|
I've already been lucky enough to work with lead actress Valeria Sannino and Matteo Tosi. Valeria is a beautiful girl and a very nice person, but she is also a talented actress (as is Matteo Tosi). A great cast. I feel very lucky... Day 2, April 5th: We had to do some scenes from the preceding day caused by some delays from the first day of shooting. I'm very tired. We are shooting for 15 hours a day, but everyone is concentrating and very motivated... Day 3, April 6th: At the end of day 3, we have shot all the scenes scheduled for the first 3 days. Starting tomorrow, we will concentrate on night scenes for the next 10 days. We have completed all the scenes from "Cheti's room", a very dark and scary location with some extreme scenes. The most upsetting scene of the day (and maybe of the whole film) was the "Cheti-flesh-doll's family and Cheti herself" scene. Lilliana Letterese gave an incredible performance... I've also enjoyed the two bath scenes with Valeria Sannino (Alice) and Emanuele Cerman (Davide). One included a crazy moment brought about by Emanuele's improvisation... We have a rather important change in the crew from some of my past productions as well, Francesco Malaspina is in charge of special make-up effects (instead of Massimo Storari), and is doing a very nice job... Day 4, April 7th: A very nice day of work. I've shot 3 of the 4 required sex scenes in the movie. Scenes #4, #34, and #5bis. Scene #4 was a wonderful one with Davide and Alice making love in front of a TV screen showing only static. The lighting was great and both actors did an incredible job. I'm very proud of this scene, and am happy with my work on it... Scene
#34 was a sex scene (on a bed) with dialogue between Alice and Davide,
and #5bis is a dreamlike scene that will reveal the secret behind
Davide and Alice's sick love story. We shot the last scene with a
lot of blood and smoke effects... Day 5, April 8th: The most frustrating day of the shoot so far. We shot scenes 12 and 13 without any problems, but 20-21 proved to be so complex that we were only able to shoot half of it. I've watched the images from that shoot (on April 9th) and am not happy with the work we did on them. We will need to re-shoot almost all of it. The lighting wasn't right and the performances were off. We'll re-shoot those scenes on April 20th because actress Christiana Vaccaro is not available for the next couple of days... On a happy note, scriptwriter Ivo Gazzarrini and his wife Sabrina visited the set today. They will also be here tomorrow... Massimo
Storari was also on the set. I was very pleased to see him. I have
a great deal of respect for him and miss his talents and personality
on the set. Having said that, Francesco Malaspina is doing a great
job... Day
6, April 9th: After yesterdays frustrations, today went
very well. We had no problems, and I'm extremely happy will all the
shots. We shot all dialogue scenes and the actors were excellent.
I'm personally destroyed (and very tired) from lack of sleep. I slept
for 3 hours yesterday, but managed to get all the shots I needed regardless...
Day 7, April 10th: Another frustrating day. We got a late start because of a variety of technical problems. Fortunately, we were able to overcome almost all of them, and we managed to shoot two of the three scheduled scenes. Things went very well. We shot a very difficult and schizoid scene with newcomer Kristina Cepraga (Monica). Her performance was very intense... We will shoot the third scene tomorrow... At
the end of the night we had a problem with a special effect that wasn't
working. We will re-shoot it in the next few days... Day
8, April 11th: I can say that this was a fruitful day,
now that it is over. There were some problems with actors Emanuele
Cerman and Valeria Sannino, and their dispute caused some delays.
There were also some delays during an intense scene with Matteo Tosi
and Kristina Cepraga, because they had some difficulty finding the
appropriate feelings. Apart from these issues though, the material
we shot was amazing... Day 9, April 12th: Scene 53 was incredibly complex, but also wonderful. I think this is one of the best dialogue scenes in the whole film. All the actors were very good, and I'm very pleased (and surprised) by the emotion between Kristina and Valeria during the scene. I like both actresses very much, and both are completely different in their acting style. Kristina cries for the entire scene. It reminds me of a classic melodrama, but their is also a madness of nonsensical violence... We
also shot scenes 57 and 55. Scene 57 is a complex scene with only
one traveling shot and a lot of changes in the point of focus. Scene
55 is an interesting one with great dialogue, and the acting went
very well. We weren't able to shoot all the takes for this last scene,
because the sunrise ruined the photography. We will finish the scene
tomorrow...
Day 10, April 13th: Another fruitful night. We finished
shooting scene 57, and did a nice rain effect on the windows for the
scene 69. Then we shot scene 67 which contained one complex traveling
shot. A nice day of work overall... Day
11, April 14th: We only shot one scene tonight, scene 72.
We decided to do this because the scene is very complicated and contains
visual effects (digital moths). Visual effects designer Massimo Storari
paid a visit to the set to give us some important information about
the proper angle of the shot. It will help us get the best result
on screen... Day
12, April 15th: Tonight was the night we shot Alice's final
monologue. Although we shot at night, the scene was written as dusk,
so we spent a long time with the lighting to obtain an appropriate
interior dusk effect with sunlight outside the windows... Day
13, April 16th: The first of three days of exteriors. We
shot a lot of short scenes starting at dusk and finishing at dawn.
We started working at 8:00 pm and finished at 10:00 am. All of us
are tired, but we did a great job this tonight... Day
14, April 17th: Second night of exteriors. I'm happy to
be working with Valter D'Errico who has just arrived to play the role
of Michele in scenes 41 and 42. We worked well together, and his performance
with Kristina Cepraga went well. Kristina's acting is good as always...
Day 15, April 18th: The last night of exteriors. We
shot Monica's dream sequence, an amazingly strange scene. The scene
was also the last one with Kristina Cepraga. I'm very happy with her
work and I hope to work with her again...
Day 16, April 19th: Tonight we re-shot scenes 20-21
with Cristiana Vaccaro. We were finally able to do these complicated
violent scenes to everyone's liking. Some of the special effects are
quite simple, but they work well and the result on the screen will
be wonderful...
Day 17, April 20th: We shot two scenes with actress
Maria Loana Gloriani today. A crazy (in a positive way!) girl with
a lot of talent that did a great job with this shocking scene. I needed
to work with her a bit on the pacing of her acting because it was
a little slow, but we resolved the issue and did a wonderful job... Day
18, April 21st: Shot only one scene today, scene #56. It
was a sex scene with Alice and Davide while Mirco watches. The end
of the scene is so shocking, a nightmarish mix of sex, blood, violence
and love... Day
19, April 22nd: A day of rest. I've spent the day with
my family, my girl Micaela and my wonderful daughter Miriam... Day
20, April 23rd: Today we prepared the 70's set, for the
flashback scenes that will represent Davide, Alice and Mirco's past... Day
21, April 24th: A happy note. Scriptwriter Ivo Gazzarrini
and his wife Sabrina paid a visit to the set today, and stayed until
Monday the 25th. I'm always happy to see them because they are amazing
people. I love them and the energy they bring. They helped out the
whole time they were on the set... Day
22, April 25th: We worked with the children again on scenes
3, 25, 35 and 59. The last one is an amazing scene with the children
inside a wardrobe... Day 23 and 24, April 26th and 27th: The last day of shooting with the children and the last scene set in the 70's. We shot three good scenes in the corridor with the Mom, the children and Valeria Sannino. After these scenes, we shot in the children's room. It is the dramatic scene with Valeria and Roberta Marrelli, in which Alice kills her mom. The scene was so complex that we finished the shoot at 7 am (we started at 6 pm). Only one scene remained at this point before we finished the entire movie, scene #33. Scene 33 was at a different location than the rest of the movie. It was at the waterworks in the city of Ferrara. We had permission to shoot for the morning of April 27th, so we decided not to stop and to continue on. We took our things and went to Ferrara to shot the last scene. The set was an amazing winding staircase (long and scary) with Emanuele Cerman walking on the steps. We finished at 3:00 pm, from 6:00 pm the preceding day... Day 25, April 28th: A day to shoot some short shots with Emanuele Cerman, some small details, some voice over and some new ideas or little additions decided on at the spur-of-the-moment. A nice and relaxed day, especially after the stress of the last 24 days of work. The
making of the film is finished, now, after some rest, we will start
post-production! |
