2001
April 2
We have the money! We may start the shooting. But the producer
feels that is too early to begin on the 10th. We have to meet
with the general manager of "Mokep", who for the time
being is abroad. It seems that the date of 17th would be the
most appropriate for starting the work. But the cameraman disagrees,
he propose to start on the 23rd. The land is turning more and
more green, though the director idea about the scenery was to
capture a sunny, yet dead nature…
2001
April 3 - Budapest
The day of testing. On the "Hajógyári" island, the
cameraman and this assistant, András Ignác test two rolls of
film, a lot of filters, the camera, the fahrt movements of the
snake cuts, the quakes made by an earthquake and the functioning
of the periscope lenses. In the meantime the director tries
to induce the producer to start the shooting on the 10th. The
G is working hardly on the payment schedule of the costs. He
has to finish by 5 in the afternoon. He finishes at half past
five. The producer is terribly sorry, but for sure we may not
start the shooting on the 10th.
Wednesday,
2001 April 4
We have to start recording the growth of the plant, namely the
special effect, because the plant is growing fast. We start
preparing. We have to rent three Arri II C cameras, two "Balogh"
lights, three engines for the special effect, also we have to
make a table size model. After short wrangle the G himself makes
the model from the platform of a barrow. In the evening he took
the model to the biologist. The root is planted into the soil.
The biologist had put the plant into the refrigerator, but when
he was informed that we chose another plant that grows faster
he planted the initial plant in his garden. But the director
doesn't agree with the faster growing plant, so the crew returns
to the initial plan.
Now a paper disk marks the plant's place.
Thursday,
2001 April 5
The preparing of the shooting is frozen. There is no leap forward
until the meeting from Monday. Due to a routine mistake the
recording of the special effect is suspended too: three optics
and the tripod were not tight up to the camera. But these are
not included in the budget. So the costs doubled. The G asks
to record the plant growth only by two plans, because so we
could save the cost of two complete camera set. But the director
is adamant in this point. The G is talking with him about the
degree of discounts. Final touches to the script. Éva Schulze
read the script and brought up some questions. The answers hopefully
will make the story more vivid. Possibly three actors would
get acts in the film.
Friday,
2001 April 6
Eleven o'clock, in a coffee shop in Budapest. Meeting. The cameraman
renounces from the disposition book for the first 12 days a
mechanism for camera movement in value of about 600.000-1.000.000
HUF. Without these it would be much harder to record the planned
scenes.
The director: "If we try to find something good in realizing
the initial idea, we should appeal to inventiveness. I hope
that the picture will be much lanky, much disciplined and ingenious."
The G finds too high the sum reserved for the sound. He proposes
different sound editors, who are much cheaper, but who have
no or little experience in filmmaking. The director meets with
the chosen sound editor and they agree about the price.
At the film laboratory the developer machine has broken, so
we'll have the results of the testing only at the beginning
of next week.
In the afternoon calls the biologist hat he didn't plant the
plant that we have agreed about. In his garden grow the bud,
but it turned to be a weed. Though he assured the crew that
he would get the asked plant by Monday.
"Half past ten in the morning: in a dark room, the back
crew of the production charged with the Internet, in a familiar
atmosphere launched the final version of the production's official
homepage. The creativity of the last 48 hours marathon put up
a monument from 11 packs of empty cigarette. The net engineers
ready for another assignments are in the way to the cigarette
shop, and in secret they wrangle a few minutes of rest in the
April heat wave."
Monday,
2001 April 9
The general manager of "Mokép", Csaba Bereczky and
the producer of the film are having a meeting with the crew.
He agrees with the decision taken until now: with the 35mm film,
30 days of shooting, animation, and he also agrees with the
planned budget. He considers this film a great opportunity,
and because of its internationalism (there is no dialogue in
it) it doesn't have to stop at Hegyeshalom. He promised that
"Mokép" handles this production as an important one.
We agree to start on the 23rd. On the behalf of "Mokép"
we have a new crewmember in the person of Zsolt Kristóf as the
assistant of the producer.
Tuesday,
2001 April 10
At the film laboratory we watch the copy of four times of five
minutes test material. The first role of EXR 100 Kodak raw material
was recorded with different filters on dull material, the second
one on 250 material. The others two materials had reflections,
meaning that the exposure was close to the norm. We see a vivid
read car on "angry" green grass, and in the middle
of the picture stands a man with a board showing the filter
number. The cameraman and the director are determined to fade
the green colours without making unreal the other colours. The
test of the earthquake, of the periscope and of the darkening
is successful. The film laboratory tries to solve the problems
with the colours.
We obtained the domain name of www.hukkle.hu. But the name points
to another domain, so we ask the C3 foundation -the Registration
Company- to assign real address to the name.
Wednesday,
2001 April 11
At "Mokép" establishment from Kőbánya everything is
settled for recording the plant growth. In the middle of the
room, on the table, in a box there is a piece of land. Little
grass, grown lilies of the valley, mossy tree stumps are rising
in the office of the Natural-Scientific Studio. Hopefully with
this cut the once destroyed "MOVI" studio could be
reborn. László Berecz already prepared the necessary frames
and the light for the plant growth. The cameraman determines
the light intensity and the blend's measure, after that József
Rák, the special effect cameraman make all the necessary arrangements.
There will be three Arri 2c cameras with squaring machine. According
to calculations we have to expose with all the three cameras
every 20 minutes. The preparations last till the afternoon,
and the specialists agree to start the shooting tomorrow.
Thursday,
2001 April 12 - Kesernyés
Direction: the village. By lunchtime arrives the G's crew. By
the time the G is organising and paying the bills, the director,
the assistant, and the production manager's assistant are working
on the detailed plan of the first 12 days of shooting. They
settle about the accessories, the actors namely where from shall
we get a herd of cows, shall we get the house chosen for the
shooting. In order to cut the expenses we have to rewrite the
disposition book, that last till midnight.
During the day the director calls the Natural-Scientific Studio.
The special effect cameraman informs him that they have recorded
167 squares, but by the time they started the recordings, the
plant grew 3 cm from the soil. "It's futile, this is a
magic plant!" - he say. The director is angry, but he rather
is at a loss. He calls the biologist and asks him if it's true
that the plant don't grow in the night. The biologist disproves
this is an unfrozen plant, and it can grow in the night too.
The director sends two men behind the squaring camera. They
will relieve each other every 12 hours. We have to wait two
weeks, till the muster projection. Until than we have to suppress
our sadness.
Friday,
2001 April 13 - Kesernyés
We are still in the village. We have to visit all the candidate
actors, and we have to take pictures with them. The nature is
irreversibly growing green. The sight is not even half as good
as when we planned the film. The director plans to shoot only
a few grow plans, the rest will be recorded at the shooting
from the end of October.
Anecdote: "On the way home the assistant asks the director
if he is happy now. Hm, I'm rather well balanced - he replies.
Than I will tell you only two words - says the assistant - three
centimeter."
Sunday,
2001 April 14
The director meets with the actress Ági Margitai to ask her
to play a little part. Despite she didn't receive a copy of
the script she accepts the role.
Sunday,
2001 April 15
Despite of the Easter holiday we don't stop preparing the film.
The director visits Tamás Tóth, the snake specialist. At his
home, in terrarium he has different types of crawling animals.
He has only a little exemplar of the crossed viper indigenous
in Hungary too, and the sand viper forbidden to keep in captivity.
From the point of view of the camera is better to have a bigger
animal, so they agree that the specialist will bring different
types of snakes to the shooting.
In the afternoon the director works with the designer of the
Internet page on the final version of the web site. They improve
the logo, and replace the lost data.
Monday,
2001 April 16
Easter Monday. At five o'clock in the dawn the content and the
form of the Internet page are finished.
Tuesday,
2001 April 17
At "Mokép" the director presents the homepage to the
producer and the PR specialist of the company.
The G's crew is organising the beginning of shooting on Monday.
They procure the raw material, the special optics and the necessary
accessories as a police car, a siren, etc.
The assistant gets the telephone number of the selected actors,
and the director asks them to accept to play their part.
Wednesday,
2001 April 18
At half past eight in the morning at the projection hall of
the film laboratory the director and the cameraman watch the
re-lighted test recording. It seems that there are chances to
filter the greenness of the grass.
The organising work arrives at the last phase. But the operator
forbids the crews telephone line. After half day of explanations
they reconnect the line.
One o'clock: the Natural Scientific Studio from Kőbánya. The
flour planted for shooting the special effect grew in half time
we planned. The little bulbs developed into white flowers, probably
because of the refrigeration it tries to recover the lost time.
Until Friday we may finish the special effect, and we could
send the exposed material to the laboratory.
The director should arrive to Kesernyés (Bittervile) by six
o'clock to take picture with the members of folk music band,
and he should choose the folk-song that would be recorded for
the film. The G's crew is not able to assure him a car, so he
has to take IC train at five o'clock to Sárbogárd, where he
meets with Öcsi, the driver from Ozora. By half past six, when
he arrives, the Culture Center is empty, the rehearsal finished.
Thursday,
2001 April 19 - Kesernyés
By morning the crew arrived to the village too. We have to find
and organise the receiving of the local "specialities":
the combine, the cow heard, the sheep, and the boar. The only
boar in the village, Jimmy is too young and too slim with its
150 kilograms; but the local pig-farm can't "loan"
us an animal, because after handling back they consider it as
"substandard".
We find out that the chosen sheep cannot go to the place we
request, so we have to find another place for shooting.
In the morning we manage to visit and to take pictures with
the members of folk-music band "Napraforgó" that gained
national gold medal. In the place of the local policeman, who
rejected the role we find our local helper, Öcsi, but we cannot
talk him into cutting his pigtail for the role of the policeman.
At Budapest disappears the macro optics. Somebody took it on
the behalf of the G, but nobody knows who was that person. There
was a little panic.
By evening at Kőbánya it is finished the shooting of the special
effect with the flower. So tomorrow the material shall be in
the laboratory. (Since, due to servicing, the Film Laboratory
is open just till midday.)
Friday,
2001 April 20 - Kesernyés, Budapest
Early in the morning we find a combine, and we solve the problems
with the shepherd.
At 10 o'clock we arrive to Budapest. The director meets with
the special effect director. On Monday we have to start the
shooting with a special effect, yet there are still two companies
in competition.
By evening the producer has the two offers, he is the person
who has to take decision. The KGB visual brigade won the competition.
In the evening, at the assistant's place the dramaturg (script
consultant) and the director choose the actors. They have so
many photos that - knowing the villagers - they manage to draw
up two casts. In the night the G calls to say that he won't
do the film anymore. After a short dialogue, we find out that
he had a quarrel with the producer and - unjustly - he lose.
Fortunately we was able to comfort him.
Saturday,
2001 April 21
Last finishing touches to the script.
In the afternoon, the director meets the actress Eszter Ónodi
at a coffee shop in Budapest to talk over the role. After that
at the director's table sits the G and the trainer to rehears
under calm conditions the assignment. Half-hour before the theatrical
first night they managed to meet Attila Kaszás at "Új Színház"
to agree upon the appointments and the roles.
At 11 o'clock in the night, the crew meets at "Művész"
cinema. They watch the special effect on big screen. After the
projection there is a disappointed silence. The cut isn't perfect,
and it isn't enough bad to be considered "stylish".
Due to the 20 minutes stops, there were recordings of light
exposure made by the sector on the Arri2C. Because of that the
recordings of the two lateral cameras are useless. This is a
bad situation two days before starting the shooting. In the
evening the G inquires, and raises the crew's spirit. If we
find another lily of the valley bud, learning from our mistakes,
we may restart shooting the special effect.
Sunday, 2001 April 22 - Kesernyés
In the afternoon the crew is getting together in the village.
Accommodation, getting acquainted. We'll start tomorrow morning.
Monday,
2001 April 23 - Kesernyés
First day of shooting the feature movie.
It's half past seven. We start on the Sió riverside, hours of
assembling the crane; it's a cloudy, windy day, like in October.
The special effect directors are at the scene too.
We start the 12 days of shooting with the technically most complicated
cuts allowing the crew o get know each other. A day before starting
shooting, the G got a white Lada Niva, now they making it a
police car. Öcsi, having the role of the police man shaves -
this wasn't an easy decision for him.
The Javelin crane is under assembling, but at the other scene
of shooting, the IFA that transports the theatrical platform
gets stuck, and it can't get there even on a roundabout route.
In the end, the G, Galambos gets tractor with a platform. The
construction is building. There is stormy wind, and the seven-meter
high Javelin crane is swinging. Only on the cutting table we'll
see if the recording can be cut earlier. Another three fix recording
from the bridge, and about the - yet imaginary - F-16 fighter
plane flying under it.
Lunch break.
We move the Javelin to the deep valley. Unfortunately the platform
isn't horizontal enough, we have to lift it a little. During
the construction is finished, the crew decides to move to Kálvária
hill to record the scene with the snake.
After long time of struggle and one and a half hour of printing
we have the disposition book for the first day. (This is the
best performance of the matrix printer from the '80-s.)
All members of the crew help to move the Javelin crane to Kálvária
hill. The producer arrives. The artificial snake-hill is finished,
in which a rubber tube gives the only way for the snake. The
snake specialist pushes the venomous viper into the tube, which
reminds us the sausage filling. During the testing of Javelin
turned out that the planned picture couldn't be recorded due
to the camera's shadow. After a long dispute we made a compromise:
we shall not go farther from the snake, we'll start the cut
from above, and after a dizzying rotation it shall get in a
position from which the shadow won't be seen. Among the "real"
recordings with the snake, the third turns to be the best. We
try to do more - of course -, but we have to stop before the
possible perfect recording due to the short budget. Note: because
of the cold weather the pour animal slowed down disastrously,
he became obstinate, and after having hysterics that would be
shaming for a prima donna (movie star) it was almost impossible
to fill it in the tube.
Until we could get used to the presence of the venomous snake
we come to the end of the day. Because of the twilight we cannot
shoot the last cut with the earthquake.
In the late afternoon the destiny of the all day work of the
workers from the deep valley is sealed: they have to pull down.
We postpone the recording of the planned cut. In the evening
the G's assistants gather the villager actors for the shooting
from tomorrow.
The balance of the day: instead of the planned three shootings
we managed to accomplish only two. The reasons: the complicated
cut with the Javelin crane and the unforeseeable situations
always deriving from the cuts with animal scenes.
In our hostess, Mrs. Tóth's garden we found some very small
lily of the valley buds. With Csabi's help we took a few, and
in the evening we send them urgently to Budapest where tomorrow
it shall restart the shooting of the special effects.
This is all. End of the first day. Sleeping.
Tuesday,
2001 April 24
Gigi's pub.
At the beginning of shooting we record a few insert-pictures
with the pin. We have realise a problem: how the pin will fall
down by itself. The solution is a nail - but it's just a half-solution.
Meanwhile it turned out that nearby a sow is on heat, and Jimmy,
the boar will screw in a few minutes. Go ahead! The crew moves
to the scene, and after a few settings we are witnessing a festive
screwing. As a professional actor, Jimmy is making his performance
just till we can record the scene.
Back to Gigi's we record the acting of Pista Pető, as it turns
out later it isn't his last performance of the day. We have
to re-shoot a few times the simple scene, because for some reason
Uncle Pista forgets to pay for his drink. For the shooting the
macro-scene with the fly, the crew starts to hunt after flies
from early afternoon. When they gathered a few beautiful exemplars,
it turns that the Hybrid Dolly is unsuitable for the planned
movement, it has to be recorded with the Panther. The flies
are free. In the bowling scene the men give the best of themselves.
The best performance was of the pour speech defective man, who
kept close attention to the recordings in the passage from a
bench, with a beer in his hand. Unfortunately the beer forces
its way out of the old man, when he brake through the fahrt-rails
and interrupting the shooting he makes his way to the set, and
with the comment "wogf, wogf, wogf", unburdens himself,
while the crew was astonished by Uncle Wohf's "performance".
The other recordings went well. It is worth mentioning that
while we recorded the pins falling down by the bowl, there were
5-6 successive tries when the bowl didn't even touched the pins.
The bowling alley is cursed. Due to the twilight we postponed
the recording of the darkened bowl cut.
In the evening, at the fee-payment, Uncle Pista requests star-fee.
The offered price is not enough for him, he wants much more
than that. He didn't get it.
Wednesday,
2001 April 25
We have breakfast at seven o'clock. Nobody is in the dining
room. And there is no breakfast. By half past seven we get the
meal. After that the people are going one by one to the recording
scene. There is total lack of organization. Half of the people
vanish somewhere, so at eight o'clock only the camera crew,
the director and his assistant is at the scene.
Finally we start working. Uncle Cseklik (Uncle Feri Bandi) appeared
in his best
clothes, we ask him to change. Another two actors come, and
we ask them to come back in the afternoon.
Uncle Bandi Feri changes his clothes in twenty minutes. We start
working. We have to make him hiccuping. But how to do that?
He can't hiccup. The solution: aha. Ridiculous. But it's working!
It's a miracle!
It turns out that the water-deliverer boy can come only in the
afternoon. But the boar is there. It grazes in the fields till
his turn came on. At the end it rattles, it can't bear the strain,
but we manage to record everything with it. Lunch break. Till
the arrival of the postman and the water deliverer boy we record
some insert pictures. Some of them are beautiful. The next is
the hors carriage: we also record it a few times. Meanwhile
we organize tomorrow's shooting. First it seems that today we
can close the recordings with Cseklik, and tomorrow we can shoot
on the field, but it turns out that this is not possible. After
recording the scene with the postwoman we move to the house,
where Uncle Bandi Feri plays his part in two interesting scenes.
At the end of the day we work an hour on the disposition book.
While the most fortunate ones are having dinner the director,
the chief cameraman, the assistant, and the producer's assistant
are continuously writing.
Thursday,
2001 April 26
Today's breakfast is the worst. It cannot be say that those
lousy slices of bologna sausage and one slice of scraggy cheese,
that should give us the energy for the whole day are a substantial
meal. The crew arrived on time to the house of Uncle Cseklik.
We start to record the gross-plans, since the other actors (Chinese
woman) and the Mercedes will arrive later. We receive a bad
news too. In the morning Aunt Mari was taken with an ambulance,
so we have to cancel the recordings with her planned for today.
For some time we don't know if she is ill, or she went to the
hospital for examination. Comforting news: she isn't ill, only
as old peoples, Aunt Mari was taken to the consulting room for
examination. We have to do something else in the spare time.
The combine, the Mercedes and the Chinese woman arrive. Despite
that we can't start the shooting, because it turned out that
the harvester part of the combine is one meter larger than the
street, so we have to take it off, and shoot the combine without
that. The director fights a while with the situation saying
that we should bring a crane from the city to take out the harvester
part. But he renounces. In the spare time we recorded insert
scenes. For one of these scenes we need milk, so the producers
went to the store to buy 5 litre of milk with the only available
car, the black Mercedes 500 equipped with siren, that we'll
going to use at later shootings. Meanwhile the street will be
filled with goats instead of caws, because we can't get caws.
The goat herd boy is unwilling to appear in front of the camera.
We beg him, we persuade him to do it. OK.
We may start recording the scene with the combine. Theoretically
it would work. The dark Mercedes with siren moving backwards
is a historically important scene. And pathetic enough too.
The producer calls with indignation the director why didn't
inform him about the famous theatre actors that participate
in the movie.
The lunch is eatable.
After lunch we move in front of the dressmaker's shop for the
Chinese woman (that turns to be Mongolian) could finish in one
day. During the construction of the fahrt we record the cut
with the earthquake that were postponed at the end of first
day. Meanwhile we had an idea: we found an anthill, and we thought
that this is what we need. We spent so much time with the macros,
so we renounced and we went back. Downtown we are awaited for
a while. There is another misunderstanding: nobody announced
us that they are ready, and we couldn't call them to find out
what is happening. During the preparation we have to fight another
war with the hens, which wouldn't took advantage of the offered
freedom to leave the fowl on the open gate. We don't understand
why they fight to become soup, without having the chance of
adventurous, free life. We finally managed to bring out some
hens to the street, while we close the traffic with fahrt rail.
We cut Kesernyés in two. Test shooting. Anyway, we have to pick
up the fahrt rail in front of the bus on schedule, but the G
found a yard, where the traffic could be diverted. We move back
to Bezerédy Street, to Uncle Cseklik's house. The old man got
sunburned during the five hours waiting. In the total plan of
the camera the goats ate the grass. The children spoiled the
sound recording. The postwoman wants to go home - probably to
hoe her vineyard - but the crew dissuaded her. We have to send
home the horse carriage, because the sun doesn't give the light
we need. Uncle Cseklik is hiccuping automatically. Really. In
the lighting break Uncle Cseklik show us his photos, among them
the picture with that white horse that supposedly belonged to
Miklós Horthy in 1920. The animal must have been like 80 years
old by the time the picture was taken. After two inserts recorded
inside, at twenty minutes to nine we called the day.
Dinner.
We make a list with the postponed and already recorded cuts.
We handle the disposition book for tomorrow. We identify the
actors from tomorrow. Diary writing.
Friday,
2001 April 27
Morning. We move to dressmaker's shop, that is only two houses
away. The work seems to be hard, because the planned fahrt can
be done only with special device, which requires hours of assembling.
The chief lighting man and the fahrtmaster assemble the special
device from three camera moving device pieces, boards and ropes.
This time come just at the right moment, because it turned out
that we have to put some women on the empty sits from the dressmaker's
shop. After assembling the fahrt we start rehearsals, followed
by unsuccessful recordings because the women are going to lunch
break. In that time we serve tea. After the break we urgently
continue the work. Than we have to make opposite fahrt. The
women are very impatient: they have to feed the chicken, to
water the goose, to hoe the vineyard, but they are willingly
doing theirs job. At three o'clock we start recording the gross
inserts. Aunt Mari, who wasn't taken yesterday, but today by
the ambulance, arrives in the afternoon, and she plays her part
with talent. We have to re-shoot this cut because one of the
assistants spoiled it by his camera's flashlight. The G is worry
for the expenses. At seven o'clock in the evening, when we have
to finish the shooting, the women are still working at the dressmaker's
shop. The cameraman and the director are visiting the scene
of Sunday's shooting.
During the second part of the afternoon shootings, the sound
editor left to record some atmospheric sounds. He wanted to
record the squeaking of the Cseklik's front door. But the squeaking
stopped, because yesterday the crew took off the door, and when
they put it back, the sound stopped. Ouch!
Saturday,
2001 April 28
Outdoors. We start at 10 o'clock. It's a day with Panther crane.
Aunt Mari is skilful, but as she arrives, she wants to go. For
this scene we receive from Budapest a dead, frozen mole. We
have to hurry, because after a while it's hard to take picture
with it. Aunt Gyula, the owner of today's scene gave away her
dark-headed puppy that we chose a few weeks ago, so the director
give its part to a Great Dane owned by his host. In one of the
scenes, the dog has to eat the mole, but it has such a smell,
that the dog rejects it. We smear the mole with sausage, but
it's worthless. We postpone this cut too. During we record the
scene with Aunt Juci, the local locksmith took out a piece of
Aunt Gyula's fence to make room for the camera.
Lunch break.
We go back to the house. The G's crew is marking time they say
that one of the actors is in late. Later, the G calls us from
40 kilometres and tells us that the postwoman left the village
to visit her daughter. The producer now is looking for her.
We shoot inserts the supplementary cuts to not waste time. But
the clouds covered the sun, so we are not able to make connection
with the cuts we have already made. After three hours of compulsory
break we move to the shepherd's farm.
We postponed the shooting in the cemetery.
We shoot the cut with three men and Edit in a small inside scene.
There is room for only one bed for the three men. The actors
are complaining asking if the spectators won't think of something
else, because it would be shameful for them. We rehearsal the
scene and we move fast outdoors to shoot in the twilight. In
the middle of the most beautiful part of shooting appears the
owner. He staggers in a state of drunkenness, and he protests
against our rebuking. The camera assist is black and white,
and so bad, that in the twilight it's impossible to see what
the camera sees. We go inside. We have to do overtime, but due
to the three hours of compulsory brake in the afternoon, the
G's crew accepts the situation. Outside, the sky turned yellowish
because the nearby forest-fire. First, the crew is surprised,
than they call the fire station. The firemen arrive, but because
of our light-car and generator they can't approach the fire.
They go by foot towards the orange-colored lights. By the time
we finish the recording, they manage to put out the fire. Everybody
go home. We have one postponed scene and one cut. The insert
list is growing. In the evening there is a street party for
pub opening. Those who can are attending the party, but the
most part of the crew have energy only for sleeping.
Sunday,
2001 April 29
Outdoors, fields, source and shepherd's daughter.
Sweltering heat.
We receive a 15 meters long crane. Upper total plan with the
sheep. It's like a cyclone's whirlpool in the weather forecast.
Only the director and the cameraman's assistant are climbing
the heights, so the director is making this cut. We shoot the
scene with the shepherd's daughter on a swampy field. Only two
men are ready to put on plastic boots. The director is taking
the cameraman on his back through the swamp.
The local actors are great. Jani is peacefully letting us to
stick with honey one ladybird on his face.
We have problems with the pump and the well. We want to shoot
from the well upsides, so the G has to find a concrete ring.
The light-men have another idea: to put a mirror in the well
on a light piece of wood. The reflected image is like angels
in a Baroque church.
In the evening arrive the airship and its crew. Tomorrow the
director, the cameraman and the focuspuller will take off over
the village.
Monday,
2001 April 30
Correction: it would take off, because the atmospheric conditions
don't permit that. They take off, but the wind took them in
completely different direction. We postpone the flight for the
evening, but even then a strong north-vest wind blows.
Today's shooting scene is the fields, where the Midwife, Aunt
Mari Rácz is collecting herbs. Fortunately Aunt Mari is a genuine
professional, so we finish fast the first few cuts. But the
stork brought by Péter Huszák proves to be too tame. Six hours
long it stays so motionless, as it wouldn't be real. (By the
way it is a professional too, as it was the protagonist of the
film "Kele".) The rabbits give us hard time due to
theirs restless, so we spend long time to record one of them.
The crew is fighting with the heat, the 80 years old Aunt Mari
tires too soon, so we continue the shooting on the bowling alley
from Gigi's pub. The shooting of the pin covering the optics
turns to be harder than we thought. It requires special joinery.
We send home most of the crewmembers, and we try to take off
with the airship. But there is so strong wind, that we postponed
this cut for the next shooting stage.
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