Sunday 26 October 2008

CRUELTY TO MERMAIDS



I've had a lot of positive feedback about my involvement in the Weird Girls Project. I'm editing the video right now with Julia Knight at Trim. However I must admit there's been a surprising number of "concerned" emails about the health and well being of the girls. Specifically people in the UK and USA have been worried about my immense cruelty at putting 16 girls in a pool when Iceland's autumn temperatures were dipping to -2 °C. I can see why people might worry ; There I am wrapped up like a Siberian explorer, yelling into a megaphone while the girls, clad in spandex, are making flower formations in the apparently freezing cold pool.

However if appearances can be deceiving double that on film shoots and multiply it by the square root of 100 in Iceland. Icelandic people, by the way, have made no such appeals for the prevention of cruelty to mermaids. As they all know geothermal heat has been used by people since time began. And Iceland happens to be a hot-bed (sorry) of geothermal activity, being situated on the mid-ocean ridge of the Atlantic Ocean where tectonic plates meet and magma reaches the sea floor. The water at Sundlaugin Laugaskarð pool is naturally between around 35 and 40 °C. The girls were mainly complaining of being to hot!



WEIRD GIRLS SHOOT BEHIND THE SCENES
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittyvonsometime/sets/72157608316502781/

GEOTHERMAL HEAT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heating
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland

Sundlaugin Laugaskarð pool
http://www.infoiceland.is/infoiceland/vorur/Default.asp?ew_0_cat_id=3241&ew_0_p_id=5925127

THE BLUE LAGOON- THE ULTIMATE GEOTHERMAL EQPERIENCE
http://www.bluelagoon.com/