Daily shooting diary - Day 9: DUSTING FOR PRINTS

Barcelona. Saturday. 9 am. There’s been a crime committed at knife point outside our shooting location. When forensics arrive they immediately set off to the task at hand, dusting for prints and analyzing any possible trace of dna on the scene: doors, sidewalk, hub caps, it’s all analyzed. They bag and number all the evidence, turning the scene of the crime into a giant lab experiment: “Which way did the perp run? Did the body fall here? Yes, they’d definitely come out of the bar, turned and were then stabbed. There was a struggle by the cars, and they must’ve been stabbed around here.” They point at a spot on the ground. “The perp must’ve run in that direction while the victim fell against the car and then the ground.”

I’m not describing a scene from our shoot. This was actually happening outside of the GLBT centre, where our character TONI works. Today he will receive a visit of “somebody” (secret…) and the actual centre staff will be used as extras, headed by their very own president Antonio Guirardo.

As far as production logistics are concerned, I’m happy to announce that our favorite coffee maker has a new spill proof top (although I personally question the need of a top that doesn’t spill).

Babeth, on wardrobe detail, is rummaging through a bag full of t-shirts, looking for Josep coming-out-to-his-parents scene. “Oh, perfect!” she proclaims, and pulls out a white t-shirt. Yes, he’s our little angel.

I went inside and found a spot next to the coffee pot, cup-cakes, croissants and a nicotine fix. When Babeth was finished with wardrobe, Ruth, helped her with make-up duties on the actors. We tested out the mics with the steadi-cam, and even did a little test run with it to try and synch up the camera movement with the pacing of the actors as the walked and delivered dialogue.  One quick pan of the awareness fliers on the table and we were ready to roll, and we did. It was perfect.

We went to have lunch at Marquette. Later on that afternoon we’d be shooting at Casa Billy, a beautifully restored 19^th century building that was now a B&B, that would be the shot as LLUÍS’ parents (NURIA and FRANCESC) house. Anna and Marcus would be waiting for us there.

We decorated LLUÍS’s room in a sort of impersonal way, except for the Madonna and Gaga posters that really needed to be on his walls (Josep loved Gaga’s poster so much that he insisted on taking it home for himself). Josep also brought over some pictures from when he was a kid, and Babeth and Milca placed a picture the three of them had taken together some days before, in a nice frame. Those, coupled with the really bright, festive flower arrangement, were the main focal points of the room.

One of our main challenges for the scene was Anna’s make-up, because we had to age her to be old enough to play LLUÍS’s mother, NURIA. Luckily, Ruth, worked her magic with the silicone and make-up, to transform Anna. It was really quite impressive.

While all of this was going on, the rest of us were busy shooting a scene in LLUÍS’ room. In this scene he’s supposed to be apartment hunting online, and Josep, being the computer geek that he is, had mocked up a few apartment ads on a completely fake website. I’m not sure how he didn’t get any hits or emails asking for more info, because the site was that good.

As soon as Marcus arrived we sent him off to wardrobe and had him turned him into a Papa , after we’d turned Anna into a flower arrangement, and Josep into a little angel.

Marcus didn’t have all of his dialogue memorized, so Babeth came to the rescue like she had when Lola couldn’t moan for herself, and hid behind a chair to feed Marcus his lines.

We had a problem with the camera dolly, so we had to improvise a little. In the end it was all down to blocking and dialogue. I can’t stress enough how important it’s been to have such creative liberties on this project, because it’s really stepped up the quality of our shoot. It’s a shame that Anna’s role isn’t bigger, but we will take what we can get.

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