Today we shoot the scenes where they actually enter the forest. The shoot is taking the form now of a kind of road movie. Actually a path movie, a road movie without a car!
 
10.26pm
 
We just did a wonderful little scene of him traipsing after her and apologising for God knows what. The trees on either side frame them like an honour guard at a wedding.

Kate has injured herself again. That's four wounds so far on the film. One punch in the face, two jams of thumbs between tracks, one camera box fallen on finger causing blister. She is a real trooper and is still smiling and happy to be here!
 
Now we are on the way to the second location. Cristina has been to the toilet four times so far this morning. She is worried about finding a private place to pee in the forest. Likes the cats she has just told she will mark her territory!!
 
She spotted me writing it in my blog and has just told me now "You are crazy! You can't write everything I say!" But I can if it's funny or interesting!
 
10.31am
 
We've just arrived at edge of forest. The scene will be shot 15 minutes trek from where we have to leave the vans. We have to carry all the equipment. Rhys has forgotten to bring the coloured jackets so that the crew don't get targetted by the hunters in the forest. Health and Safety is compromised now. I fear. I hope no-one gets shot. Although, as a film-maker, what death could be more glorious than dying on set while shooting a film? Of course it would be better if it was on the last shot of the film!!!
 
12.08pm
 
Cristina now wants to pee. Like all of us, she has to sneak off into the wood. This I feel will become a running problem, especially if Pete, who is making "The making of..." documentary chooses to use that action in his take on us filming here.
 
The last couple of days I have had a strange feeling, like déja vu. Whatever the coverage it's like I'm conforming to something I already know. Even the performances are exactly as I expected when fully perfected. Maybe I am dreaming the scenes we shoot the night before. It's spooky but somehow serene, like it is all pre-planed, pre-ordained and I am just on a kind of auto pilot.
 
1.05pm
 
We just did a shot that reminded me of Tarkovsky's Mirror. It was so beautiful with the framing, lighting and action that a little tear rolled down my cheek. Not that it was moving in itself or an emotional shot. It was just a spontaneous reaction to it's sad lyrical beauty!
 
I had told Julie after she cried in my arms in London that I would have my moment too. That was it. Or the first one maybe? Only Roger really saw it though. He wiped the tear from my face with his middle finger and ironically whispered "Got something in your eye?"
 
4.50pm
 
Just finishing the bit of the scene where Malika asks the Forest to let them enter. She reminded me of Jean D'Arc in Dreyer's film. I cried again as she did in the scene. It was an amazing performance. Powerful, moving and brilliant. I had to manage the way I shot it, the coverage, trying to keep the performances consistent throughout. In an emotional scene like the one we did today, where Julie was giving me everything, it is all about giving the actors space and managing that dance between camera and actors that is cinema.
 
I also improvised a shot off the shot list from a branch of the tree looking down on her, a kind of POV of God as she pleads with the spirits of the forest. It reminded me of a similar shot I did on a commercial for Shiseido in Villefranche Sur Mer in the south of France.
 
At the end of the scene I also had Julie come into the back of Jonnie's shot and get him do the dialogue again properly, without any mockingness. I knew I would do that when I first read the script in Cannes in front of the Grand Hotel. But I saved it until the day we shot, the third take of the shot in fact. I primed Roger, Axle and Julie but didn't tell Jonnie. I just said don't exit frame until I say and then didn't say. It worked a dream. Giving the scene a rollercoaster ride of up and down emotions.
 
The reason I never told Jonnie about my idea many many months ago is because I wanted it to be a surprise. Some times there are directions you give weeks before you shoot as preparation. Others days before as pointers and some have to be given on set at the moment. It is a delicate process of layering and caressing the cast how you want them to be. Sometimes if they don't even know they are being directed you get the best results.
 
Also I like to keep things as truthfull and fresh as possible. One way to do that is to introduce random and hidden elements to scenes. One way to do that is to tell one cast member to do something and not another so that you get their reaction to it for the first time. If they are perfectly in character and have the ability to improvise and respond to things then it should be fine and some times be absolutely magical. It certainly was today.
 
8.08pm
 
In the restaurant now. We got the boots in the mud scene too including a very wide 10mm shot panning across them as tiny figures dwarfed by the forest. Rhys was a trooper putting his hand right into a rancid mud hole to dig it out ready for the boot to slip in to! That scene completed puts me back on schedule having caught up the shot we didn't do last thing yesterday because of the light.
 
Everything is going well now I think. We are back in the swing of things, like we were mid way through the first week in London. Roger even sidled up to me just now and said" You're doing a good job!" That's high praise from a man who is hardly ever 2 minutes away from a joke or a piss take. Not to complain, though. Apart from his skill, that's one of the things I most like about Roger!
 
Tomorrow we shoot around Merlin's tomb.