Steve & Pete Kate's latest injury Roger watering the forest Safety jackets

10.01am

 
On way to set now with Jonnie, Cristina and Julie. The sun of Austerlitz shines to the east. We are discussing the new schedule, or indeed part of it - the printer ran out of ink half way through printing it! I have texted Williams to get one when he gets back to Rennes after a three day sojourn back in London prepping the final part of the shoot.
 
When I arrived on set Roger had already set up a shot of the sun through the trees. Many times I don't have to tell him what is needed, what I want. He is ahead of me. We are so marvellously linked telepathically I even at time finds myself anticipating a framing correction or camera pan while watching the monitor to find half a second later he does exactly what I feel is needed!
 
Daniel, the Art Director, is currently preping the Zone Militaire sequence. Seanne told him the other day "The Art Department can't fuck up." They haven't so far thanks to him. Against the odds he is doing a good job. Thank God! Being autumnal, this film is heavy on leaves and in the forest now it is a HUGE job. He did a great yesterday. We hugged for the first time by the fountain. After he left me there on my own, I said a prayer in the stillness of the fountain spring where we had shot before walking back through the forest twilight alone. It was calming and serene.
 
12.05pm
 
Late starting as van has had serious difficulty getting into the forest. The entire crew and cast except Daniel, Marina and me who were at the location preping, pushed the van uphill through the mud with bald tires. Kate sustained her 5th injury, a cut between the thumb and the index finger on her focus pulling hand. She also slipped over just as the van was rolling backwards and was very nearly KIA'ed!
 
Kate has just told me her mother is going to be very concerned when reading about this episode in the blog. Indeed, she has just told me further that her mother is a health and safety officer!
 
3.25pm
 
Waiting in Tréhorenteuc for Claude a journalist to interview me, Jonnie and Julie. Earlier we finished the Zone Miltaire scene and a simple one where I had them improvise freely again. This time without dialogue. Malika finds a cone in a stream. Callum watches her clean it up. She sees that he is watching her and smiles at him. Simple. It reminded me of a scene in "Elvira Madigan".
 
4.52pm
 
Now about to shoot the first scene I've shot in the deeper part of the forest. I have them walking along the stream, over a knoll and across another bit of stream approaching camera and her saying "Shush" and ducking down. Then he walks away and surreptitiously watches her peeing before she enters back into shot. It will be an amazing sequence shot.
 
It is nice shooting again without any atmosphere. Yesterday afternoon was intolerable and quite unnecessary. There have been the usual amount of jokes and good humour today. The collective van pushing and beautiful locations I hope have helped also. Hopefully things are back on track.
 
One thing of note is Kate managed to sustain yet another injury, her 6th of the shoot. This one is on her other hand and came about through scraping her hand on a script! She now will have plasters on both hands.
 
In the car driving here Julie told me that the problems we have had are really to do with Production. I told her she is right. She is. The mitigation of course is the lack of resources that poor Williams has. Me, I just try and concentrate on getting the best stuff possible with the resources available. So far I think I have succeeded. 

Rhys & Kate relax in the forest Pete & Julie relax in the café Broken mirror !

7.13pm

 
Roger is up in the sky above me now on a motorised hanglider. He is doing a recce to see if we can shoot an aerial shot swooping like a bird over the forest. Of course it is a bit risky. The thing does look a bit fragile that's for sure. I hope he is alright. If the motor cuts out at least he should be able to glide down to earth - I hope!
 
After shooting the final scene of the day I shot a few additions of water trickling down a stream. The main scene I was planning to cover in 8 setups but did in the 1 minute 40 sequence shot that cuts into some boots across a stream which whip pans up into a M/C/U2 shooting up with trees framed above them. It was wonderful.
 
7.48pm
 
On the way to the restaurant now. I'm starving. Williams has just arrived back. We are a complete team again. He has brought back some hand warmers amongst other things but no rushes as I expected late last night.