19 - 10 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 14)

 

We begin...

Based on my previous experiences, it takes film crews a day or two of get out of each other's way, and it was no different on 'Blood Bond'. Fortunately, we were led from the front by a director who absolutely knows what he wants, and has no problem letting everyone know it. Given the energy and experience that Michael Biehn brought to the set, its hard to believe that this is actually his directorial debut.

We started off with what seemed, on paper, to be relatively easy shots: our heroine, mystic mistress of the martial arts Deva of Basmari, searches for a reclusive, bitter American, John Tremayne.

Her journey takes her through the countryside and though a rural community to the rough shack where he dwells.

These scenes were shot in the magnificent open land that surrounds Nanhai. Our film is set in a made up Asian country, so we were careful to obscure anything that would suggest the film was set in China.

For those of you who don't know, the worst thing about shooting a real film is that you have to get up real early! Our female star, Phoenix Chou, was in hair and make-up, perched on the side of some kind of chimney, by 6.30am (taking in Robert Plant's song Big Log on her Ipod to get her in the mood...)

The first shot of the film has Deva walking over a rise in the land, down towards a sun-dappled lake. Its certainly an idyllic image to start our shoot with.

Fortunately, we were able to shoot in an area that was packed with production value: lakes, grazing water buffalo, an unspoilt traditional village... All within walking distance.

There were some examples of evidently modern farming technology, but, to add to the timeless nature of these scenes, we covered them with tarpaulins. (Hands on as ever, MB insisted on moving the tarps himself...)

As we moved down to the lake, Michael also worked the second camera. Our focus puller took a while to get up to speed, but, by the middle of the day, was pulling focus to perfection.

After our sojourn in the countryside, we moved to the ramshackle hut of the mysterious Tremayne. This was based on huts occupied by the local mushroom farmers. We built it from scratch, right next to theirs, and the whole 'first meeting' scene between our two lead characters was played out here.

We established our base camp among the farm structures, amid the chickens, geese and lumbering bovine creatures. The sun beat down as the day wore on, but the whole team seemed in good spirits.

We wrap the lakeside location after lunch, and move up to a neighbouring village. There, we shoot further scenes of Phoenix asking various locals where exactly the big white man lives.

Our Executive Producer, Henry Luk, has arranged with the local 'mayor' to provide us with various local extras. You couldn't find faces more wonderful than these, and their presence added so much character to this sequence.

 

Deva finally locates Tremayne after enquiring at a local pharmacy. The pharmacist in the scene is actually the driver of our generator truck!

At the end of the first day's shoot, we returned to Ace Studios, a tired yet happy band of brothers (and sisters!).

Next : First fight