Yesterday was the first day’s shoot.\u00a0\u00a0 Other slightly difficult production things, fear of the weather, and also concern because Humphry (cinematographer)\u00a0couldn’t come to the location until lunchtime on the shoot day, and we couldn’t delay the call time (it would have created chaos).<\/p>\n
\u00a0I therefore had to make sure we were as occupied as possible yesterday morning whilst we waited for Humphry.\u00a0I didn’t want to start shooting without him, as it turned out correctly, because when he did arrive, he was an absolute genius.\u00a0 So we had a tour of the various locations in Merthyr Mawr including the castle ruins, which is a bit of serendipity, as it will be great for Zeus’s and the nymph’s “bit of rumpy pumpy”.\u00a0 Then, a quite big small crew went up the mountain to film the sea, a general view of the dunes from the Gods’ point of view.\u00a0 This was the equivalent of the first shot of the film, which everyone is told to make sufficiently difficult and challenging to get the crew into a solid group.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn’t a difficult set of shots, but climbing the mountain (sand dune really) was a real bugger.\u00a0 Everyone was extremely well intentioned and Tim even carried the jib half way up before we decided to leave it behind.\u00a0\u00a0When the\u00a0crew saw the view they all said that this would be the “money shot”,\u00a0(derived from the term used\u00a0 in porn films\u00a0 where gratification occurs!).\u00a0We came back exhausted but happy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0We got back just in time for lunch (although I realised I should have redesigned one of the shots and made a tilt up from the dunes to the sea – c’est la vie), which was great.\u00a0 Humphry arrived, the art department, and also Alan Cridford (sound consultant)\u00a0and we went to film Amenius and Narcissus’s scenes, by some purple flowers on a hillside.<\/p>\n
The shooting of the scene seemed really fantastic to me.\u00a0 The combination of the experience of Humphry and Alan and young crew, and\u00a0the performances of the actors meant that I may have actually not paid enough attention to details that could crop up in the edit.\u00a0 Perhaps there is too much variation between takes, and maybe I could have been harder on the performances, but I was a bit worried of over directing and taking away the actors’ energy.\u00a0 I realised once again that I’m not a cameraman’s director, but that this doesn’t seem to matter if you’ve got the right crew and done the preparation.\u00a0Humphry found the shots and happily\u00a0got stuck in to making sure they matched and also that the background was as interesting compositionally as possible.\u00a0 There was quite a lot of movement in the frame, even on the close ups, as the actors\u00a0freely rolled over and used the gestures from rehearsal without constraining them too much for the camera, and\u00a0this looked edgy and interesting.\u00a0 There was some cheating on the close ups, but again, Humphry was happy finding the\u00a0correct angle, and I didn’t have to worry.\u00a0As a collaboration, it is a joy when people come together and match each others skills.\u00a0 Not for the first time, I saw that film making actually works when one negates ego completely, and allows for people’s contributions, and is the opposite of imposing one’s will, and I found myself incredibly grateful to the crew and cast for doing this.<\/p>\n
We did a jib and this seemed really luxurious to me.\u00a0 I’m a bit concerned about the cutting here, as this is about multi-screens and a bit unknown.\u00a0 Amenius has to leave screen 3 and enter screen 2, and I’m not sure whether we’ll still see Narcissus on screen 3.\u00a0 I think I may not have got the absolute coverage right, and this is down to inexperience.\u00a0 However, it’s not critical, and we’ll just work with it.<\/p>\n
The costumes did seem a little rough, and I might take along an iron today, in case they get creased.\u00a0 This, I realise again, is through a lack of communication and time.\u00a0 We really needed a bit more time for the art department, and I should have been a bit more proactive.\u00a0 However, on screen whilst the actors were moving, everything seemed fine, and the costume designer obviously has a sense of how the fabric flows and getting a kind of Greek effect.<\/p>\n
We then went on to shoot Amenius’s death, which he did very well (even keeping his eyes open on the sand – a\u00a0painful thing to do).\u00a0 One mistake I made was not ordering tomato ketchup (blood) as I thought it would be tasteless.\u00a0 I should have given myself the option.\u00a0 Also the point of view of the knife coming\u00a0into the body didn’t work very well (maybe the angle was too wide for the knife to come in close enough to camera), so we may have to shoot this again.<\/p>\n
Today, I’m hoping for a bit of rain for Echo’s scene with Hera, and also that we catch up on the schedule and have time for all the cutaways of the Mawr which will really bring everything to life.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Enough for now<\/p>\n
Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday was the first day’s shoot.\u00a0\u00a0 Other slightly difficult production things, fear of the weather, and also concern because Humphry (cinematographer)\u00a0couldn’t come to the location until lunchtime on the shoot day, and we couldn’t delay the call time (it would have created chaos). \u00a0I therefore had to make sure we were as occupied as possible … <\/p>\n