Abu Dhabi - Day Two

Another early morning and I'm up on my feet.
We went and picked up our credentials for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in the Emirates Palace. WOW! What an insanely big and obnoxious building that is. As soon as you walk in the door, you are lost. Its like a giant gold maze. I felt like in Beetlejuice when you get to the land of sand worms. It was like being transported to some other world and there was no way out.
After lots of wrong turns and dead ends, we found the press office and got our badges.
Then we went out front and shot Ahmed's opening for his piece. After the 249586th take in the beating down sun, he nailed it.
We bounced over to the Marina Mall to buy some swim shorts (why did we not bring them???) and grabbed the first pair we found. We figured that if we had an hour before we had to shoot the next thing, we might as well hit up the incredible river like pool at the hotel.
We got down there, had a quick swim and a bite to eat but before we could really relax, we got a call that we had a chance to interview someone from Variety Magazine.
So we rushed to shower, got ready, got the gear and were off to the Circle Conference once again.
We got the interview and some other nice b-roll and we jetted back to the Emirates Palace for the opening night red carpet.
Like any red carpet shooting, it was a battle for position and a mad house. I always dread red carpets for that reason. That and the fact that I dont really care about celebrities.
But whatever, I had to grin and bare it.
We were able to talk with Adrien Brody, Clive Owen, Yousra, and tons of other Arab stars.
With an achy back and sore feet, we passed on the party and went back to the hotel to relax, eat, and prepare for the next, and last day.