Be Prepared (or, When Boy Scouts Go to India) Part 3

I promise, this is the last post about preparations!

By now, you're probably thinking that it's no wonder Aaron has been very stressed out for the past eight months (and also why we've declined invitations for dinner and hanging out on more than one occasion). It has been the major focus of Aaron's attention for a very long time, in addition to working full-time, running his business, managing our finances, and being married to me (which is no small undertaking). Even with the seemingly detailed, exhaustive blog posts, I don't think I've adequately described the work Aaron has put into this project and how it has (at times) disrupted our lives. I feel like half a person compared to him, in terms of the mental and physical energy he puts into his work.

What I also want to make very, very clear is that we are in no way ungrateful for the chance to even attempt an international production. It's hard to write about the experience without sometimes complaining, but that also means I have the misfortune of sounding like an over-privileged, whiny snot--the ugly American who feels entitled to far more than she deserves, which is really not the case. I also don't want to come off as culturally insensitive about our experience in India; at the same time, I want to convey all of the bewildering, frightening, and fascinating parts of it from what is, by default, the perspective of a complete outsider. What I describe might make you uncomfortable; we certainly were at times. But I firmly believe that learning and growth don't come from places of comfort, and sometimes you get rubbed raw in the pursuit of knowledge.

Training

Having never taken video production, photography, or art classes, I desperately needed Aaron's help to become a competent production assistant. As I've mentioned, I've taken some film classes and I had a basic understanding of shot composition. I've been around Aaron for enough years to have seen how production works. But I'd never really picked up a good camera and tested my abilities, and I was afraid of failure (and of incurring Aaron's wrath). He had the unfortunate task of educating me from doltish ineptitude to passable competency, fighting against my stubbornness and klutz-tastic ability to trip over my own feet, drop things, and otherwise mess things up (like the time I dented his laptop while on our first big roadtrip together--Houston, we have a problem, indeed).

Each armed with a Canon DSLR, we did some outdoor photography training at Giant City State Park. I felt like a blundering moron with very little idea how to use the most basic functions on the camera, but Aaron's a good teacher, and he was able to explain concepts so that they lodged in my atrophied little brain. We also went to Nashville in December (mostly to watch the Red Wings crush the Predators) and did some more shooting downtown. I took a few decent pictures, and a lot of stupid ones. It probably didn't help that I kept saying "Stand back! I'm making ART!" in a dramatic hipster voice. But Aaron could see that I was learning, so he put up with it.

ART!

Double ART!

What was probably most helpful were the six hours of training videos we watched together. I'm usually a book-learner first and then a hands-on-learner, but these videos were excellent for explaining and demonstrating concepts without being condescending or dry. If you want to learn more about photography but can't afford to take classes (and don't have access to someone like Aaron), I highly recommend Lynda.com's training videos.

Other portions of my training included learning how to set up and take down the lights (which we did not take to India); setting up tripods, securing the cameras to them, and using the tilt arm smoothly; figuring out how to use the iPad for script editing, releases, as a teleprompter, as a clapper, and for talent releases; using the audio recorder and microphones; and all aspects of setting up, hauling, storing, and handling all of the production equipment so that I did not damage it in any way. I was expressly forbidden from panicking once we were in India.

Luggage

Accepting that were would be going on a Tourist VISA felt like a demotion, but it also meant that we had to transport our equipment in baggage that made us look less like professionals and more like vacationing Americans. The Pelican cases for the laptop, cameras, and accessories were out; we did keep the microphones, one of the hard drives, and the memory cards in their own small Pelican cases, though. Nope, nothing here but a technology nerd and his disheveled wife, both of whom also happen to be amateur photographers.

Part of my "dowry" (read: crap I brought with me when we moved in together and have kept through our marriage) was a 4-piece set of plum-colored no-frills luggage I initially bought for study abroad. I paid $58 for the whole set back in 2002, and it was worth every penny, in the sense that it has not completely disintegrated in the intervening decade of use and abuse. Well, some of the seams are ripped. The biggest case sports wide bands of permanently ground-in duct tape adhesive. The inner plastic support walls have shattered. The luggage smells funny. Miraculously, all of the zippers still work. But this is not luggage I would trust again on an international flight--especially one that would require the bags remain intact through multiple airport transfers.

After scouting the aisles at a few stores and reading positive online reviews, we decided to buy two of the Heys 4-Motion 29" cases at Target to serve as our checked baggage. I won't go into a big sales pitch, but these bags were really great for our purposes, and having four wheels made it a lot easier to lug them around various airports, through Customs, and into hotel rooms. They GLIDE. No joke. We bought TSA-approved locks with an indicator that showed whether they had been opened by baggage screeners, too, for that inevitable moment when they wonder if that's a tripod wrapped in a sweatshirt or if we're just happy to see them.

For our hand baggage, I already had a decent Jansport backpack with sufficient pockets for the things I would want on a daily basis and on the planes. Aaron needed a way to protect the iPad and laptop, and we ended up finding a clearance-priced rolling suitcase with a slim detachable backpack for him at Target (and please, read the About Us section on the company's website--it's so earnest).

Aaron bought himself a new camera bag, since he had included his old one when he sold his previous DSLR. For "my" camera, we exercised our cheapskate muscles and managed to find a Gillette shaving bag with an inside zippered pocket and two outer zippered pockets at the Carbondale Goodwill--for $3 (it was also full of Mary Kay shaving products!). It didn't have a shoulder strap on it, though, so I bought some D-rings and upholstery thread so I could attach a spare strap. It was just big enough for the camera body, one lens, the filters, and few accessories in the side pockets. I ended up keeping my passport in the inner zippered pocket most days.

Air and Ground Transportation

Booking our plane tickets was tricky because it would mean there was no backing out--and things weren't exactly rock solid in the month and a half before we left. We had to renew our passports, and we couldn't apply for a VISA without them. The VISA application process was not going smoothly due to misinformation. And everywhere we looked, we were advised not to book our plane tickets until we had secured proper documentation.

But we didn't have a choice, and the longer we waited, the more the fares would rise. We wanted to make sure we were on the same flight as Rob getting into Mumbai because we had never been there before, so that meant routing through Detroit and Amsterdam.

We thought we had it (maybe) figured out ourselves, but went to a travel agent just in case. Visiting this kind of business establishment is like time-traveling back to the early 1990s (and where we live, some people never left the early 1990s, in terms of favored hair, make-up, and clothing styles). But do you know what kind of fees travel agents charge? It's obscene. I get that they're trying to stay afloat in a time when computers can do everything for you, but we couldn't justify giving her lots and lots of our money to do what we already figured out how to do, so we went home and booked the tickets ourselves (and enrolled in Delta's SkyMiles program).

When you're faced with the prospect of returning from 22 hours of flights and the accompanying layovers, and you'll be two hours from home when you step off the last plane, the idea of driving yourself home from the airport is an instant emetic. There was just NO way. And though we could have chartered a BART van to drop us off and pick us up, there were some uncertainties and associated expenses we didn't want to mess with. So we chartered a Brenna, using my car. She was kind enough to ride to St. Louis with us, drive our car home to Carbondale and store it at her apartment, and then pick us up at the end of our trip, which was pretty much the best idea ever. And we're going to pay her in food and gifts tonight. It's a win-win all around.

Hotels

We had been assured that arrangements had been made for our lodging in Hyderabad, but we also needed to book a room for the first two nights of the trip, which we were spending in Mumbai. So we stayed here:

"Opulence, I has it."

Actually, we stayed in the tower part of it, which isn't in the picture. Does it look familiar? Here's another angle that might jog your memory a bit:

The hotel was among the sites attacked by terrorists in 2008. Security has been tightened considerably, but staying there seemed like it would be just another way that we were drawing attention to ourselves. We knew we would stand out: our equipment was sure to draw stares and possibly suspicion. We are undeniably, blindingly white, and thus either American, European, or Australian by default. I was a little nervous about what would be assumed about us as it was, and the hotel choice didn't make me feel any more relaxed.

But this hotel was also right next to the Gateway of India and the harbor, both of which we wanted to include in the host segments of the video. It was convenient, and since we didn't have much time in Mumbai, we knew staying this close to our shooting locations would ease our stress and make it easier to transport the equipment (and go back to the room if we forgot anything or needed to stow the equipment quickly).

We weren't scared, necessarily. Just cautious.