Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Filming: steep road uphill but liking the results







So...after posting some behind the scenes pics days ago, here I post some still frames from my camera.
This is exactly what I see in camera so you can get a good idea of how it's being done.
Filming process has a lot of stressful moments but I'm liking the results. And also the faithful team of extras from the war forum coming everyday. I thank them with my heart. :)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Another filming day











Another dusty day of filming.
Building the dream... :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

First day of filming!






First day of filming was an amazing and also difficult experience.
As soon as a I saw the hundreds of Peruvian soldiers dressed up with the wardrobe I made months ago was like a dream come true!!

Filming was very hard because of weather and dust conditions. The sun was burning like hell and water supply had to keep coming along steady.
I don't know how much I spent watering every soldier there twice but...my wallet was empty at the end of the day.

Gotta find another way to save even more on water.

Tomorrow...more filming again starting at sunrise!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Lights, camera...ACTION!!

Filming starting now!
November 16. Starting to make a dream a reality today!!
Wish me success everybody.
:)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

High fever. Bad timing.

Just as I suspected. I catched a horrible pharyngitis and a strong flu since tuesday. I'm running 39 C fever (102 F) and couldn't keep myself working. Had to cancel all appointments as I felt weak. Damn...I still feel weak.

Yesterday Wednesday I had to wake up early to go do some needed errands with the uniforms. I could hardly get out of bed with this fever. As soon as I finished I crawled back into bed.

Woke up a bit better today and now running to pick up the canons and rifles.
Off to work with this flu now.

38 C fever but.... I think I can handle it better than yesterday.

4 days until filming starts and I'm feeling like shit now.
What a timing for this high fever to come....

Monday, November 8, 2010

Trenches almost done


The trenches are finally done. Just painting the sandbags soil brown is needed.
I'm putting wood floors and on the sides in a few days to contain the falling soil that I'm sure will happen as the soldiers walk back and forth in it.

The cleaning and erasing of nearby signs around the hills was needed too and it's all done.
Now flagpoles, tents and soldier camps are to be built around the weekend.

I'm starting to feel a bit weak and sneezy. I hope it's just a passing flu.

Bayonets working!

The bayonets are done and working now!!!!
The retractable mechanism works fine and the blade seems so real as the actual thing.

Asked the hammer smith to make it a bit stiff for I wanted it to return to its position fast but with that in mind the actor receiving the bayonet assault will have to wear a bullet-proof vest in order not to get injured.


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Building the trenches: Day II








Day two of the trench building process.
Today was sunnier than yesterday. I'm starting to look cooked like a shrimp because of sunburn.

Things moving along pretty well.
Tomorrow...finishing touches.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Building the trenches - Day 1


Today has been a pretty exhausting day but far from boring. Exciting indeed.

Took the sacks to the battle field together with some twenty five worker soldiers to dig the trenches. As soon as they started I noticed the progress wasn't moving along as fast as expected because the soil was mixed with rocks so the shovels weren't doing any much of a deal. I needed an excavator but couldn't find any around in time nearby.

I finally found a front loader that I could use to dig deeper holes and move the heavy rock-mixed soil for the workers to scrape and shovel faster. Front loaders are built to load heavy soil not to dig necessarily but it was handy and did the job.

It took the whole day to do some progress but it was faster than I expected. Things need to be improvised sometimes and this time it payed off. After the front loader was over, the workers filled the sacks with the sand and started piling them up as sandbags ready to be painted at the end to make them look like fabric bags.

Tomorrow: another full day of work at the battle field. I'm dropping dead-tired in bed and with a happy face. :)