Norway IV - David's Photos

Finally I am uploading David's photos from Norway. These are just a sample, but you can divide them into photos of us working, production photos, and photos of the landscape.

All photos by David Boulogne.

Some of us caught working. I think he has flatter us with these, in black and white.














There is something almost primeval in the landscape in black and white, and this gives an almost epic quality to us working here.




















































































































To see this again from the outside, after the intensity of the experience of being so inside...















What we came for. A few scenes as David saw them.













Claire caught in the forest, as she explores in the dusk.













Claire in defeat: she runs into a couple in the wilderness but cannot face them. She hides.













Natalie arrives. She can tell: someone is here.













Claire and Natalie out for a stroll. But Claire won't allow Natalie to own this place. She marches on, leaving Natalie behind.













Claire wonders why Natalie has come to Norway: she listens in on her phone conversation and learns she is here for a liason with a married man.













Claire, now reconciled with her sister, and her past, making her way up the ridge. She has found an equilibrium.













The final scene, Claire working her way into the landscape. She has a part in it.


























She finds the top of the ridge and then works her way into the forest and disappears.

Now some of the location itself, without Claire or a film crew.
All these places exists with out Claire. Have their own life.

Norway III

We had been lucky with the weather. Other than the rain the day we arrived, and a lot of wind the next evening it was generally quite warm, and the sky was mixed with clouds and sun. So my one main worry I had about shooting out of sequence, that there would of different weather as each story day progressed did not come to pass.
That was until the Friday morning when I awoke to hear the rain. Lu and I quickly rescheduled. We had a plan that in such a situation we would black out the cabin and shoot the evening scenes, but now that it was Friday we had shot most of those them. We also needed sun for some of the scenes we had planned to shoot that Friday, and the weather was forecast to be sunny and clear on Saturday. Our original plan was to shoot the travelling day on Saturday, when Claire travels to the cabin. Now it made sense to shoot all of these scenes in the rain. She would arrive on a gloomy and wet day, just like we did. And then the weather would change for her, like it did for us.
So it was out onto the boat, then into the car, with a minimal crew and out onto the highway we had come in on. Since our space was limited we could only take Flora, the actor, Roland for sound, and JC and Ania to deal with the camera. Lu had to stay at the cabin and fret. This day involved a number of sequences, Claire stopped in the car, reading some road signs, stopped at a bridge, watching the river passing by, then a man loading the boat. That had to be me, unfortunately, as we were quickly running out of crew members to put in the film.
Then a few sequences on the boat, of Claire seeing her destination come into view, and the spray off the bow. We left Flora at the cabin to finish a few other sequences in the car, where she was not required, her baggage rattling about on the floor of the car, then the landscape out of the car window. We drove onto the island we had called home, on a small, rough road. Ania and JC set themselves in the back of the car and I had thought to make this shot quite short, but every time I called cut JC and Ania would shout back, 'No! No! This is beautiful. We have to get this. '
By the time we had come to this scene the rain had stopped and the weather was clearing up. This was great as we were scheduled another scene with Katrine, on the deck, after they had come back from a day of hiking. The weather was meant to be clear, and by 4 that afternoon it was.
The oddest thing about this day was David leaving in the afternoon. He had some work on Saturday and we took him to the bus station on the highway as we didn't have the time to take him to the airport. He had such a part of the whole experience it seemed so odd that he wasn't there when we had finished.
We had more evening scenes to shoot Friday, the final scene between Claire and Natalie, and we waited a long time into the evening for the light to go down sufficiently. We needed to shoot out the windows.
There was still one sequence from that travelling day to shoot, when Claire goes into a Norwegian shop and buys some groceries. We had to do that on Saturday morning because Ronny had arranged with the Kiwi shop to do it then. As it turned out the manager there that morning had heard nothing about it, but he let us shoot anyway. I don't think that would've happened in London. So we had a little Norwegian flavour in this shop, Claire at a distance in this new place due to the language.
That Saturday morning it was also rather sad as Katrine and Ania both were leaving, like David both had work, Katrine in Britain, Ania in Poland. After such an intense experience it was hard to imagine not having all these people around when we finished on Saturday afternoon.
But we go on...this time to the beach where we made our second attempt to shoot the swimming sequence. It was beautiful day, and probably due to the tides, and the position of the beach the jellyfish kept their distance. It took a lot of convincing but I finally manged to get Flora into the cold water to complete the sequence. This is with myself up to my waist, and JC and Kendra, who now was in charge of the camera now that Ania had gone, in the water too, with the camera. It had to be to get the shot we wanted.
We finished the afternoon retaking some of the coda sequences, an idea of David's, to think about the same place at different times of the day. Then a return to the cabin to shoot the last of the evening scenes. This one I decided could be done without shooting out the window so that we could do by blacking out the windows.
And so we are ahead of schedule, which means we are free to do whatever we needed, and this had to be going out onto the trail near the cabin and trying to shoot again the final scene, 68, which I described earlier. JC was happier with the weather as there were large clouds which allowed us to play with chance, that in the middle of the scene the light would change. So I walk through the scene again with Flora, climbing up onto the rocks with her, up onto the ridge, through the trees, discussing what we want, how to change the pace, include humour, decisions, chance, an enjoyment at the physical exertion of climbing, the rough textures of the tree bark, the stone, the view from up there.
So we are all happy and Flora does it again. It is better than when we did it previously but it still didn't feel like we were finished. So one more time. And this time it is everything. Flora has captured it, she has I had imagined it, and for JC the clouds cooperate, and we move, 3/4 of the way through the sequence from cloud to sun, but gradually, so that after Flora has disappeared in the trees I don't yet call cut, but watch as the sun comes out and slowly glows on the leaves, and it goes on and on, and the sound of the place seems to increase too, and just when it seemed the scene should be over the roll in the camera was done, it ran out.
That was a wrap. Fantastic, so happy at how it all had gone. Only sad that not everyone was there to share it. We had the evening to think about what we had accomplished.
We had asked Anton to build a BBQ down near the shore, and they had gone into Risor earlier to try to buy some wine. And they came back in shock at the cost of alcohol in Norway. The government wine store was already shut so all they could buy was beer, and the £50 I had given them only bought them 18 tins of beer.
So we had sausage and burgers down on the rocks near the fjord. The weather could not have been better and the smoke seemed to keep the midges away so JC and Roland could relax. For me, with so little sleep and a few glasses of wine in me, I managed to fall asleep right down there, with a glass of wine on my stomach, snoring away, or so I'm told, on the rocks. There is even a photo as evidence.
There is a whole story about Sunday, sending off our first group to the airport, the rest of remaining behind to clean the cabin, then loading the car, Beth driving back, Lu, JC and Roland in the back, sleeping, me in the passenger seat, also sleeping. And then on the plane, all of us sleeping again, and then the cab back from Stansted, JC, Roland and I sharing a cab, caught in a traffic jam at 12pm, again sleeping through most of it. And we are done.
So some photos of everyone from JC. (I am going to save the last post of David's photos alone).













Ania













Anton













Azahara













Beth














Camera girls














David














Flora














Katrine














Katrine and Kendra














Kendra














Lu














Roland














It's a wrap. Flora and Roland at our BBQ the final day.














It's all too much. I can finally catch up on some sleep.

Norway II

Our first shooting day began with a rehearsal of a key scene, 61. This includes a difficult confrontation between Claire and her sister, Natalie. It involved a lot of business (I remembered too late why you avoid scenes involving food), and some throwing of objects. All of us were concerned for a number of things, getting a performance level that was also believable, and still safe. If Flora were to throw things we have to believe them, but she has to have enough control to ensure the safety of Katerine and everyone else on the crew.
In the meantime Lu continued battling the schedule, while Roland went to the airport early to pick up the rest of the crew. I was worried about them as I had cruelly put them on the early flight, which left London at 6:30am. They would have had to get up at 3am to get to the airport and would be coming quite tired, not ideal for an afternoon and evening of shooting. I had asked Lu if it were possible to switch the evening shoot for a rehearsal we had scheduled but she found this was not possible. They had a very long day.
We began by shooting some simple scenes in the cabin, and then in late afternoon hiked to a series of locations near what we called the beach. Here, we began by shooting a scene where Claire and Natalie go out hiking, Claire leaving Natalie behind when she cannot keep up. As we scrambled about in the brush for a shooting position we managed to loose the eye cup for the camera. This was a blow as we imagined trying to put our eyes up against the sharp metal end of the eyepiece for the rest of the week. This was the first and certainly not the only time that Anton became a hero. Later, while we were waiting for the sun to go down he dug up in the brush and found the thing. Anton had come along to help Azahara with the art direction but he also did work shooting making of video, carrying loads up and down the hills, clearing jellyfish from one of our swimming locations, and finally building a BBQ down by the water for our wrap dinner.
We stayed at the beach through the evening. David was back at the cabin and set us dinner by boat. We shot a number of shots, without actors, and then finished the evening by a series of shots of Claire in the forest at night. This was one of three shots where we moved the camera in the film, a tilt down from high in the treetops to Claire at the base of the tree, looking up. Probably the most difficult part were the midges which were attacking everyone but me. As JC tilted the camera down Ania was blowing the midges off his hands.
What else did we find out there? Midges, which made Roland and JC their special victims. Each evening it was good to sidle up to either of them as the midges would leave you for their more delicious flesh. A few mosquitoes, but also ticks. Roland find a one big one on his leg. Lu also found a few on her legs, after she decided to abandon the outdoor toilet for the grass. There mice in the toilet and a few of the girls preferred the outdoors. Now Flora was especially concerned for the jellyfish as of course she was meant to swim in the fjord. They were everywhere, particularly when the tide shifted in certain directions.
The next morning we began shooting Scene 60, where Natalie arrives at the cabin unexpectedly. We had to shoot this scene on the Wednesday, as Ronny, my former flatmate, and the owner of the cabin was leaving that day. He played the Norwegian boatman who delivers Natalie to the cabin.
That evening we did the difficult Scene 61, the confrontation between Claire and Natalie. Flora got up to a performance level and threw a number of things without hurting anyone, while still be believable. And we saw some interesting things in Natalie too. I found finishing this scene a great relief.
I found the next few days a blur. I remember shooting scenes, but cannot place them on days. We spent one afternoon climbing into a valley near the centre of the island we were on. Here we found a number of locations, including the scene where Claire hides from a couple she runs into out on a walk. I had asked Anton to get some video of all of us climbing up the hill and went up on a ridge and captured us, ala Aquirre style, in a long row carrying equipment and provisions.
When we were finished with Flora a small crew stayed behind and we staked out what we called codas. These were stills of the landscape that I have a vague plan to use. The idea has been to create a place that is beyond the world that Claire inhabits, but which she has a part in. This meant we needed to show this world sometimes with her in it, and sometimes without her. It is as if this world has its own story and even its film and were shooting part of it.
We also shot Scene 68, the final shot, in which Claire stands in, moves about in, and finally dissolves into the landscape. This was a critical shot and when we were done I was not convinced we had captured it yet.
We spent evening shooting more interior scenes, scenes between Natalie and Claire, in which they do some actually speaking!
What day was this? I really not sure. Probably Lu could tell us.
Everything was going to schedule until I woke once again far too early on Friday morning. It was raining hard and we had planned to shoot a number of key outdoor scenes. Before we even had breakfast Lu had rescheduled.
More on that in the next post, but a few photos from Beth, who not only did make-up but managed to capture these at the same time. I will save David's photos for a final Norway post.














Katrine, and Flora on their way to the location. Roland fills up the car.
















Our location, with required Norwegian flag.


















I think this was our first shot. Natalie goes through some childhood toys and books.

















JC and Ania, our first camera assistant.
















The location we named the beach. We shot a number of scenes here and nearby.














Flora and David, with Ania in the background, on their way back from the beach on the first day of shooting.














Anton and Roland in the boat wrangling the jellyfish. After an hour there still more coming and we had to rethink how we would shoot this scene. JC, Ania and myself discuss shots that would never be.
















In the location we called the valley. Lu stands by ready to organise us. Kendra, the 2nd camera assistant waits for me and JC to make up our minds.

Norway location - I

We returned late last night from Norway.
It all seem so strange, almost surreal to be back here in London after such an intense week. I am not sure when it will sink in, perhaps tomorrow when I meet JC at iLab to see the rushes.
It couldn't have gone any better.
First the location was magnificent. Arriving, I could only worry. As we were loading the car at Torp Airport the skys opened up and in continued to rain off and on during the drive to Risor and throughout Sunday. Ronny met us in the Kiwi shop, which featured later in the week, and led us down to the small marina where we loaded up the small fishing boat to take us to the cabin. It was an experience sitting on that small boat, puttering down the fjord, the low cloud hanging down in the distance. As we unloaded the boat an omen. The plastic buckle on the transport tube decided it had enough and gave way just as Roland was passing it onto the dock. Suddenly the tall legs and head were in the fijord and miraculously floated there long enough for us to fish them out. The new sound barney also bobbed about there before Ronny noticed it next to the boat.
So after warming up a bit, and having a little lunch we began to scout the area, Ronny leading the way down Barmen Island, along a small ridge, where they had cut the trees to make way for the electricity lines. JC and I stopped constantly, looking down our viewfinders, thinking how this might do for that. We ended up near a small beach, next to a small grove of trees. We had seen these locations on the video that Ronny had made up for us in May. We agreed that this area had a lot of potential.
We went back where we came, past the cabin, on the same trail in the other direction, this time heading back towards Risor. We find a lot of interesting locations here too, but because this part of the trail makes its way over part of the small mountain that make up the island, it was quite treacherous. Tricky enough in the wet, really difficult when carrying camera kit. We returned, now thoroughly soaked and hungry. It wasn't just the rain, but the tall grass, which drenched your trouser legs, and filled your shoes with water.
That night Ronny started a fire and we attempted to dry our sodden trousers, socks, boots and jackets. We had bought plenty of whisky at the duty-free, and began to discuss what we might do.
We had most of the next day to return to these same locations. We had also decided to climb up into another valley that led further into the island, which we had seen on our return journey.
I was awoken by a light being shone into the cabin window behind my head at 5 in the morning. This was the sun, just coming through the clouds which had begun to clear. It was very windy, but we were lucky, as the rain had stopped. Roland took up his sound kit and went off on his own, while David, JC, and I returned to the beach, then into the valley. David would go ahead, while JC and I would discuss various possibilities. It was great way to work, with David able to stand back, not concerned with practical matters, just offering ideas, and also taking a lot of photographs at the same time.
That afternoon Roland, with a few boat lessons from Ronny, went to pick up Lu, our 1st Ad, who was going to keep us on track through the week. We stood on the deck watching the boats come down the fjord. Was that them coming now? We couldn't tell as the water was so rough all you could see was the spray. Settled in, I laid out what we had decided so far to her, while David made us a Spaghetti Bolognese. She had a tough job. I had created a schedule before we left that basically worked in the scene order. I wanted the days to match in light and weather, and with the long Norwegian days this was very possible, but this plan didn't account for the half hour treks over rough terrain which were required now that we had settled on some locations. The next morning she locked herself in one of the rooms and sweated over a new schedule.
That night Roland returned to the airport to pick up Beth, make-up, and the two actors, Flora (as Claire), and Katrine (as Natalie). We were quite worried as it was still very windy and there plane came in quite late. As the evening passed we hadn't heard from them and it was now dark. Finally Flora called from Roland's phone. They were just getting on the boat and said it was all very exciting. JC and I went down to the dock with the torches and tried to indicate the way by flashing them into the dark fjord. There were no lights on the boat or on the dock. Finally we saw them and they all landed safely. It was nearly one o'clock and we had a rehearsal first thing in the morning while the rest of the crew arrived. We retired. It was going to be a long day. More on that, plus some photos to come...

Just more pre-production...

What can you say about pre-production? Well, I feel that we are lot more organised than when we went into Holloway Road. Principally that is because we have Lu and Rob running around like mad trying to sort everything out for Norway. This includes tasks such as sorting out a shower for the cabin, sleeping bags, finding out where the nearest hospital is, and so on.
I am trying to stay from this stuff, as I do have the directing/writing bit to do. In the past, when I went without any help with pre-production I ended up a complete wreck by the time we started the first day of shooting. Not good.
Yesterday evening JC and I sat in the garden and worked on the shot list. Lu is keen for us to get on with it so she can sort out a finalised schedule, but we are still working out the visual language of this segment. How do we shoot this part? How is different? The same? This question goes back to my first post in this blog, oh, so long ago.
A lot of work, but the rehearsals and this part have been the most satisfying part of the process.
I will post again before we depart...

Pre-production/Norway - update

I haven't had a lot of time to breathe since we finished our first location on Holloway Road. I had a free weekend and then I was off to Cannes. I had never been before and spent most of time figuring which cinema was which.
Then I was back into pre-production for Norway. Shooting is scheduled from June 22-29th. JC, Roland, and I will travel out on the 22nd and do some scouting of the location. Rob will probably join us to help get everything set up. The actors will join us Monday evening and we will rehearse Tuesday. Shooting starts on the Wednesday morning, with an extremely tight schedule, beginning at 9am, finishing every night at 10:30pm.
Conditions will be challenging, as there is no shower, so we will have construct one of our own. The cabin only sleeps 7 and we will probably be 11, so a few of us will be sleeping in tents. We will have to share the cooking duties in the evening, and if we are lucky should manage to BBQ a few nights.
We have a new crew member on board, Lu, who came and helped us one day in Holloway Road. She will take over 1st AD duties from Rob who will not be able to be with us the whole time.
In the meantime preparations continue. Yesterday I spend the day with Flora and Katrine going over parts of the latest script. Today Azahara met up with Katrine to buy costumes, while Lara spent the day trying to find props. In the afternoon I met Rob, Lu, JC and Hu for a production meeting.
Very exciting, I have to say. One photo of our location.

Photos - Holloway Road location

This is all very exciting. David dropped off the photos from the Natalie segment this past Sunday. I won't say too much except how fantastic they all look. This is why you have a real photographer.
Looking at these made me realise how much we managed to accomplish in 3 days.
All photos by David Boulogne.













It all starts with planning...My friend Rob tries to keep it organised as Azahara tries to track the art direction.













Hmmm.













Perhaps we should start here?













I am not sure JC has ever lit the inside of a refrigerator before.













Hu measures them up...













Flora and I talk about it. Here Claire has moved into the flat and is becoming part of the place.













Notice the flatness of the light and colour. JC went low-key to work with the location and the story. Nothing big except those earrings.













Claire's sees Nick for the first time. He thinks it is Natalie in the flat.













The morning after Claire has let Nick in. The relationship begins.














David has managed to make a lot better than I felt. Here I tried to work through exhaustion to explain myself again.













That's us. Roland was so much happier here than at the test shoot. Double glazing and a well-built flat.














Nick wonders who was at the door, and finds it odd that she refuses to say.













Because we know that it is her friend Sophie down below wondering what she is doing with her life. Here Emma, as Sophie, seems very far away.














A view from Natalie's bedroom window.

Shooting update - segment 1

A short note as I am still recovering from the 3-day shoot this past weekend.
It all went very well. I cannot complain about anything except a little more time would've been nice. The camera performed brilliantly except for a rattle where the mag attached to the camera. We are getting that looked at.
Yesterday JC and I went to iLab to see the rushes. They looked for beautiful. Fuji film was very impressive, especially the 250T, which picked up a lot more detail in the shadows than we imagined. You could really see why you shoot film. Latitude. We could've been bolder and taken a lot more chances with the film than we did. I guess we are too used to shooting video.
David was shooting stills on the Sunday and Monday so when he sends me a selection I will post them along with a lot more detail.
Thanks to everyone who worked with me on this first segment. And thanks to Vaugn at iLab and the people at Fuji for helping us out.

The test

So, this past Tuesday we shot our first test. The test part revolves around the aspect ratio, 2:1, relative to a fairly fast film, 250D corrected for tungsten. Grainy, yes, but how grainy? We took advantage of the situation to try to also grab Scene 14, check out the camera, and generally just get up to speed for the our first location on May 9th-12th.
Tomorrow JC comes over to test another stock, 160T, but this will be a more conventional test of all the lenses, etc.
And pre-production for the May9th-12th weekend continues.
Some photos from the test...












Katrine (playing Natalie) gets some make-up from Beth.

















JC (standing) and Hu set up the camera. This is very exciting as this is the first time I have used this camera, which I bought back in the autumn.



















And then the first position, on the street. A difficult situation. We are not certain we managed to get any good sound from here, with all the traffic, sirens, and airplanes.













Here Roland looks a little happier as we set up the second position, away from the street, where we should get some useful sound.
Azahara, art direction, is on the left.



















Hu does that camera thing.















Just setting up the second position, while...



















...Flora (Claire) tries to put on a brave face in the rain and cold.
We were fortunate as the rain, which had been coming and going all afternoon long paused while we grabbed these two shots. An hour after we dropped the heavens opened up again.