emotional drainage

Today i have become very aware of how sexual and how violent this film actually is. Not only is there a scene of Henry shooting a load in the shower, and of Paola in the bathtub, but right now they are up there making love and he is painting on her body.

Yesterday we filmed that scene where the ex slaps her in the stairway. Listening to multiple takes of that quick scene was disturbing to say the least, and eventually I got so tired of hearing the screams and wanted to yell out "stop! no mas!"

Today they filmed the ex destroying her apartment and beating her up. The make-up artists applied bruises to her lip and eye. Tomorrow we are going to shoot Henry and his alter ego Diff beating up and possibly killing the ex.

Earlier today, after the violent-ex-husband-scene we had a lunch/dinner break. I was sharing the elevator down with Rafi (director) and Mariana (Paola) and both looked so emotionally wrecked. They can't just snap out of character.

sitting under the tent across from the table where Oscar (Henry) sat, I looked over to find him staring intently at me. I looked back, thinking he was playing a game, but it turns out he was just zoned out in my direction. I started making faces at him for quite some time, and he never even noticed although he was staring straight at me. He was completely out of this world.

Frank (Diff, the alter ego) performed today for the first time. He was nervous last night and didn't get any sleep. He's been acting for 10 years but this role is the most important to him because of the complexity of the character. The scene today consisted of Paola sleeping on the couch, post-beat-up, and Diff finds the wallet of the ex husband and finds out where he's staying and convinces Henry to seek revenge. Diff is this cool character, taller than Henry by what seems like a foot thanks to amazing costume design. He swaggers like Captain Jack sparrow, and he's even slightly out of it, playing with props and being aloof. But he's really bad ass and plays with fire and smokes cigarettes and wears all black and a tint of red. Anyway, after the shoot I congratulated him on being awesome, because it was such an amazing performance (once again) and he shrugged and said he felt like shit. He always feels like shit after a shot, but only to guarantee room for improvement.

I think that's really sad, but hopefully before filming is over I can hear him say that he nailed it.

Despite the heavy content matter, or maybe because of it, the energy on the set is amazing. I get so excited to watch the monitors and see what the cameras are seeing. It's an amazing feeling to see everything falling into place. And it's not just me that thinks its falling into place. After a scene is done, there is applause. we got the shot, it's perfect. we're all so excI ited that its turning out so great.

Until I talked with my aunt about it today, i thought it was normal for that sort of energy to be present on a film set. i thought it was only natural to identify so much with the film that you are helping to produce. However it turns out that this is a unique film where everything is simply meant to be. The elevator doors pop open at just the right time. the camera men all have great composition. the lighting technicians have an intuitive knowledge of setting the mood, the actors are investing all of their energy into their roles, and everybody else is extremely meticulous about their respective jobs. I don't think I could have landed a better experience for my first movie! I am so blessed.

This post doesn't include any pictures because i already blogged today. These were just my thoughts concerning the theme of the film and the experience of the actor and director. Feel free to view my flickr if you're in the mood for some visual stimulation.

Day 2

12 hours later I am done. We spent the day unloading a truck to make space to load things to go on set, then unloading it at our location, and then loading everything back onto the truck that we didn't use, and then going to another location, and unloading everything there. 

And despite that description, it was very fun! The first 4 hours sucked because I was hungry, but as soon as we ate, I began to have fun decorating a crazy mans' apartment. I was too shy to take my camera to my first day at work, but I really regretted it.

The artist character, the lead male, is a schizophrenic artist. He has hallucinations of his alter ego and is a little bit obsessive compulsive. He collects newspapers, magazines, and for some odd reason we had to stack boxes very high up to create a wall. I guess the unexplainable will read "crazy" on screen. 

the color scheme of his house is a faint yellow. It is subtle to me, because it is real-life, but on screen I think the yellow will become very evident, especially since scenes will cut drastically from a blue toned apartment to a yellow toned apartment. 

I had quite a bit of range in terms of decorating, and that is the main reason it was fun. The artist not only has a closet full of newspapers and magazines, but he likes collecting vintage retro knick knacks. Although the placement of retro items was very subtle, that is another thing that I hope the camera catches. 

I am very happy to be working on a film with a bunch of artists. Even the carpenters and handy workers are into stage design and do this kind of setting up for a living. I met a few dozen more people today, such as the location manager and the people from the story boards. Their workspace gave me an idea for what the film would look like, and I suddenly liked it so much more. 

Maybe everybody who works on a film ends up feeling like their working on their little baby, and if that is so, it's a shame that so many movies turn out shitty! Hopefully that won't be the case here. 

Towards the end of the day I met the lead actor and actress. They weren't at all what I'd imagined, but they would do :P I'm sure they will grow on me. They were very friendly, but I imagined them to look crazier, darker. I hope they're good actors.

We worked on the blue squatt-place of the lead actress for a little bit. I arranged elaborate candles and decided that she should be ueber sensual. Since it is her home, and I felt quite at home in her fictional home, I did with it what I would have done in reality. I don't know if my coworkers thought I was crazy, as they were doing functional things, but I was busy putting minute details that probably will not be picked up by the cameras. We'll see. 

After I was done, my aunt was still in a meeting and  I was hungry again, so I went to subway alone. There I ran into the two twin artists who were making the art for the fictional artist, and I ate a pizza while they ate their sub and wrap and I seized the opportunity to interview them. They work collaboratively, and I asked them if they ever fought and they admitted to doing so, but they know each others ideas so well and they know each other so well that they manage just fine despite it. I asked them all the stereotypical twin questions, and they gave reasonable Nurture over Nature arguments for intuition. 

They had been painting ever since before they can remember (must be before 3, which is when autobiographical memory kicks in :P) They're mother is an art teacher, and the supplies were always around, just like piano and tennis were always around for me. They went to art school in Puerto Rico and studied the plastic arts. They do more than just paint, such as body painting (oh i hope they do tattoos because I would totally get one!) and other performance arts. This is their first film debut and they want to get into more Avant Garde stuff. That's very exciting for me, because I do too. It's about time for another movement.  20s, 40s, and the 00s! Part of me hopes for a 3rd world war, since these movements happen right after it. Maybe the size of the current war is just about enough to spark that impulse. 

On a side note:

Subways have pizza here! And breakfast! I think that's just swell, but Bob may say "the subway I used to work at sold pretzels, hot dogs, pizzas, popcorn, and all sorts of crap!" but I'll still say "it's cool that they sell pizza in the subways in puerto rico."