Posts on Jan 1970

Lenore Diaries (Test Shots 1 & 2)

Today was a day I wished I learnt Taichi.
Today I also learnt that Lenore’s song played 10x slower is
1) a 40minute track
2) a creepy banshee yell
3) a creepy banshee yell is what the cast and crew seemed to like better

Today was a day I had to move V-e-r-y, v—e—r—y. s—l—o—w—l—y.

I had no idea what digital, stop start motion with live action figures involved till this very day. So I now have a new found respect for Corpse Bride…at this point think claymation with live action figures.

First half hour involved director Tahnee teaching me how to move in digital still world. One WRONG move and you will have to start again, and incur the wrath of the DOP (director of photography) Callan Green, who’s credits include LOTR. A little awe-struck…must ask about Golem.

So here it was…at take 101st when I decide to fend off a mosquito that kamikaze-ed into my mouth.

“:WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!”
“ermm…sorry, bug, mouth…had to bat it off. Sorry…I remember where I was at though.. (hastily adjusting to pre- mosquito batting position)

please don’t kill me”

“ok…moving closer closer….toward the camera…eyeball it…ARGH!! That’s a Bug move Muh-ate!! Ok look here look at my finger…F-O-L-L-O-W ut…” ( Callan is upset that I moved my eyeball 1cm too quickly..)

I’m thinking we’ll get along just fine. Me and Mr Cranky Pants Kiwi. 😛

Today’s test shoots happen because we all needed to get used to the alternate world of digital stills. The actors need to learn the meaning of slow, and the crew learns the painful truth that a 10-minute shoot amounts to 5 seconds of real time footage.

We also learn that USB 1.0 is a big no NO if you want to do lots of data transfer. It is retarded and painful. 20 mins to dload 2GB of data is just medieval by today’s standards.

Days that followed before the shoots are becoming a blur. More tech shoots more tech meetings, more rehearsals with Tahnee. Some highlights include:

Taking a walk into Sydney with the production team and taking various pan away shots. (Callan was, rest of us watched and added our 2 cents worth)

Watching the Test shots being put together, know that they rock and that the real go is going to be even BETTER.

Meeting the costume design department , Tahnia and Karmen, and shopping. Shopping was interesting. I’ve never walked into a shoe shop with more than 1 person involved in the purchase, yesterday…there were 5….a little bewildered at all the attention – I’m sure the store owner was too.

More later folks. Mid season allergies setting in. come 9pm, my body’s awake but the temp change in the season is resulting in pus filled eyes and a gradually swelling face. Think I’ll go sleep the change off..my body is attempting self destruction at my inconvenience.

Welcome to the land of too much information….

I'm your lost Lenore

Mild disaster. Recovering. Still it’s resulting in a delay of the Vid clip. Lenore has turned out to be quite a destructive force. Currently dead or missing

1 editor (missing)
1 new 200Gb LaCie Hard Drive (dead)
1 PowerBook G4 17-inch (near death experience-back and well from apple shop)

and counting…

I’m remembering scenes from Lost in La Mancha and feeling a mild sense of empathy. Mild..I said. Situation is not quite that bad.

The last 2 weekends were spent converting files to the correct specs for the Vid clip. You see, the one external drive that had all the converted files died before we could even get a back up happening. The previous conversion took a week and the half. With time running out, some very desperate people (us) took a day this time.

Then of course we thought the ordeal was over, until we had to do another 2 conversions just to get the specs right. For all 17000 pictures.

It’s looking now that the Vid clip won’t be added to the CD. A bit of a bummer but I will make the clip freely available on my site and various others for download once it is done. And it will, we’re looking at end of May at the moment, amongst all things. The crew is working hard.

Here are the 3 days of the shoot I finally got around to doing and illustrating.

For the next 3 days I am scheduled to

.bitch fight
.go underwater in my best pants
.Brave evil kids
.Attend Evil kid party
.Follow evil kid

Footnote :This clip has many evil kids.

Day 1 (Finally)

Barely slept. I had a weird dream about dancing with ballerina piglets, one of them was barking orders at me to get off stage and her name was Delta Goodrem. Dreams are beautiful things.

Met at Matt’s place. Dog tired. Hope my energy levels hold up. I see Lissette (wardrobe dept) walking in with costumes. Here we go….let’s follow the white rabbit.

Matt’s sister, Marie who has kindly provided catering for the crew has already got breakfast going. Goody goody gumdrops…I forgot to feed.

Actresses for the Asian Triad showdown scene have arrived. I’m trying to get friendly when I get hauled off to make up dept. Shooting begins in an hour so…eek…

Janine (make up) is a tad nervous. Debbie can’t make it for the first day of shoots so Janine’s pretty much got to hold the fort. I don’t know but from the looks of things she pulled through in fine style.

I also like working with her because she doesn’t threaten to shave me…☺

Here’s some of her work for the day. Then of course, now I am well ahead of myself.

Back in beginnings of Day 1…

Tech dept was promptly set up on a nearby store front after we selected an alleyway in Redfern.

This was the alleyway of the shoot…

Complete with public control messages.

Matt (producer’s) production company is called Enchanter. Found a little sign for him too…

Since it is a public arena, we pretty much have to stop what we are doing every time the public uses the alleyway. It also means that sometimes I have to freeze mid motion, balancing on 1 leg, funny face frozen and eyes fixed. To make things even more interesting, sometimes the public stops to investigate the set and make small talk to the crew, despite an obviously frozen one-legged actress. One little old lady even stopped mid set, and in her infinite kindness…offered us pot.

This is when I want to nuke the entire human population.

The rest was pretty much a blurry occurrence. Interesting to end back up as a school girl again. I fought so hard to get out of institutions…now it’s back to pleasant memories.

Midday, alleyway scenes are done with Jamie keeping tight reins on time. Next location: Mandarin Club.

The walk to the Mandarin Club is a memorable one. I’m in full Geisha make-up and walking down the street. I try to act like everyone else is crazy…a lot easier than I thought it would be.

The crew meanwhile had already been there for an hour and the half setting up the lights.

High speed lenses were used for this scene, which meant that to actually see my face I had to keep absolutely still. Most memorable shot sequences included having a fan follow you right through the restaurant to keep wind levels and hair flying effects while Callan attempts his photography magic.

By mid-day and in the 3rd location change, I am ready to chew my high heeled boots off or my legs. It didn’t make a difference by then.

Then of course I end the day by lying face-up in a kiddy pool, pretending to be utterly relaxed about not breathing, while Callan (photo) and Tahnee (director) work their magic. Feeling tortured and pampered at the same time as Tarnia struggles to keep the ice-cold water warm with multiple hot water refills …valiant effort for a 13-14 degree autumn night.

Many face angles later, day 1 is finally over. I can now drown in peace

Day 2

Days have a knack of blending into each other after a while. When you are filming it’s mostly waiting….

Waiting for make up, waiting for make up to be whacked on by Debbie’s make up army, waiting for your turn to be on the set, waiting waiting waiting…that’s why you bring a book.

Then it helps that the location (Strickland house) is really a pretty place. We learn that we are shooting at the nursing quarters… These are the views.

Then it’s always interesting to hear stories on the set. i.e, apparently on the set of Superman 2, some kids stole a whole bunch of walkie talkies from the crew . Crew gets replacements but forgets to change frequency on the walkie talkies – proceeds to try an co-ordinate one of the most expensive shoots of the film. Kids tune into existing frequencies yelling random orders of “Cut!!’ “Cancel!” “Action” through the frequencies.

After a night of being arsed around, painful enlightenment re: frequency issues.

Back at Lenore’s Today is the day of the evil kids scene. This is where Jamie, the 1st assistant director, becomes a little bit of a child psychiatrist to get the best acting out of the little kiddies.

Basically, he gets me to stand behind the camera and yells. “Kids! This is a really bad person. She’s evil, hate her hate her HATE her!! YAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Under Jamie’s hate regime…the kids go

Most of the non shooting time was spent in the make-shift Tech department made of an overturned table and watching the pictures run together. They were looking good.

Day 2 pretty much ended with kids scenes. Daylight was creeping out of our reach by then.

God’s weather control dept was being a bastard.

Day 3

Last of the days…time running short and we have to be finished, packed and leave Strickland house by 7.30pm. But by this time the crew’s getting pretty chummy with each other.

Then of course, this means it’s harder and harder to keep a straight face when everyone around you is heaping on their share of wise cracks.
The whole crew had by then promised each other to get absolutely sloshed at the end of the shoots.

We all had something to look forward to…I’m going to skip the shoots for today because they would pretty much reveal too much of the plot and spoil it for everyone…so there.

This was our last scene. Shot amidst rising panic, air tight time schedules, a cranky camera and a gradually panicking crew. We got it in, every last planned shot.

Now it’s to spend month in the edit suite. Where Lenore will proceed to kill off human resources and hard drives as a warning shot and adds yet another month to the post production schedule.

Wish us luck.