New locations for Timotea Vernal dream sequence

These weeks of negotiations with a local exclusive club didn't go well in the end. After being gladly given the green light back in 2010 when I was in the pre-production stage, the president of the club liked very much the idea of giving me the club for two days. This club (won't mention the name now), is a historical one, for two of the national heroes I'm portraying in the film were the actual founding members of it back in the 1860's before the war.

For me it was important and such an honor to be able to film in such a place where I'm sure many of the events that later happened during the war were discussed and talked about by our heroes. So, a few weeks ago I knocked on their door to finally film there as agreed beforehand, was such a let down to learn the president is very ill at the ICU and the vice-president took over, totally ignoring all the president's promises and offerings and denying such a valuable help. looking for an alternate location with similar arquitecture for the Alfonso Ugarte and his mother Rosa Vernal scenes.

Today, went to check again a location I considered back in 2010 also: the amazing San Juan Grande hacienda. I remember checking it as I drove by it on my way to Chorrillos. Run by the Canevaro foundation, I managed to get permission by visiting them on one of their main offices downtown and also found a possible alternate location to shoot the Rosa Vernal scenes. The staircase in their offices are great and somewhat similar to the former one at the club.

The "hacienda" is the same as when I visited time ago. Now, we will film there the Timotea Vernal dream sequence.

Canevaro Foundation downtown.

The beautiful glass tiles.

The floor tiles dating back to those old days.

The amazing ceilings. I love those shapes.

The staircase.

The hallways at the San Juan Grande hacienda.

That tree is the trademark of the San Juan Grande hacienda. It dates back from the war times and history tells that a small boy used to climb to the top to see and tell if the chilean troops were approaching. He was shot down by them. The tree has fallen like 8 years ago.

The chapel. Typical of any great hacienda of those times.

Inside the chapel.

Statues inside.

The hacienda inner patio.

The chapel altar.

Cross in the hacienda. They used to mark the ground limits.

Big halls.

Surrounding houses that belonged to the servants.

Barranco location: Reynaldo Arenas' scenes

A new year 2013.
As always, leaving bad things behind and welcoming a present and a full year of bright possibilities.

These first weeks have been mostly of waiting for actors to come back from their own holidays (will have my own when this job's done I hope) and preparing the next locations for filming. Close to completion but still many scenes happen in different locations.

The war survivor scenes happen in Tacna in 1929 in the script, so Barranco was chosen because of those old middle-class houses that still exist today from the era.

I always thought of a script mostly as a guide in many things and even when one writes it with calmness and all the time available to imagine what can be done and not, in the real world sometimes things work or don't and you have to improvise or better yet, improve what's written because you realize you can do more than what's written on paper. That's exactly what has happened with the film. What I originally imagined 7 years ago when writing it was this or that and when actually filming it, saw many things that I discarded in the prior process, could be done with just some effort and imagination. And so we did. The huge cannons are an example and also the miniatures ships. Planned to do it all computer animated (CGI) but finally decided to do those the old school way. Real things tend to look somewhat different and have a way into people's perception that sets it apart from nowadays technology. Look at Blade Runner or Star Wars and many people will say they prefer them compared to the latter films with much more action and scope thanks to multilayer computer animated ships and landscapes. I have never tried it before in such a scale I'm doing it now but....Im going in the right direction :)

While walking in Barranco, was suggested the house of one of the extras of the film who happen to live there and told me he had a century old house. It was Raul's house and "my God!": the house is beautifully perfect!: big patios and gardens, high ceilings like in the old times, narrow doors with windows in them, a backyard with old branchy trees and full of fallen leaves like if it was seldom taken care of (the survivor is a somewhat working-class person), also, much of the furniture is old and could be used to look like in the 20's. Just need some painting and remodeling here and there to make it A-ok.

Reynaldo and Pold will portray a father-and-son relationship in the film with the Reynaldo being the survivor in his old years. Had more copies of the script printed and got together for some dialogue pass-thru.

I so love Barranco. So much history in one neighborhood :)

Script reading with world-class actor Reynaldo Arenas.

Barranco. Beautiful.

The Puente de los Suspiros. Magical place. Wish to have a house nearby one day.

The stais down to the bridge. That red house at the left which is now a cafe, used to be a bar called Nosferatu and was a witness to my band Alter Ego 's debut gig back in 1992.

The high ceilings with wind doors.

Old houses like ranches in Barranco.

Behind the Ermita. Barranco is so full of history!

Abraham Valdelomar's house behind the Ermita. Haven't been here before and its like frozen in time!

Entrance to Raul's backyard.

Inside Raul's house.

The creepy garden in Raul's backyard.

Dormitory rooms. Just as envisioned :)

Old XX century furniture.

Timotea Vernal in Paris

After some talks we had the God-sent opportunity to shoot in this amazing turn of the century mansion-house in the heart of Miraflores. What I loved was that all was on-site and at our disposal. Art department tasks and decoration duties were a pleasure knowing that we just could bring things from other rooms in the house to accommodate for a late 19th century dormitory and hall.

The picture frames, the windows, doors, the curtains and rugs, mirrors and beds needed to be placed in one same place to comply with the era. This scenes were of Timotea Vernal and her maid Lucrecia in Paris awaiting news of the war in Peru and also very stressed for a letter she received from Alfonso Ugarte saying practically goodbye. The actors quite delivered well their parts. It was quite a pleasure to work there for two days straight. The house is from early 20th century but still has some architecture that resembles the prior one. According to what the owner says, some rooms have some paranormal activity for many family members have passed away in them as the house has passed from generation to generation.

Reminded me of other locations we have shot in that showed some of that activity (at least to some of the crew): the Casona de San Marcos, the Morro Solar, the Alto del Alianza site and Barbones army fort. I recall a prior film I was in back in 2001 in the highlands: the scenes were to be shot at night. It was below freezing point and many accidents started to happen: one of the crew made the silly mistake of handling metal light stands without gloves and got "glued" to it; the power generator started to fail even when it was full of gas; an actress began to feel extreme cold and entering hypothermia; another crew member dropped the very important video field monitor and destroyed it in pieces, rendering everything useless for the moment and having to go back to the city to regroup, only to learn that there was an ancient Inca site nearby. The prior year 2000, I did a documentary about shamanism and psychics so some things were learned about energy and paying tribute to the mother land. So that's what we did the very next day to ask for "permission" to the spirits in the area. That night....all was perfect. So, having that in mind, at the Morro Solar, when some crew members started seeing "things" up there and all was simply going wrong after wrong, I stepped into the desert near the abyss, waited until my eyes could see in the dark and get a glimpse of the ocean below and all surroundings and "talked" with the spirits around. Spirits I'm sure of the brave soldiers that fought up there and explained this film is being done with all the respect it deserves, that it is for them and about them. Those two months we were up there weren't exempt from stressful situations but above all things went well. The same thing was done in this beautiful old house. I'm sure, the spirits of the prior owners find it quite uneasy to see many strangers getting things in and out of their former house like if they weren't there (so to speak if you know what I mean), so I also asked for permission and explained the facts of the film. Things went well thank God.

Also, being in the heart of the city and just near busy avenues, the traffic and car noises were strong in the halls scenes. The windows faced directly into a main street and had to be careful not to film buses pass behind the thin curtains. Hope I don;t have to do digital touch-ups or rotoscopy to fix it. Audio dialogue overdubs and replacements are in order when I edit these parts, though. There was no other way to avoid it.

But the scenes.....beautiful. I'm quite happy with the results.

Timotea Vernal in Paris receiving news from Peru.

Edmundo, Lucrecia and Timotea in Paris.

Moustache touch-ups. In front: Lucrecia -Timoteas personal maid.

Timotea Vernal for "Gloria del Pacifico" :)

Light: The food of all cameras.

The set. Love the results!

Guiding the mood.

Break time and script rehearsal.

Preparing the 19th century hair-do.

Even though there was no household electric power back in 1880 yet, I turned on the lights above to fill in the hall a bit. We lost four lights and needed to find a way to light things up a bit. Made sure not to point the camera much to the ceiling though.

Director's viewfinder: a nice little toy that helps. Hate to carry around the heavy camera and jib only to find that i rather place it a bit further right or left.

The dresses look just right.

Explaining intentions to the actresses.

Beautiful set.

More angle-looking activities.

Discussing lighting placement.

The script go-thru with the actresses.

Having theater experience, this is Carlos' first film. Glad to have him on board.

Careful intention-seeking guidelines.

Timotea Vernal and Lucrecia in her dormitory.