It’s what we’ve been waiting to show, now…here it is!
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Monthly Archive for May, 2008
To be honest when we arrived in Belgium we had no idea what was in store. We weren’t sure if it would be a one day shoot, a two day shoot or for the entire time we were there. It turned out to be somewhere in the middle. After meeting with the great people at Happiness-Brussels we got a rough schedule and we’d be on our way to quickly getting Car Dance Party Belgium a reality.
The first day was awesome, we travelled north of Brussels where we made our first stop at the Car Wash. Yes the beautiful city of Car Wash! Well not true necessarily, but it only made sense if you are going to make a video that prominently features a car it better look shiny and nice. So indeed that’s what we did. However, being a long weekend in Belgium the car wash was open, but the store was not. With that we could wash the car but we couldn’t dry it off. That’s when Mo chimed in with the idea that had never crossed my mind, but will save us a whole bunch of money the next time we wash our cars.
Don’t have a towel? USE NEWSPAPER. Works like a charm!
So with the car sparkling clean and Dave and I in our Boris and Juri outfit we headed towards our first destination. It was a small university town full and I mean FULL of bikes. We parked near the train and bus station and plotted the first shot. I’m not going to lie, but I was a little nervous to break out the Boris outfit. As I’m sure most of you know it is not the most flattering get up. But as we moved the car into position, it had begun…After a few glares and some definite laughs we headed back out onto the road towards the great city of Ypres.
Now if you don’t know much about Ypres, it was one of the high profile battle fronts during World War I. More amazing was the fact that the Canadians featured prominently. Indeed where we were was the area in Belgium called “Flanders” which, as you guessed, is the subject of the famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. Previously at the apartment there was a book about the Australians who had battled in 1917 in Ypres. In that book there was a picture of a huge bombed out church/cathedral. It wasn’t until we arrived in Ypres that I understood what it was…
All around Ypres was awe inspiring too. There were still old bunkers still standing. There were random fields of graves where the brave men who battled still rest in peace and when you enter the town you drive through the old walls that protected the city. It was a step back in time and made me appreciate what sacrifice our boys made.
However with our shoot finished in Ypres we headed towards the northern coast…
One of the things that makes Belgium unique is the separation between north and south. The north of Belgium is Flemish country. The south is French. They don’t like each other. So as we travelled the northern part of the country we were met with Dutch style homes, farms, windmills and great beer. Thus, one of the ideas of Greg’s was to capture that farming heritage that exists in the northern country. We drove and drove search for cattle to shoot around and when we finally saw a good spot we stopped. As we all got out of the car, the cows were at the other side of the field…somehow we needed to get closer. Well we didn’t have to wait long.
As friendly as the people are in Belgium, the cows are much the same. While Ramin shook some grass it was if a stampede had erupted! I have never in my life seen that many cows move that fast, they were bounding over to us even! I don’t think anyone else would admit it, but I actually ducked behind the car thinking they are coming at us a little fast here…
They made great co-stars for this particular shot.
Onward we went to the northern coast which was expansive and beautiful. Just a short boat ride across the English Channel and we would be sipping tea in London. Again, what made it interesting to step out of the car was the reaction we’d get when we started dancing in the car in our outifts. Some would stop and just stare, while most would laugh. We couldn’t help but think this is a good sign. Certainly we’d be looked at with disdain in North America, but in Belgium, they seem to love life and enjoy it.
Our next and last stop was the city of Brugge. Perhaps you’ve seen the movie “In Bruges”? Well that’s where it takes place, and we, literally, were in Brugge. Now we didn’t end up shooting anything there, but we went to the main plaza and had a couple beer on the outdoor seating area…(I will get into the beer later). The city is beautiful, absolutely charming. It’s like a little Dutch town you’d see, as Erik said, at Disneyworld. Small building that were built in the 1400’s. Tiny streets covered in cobblestone. Architecture from the middle ages…just amazing.
While our shoot was exhausting, it was absolutely splendid.
Next up…the South…
Cheers for now,
Ryan Northcott
for FuddyTV
One of the cool things about our trip was while shooting “Car Dance Party Belgium” we were lucky to see so many different places in Belgium. From Ypres to the northern coast, Brugge, Brussels and the south. All of it had its own personality and its own unique look. Here is a small sample of some of the pictures I took along the way. Sadly both Dave and I had to look like Boris and Juri for the trip and we were looked at a little strange, but you get the idea!
Brugge was definitely one of my favorite cities. Erik’s too. It was old, very old and had an amazing personality. It was in the city’s center that we sat out on patio drinking Westmalle trappist beer, which has a 9.5% alcohol content by the way…hahaha.
(The song accompanying the picture show is called “Lotuk” by Arsenal, the same people we saw live at the private concert!)
It was amazing some of the places we visited…The next installment of the Belgium blog is about shooting! Stay tuned!
Cheers,
Ryan for FuddyTV
Wow, what a ride…
The first thing I will say in this first post about our journey to Belgium is that for myself it was life changing. It was life changing in the sense of the wonderful and amazing people we met, the beautiful sites across that nation we saw and the experience we’ll take home with us. We were welcomed, like family, into an atmosphere that was creative, loving, happy and focused. I wasn’t sure if I believed anyone when they said that a trip to some far off land repositioned their outlook on life, but now I take all that back and hope that everyone out there has experienced what we did.
I must begin by mentioning the people at Happiness-Brussels. Greg, Mo, Tom, Ramin, Karen…the team their does their business like a good company should. Thinking out of the box, avoiding the mainstream and thinking different. When 99 companies go left, Happiness goes right and if it wasn’t for that way of life we would not have been a part of something magical. We were brought in, unsure of what would happen, who we’d meet or how it would go down. The people I mention above and everyone else there made us feel welcome, treated us amazingly and shared something with us that you can only come across once in a lifetime. For that Dave, Erik and I are forever thankful and in awe. Happiness: We thank you from the bottom of our hearts….
THE BEGINNING:
Our flight there was long…for myself it was the longest flight I’d ever been on. I was nervous and anxious. I hate flying, and a 9 hour jaunt to Frankfurt, then an hour to Brussels was something I wasn’t looking forward to. But like everything on the trip it was absolutely flawless. We arrived in Brussels on the 29th of April, weary, but excited. Tom met us at the arrival area with the FuddyTV logo as our “welcome” sign. We laughed and hopped into the car where we went straight to the Happiness office. We brainstormed and met so many of the people there it was a little overwhelming, but amazing.
We settled for a moment into the apartment after a while and caught our bearings. That night we went to a private concert put on by a band called Arsenal. Let me put it this way…it set the tone for the trip. Their music is heartfelt and unique and while we were a little out of it from the long flight, it was a really cool moment. Amazingly I found a part of the show on YouTube!!! So for just one second, put yourselves in our shoes, three tired canucks about to embark on a journey none of us would have ever dreamed of…here it is:
It was such a good show and I am now addicted to Arsenal…which is extremely hard to find here in Canada by the way.After the show we went to the L’Archiduc, a great little jazz bar right close to the show site. It was a little dark, small, and as I found out later has been there since 1937. Sadly the original owner of the bar passed away, but gave it to a friend as a gift on one condition…that she change the flowers everyday. Cool huh? We had genuine Belgian beer, connected with the people we’d be working with and took in the atmosphere of not only the bar, but the city.It was a monumental start to our first day….
Tomorrow, the brainstorming and shooting!
It’s nice to be home, but we miss the guys at Happiness-Brussels our new friends for life.
à Santé!
Ryan
