A tripod, yesterday
The plot, in a nutshell, is this: humanity has been conquered and enslaved by The Tripods, unseen alien entities who travel about in gigantic, terrifying three-legged walking machines.
All very well you say, but what’s the Bucharest connection to The Tripods?
Well, last week, we spent a great couple of days making a batch of very short videos in and around some of Bucharest’s most famous sights for the In Your Pocket channel on You Tube.
To do so, we used a very ordinary HDD video camera, a remote microphone which was tucked discreetly under the collar, and… a tripod.
Now, the consternation that said tripod caused in any number of Bucharest’s churches and museums would have had you believe that The Tripods had been broadcast in Romania the night before, and that much like the orginal Orson Welles staging of War of the Worlds, people had thought it was for real.
At the Stavropoleos Church, the old lady who ferociously guards the entrance looked at the tripod as though the devil himself had walked in. She ran off to find one of the resident nuns, who, falling for our ‘we’re just tourists’ story, agreed to switch on the lights inside the church so that we could film the quite stunning interior.
(We should point out at this stage that there is in general no great problem with filming inside Romanian churches: every wedding, Christening etc. we have ever been to has been filmed from every possible angle. It is simply the tripod that appears to throw people).
At the Old Court Church we were unceremoniously shooed off the premises by the elderly yet fierce-looking caretaker, though not before we had heroically sneaked some footage of inside the church.
At the Village Museum the woman selling tickets said the presence of the tripod meant we must be professionals (when she sees the results she will know that we aren’t), and that we needed to pay a fee if we wanted to film.
Aware by now that we had already lied to a nun, and that eternal damnation therefore probably awaits (although the donation we made to the church should help a little), we decided to play it straight, and said “OK, we’re professionals. How much?”
“You need to go and negotiate,” she replied.
Ah. Negotiate. That wonderful word.
We thought better of it, and went back to plan A. “Actually, we are just tourists,” we said. She amazingly didn’t question us anymore and promptly sold us tickets, the tripod being admitted for free.
Elsewhere around town it is refreshing to report that we had no hassle whatsoever. Even outside the Interior Ministry the men in suits sitting in their cars left us alone. Only one lone policeman objected to our presence, though that was merely to say he didn’t want to be filmed. The only other place we were prevented from filming was at Piata Universitatii, but again, we were simply told to keep off the grass.
So we should count ourselves lucky. Others (including one regular contributor to this blog) looking a bit too professional have had far more hassle than we did last week.
Now, if you will excuse us, we’re off to church to ask for our souls to be saved.
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Hehhehe,I found this website by luck only…was looking for a dog sitter,to be honest……however i am romanian..so excuse my english..hope you are able to understand….I find your consternation quite amuzing …well after living here my whole life,i guess is normal..Great restaurants ,,but the service is like “get lost”,great food..if your into greasy romanian cuisine ,and well people not wanting to be photographed that just for one plain ordinary stupid reason…most of romanian people you meet in bars cafes and such are so self conscious but not in the way you imagining it ….its just the phat feeling they have inside when they think of themselves like OMG this guy is going to take my picture……MY!!!!!!!!!!!! picture….and you will say yeah so what………but then again think like a romanian..they think they are pretty smart educated talented etc etc etc and they desrve the best even though for that one night a week they spend in a super luxurious night club they had to spent they`re whole monthly payment on nice clothes and shoes….for one night …when they get in and feel like they are the most important thing on earth…so there you find out how they manage to have nice cars when there are so many homeless and naked kids on the strees…we sell our souls trying to fit in the upper class….not thinking if they will have anything to eat tomorrow…or the next day…..
Okies,have a nice day all..and dont get mad on romanians…its all about aducation i think..i too get back home with tears in my eyes after a grocery shopping spree ,5 min length just because the grocery lady is too dumb to answer the simplest question ever and she gets into deep science about carrots or chicken brests quarantee…….lack of education and manners
@ Davin, if you don’t feel safe, you can always hire a BGS gorilla in a Hummer to look after you!
Listen to this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120290631
Damning NPR report! I love it!!! Romania is a crazy place and I love when the press reports this! I am all alone here in Bucharest doing my photography getting into crazy situations with absolute nutcase fitze people and I am constantly wondering how people have such nice cars when there are dogs roaming about and naked Roma children down the street?! Constantly wondering why there seem to be no laws. It’s not just my imagination, thankfully, that
Romania is oddball. These reports say it as it is!
and read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/10/romania-1989-year-of-revolutions
and this: http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/romanians-past-unfinished-business/article-187234
Ha! Craig! Yes, I don’t know what it is about me but I guess I just look like I ma up to no good?! I think what it is actually is that I move in a different way when photogrpahing than some tourist–I am really trying to ‘get’ a picture and I also take lots of photos of one scene.
What I have found is that both the poorer as well as the wealthier someone is the more of a problem they have with me. Also, the less educated. Trendy youth who have studied/traveled abroad have no problem.
The bars and clubs and cafes I’ve been going to lately though have been pretty rouch experiences, at least in the first hour or so. Romanians are the most self-conscious and insecure??? people I have ever met. Personally, I couldn’t care less if someone takes a phot of me. What do I have to hide?! I am unclear on why everyone is so scared of photos here. Obviously, a combination of shady business dealings and/or extreme self-consciousness/insecurity at the level of a psychological disorder are at play here.
=))
I can hardly wait to see the movies, just subscribed to the youtube channel
Finally I decided to eat around the hystorical centre hoping to find a few restaurants which I like. The first one was “La Historia” or something (yesterday), two steps away from Stavropoleos church: 3* for food (eatable), 3* for prices (about the same prices that you can find everywhere), 1* for customer service (waiting time roughly 45 minutes even if the restaurant was empty, I had to pull the hell out of a door in order to get in and out, the temperature inside was just like on the outside, the olive oil was no more than sunflower oil, the lemon for my salad had 100 seeds and on top of all I had to press the lemon with my bare hands); on the other hand the serving was quite nice so they deserve 1* at this chapter.
I’m gonna keep you informed with my progress, I think most of you know the hystoric centre restaurants by now. Tonight I’m eating close to my home in Berceni at a much better restaurant than the one above (reasonable customer service, yes, it’s possible).
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