Fame and Fortune: Hollywood on the Vltava

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This week I received an interesting email about casting for an English language film being shot by a Korean director and based on a French graphic novel*.  Then by a “coincidence” I happened to see an ad on Craig’s List for casting a shoot in Columbus, Ohio, USA as well as a Squidoo lens about being an extra in Atlanta, GA, USA, all within the course of two days.

Prague and its Barrandov Studios has long been the center of central European film making.  That and its old time beauty have led to many Hollywood style films being shot all or in part in Prague.  In the widget below I listed just a few of the more well known; the older are better in my opinion.  Conspicuously missing is Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol shot in 2011 and not on DVD yet.  See update below.

My point today is not to watch these movies for the few background scenes of Prague and the Czech Republic but to suggest that appearing in film and commercial video is another arrow in the quiver for supporting the expat lifestyle.  A little networking and a little schmoozing can get your name and number in front of the right people for when a project comes up in your city or country.

Children, especially with stage presence, are frequently needed for filming.  Here in Prague we have expat James Bridekirk and his StageStars  They teach theater at several English language schools as well as open Saturday sessions as well as act as agents for casting.  They also produced the Christmas Pantomime that Karin and I greatly enjoyed.  Hopefully I will get around to writing about it.

So whatever your skill or talent there is a way to earn an exciting experience, if not a living.  What ideas do you have?  Please comment.

*Feature Film: Snow Piercer; Writer/Director: Bong Joon-ho

Prague shoot dates: Jan- June, 2012

Update:  Here is a link for Amazon USA.  You can also get the above films from there.  That is, please use my Amazon U.K link for Europe and Amazon.com for USA.  Cheers.

St. Mikulas Night in Prague

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Lighted angel in old town Prague 2011

As older expats with all of our family back in the US we miss sharing Christmas with children.  So when ever we can we join in the family fun where ever we are living.  We are still young at heart after all.

 

 

 

In Prague and many other parts of Europe.  Dec 5th is naughty or nice night for younger three characters of Mikulas night, Prague children.  (Of course you can imagine the fun the adults have with the theme in the night clubs.) Karin and I headed for the center of it all, Old Town Square, as soon as it got  dark.  For once it seemed local families out numbered the tourists.  The square was as beautiful and exciting as always but since this was our second time for this event we left after only one mulled wine each.

Bishop in Jiri z Podebad square, Prague, MikulasIt was early yet so we decided to check out our local square.  It
definitely has a more home town feel.  I can’t do justice to the atmosphere in either square so I will highlight another of Karin’s evocative photo journals.
She makes an entertaining story of it all.

Click the cake!

Mikulas in Prague
St. Mikulas Night in Prague

 

 

Caped Cow Skull Curiosity

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horned statues in Prague

We discovered these statues in a rear storage area of the Vystaviste Exhibition Grounds.  They very vaguely ring a bell in the back of my skull so I am quite curious as to the symbolism.  I don’t think I have seen anything similar in ancient art so it must be science fiction, Harry Potter or what?  Please email or contact on Facebook if you know who did these or for what purpose.  Cheers.

Update 22 Mar 2012:  Thanks to Richard Pokorny on Quora who confirmed that these are minotaurs created by students at the Academy of Art located near Vystaviste.  Minotaurs are an ancient Greek legend; I should have known that.

1 Dec Update: Comments appear to be working again.  Please leave a comment.

Large bird and minotaur in Prague, spooky

Too bad the bird wasn’t a Raven; then we would have an award winning photo.

 

Beer, Beers, and more Beers

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We had some young friends visiting from England who wanted to try typical Czech food along with a selection of Czech beers.  So I consulted my favorite web site for such matters:  Prague Beer Garden  We chose Pivovarsky Klub because one of us wanted to try banana beer which they had.  We had good food and a selection of six beers on tap–your typical Czech pub only has 2 or 3 from the same brewery.  For the next two days my friend Ben kept repeating how much he enjoyed those beers.

Beer tasters in PragueSo we decided to try the ultimate in selection, The Beer Museum.  Based upon what I had read previously I had thought of this pub as a Prague institution.  I was a little worried when I could not find it on Google Street View but I knew it had to be there so we ventured out after dinner one night.  (I later found out that they celebrated their one year anniversary in October 2011.)

Sure enough it was easy to find on Dlouha Street in Old Town.  We were delighted to discover that they had tasting trays of five brews each.  (150 ml from 17 Kc up, .65 Euro).  It took three trays for all of us to pick a favorite which we then ordered in standard sizes.  It was great fun comparing and contrasting and taking snapshots of faces showing those we liked and those that we didn’t    🙂     🙁

Rating beers at Beer Museum, PragueThis photo is of our selections and rating system.  By consensus the bottom was Real Deal Ale and the top was Ferdinand Sedm Kuli.  Their selection is always changing so let us know your favorite when you visit.

By the way don’t go here for food; they don’t offer much and most comes from a fast food place around the corner.

Na zdravi­,