A lovely day. I’ve been swallowing lines, trying to make sure I’m easy on set. I’m not that known so it will all need to look like I do it for breakfast dinner and lunch. 0 fucking around. I’ve heard it on the grapevine that my director on this job likes to shoot on film. I hope that’s the case, to be honest. I like working on film. It makes for a familiar and glorious world of stakes and language lost to the “fuck it we are digital” era. Every shot counts HARD. The words “check the gate” suddenly start to mean “that was a good take”. The gate is where the film loads into the camera. A hair or bit of dust might get there. The DOP won’t see it but it will be visible in the camera output.
The 1945 Hitchcock film Notorious is … ahem… notorious for having a hair in the gate for some shots. You’ll see it and know it from old movies. It’s a bit of crap in the shot, often moves away quickly but sometimes it’s there for ages and they got to the edit and would have been horrified but eventually passed crucial shots to the final edit rather than retake for a hair. Very common in Keaton and Chaplin stuff where the shot is hard so the gate being blocked doesn’t trump the “fuck me you did it perfect” vibe.
It’s about immersion though. A hair pushes us one step back, reminding us we are participating in a chicanery of reality. This business we’re in, we’re peddling stories. We need to be good at them. Good stories make people listen. If you’re making a fake world with morals and there’s a bit of hair suddenly pops up, it allows all the people who want to try to avoid caring about the people in the fiction to switch out of their belief suspension. “ah yeah I watched that thing that said that people exactly like me damage others selfishly, but there was that stupid hair in the shot, why was that there? What was the message of that? huh? Does the hair need to think about the way it does things?”
While I’ve been writing to you, I had a hot bath and scrubbed thoroughly with Dr Bronner’s hilarious but brilliant rose scented soap. The ingredients are great. The worldview is nonsense. I’ve blogged about it before. Bragg’s Aminos, Bronner’s liquid soap… Glories.
I have to think about my face and so forth, suddenly. I’m washing with my Dermalogica face wash, but the guys at Derma played an absolute blinder. It’s a big pot. It used to be called “foaming facial cleanser” now it is called “special cleansing gel” and everyone who ever stays at my flat clearly slathers it all over their bodies, coz it goes down at an terrifying rate. I am so frugal with it a bottle can last me ten years. This one is almost empty after three. They asked me on set “Do you have any products you like to use?” Dermalogica, I said. You never know. I might get a range in my trailer.
Misty has been trying to lick my arms and body. She clearly likes the rose flavour Bronners. She is hilarious. I guess she’s needing something to ground her after the cat rave.
I’m off to bed now. Gorgeous day. Went to Scissorhandz at Southwark where there was only one person miscast and it was a glorious musical madness. Then dinner with dear friends by which time I was ADHD popping and had to get home to do the familiar things. I’m managing my headspace at the mo. Making sure I’m all on the yes for next week.
AlBarclay 