Are you a Mexican or a Mexican't?

It's been a bit quiet at this blog, and for a good reason.

I've been working intensively for the last three weeks on a Finnish-Mexican Co-production called Bayoneta (https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000005098751.html). It's a film about a former Mexican boxer who escapes his past to Finland and is extremely self-destructive. Finally he decides it's time for one more bout and starts training vigorously with the help of his friends.

I was the catering manager for Finland in this production.

It consists of

- making sure I have the right equipment for the production
- collecting everyones allergies and diets
- booking the lunches and their pick up times and staying on schedule
- setting up lunches on schedule
- managing the craft service on set (snacks, hot and cold beverages etc)
- staying on budget
- making daily purchases (food, beverages, equipment)
- delegating and "controlling" my assistant

This was my first international production in this scale whereas half of the film crew were other than Finnish. I've had productions in which there are some Estonians, British, Americans, Swedish etc, but this was the first one that was clearly international and distinctly made my work different from previous productions.

We shot around Turku and Turku region and in various weather situations (heavy snow, snow storm, sleet, sun shine, strong winds, rain) and mainly outside. This had it's difficulties but ore on that later. We shot at the Turku Cathedral, Föri, SEO Lieto, Kela building, on Viking Line cruise, Turku Harbour, Varissuo, Kakskerta, Ruissalo, Runosmäki... There were many locations and on the busiest day we had five company moves! It's doable but but it opposes it's challenges, especially when you have a lot of small equipment.

Our shooting schedule dates were from 20.2. to 8.3, including Saturdays. The days were looooong, but they always are in a film production. My longest day was 18 hours, but the average day was around 14-16 hours mainly depending on the location.

On the next post I'm going to get deeper on the ways of working "between continents" and the cultural differentness I experienced during this production.

Hasta luego!

-Johanna