Yesterday was long and hard. We did scenes in the upstairs lounge of La Pata Negra, a neighbourhood bar, which we used as Leo’s office. There were various torture scenes, including one of me lifting Marco by the balls (he was actually suspended under the armpits out of frame). I actually got a decent hold of his balls, and his screaming got more enthusiastic when I squeezed a little. I think that’s what they call Method acting.
Afterwards, we went to a restaurant, where we filmed a long scene around a large table. Leo talks to “business associates”, a girl dances on the table, etc. The girl was Alexa, one of the zorras from Comando Zorras. It was very nice to see her again, and she looked quite stunning in costume. By far the most fun was when Marco stuck me in the eye with a fondue fork. There was blood everywhere, I got to rave around making Frankenstein’s monster type noises with a fork sticking out of my eye, and I think I even hobble when we walk out.
Cheap movie blood is made with corn syrup and color, by the way. It looks pretty good, and even dries realistically dark, but it’s sticky as all hell. Having your eye glues shut with corn syrup is not the most pleasant thing in the world.
Today, we filmed in a uniform store on Insurgentes, which has a collection of weird, old mannequins. We walk around looking for Marco, Øyvind falls in love with a mannequin and touches its breasts, then we run out of the store again. I swear I’m not making this up. I guess a mannequin is marginally better than a dish washing machine, though.
After that, we went with minimal crew to shoot in the metro, without a permit. Lalo, the DP, was placed in a wheelchair, with the camera in his lap, covered by a jacket, so we could shoot clandestinely. Most pretense of discretion went out the window when they actually started shooting persecution scenes, though, since that involved Lalo in the wheelchair with the camera, and Alex pushing it at top speed through the corridors of the metro station, closely following Marco, who was running for his life. People did stare a bit, but the footage looked really cool.
After that, we got on the train and started shooting inside. Since we were on a line that’s not too busy, and it wasn’t rush hour, it worked out well, the shots actually looked very good. We mostly went in out one door and in another all the time, to simulate getting on and off the train.
I spent a couple of hours in the production offices looking at rushes with the director and a few other people. A lot of the footage looks surprisingly good, and there’s none that looks particularly bad. With good editing, this could turn out to be very decent indeed.
Tomorrow, we rest. Øyvind, Leo, and I have our last shooting day on Saturday, and the whole thing wraps on Sunday. I think there’s supposed to be a party, but I’m uncertain of how tired people are going to be.
Photos are as usual courtesy of Leo, who’s updated his Flickr photo set from the movie.
