Another filming day

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

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!

Lights, camera...ACTION!!

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

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....

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.

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.

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. :)

Filmscore decisions

Saturday night.
People must be really enjoying this long weekend here as Monday is holiday too.

Much of my friends have traveled out of town to have fun. I wish I could too but tension builds up as filming time approaches. two weeks more and the camera starts rolling!

I met up tonight with Fernando De Lucchi, good friend and awesome music composer, to discuss more things about the film score.

It's been a year since we started talks for him to write the filmscore and now things are more clear. We listened to a few themes online so we get to be on the same page with this.

What came as a possibility months ago is now a must: the mix of digital orchestra samples and real ensemble musicians. Recording sessions will begin by December/January. I want the most real sounding orchestra that even purists can tell and enjoy and Fernando thinks alike so, it's good to know we are gonna do it.

It's such a crazy feeling to know that in just a few months as I finish editing this, all what we are talking now will be finally reality.

Battle field set up starts

Went today to pinpoint the exact places to "dress-up" as the Peruvian forts and trenches for the Arica battle.

I'll be making two trenches 40 meters long (131 feet) and 1.75 mts deep (5.7 feet) to be the Ciudadela and Este forts.

Construction and works begins now employing around 50 people to dig the trenches and also cover some irregularities in the land. I'm bringing around 2,000 bangs to fill them with the sand taken out from the trenches and the big tents to be the improvised Chilean headquarters at Condorillo hill.

Days later, I'll be bringing the 20 Krupp canons to be used for my film.

Later today I took to the studio more bullet carriers and soldier accesories to alter, paint and age them.

Deadline is approaching so...I better run fast with this!

Bayonet: my new idea works!

If someone is following closely these rants of mine about this war film for the last 14 months or so, remembers how "real" I want it to look, specially the battle scenes.

The face-to-face fights between soldiers need to be as crude as the real thing as possible (without falling in the "gore" category of course) and one of the things I wanted was the stabbing and the bayonet charge actions to be seen onscreen.

For safety reasons (and for obvious reasons, of course) no bayonet could be stabbed into any actor's body without causing harm. So, for those scenes to look real I thought of work-arounds for it and came with this solution: retractable bayonet mechanisms!!

A week ago or so, I commissioned a couple hammer-smiths to work with me on this stuff. Borrowed a real bayonet from the Mausers I'm using for the film and took measurements.

Today I went to check for the first prototype test of it. So far, the knife needs to be longer and the retractable mechanism needs to be faster. A stronger spring is needed but so far it does seem to work.
After all is tested, a few spray paint here and there and its ready for battle!

Last try-ons with Ochoa as Belaunde

Went again to Juan Manuel Ochoa's house so he could try on his uniform's touch ups.
It was a bit baggy in the neck area the last time. Now it's all fit.

As stated in a prior entry months ago, he will be playing Peruvian colonel Agustin Belaúnde.

Second additional extras meeting

Second meeting with the additional extras for the film that will play as random soldiers.
Can't feel more pleased to know the excitement this thing draws in people, specially young ones who still hold true to the cause.

I brought with me a few Peruvian uniforms to have them try it on. Sadly, just a couple pics turned out blurry but only these ones I post here.

Third meeting coming soon in a week or so to test the full uniforms and practice with weapons.

Rifles check

Went today to check the cleaning and oiling of the 500 rifles I'm using for the film.
As explained before in a prior entry last year, the rifles used during the war were Remington, Peabody, Chassepot and Comblain.

The ones found here handy and ready to be used (and firing) are just Mausers which were not used back then up until the very end of the 19th century / beginning of the 20th. Those are found here in the thousands and the only ones that can be used as weapons.

Having more than 600 actors and extras on set, the number of rifles needed are huge so....it figures these are the ones I can use. For close up shots where the script calls for weapon names and use, the real models are used but here just 4 or 5 are found working in museums. The strings I had to pull to have them given to me to use it in the film.

The Mauser sections were taken apart to clean them and leave the operational for filming.
Now, the paper work need to transport them with full security measures as they asked me is almost ready.

First additional extras meeting.

First casting meeting for additional soldier extras. They will merge with the actual hundreds of soldiers in the background. They are already letting beard and mustache grow as I asked them to.

Tried some of the Peruvian uniforms and hats on them and some fit and some don't so I'll need to have some more done...larger ones. I just worry about time constrains as deadline is approaching.
These guys are amazing. Their interest in the topic and the film is overwhelming and definitely worth taking note of.

Many couldn't make it as as soon as I got home I read like 10 emails from people that wanted to attend but they were late.

Next meeting: Sunday 24.

Filming time approaching

Filming time is getting closer. The excitement is building up more.
Art department is underway soon in some days to "dress up" the battlefield with sandbags and barracks.

In a couple of days I'm getting 1500 more sandbags.
All needs to be ready in some weeks

The casting call for the extras that will play Peruvian and Chilean soldiers is also going good. So far, dozens of emails in my inbox show the excitement this film arouses in people. They are gonna be appearing next to the hundreds of real soldiers I've got for this.