Norway II Report

We returned from Norway late on Friday night and I think I have recovered enough to make sense of it all.
It did not start well. We made it to the airport in good time but were shocked to see how many people were at Stansted at that time in the morning. Sorting out the baggage was complicated but finally we managed and were told by Ryanair that we had enough time. We went through security, picked up a few things at the Chemist and went to the gate...and the plane was gone. It had left a few minutes early and we were a few minutes late. Essentially the long lines in security plus the crowded Stansted trains delayed us enough we missed it. So now what to do? Ryanair would put us on the next plane for £100 each. What a deal! This was hard to stomach considering all those people were there because Ryanair tries to get out so many planes at the time in the morning. Why reassure us we had plenty of time when they know very well we did not? If we had ran to the gate we would've made it.
After adding the costs of this fee against flying the next day but having to include the baggage costs, plus most importantly missing another day of shooting I decided to swallow this fee. There was a lot of messing around, first retrieving the luggage, then getting new boarding passes and checking the luggage again, going through security again, etc. All the while Flora is quite ill. Is this going to be a complete disaster?
Finally we airborne, Flora is at least able to sleep a little, as do we. All of us only had 4 hours sleep, if that. We land at Torp, buy as much wine and beer as we can carry, knowing the cost of alcohol in Norway, retrieve all of our luggage, and then wait while Roland gets the rental car. Another problem: EuropaCar has given our car away. We were more than three-hours late. They have another car, but it costs more than the one we rented and we have to make up the the difference. This is even more incredible than the Ryanair situation. We have already paid for the car. They would not lose anything regardless how late were were and they could've still rented the more-expensive car to the other customer. Apparently poor service from this company is not unusual.
Finally we are on the road and arrive in Risor in two hours. We do a little grocery shopping, load the boat and putter down the fjord. We settle in, eat some lunch, and then while Flora sleeps the rest of us, that is JC, Roland, and Lara and I, go out to reccy some of the locations that are away from the cabin. The weather is warm, with cloud and sun. The beach area is beautiful at that time of day. We probably need to do 2/3rds of our shooting here in the sun, but the weather forecast is not promising. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday shows rain with periods of cloud. Sun is only forecast for Wednesday. Can we do all this on Wednesday?
After dinner, with Roland and Lara sharing most of the cooking duties, I make my plan.
We will shoot the arrival scene on Tuesday. This is essentially a development of Claire's arrival at the cabin. I had struggled to show Claire's relationship to her past, with a set of mementoes that she carries with her throughout the film, even bringing them along to show to Sophie in one scene, but this idea was never clear to anyone. I finally realised that the past is already represented in Claire's return to the cabin in Norway, and that we required more detail here. How does she see the cabin? How does she approach the cabin? What does she do while she is waiting for nightfall? How does she break-in? Why does she wait until night-fall to break-in? How does she feel when she gets in? For continuity this is meant to happen in the rain.
On Wednesday we then had the unenviable task of trying to capture all the sun material in one day. We started by a couple of pickups, Claire seeing Natalie sunbathing out on the lawn. Of course Katrine, who plays Natalie was with us in Norway, so we cheated her presence by dressing Flora in some Natalie-like clothing.
Once that was complete we moved by boat to the beach area which was to be our base for the day. I have wanted to simplify the Norway segment by establishing some clear geographical locations, which partly meant showing Claire making her to the beach. I wrote a new scene to follow in the final part where we find Claire after she leaves her sister at the cabin, which we shot in the thick forest at the base of a ridge. We also developed the beach scene itself, and then the scene where she goes hiking with Natalie. Again, we cheated one shot by shooting from the neck down, and putting Lara into Natalie's jacket and scarf.
That brought us to around 7pm, the sun was fading and we were exhausted. We returned to the cabin and had a few beers out by the water, knowing that this might be best day we had and we needed to enjoy it.
We also later found that in tramping about in the forest we had managed to attract a large number of tics. Nasty little things. I had one on my neck, and two in the crotch. Everyone else was afflicted as well. We sat in the kitchen in our pants, checking each other thoroughly with a bicycle-lamp, and removed the little parasites. Roland now doubled as sound man and tick-removalist-specialist.
On Thursday, once the rain stopped in the afternoon we decided to return to the beach area and picked-up a few of the shots we missed on Wednesday. We shall have to see if we are able to change the colour-temperature of these shots to match the other material.
Friday was the same, except that Flora was now feeling well enough to go swimming in the fjord with Roland.
As we were loading the boat at 5pm, getting ready to leave, the sun came out again. It looked beautiful, but was too late to help us.
JC brings in the footage tomorrow and we shall see the results on Thursday. That's the next post.