29 - 10 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 24)

No rumble in the jungle!

We all work up this morning thinking we were going to be shooting two days of Rambo-style action in a near-by 'rainforest' area. I was having breakfast at the Fontainebleu with director/star Michael Biehn, star Simon Yam and co-producer Seth Scher when we got word that our production had hit its first major roadblock. The permits needed to shoot in the area we intended had not gone through as planned, and we would have to reschedule those scenes.

On every movie, we have what we call 'cover sets'. These are usual interior, studio-set scenes that can be shot in bad weather or when, as in this case, something else falls through. In this case, our cover set was the interior of a boat on which our heroes John Tremayne and Deva travel down a river.

Though we have a full sized boat that we're going to launch and sail on a real waterway, the interior drama scene was always meant to be shot at the studio. The real boat didn't have sufficient space to allow for us to set up the necessary cameras and lights to shoot the scene on the river itself (or, rather the, reservoir standing in for a river.)

As DP Ross Clarkson and gaffer Eric Boland set about lighting the boat set, the studio took on a campus feel. With no specific scene to film, everyone was doing their own thing.

Simon Yam went down to the stunt studio to train in Tai Chi with our resident master, Ocean Hou. Afterwards, he had a massage from our in-house masseuse, then donned his space age jogging suit to run back to the hotel. Simon's only slightly old than me, but he has waaay more energy!

Emma Pei trained, diligently as ever, for her final fight scene with Phoenix Chou. None of us could anticipated that someone could make the move from catwalk to catfight so readily.

When the scene was lit, Michael and Phoenix had to get themselves 'into the moment' to shoot one of the most dramatic exchanges in the film. I was particularly impressed with Michael's ability to be directing one minute, and then summon up real emotions, and really dark and deep ones, the next. Though this is her first film, Phoenix followed his lead beautifully, and I thought they were both terrific in the scene.

After this scene was wrapped, Ross and Eric lit the car used in the chase so we could shoot 'pick up' shots (ones we'd been too busy to get out on Thunder Road) of Phoenix's hand working the gear stick, her foot on the pedals...

Cease took some photos of this that came out looking very LA noir!

Meanwhile, as Michael was delayed on his set, I was dispatched to a near-by market to shoot second unit shots of our evil nurse (Lily Xue) making her way through the crowd to deliver a key document to a rebel agent.

I had to race to get the scene set up and executed before we lost the light, but got got done just in time. (I just hope MB likes the footage, and doesn't pull a James Cameron on me!)

Back at the studio, I watched Kong Sifu helped Phoenix get her kicks higher than humanly possible. Kong, by the way, is a master of Latin dance, as well as movie action and his own Circle Propeller style of kung fu.

The day started with potential disaster, but our film-making family pulled together to turn the tide!

Next : Death in stone followed by drama on the highway