Tuesday, 2001 May 1
DAY OFF!!!
Most part of the crew went home to Budapest to grab some summer clothes and sun creme, and to have a good sleep. In the afternoon calls the special effect cameraman to tell us that an insect probably ate the lily of the valley's root, so he had to stop the recordings. The biologist went again to the coldest places of Hungary to find another bud.

Wednesday, 2001 May 2
With renewed strength everybody start working in shorts and beach sandals. It's summer in the village. This is the first day for the professional actors of the film: Ági Margitai, Eszter Ónodi and Attila Kaszás. Today will act two children too; they are villagers. At the beginning of shooting Gáborka starts to cry, Szimonetta waits an hour to do the same thing. (The grownups made fun of her.) After lunch both of the children calm down, and - disregarding the 20 times shooting of one scene, and the depression because of that - everything goes well. The owners, Uncle Miska Király and Aunt Manci endure with patience us working in their garden, despite the fact that they usually go to sleep at six o'clock.

Thursday, 2001 May 3
We planned to start at eight o'clock in the morning, but we can't start even at 10. We have to gather 40 people and to dress them in mourning dress. In short time appears the local funeral director, solves the problems. He wants to make a funeral parade. We have to talk him out of doing that. The parson goes home for his white ceremony dress, and for altar-boy clothes. By nine o'clock the actors are on the scene. The Királys came, regardless of the yesterday's chaos. Regardless of the funeral, the actors of Budapest can't stop laughing at Uncle Cseklik's hiccups. The crowd is revolting. It's more and more uncomfortable to shoot in the heat. At three lunch break. After that the tired crew can make only the inserts. By evening arrives from the film laboratory the material shot until now. We watch the muster.

Friday, 2001 May 4
It's a steady-cam day. At Uncle Cseklik's house we shoot the remained scenes. We follow the boar. Anaesthetise a cat at Királys again. We want to shoot the pigsty too, but we can't use the steady-cam. We try with the fahrt.

Saturday, 2001 May 5
Day of supplements. We shoot the scenes with the postwoman and the midwife. The walk of the boar. The contra-cut of the mating. The midwife's kitchen. The G's crew is brilliant. At five we call the day. Some members of the crew are recording inserts with flowers. Back to Budapest.

2001 May
Preparing for the next stage. Watching of muster. We talk about the recorded images. The list with the postponed scene's list is growing fast. The recordings with the plant's grow is finished. Three times (three cameras) three plants, namely nine settings. It's clear that we can't do this scene with only one cut. We are a little disappointed. Test-cutting. We put together some images for the crew and mainly the director to see that the film is working.

Wednesday, 2001 May 23
Welcome back in "Kesernyés" (Bittervile). Most of the crewmembers arrive during the afternoon to Pipó's coffee shop "terrace". Here we meet with two new colleagues of us, since the assistant producer and the script editor moved to another much well paid production. The new assistant is Gyula Robotka, and Krisztina Hájos does the script. We spend the evening in good mood. The director and the sound editor visit the women choir's usual Wednesday evening rehearsal to confront the songs necessary for the wedding scene with the women's repertoire, and to discuss which songs they have to learn.

Thursday, 2001 May 24
Thirteenth day of shooting! And right in the apiary… Exactly on the scene from one year ago exactly with the same actors: six million of bees, the beekeeper and Böske. But this time there are more victims: besides the camera optician, the bees sting all three lighting men. Moreover, one of the lighting men is panic-stricken afraid of them, so after being stung he is not willing to set foot in the farm he finds shelter in the car. And when we need him badly, he dresses in "spacesuit", he puts on a helmet, over that the hood, and with adhesive tape he fixes the rubber gloves to his sleeve.
The other great enemy is the allergy, which showed both on the two Gábors: the assistant cameraman and the first assistant. While the assistant cameraman is sneezing, the assistant gets into coma from the anti-allergen pills, and he often dozes off in the shadow of the walnut tree. Despite all these, the work is going on very well, it's the first day we managed to shoot everything we have planned. However, learning from the last year's experience we thought that it would take two days to shoot here. We changed the previous version of the scene with Böske. We record the spinning, when the honey is gained from honeycomb by spinning it. The hardest turned to be the scene taken from the rift between the beehive showing the beekeeper taking off the top. In the end, by sunset we manage to solve this problem too. Only the beekeeper takes us for fools… When everybody is seized with nausea from the honeycomb we are awaited with dinner in the pub.

Friday, 2001 May 25
For today we planned to shoot four scenes. We have a lot to do. In the morning everybody is happy since due to the night shots we start only at eleven. Everybody is ready to work.
We start in the vine cellar, where - according to Uncle Miska Király's story - during the war lived 13 persons. Today's cast: the beekeeper's wife and the policeman. Both are acting great, the G's crew are giving the best of them. (It's hard for them due to the drones - they don't sting - we take for the wasp's nest.)
By four in the afternoon we try to shoot Jimmy walking home alone, but he is not willing to walk alone, he is very hungry. He stops at every grass knot. We can record only the scene with him arriving home. And it isn't easy, too. Meanwhile the G is having a fight with the residents from Bezerédy Street, who are not willing under any circumstance to agree to switch off the current for a few hours because the nocturnal rain-machine. It's understandable, because it's Friday night and everybody is watching "Dáridó". The mayoress tells us that she cannot switch off the current in the whole (only in a half) street. In the end the residents are persuaded with two thousand Ft. for each, the mayoress gives the approval, and around nine we start the technical preparations. Unfortunately this took a little more time we thought, so we started the recordings only after eleven. The sparkling coming out from the horn is made successfully by the assistant producer with a vacuum-cleaner put in the stove. One car from the village and the water-tap from Uncle Cseklik's house owner assure the water supply. The whole street is outside - maybe we are better than Lajcsi? For sure this is sheer comedy…We shoot till one in the night. Everybody is feeling cold, is soaked to the skin and terribly angry.
The atmosphere is getting better at Pipó's pub - thanks to the venison stew that warms up the body and the soul as well. Really.

Saturday, 2001 May 26
The day of the hardest shoots at the beekeeper's house. Due to the last night shots we start again at eleven, but the spirits are not those of yesterday's morning. Everybody is angry and grumpy the G's crew fight with the director and between them because of one police car, the assistant offends the director mortally, the director offends him back, the assistant producer makes a scene because of his car. And the lady actor is worrying because her husband threatened her with a knife for not to go to the shooting.
Then slowly we get the hang of it. We are two hours late. Exactly the protagonist of the day, Öcsi left for the lunch. The village is closed due to the inaugural of "Illyés" Museum. The policeman clothes were left in the assistant producer's car. But by afternoon it seems we can make up for lost time.
At this point we receive the first bad news. The postwoman who was disposed to be here at half past three is at Nyék at church-ale. Fast re-organizing, we switch between the scenes, the executive producer left for Nyék. Until then we work with Öcsi, correction: we would like to work with him, because he disappeared again: at four he has date with one of his girlfriends. (Compared to this he arrives at half past four.)
By seven arrives the postwoman too; work is going on well. We shoot a lot of complicated scenes. It seems that we finished earlier. We received the radiographs for tomorrows shooting. The KGB visual workshop printed the last square of the future to be animation.
When we have the last scene and two short inserts to shoot, the executive producer informs us that the mayor of Igar-customs, despite of his promise from a month ago - probably on the local lady doctor's pressure - is not willing to assure the consulting room for tomorrows shooting. A bolt from the blue. Month ago we visited all the nearby consulting rooms and this was the only one suitable for shooting. Everybody is perplexed. We start making calls, but the mayor is not willing to give us the town clerk's telephone number who is at a wedding right now. All these remind us the former regime… More than that we can't shoot the next scenes, because we need the special technique planned for the given day.
At lighting up of the last scene the director and the cameraman start a serious debate that last almost an hour, so after recording the remained inserts we do overtime again.
We take Aunt Virág - the woman that worried about her husband - home, and after half an hour the atmosphere became so good, as we dare to leave her alone with her husband. Aunt Virág is happy, and we are dead tired and completely embittered. What will tomorrow bring? We hope for the best luck; the tomorrow's disposition contains the consulting room.

Sunday, 2001 May 27
In the morning we don't have any news about the consulting room. The executive producer goes to find the town clerk, the rest of the crew and Balázs Révész are shooting inserts with steadycam with Böske on the bike. Noon is passed, and we have no news about the consulting room. Both the two assistant's phones is switched off, and the 30 extra will come at two to the coffee shop. The crew has to decide whether to shoot the scene from the cemetery or to keep hoping.
We remain with the hope. By half past one the G calls and asks the cameraman and the chief lighting man to be in front of the consulting room. Well, they were successful. However everybody started to give up hope. It seems that there are no impossible things in front of the G.
Around three o'clock we transport the extras to the scene. The scene is very complicated. It starts with only one cut from the consulting room through the waiting room, out to the street, and is finished with beekeeper walking far away to his death. It requires a lot of concentration both from our part and the actors as well. Again we have to fight with each extra for not to look in the camera. And at every stop we have to explain them that they have to stop acting and they have to start from the beginning when we restart the shooting. The beekeeper understands also hardly how he has to "fall down like a sack". Then the first assistant shows him the movement (with his face in the dust). After several rehearsals, rearranging, some ice-cream (the ice-cream man sold about 100 balls…) at dawn we manage to shoot the scene.

Tuesday, 2001 May 29
We start at nine. Boar. Jib-arm. It doesn't work. Pub. TV station from Pécs. Aunt Juci disappears. Rain. Lunch break. Fish pond. We don't shoot, we rehears.
This is a bad situations day. That explains the few words. The afternoon goes by without shooting anything. There is too long distance through the lake to have a comprehensive scene with the boat. The water is dirty, and we have no solution.

Wednesday, 2001 May 30
We start at five in the morning. The teacher, one of the actresses of the scene has to take her class to field trip at eight. The water is dirty, oily. Action. Some saving inserts. Impatient disputes, tantrums. Back to the boar. It's already noon. We need some frog. We'll get them. We shoot Aunt Juci agonizing in the midwife's house. Uncle Cseklik is hiccuping on metronome. We finish at half past four. We go home to Budapest.

Thursday, 2001 May 31
Day off.

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