Daily shooting diary - Day 12: WHATEVER COMES OF IT

It was supposed to be the most difficult day of the shoot. It was the most difficult day of the shoot. We had to shoot all of the Café Teatro Picasso scenes in a single day, and with limited time to do so, having vertigo seemed like the least of our problems.

Giuseppe was pretty nervous and more demanding than ever. And since we all had a tendency to absorb osmotically the emotions and feeling of the people around us, the whole crew ended up nervous. I would walk down the hallway and find Babeth humming Mozart or some chamber music. I think I even saw her position her hands like she was chanting, at some point.

Our make-up department had their work cut out for them. They had to turn Manuel Tello and Joseph into drag queens, while having just finished doing their make-up as men. Oh, and aside from retouching Jasp’s make-up along with all the other extras that had been called in to serve as the audience members in the bar. Gerard Valdivia being one of them (who never failed), and Adamo (whom I kept imagining filming a scene of our own back at his place), along with a few students from the Nancy Tuñon Academy.

Turning Josep into Coco Champagne was no easy task (do you remember the pump incident a few nights back?) Only this time the make-up department had the honor of applying make-up to just about every part of his body, even catching a glimpse of his own brush. They were also under strict orders from Giuseppe to find a foundation color that complimented his skin tone perfectly, and dulled down any trace of masculinity, but not too well, because he was supposed to still be new to this drag queen business. They also needed to get some wax to cover up his eyebrows, (because plucking was completely out of the question) so they could then turn him into a star.

Josep also had a little problem with his bosom; it seemed to be sagging a bit for his taste, but Iván quickly put his mind at ease when he mentioned that Ana Obregón had the same problem. Ruth and Xenia worked on Joseph’s face while Ivan worked on all the extras (I keep trying to tell you that boy has skills).

Marcus showed up for a visit. I guess it’s only natural he’d want to watch his fictional son perform (On stage, people. On stage.)

Manuel Tello paced back and forth on stage going over his monologue. Matias, the theatre owner,  kept trekking back and forth between the stage and the make-up station, making sure that everything was ok, that nobody needed anything, and most importantly, that we were on schedule.

We began the shoot at the bar with Jasp, where Ruth served as an extra. Matias, served her a drink when she hadn’t asked for one (movie magic, I suppose).  Once we’d finished the bar scene, we had a bite to eat. The next scene was in the theatre where we were going to shoot Manuel’s monologue. I could tell he was nervous because he kept forgetting a few of his lines, even though he was in character.  He was so in character, in fact, that when he came on stage he just started improvising and, well, bravo for the best adapted screen play, and whatever comes of it. Because while it was certainly well within character, it wasn’t necessarily on par with what was going on. I’m not the one doing the editing, so I don’t really sweat it. But I’d love to see how they’re going to put this one together from what they’ve shot.

While we waited for Coco to appear (the real Coco -- the choreographer) Giuseppe decided to capture a little audience reaction shots as if Manuel were still on stage. I’d never seen people so dedicated to a scene.  They’d just hear Giuseppe yell “action” , or “maricón”, or  “what I just said” and they’d start laughing their asses off as if someone had literally just told a gut splitting joke. It was fabulous.

Roberto Picasso, who’d been in hair and make-up for a few minutes, served as our MC for the evening’s show. All of our hard work and nervous energy was well rewarded when we finally saw Josep/LLUÍS/Coco Champagne take the stage and perform. Still wobbling a little on those heels, we took out a few scenes where he’d need to come down some stairs, and then cheated the height of a few things to accommodate him. The end result; however, was pretty spectacular. Definitely one of the scenes I’m looking forward to the most in the final product.

We raced against the clock to finish the last scene in the dressing room, and this time it was Matias himself serving as his own extra.

I’d never been more glad to hear the words “ that’s a wrap for the night.” , than I did that evening. Tomorrow is supposed to be another difficult shoot. We’re shooting TONI in the bar O.M.  Juan will be our DP for that. It’s a good start for the series, I must say. In such a dark time, we’ll see where it ends up shining.

Cenzo Álvarez De Haro - Translated and adapted by: Norman Giovanni Zelaya