ALL chinese cities was the constant construction.

Public domain takes a whole new meaning in China. If the PRC wants to tear down your entire village, no problem! Honestly the displacement for new construction was the one thing that reminded me that I was in fact in a communist country.

Oh the driving! I'm not even going to get into it.

No matter how touristy it is, I had to go see the great wall. At least the rain kept some people away.

BEIJING STREET MARKET

China, wow I finally made it. Its taken a few days but I'm settled in. My first impression of Beijing wasn't the greatest, but the more I see the more I like. I've spent the last week here in Beijing, working on the feature doc Play Money. Its been a wild few days. We have mostly been shooting an hour and a half outside the city on a farm, but thats a whole other story.

I love shooting stills and as part of the project I have shot a lot of stills of our characters.... but I just cant seem to find the time to edit all of those photos. So instead here are a few photos from a street market i stumbled upon the other night. Many more photos to come....