September 10th 2010
Crikey guys, I've not written for two weeks. Put that down to being totally overwhelmed with the shooting of the film, difficult sequences, a lot of homework, and not being relaxed as the glorious lido has closed for the season, even though there was still some great weather. That still leaves two creature comforts in this desert called Chateau Renault.....the cinema and the cake shops.
But yes the film.....well we have all found that losing Gilles has doubled the pressure, and work, and given me less time for the actual shooting, and things take just that much longer to set up. Actually for some of this last period the crew was just justin and I as Nadia had a terrible car crash, which wrote off her car but so fortunately she is ok, but needed the week off and a few trips to doctors and hospitals. That of course complicated things for us, but under those circumstances we did not grumble.
I wish i had a tape recorder to record my thoughts as i was filming, as I do get flashes of real inspiration and clarity about the technique of how it should work. When I finish the shot, that thought has gone. now these thoughts really would make an interesting and practical book, even if schedules and stuff mean that I can't quite live up to those ideals. Schedules! My own limited ability actually.
Well things are nasty for Cliff at the moment, and that does rub off on me - some shots are quite disturbing to film, but it is racing along, being suitably violent and dramatic. I would like more time to really play with the choreography, and close up lenses with bigger depth of field, so that we can film very close and i can move things without them going out of focus. It's fine me writing 'big close up' in my rather flexible board but the reality is that these are harder to animate, needing more care and time, and more sensitivity to the light and focus, but also with the camera beign so close, I just can't get in. Today it looked as if I was having unnatural relations with the camera as I was quite literally straddling it. The animation was not great. I do prefer my wide shots where the movement is so much more forgiving and focus is not so limiting.
A lot of the action at the moment involves characters touching and grasping each other.....a terribly hard thing to do as, being separate entities, and myself only possessing two hands, you have to move one puppet first and then the other, losing contact in the process. as you join them again, things have shifted. Such a tricky thing. Another hard challenge I have faced on this film is getting up from lying down. This is probably one of the hardest things to animate. A good challenge. Cliff has fallen over so many times, or dropped out of the sky and landed splat, and still he keeps getting up, but oh there is such a tricky moment when you go from kneeling to putting weight on the foot. You need very fluid puppets and to be able to reach the puppet clearly. Today I was trying to do that but Cliff was surrounded by the three shadows. tricky, but having a rather odd quirk helps here. I have two dislocating thumbs, or double jointed thumbs, and I can sort of get them into very odd positions and still have them function. A useful quirk. A third prehensile arm would be even more useful. That would be brilliant actually. And that was one of the bizarre thoughts I had today as I tried to give the impression that Cliff was rising from his haunches to standing. Editing will help, but it is tricky as you have to straighten one leg first, using one hand to hold the foot/body steady, and then the other hand to pull the puppet upright. But you haven't moved the other leg, so you repeat the process, by which time the body has wobbled all over the place. If you had a third hand you could move both legs at the same time, in a nice clean movement upwards.
Actually, with all the compromises and hurdles caused by schedules, technology, mechanics, fatigue, egos, and so forth, it really is amazing that we produce any decent footage.....and we do. This crew is certainly working hard, and hopefully four months from now, we'll have a corker of a film.
I can't pretend I've been the most sociable of people here....I'm not sociable by nature, but with so much pressure I really need time and space just to think about things, the next days' shoot, the choreography, the story, the whole film. I'm not good if I can't do that.
We've been here twelve weeks and whilst I am still excited to be shooting every day, and looking forward to the next sequence, cabin fever has clearly set in, and I do look like a zombie, a bearded long haired zombie. Still I'll be home in four weeks. Just a swim, or a sauna, or a massage, or beans on toast, or a theatre, any of that would help.