Also I have another anouncement to make: my next semester will be my graduation project, and I’m currently working out several ideas including a synopsis for a short fiction film and a plan for a short documentary about a town called Hasankeyf in the far south east of Turkey. Due to the ammount of time a project like this might take, I might go back home a little earlier from Lisbon then planned before. Officially I should be doing an internship for 5 months, but my faculty agreed they don’t want to stop me from working a little longer on my graduation project by starting a bit earlier on it. Another reason for me personally is that currently there are not so many filmshoots at the company – allthough a lot of other work is obviously being done, all linked to filmmaking.

When exactly I will be going home is uncertain at the time. I enjoy my time in Lisbon very much. Both at my internship and socially it’s a good life here at the Atlantic Ocean Have a look at the Christmas card I made in Photoshop as well for all the foreign clients of CheckTheGate!

Christmas card I made for clients from CheckTheGate

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The commercial was shot with two Red One cameras and the post production was done in Tobis, the first post production house in Portugal.

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I was able to work in the intire process of this  production (which by the way was a commercial for Angola, I’ll try and upload it once it has been aired on TV) from making the photos during the scouting for filmset locations up to the casting of the players and finally the Post Production. The casting and scouting allready took several weeks of work. The Post Production company was actually very interesting as well. In fact; it’s the first one in Portugal and nowadays they do basicly everything that’s possible in Post. From 35mm film up to the digital RED and from colorgrading to high standard 3D modelling and animations. I especially enjoyed the colorgrading part in Post on the commercial they did. Learned a lot from it!

I also do some editing myself at Check The Gate. So far I did a making off and some showreels for Check The Gate itself. Some of those showreels contain commercials they did in the past but a showreel where special film techniques are shown are not rare either. More soon!

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So far, I hadn’t had the chance of looking for the ‘real’ Lisbon yet. For people who read this and want to visit Lisbon, keep it in mind that a lot of areas in Lisbon are pretty unsafe (drug addicts, criminals et cetera), so don’t wander of f too far from the main roads. My iPhone being stolen last weekend is nothing compared with what can happen, especially when you carry a professional camera that you are not willing to give up easily. Try to blend in as much as possible (a bit hard for me with blond hair and blue eyes, but what the heck!)

Anyway, some even more interesting days are coming up as well! I’ll be working first hand with the Assistent Director (AD) on the upcoming film where we did the scouting for. Apperantly he is the best AD in Portugal, so no doubt that I can learn a lot! More info soon!

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So this is what happened; I was enjoying a coffee and reading a book in Rossio, a nice area of Lisbon  with the biggest shopping street and two nice squares with some very nice fountains on both ends. Sitting at the cafe next to one of the squares, a little girl and – I assume – her mother asked me to buy hankerchiefs. I had allready given a little money to someone else earlier that day, so it was enough for me. But they kept bothering me, more then usually. The little girl was on the left behind me at some point while the mother was on the right side behind me. I was holding my iPhone (I was texting). The little girl started tapping my shoulder annoyingly, so I turned to her and at the same time (soooo stupid!) I put my iPhone on the table. The little girl pushed the hankerchiefs in front of my face (so that I couldn’t see propperly anymore) and when I pushed the hankerchiefs away they finally went away. But off course when I looked down on the table the phone was allready gone! I had allready payed for my coffee so I went looking for them instantly. Obviously they were nowhere to be found. I suppose it really WAS the oldest trick in the book…

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Also, Jose told me today that – if the short documentaries about Portugal are a ‘go’ – I can direct one or two myself. I’ll be involved in the whole film production process in any case for the other ones as well. more information and updates soon!

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Down here are three photos I made yesterday. Photo 1 one is the ‘view from the office of Check The gate.’ Photo 2 is ‘Metro life at ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa’. And Photo 3 is ‘People become art in a metro hall of ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa.’ The last two photos I shot on my way back home.

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Till then have a look at the pictures here!

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On the fourth day Linda and Marielle (also from my faculty in Holland) joined us to visit the castle and gaze at some amazing viewpoints over the city. The castle itself is nice, but for me personally the view was the most interesting. There wasn’t a lot of information about the castle itself, allthough you can feel the centuries that passed by while you are walking there.

Have a look at the photos here.

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So, I’ve finally arrived in Lisbon almost a week ago now. After a strange flight that involved two firetrucks fixing the right wing of the plane at Faro airport while we were escorted into the terminal, the same plane touched ground in Lisbon a few hours later with a small delay of about an hour. I took a taxi to my new appartment and Hylco and Kasper – my roommates for the upcoming 5 months or so (they are also from the same faculty as me in Holland) – were at home waiting for my arrival.

They showed me the house and which room was mine and a few minutes later I enjoyed my very first Portugese beer (Super Bock). I freshed up a little and Kasper wanted to show me a little more of the city by night. We went to the Erasmus bar for a beer and after this to a nice viewpoint over Lisbon.

The next couple of days I tried to arrange my transport ticket. Had to wait in the que about 3 hours the first time and had to come back the next day and the day after that. I finally mannaged to get the ticket, though. It makes life a lot easier in Lisbon because now I don’t have to upgrade my ticket every 24 hours, but only once a month. It’s cheaper as well!

With my new ticket I explored the transport of Lisbon a little more, with the help of Kasper who got here a week before me.

Next week I’ll start my internship. If there is time I willl meet with José Mineiro for a coffee first to get to know each other a little. So far we only had contact by phone and email. I’m really excited to start my internship, but more about that later when I’ve been working there for a while. For now, enjoy some photos I took of Lisbon on my third day here when I did some sightseeing.

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