Apologies for not blogging, but filming got in way.<\/p>\n
Day 2.\u00a0 We filmed Echo for the installation bit, Ryan dying, and Echo looking up to Hera and singing her song.\u00a0The main bit of the shoot was the beginning of Sc35 where Echo echoes Narcissus before he comes across the pond.\u00a0Filming was a bit tougher for me today, as lots of stuff depended on editing to make it work, and I couldn’t imagine it in my head.\u00a0 Also weather wasn’t very good and this made me less positive.\u00a0 Actors were extremely good again today, alive and yet controlled and enthusiastic, even though the geography wasn’t always what they expected.\u00a0 Part of the problems with shooting were to do with sand.\u00a0 Everytime someone walked on the sand, this would disturb it, so we had to keep a sand free zone.\u00a0 This was particularly true of the multiple superimpositions of Hannah on the sand dunes – I’ve no idea how this will look.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sc 35 was somewhat tricky, with Humphry working out how it was going to be shot (especially for 3 screens).\u00a0 We had to have a conflab with the continuity team: Coral W, Cirrus and Luke at lunchtime to try and work out what was happening and how it might work (I’m still a bit unclear). <\/p>\n
We watched the rushes and this was a great relief as they were extremely good (at least if they were going to be in a single screen film – whether the multiscreen was correct, we’re going to have to hope!)<\/p>\n
Wednesday.\u00a0 Lovely weather, easier location at the pond in Bettws, lovely footage.\u00a0 The pond really worked.\u00a0 We managed to shoot quite out of sequence which was a tribute to how well prepared the actors\u00a0were.\u00a0 We didn’t\u00a0have wetsuits for the pond, and Tim and Ben were heroic and went in the pond standing about it the wet for half a day,\u00a0holding the boat and the mirror.\u00a0 Again, I was massively impressed with Humphry’s ability, concentration and selflessness in shooting the scene and also in conveying the correct professional tone to the crew.\u00a0 Ed arrived with ice-creams at about\u00a03.00 and\u00a0he is the bedrock of the team, without him we’d be\u00a0nowhere.\u00a0 Sam and Ben were great with improvising tears, and Giles made an excellent male nymph.<\/p>\n
I’m particularly glad I didn’t take any notice of the\u00a0advice\u00a0from a few people that the pond scenes wouldn’t match.\u00a0 The actual location will really contribute magic to the film, and the fact that it\u00a0is only found towards the end and through a discovery from Narcissus will\u00a0help the drama.<\/p>\n
Thursday, a\u00a0difficult day again.\u00a0 Weather moved in, and Humphry had to meet the Screen Academy and didn’t arrive back until about 2.30, delaying lunch and shooting.\u00a0 We shot without him in the morning, and did pick-ups on the rain and on the writing.\u00a0 I was\u00a0very pleased with the camera crew and art direction as we actually survived, and\u00a0even with my inability to create shots, we managed to\u00a0shoot usable footage.\u00a0 Craig let\u00a0his imagination\u00a0go and got some really nice close ups of nature in the wet.\u00a0 We then did the first half of the scene where Zeus seduces the nymphs, using\u00a0the tree location and the castle location (both Merthyr Mawr).\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0castle location was fantastic serendipity, as it has the correct ferns for Zeus and\u00a0nymph to frolic in.\u00a0 Brendan and Lynne\u00a0were excellent fun.\u00a0 They look great as\u00a0Zeus and Hera, and they turned in their usual fine performances, a bit camp and could be very funny.\u00a0 Towards the end of the day we were disturbed by\u00a0car park noise (a rugby club arriving to train) and this made some difficulties.<\/p>\n
As research, I don’t\u00a0think I have much to say about these days, except that\u00a0a) locations should always have more possibilities than\u00a0one can use – then they work.\u00a0 Seeing Humphry cheat the shots to get interesting backgrounds cohere from wide shot to close up was a bit of a revelation here,\u00a0and b) preparation before, storyboard, shotlist, etc., are very useful, but\u00a0the location and actual shooting is very offputting and it is extremely difficult to develop\u00a0the\u00a0vision of the film when\u00a0the reality is so different, c) When shooting multi-screen you have to waste a lot of footage if you’re going to do it properly because whole swathes of the script have to be shot on every take, in order to get the timing right – something I haven’t tended to do, so watch this space in post-production.<\/p>\n
OK, going to look\u00a0at my script and storyboard for next week, and make sure I shoot enough of Hera and Zeus reacting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apologies for not blogging, but filming got in way. Day 2.\u00a0 We filmed Echo for the installation bit, Ryan dying, and Echo looking up to Hera and singing her song.\u00a0The main bit of the shoot was the beginning of Sc35 where Echo echoes Narcissus before he comes across the pond.\u00a0Filming was a bit tougher for … <\/p>\n