Growing in Greece: Airports and Teargas

February 2^nd, 2011

Athens International Airport and Olympic Stadium

Athens, Greece

Woke up early and went downstairs at 8:30am to find no one there and the bus already waiting. So off I went to yell at everyone and tell them little white lies that the bus was leaving in 30 seconds. Let’s just say we all made it on time. About a twenty minute bus ride and we were at the airport an hour early. Arnold and Emily re-scouted shooting locations while everyone else ate muffins and had coffee whilst trying to stay out of the airport as much as possible until our 10a.m. time slot.

We have our own personal security guard watching over us the entire time we shoot which is a little strange but has definitely come in handy when accessing airport employee only areas for shots. The information desk we were allowed to use was perfect: right under the departure board and roped off from too many visitors getting in our shots. It started out a little slow as all of our shoots do. Setting up the shots, camera, getting scenes set up, and just organizing the entire crew always takes longer than we anticipate. But as soon as these jobs were done we zoomed right through! We finished all of the scenes we had planned out, plus some exterior shots of a bathroom, the lost and found area, and the “do not enter” zone. Everyone was doing such a great job!

Everyone came to the airport just in case we needed extras or if we needed them to run errands, so naturally we’d have plenty of people just hanging around. Our personal break room rotated out unnecessary people. Since a production consists of people who do jobs so the film can be shot, and people who actually shoot the film, not everyone are needed on set at all times. Overall the snappishness of the exhausted crew was at a minimum level and people made sure the shots got done as efficiently as possible. Not as ‘fun’ as I had hoped, but I think that I had overly high expectations. We basically knocked out 30 percent of our shots in one day. Go us!

Leaving the airport promptly at 6p.m. we got back to the apartment, had pizza, and jumped back on the bus to go to an A.E.K. futbol game. It was at the Olympic Stadium and was nothing like what I expected. First of all we all ended up choking and coughing as soon as we got close to the stadium because there had been riots there earlier in the day and the police had to teargas the crowd. And secondly, the fans were INSANE! They were shooting flares onto the field, burning the opposing teams banners, and storming the field. Apparently fans are so violent they literally don't allow the away teams fans in the stadium for fear of a riot. So intense! There were three die-hard Greek A.E.K. fans behind us who gave us their complete history and clued us in on different rituals that go on and not to freak out. A.E.K. ended up losing the game but still placing above the other team in a cup preliminary so their fans were still happy. As soon as the game was over we hurried out of the stadium because a huge mass of tear gas was heading our way and everyone's eyes were already stinging from our earlier dosage- not my favorite thing in the world I must say!

An awesome experience all in all and completely different than U.S. soccer. They even had policemen with gas masks waiting at the entrance to the stadium! Can't wait to go back- such an adrenaline-rush!

A.E.K. fan to the death,

Susieeeee