Shooting two small street scenes

We spent about 8 days total in shooting.  For the most part, we shot half a day at a time, but on two occasions, we shot for a full day.

Shooting in Jerez has, of course, it's own particular flavor.  Lots of our scenes were street scenes.  Most of the rest were in bars.  (As I think I've mentioned before, a bar in southern Spain is like a café in the United States.)

Hero Luis runs into his former boss Javier on the street.

On the streets, we had to worry about noise.  In the bars, we had to worry about noise.  On the streets in the shots we did after mid-May, we also had to worry about the extreme heat.  In the bars, that was less of a problem but still, did present some difficulties since an air conditioner or fan makes too much noise for our purposes.

Back to the two small street scenes.

We met at 9am to avoid the worst of the heat.  The script calls for the action to take place in November of 2010 (yes, there is a reason for this date), so our actors have to dress for fall weather.  But we shot this, and much of the action, in the late spring and in the summer, when temperatures will sometimes rise to over 120 degrees.

Imagine repeating a street scene 3-7 times wearing a long sleeved shirt and a jacket in the sun in that kind of temperature.

Note that the crew and director are NOT wearing jackets.

In Spain, 9am is EARLY.  But obviously, it was best to start early before the sun gets too hot.  Our actors and MOST of our crew showed up on time.  Two crew members were late, however.  That meant everyone else decided to have a cup of coffee or a soda.  That meant we didn't get out onto the street to shoot until 10am. And it took another half an hour to set up the camera and sound equipment, discuss matters of placing, and the like.   And THAT meant that our poor actors....

But they were brave.

First, we shot the scene where our hero passes a lottery ticket seller and since it has been a good day for him, on a spur of the moment, he buys one.  Next, we shot the scene where our hero runs into his former boss.

Each of these scenes, when edited, run about 30 seconds.

Our hero Luis and the lottery ticket seller.

Every time we got the angles right, a car would pass.  A car would often pass BETWEEN the actors and the camera.  Not good for shooting.  Fatal for sound purposes.

As a result, it took at least an hour to shoot these two very short scenes.  Par for the course.

NOTE:  The three actors in these two scenes are Antonio de la Malena (playing Luis), Esteban Viaña (playing former boss Javier), and Tomás Agarrado Candela (who in real life is--a lottery ticket seller).

Our NEXT blog will be about private greed and the economic crisis.