Saturday, March 5, 2011

Daily shooting diary - Day 15: IVÁN’S TEARS

Today would be our last day shooting at Juan Carlos’ place. We set up the make-up station in TONI’s room, but ran into a little lighting problem, to which Babeth (naturally) came to the rescue. She set up a few lamps, and voila we were back in business. 
Today was going to be Milca’s day. Not only was she going to get to show off her belly (having little Jan make a cameo before he’s born) but she’d also have to endure watching her wife make out with Mireia…and shoot a full on love scene. Because apparently that’s what two women do when they’re in love. Or so I’ve been told.
Before that torture (for Milca, of course) we went back into the kitchen, where the image of Toni Duque making that glorious pot of coffee yesterday,  was still emblazoned in our minds. Today; however, we had TONI (IvánYáñez) making us breakfast in his bathrobe.  We’d already shot TONI’s morning scene -- Where he’s woken up by his alarms, and we had to set the alarm clock to sync up perfectly to go off with his cell phone. Ugh - and it went swimmingly. We could tell he’d be practicing. Even his breakfast scene with ALICIA had gone well; except for forgetting which side of the screen he kept putting the fuit juice bottle. Luckily we caught it in time and it was no biggie.
We then moved on to the kissing scene between Mireia and Babeth (Milca raged), but Mireia was pretty excited because she’d specifically signed up for the project because she’d be able to play a lesbian character, and this was her maiden voyage into kissing a girl; and like Katy Perry: she liked it. The scene was hot, I must say. They really pulled it off, and then Babeth took care of Milca with more than a kiss. Then Alberto, the extra in the afternoon, came in to kiss TONI, so everyone was happy and we made our way out into the terrace where Juan Carlos had once again prepared something delectable.
Luis and Akiras were checking the lighting, and Mireia was practicing how to get into bed with her prosthetic on. It was time for Milca and Jan to shine. With a bit of hesitation, Milca undressed and let us see little Jan in front of the cameras, before climbing into bed.
The ladies needed a little privacy, so we cleared the room of anyone that wasn’t essential to the scene. Ivan Yañez made a few jokes as he parted, to which Babeth told him to shove it where the sun don’t shine, and instantly retracted the statement because she realized he’d probably like that. There were a few other exchanges, but I won’t get into it here. Sufficed to say that part of it was in the script, so you’ll see it on screen.
Apparently the screenwriter isn’t essential to the scene, and I wasn’t privy to it, if only to script supervise. Just outside of camera range, Milca paced back and forth checking to see where the hands were at all times, while the rest of us took the time to have a snack and chain-smoke.  Alberto and Iván took a moment to get better acquainted (or was it reacquainted) for their up coming kissing scene.  The scene after that; however, was an emotional and bad encounter between TONI and MONTSE. Ivan Yañez had prepared this scene for months. He knew it inside out. But today he’d blanked.
All that accumulated tension, and the stress of full on production weren’t helping any. Plus, this would be his last scene of the series, and he’d have to square off with his acting coach, Babeth, with whom he’d been rehearsing all of his scenes.
We went over the script, and Giuseppe went over the choreography with them. We started rolling, but Iván couldn’t get it together; at least not at first. Then, almost as if a light had gone off in his head, it all came rushing back to him like a Celine Dion song: “It’s all coming back to me, back to me now…” you could practically hear coming out of his ears, and then the flood gates opened and he laid it all out on the table for the world to marvel. All the pent up emotion and anger, rage, and nerves exploded into an unrepeatable performance that left us all holding our breath. It was magnificent; A true Tour de Force. When the scene was over the room erupted in cheers and applause. Andrea and I couldn’t even look at each other we were so worked up. It was as intense, if not more so, than the scene between ÁLEX and IVÁN (Rafa).
We took a minute to compose ourselves before we could shoot a few pick up shots, and Iván excused himself to the terrace where he could let out the last of his tears.
The day ended completely on schedule, and performances worthy of any acting prize one can imagine. Even though there’s a week left on the shoot, it could’ve ended tonight and it would’ve been fitting. Still, we know that we’ve only just begun.


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



GAYXAMPLE - Trailer 4 English