Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Finished filming downtown












Finally wrapped up filming a the Casona downtown. This location has allowed great shots and also has been a blow of fresh air on the crew and actors as its more of a controlled environment compared to the desert location where we shot the battle and trenches scenes. The heat, dust and circumstances were simply hard to endure. And we are not done yet as we'll be back there to continue filming battle scenes in two weeks approximately.

This last weekend was just full of tight schedule hours and fast filming solutions but still making it look aesthetic. Finished filming a bit past midnight and counting the packing up and putting it all in the car we ended going home at around 5am!

One anecdote was that we had schedule Sunday to shoot the heroes meeting with More when he talks about the shipwreck of his Independence ship. I wanted it to be touching and very heartfelt. The actor had to make a quick trip to Huancayo (5 hours away from Lima) and due to be back on Tuesday. Had to pay his trip back as we had only till this Sunday to finish in that location. Early that day he called me and said there were some floods and mudslides that blocked the highways and there were no buses coming to Lima until further noticed. It was worry-some as all was set for that scene and we had that last day to shoot it. Thank God he found a way and arrived onset at around 6pm. Long scene but made it finally.
Definitely, The Lord has its ways to put us to the test.

Now...preparing the next scenes in our next two locations: Chorrillos and Callao.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The "Answer" scene







The famous "Answer" scene was filmed yesterday. Even though I was at location at 7am, we had a late start do to some technical and acting delays put it then went fine.
I always loved the well-known oil painting by Lepiani of that scene and tried to recreate it in a way. Of course, lighting makes a huge difference there as mostly all light available in 1880 was sunlight and candles. Electricity was not much popular and specially in Arica so I had to recreate most of the light coming from the windows and bounce it around the room to light the other actors in the back in a very natural way without making it look too artificial. It was De la Cruz Salvo's first scene played by actor Patricio Villavicencio. Rehearsal of the Chilean accent and attitude was critical so I took hours to make it right.

The extras played their part by doing the parts of the other peruvian officers apart from Ugarte, Zavala, Arias y Araguez, Inclan, More and Saenz Peña who were played by the actors. Heaven-sent guys!

I was pleased with the results. Now off to bed. Sleeping just 2 hours per day is really starting to affect my stamina. Need to catch up with it but there's little time to rest and lots to do still. Deadlines are tight.

Friday, January 21, 2011

The heroes' oath










More screen-shot and behind the scene pictures taken from the "Heroes Oath" (Juramentación de los heroes) scene taken from my film camera. Busy weekend of more filming coming.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Pushing it along.










Martin Abrisqueta's first scenes as engineer Elmore were outstanding and long.
We had a very late start thanks to a "marinera" event we had in the patio next to us that had to begin at 11am and end at 4pm. It started late at 2pm and ended around 9pm.

Starting such a long 11-page scene with many dialogues was simply tiresome but the actors and technicians really did it fine.

Professionalism at best.
I'm very proud of them...and about the scene in general.
Came wrapped up at almost 5am and came home when it was already morning.

Next scenes coming these week: Bolognesi's reply and the Heroes meeting.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Interior scenes first days: Bolognesi and heroes













Today was the first filming day for Bolognesi with the rest of heroes as Ugarte, Inclan and More.
Now we get serious! :)