18 - 10 -09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 13)

The eve of battle

As I mentioned in the first of these blogs, it was many years ago I first came up with the concept for the film that became 'The Blood Bond'. It was always intended as an action film that would combine east and west in a believable manner. Maybe it took me this many years to become sufficiently eastern and western to pull the project together.

Today is our last one of prep; we start shooting tomorrow.

I finally started decorating my office. I put up posters from earlier films I worked on, signposts on the road that led me here. It still needs some work, given that I'll be working out of here for the rest of this shoot, and hopefully on future projects.

I walk out onto the backlot to chat with our DP, Ross Clarkson, and the gaffer, Eric Boland. (The gaffer is basically the guy that makes sure a shot is lit, and that the lights selected have sufficient power flowing to them.)

I can't say enough good things about Ross. Though we're both ex-pats living and working in the Hong Kong film industry, we'd never actually met until I cold called him to ask if he wanted to DP a this film for me! He and Eric have formed a good working unit, which will serves us well.

Ross can genuinely claim to have worked for the good, the bad, the ugly and the weird. He was recommended to me by my friend, director Isaac Florentine (who is none of the above!). Ross shot 'Undisputed 2 & 3'  and 'Ninja' for him. 'Undisputed 3' was shot using the Red system, which made him a particularly good choice for us, as we were using the same camera for 'The Blood Bond'.

(It seems to be the way of the future. Tsui Hark just directed 'Detective Dee' on Red.)

Earlier in his career, Ross shot numerous films for Hong Kong helmer Ringo Lam, including 'The Suspect' and 'Looking For Mr Perfect', both of which starred our 'Blood Bond' villain, Simon Yam.

This Sai Kung-based Aussie brought more than his (considerable) cinematography skills to the project. He also brings his long years of experience in genre film-making (he's hate me mentioning the 'long' part) and his earthy good humour. No-one knows more about this aspect of cinema than Ross, and no-one has more fun sharing his experiences! (I mean, this is the man that DPed both 'Sharks In Venice' and 'Sex and Chopsticks'...)

I watched them organise and load the equipment. Hard to believe that all this stuff is for 'my' movie...

As hands on as ever, our director throws in his ten cents about what has to go where.

MB then moved on to look at some props we need for the first week, including some knives provided by John Lechago.

John is an established LA director, and a good friend of ours, and has been advising us on production design and props. Besides being an all-around good guy, John is also a Tang Soo Do black belt, and a former student of Chuck Norris (yes, Chuck Norris!), and appears in the Chuckterrific film 'Force of One'.

Our lovely leading lady, Phoenix Chou, turned up for final hair and make-up checks. She has a distinctive 'Chinese character' tattoo on the back of her neck, and, as our film is set in an invented Asian country, Purma, we are having our prosthetics team cover it for every shot where her neck is exposed.

Of course, Michael had his own views about her look for the film.

Given the spiritual nature of her character, she has to be beautiful without much evident help from make-up or fashion. Fortunately, Phoe is blessed with the most photogenic features imaginable, which makes our job (and especially Ross') so much easier.

Our unit photographer takes one last, end of prep shot of Michael and Phoenix, and, with a prayer to the gods of cinema, we prepare for the first take of the first day...

Next : We begin!