Besides appreciating this view driving through Lion’s Bay on the way home, I can list the following:
……..I did not spend my day as planned. While I thought I might put my deadlines aside for a few days, I ended up spending the afternoon helping a friend with her deadline for a special project. It was also great to see that there are deadlines all around me and not all mine! That adventure went into early evening, I worked on a hat and fell asleep on the couch….the best laid plans…
Back to the world of making magic, or Once Upon a Green Screen….
I just have to say this once. Okay, possibly I’ve said it 500 times already. Robert Carlyle is an amazing actor. For the number of takes to get the scene down, he was perfection for each take.
There were several opportunities for me to adjust the props, speak with the actor and view the filming from over the director’s shoulder. One screen gave us the scene as we saw it staged and the other screen gave us the Disneyfied version with walls and books and staircases —–just amazing to see it all come together.
I think it took about three hours to film the scene and a lot of it was with me prepping the wheel and fibre fluffing. I can hardly wait to see this when it debuts in October and see how long the scene actually is and how much of it ends up on film.
My one heart stopping moment was on the 3rd take wherein the actor said and I quote “I like spinning”. Insert sexy Scottish accent here.
Life gets a little dull after this moment, I have no guarantees of future film work. However this is the 4th production I’ve worked on since moving out to BC, so who knows.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for the call, from the studio or from Robert Carlyle….sigh…
….a young girl wanted to knit some stuff. Then she wanted to spin some stuff. Then she wanted to teach others to spin and so the story goes. But the metaphor for spinning straw into gold takes on new meaning when you get to incorporate your love of fibre and see it translated on camera.
The full morning yesterday was spen
t in the prop warehouse. There were thousands of metres of flax to rewind. It didn’t stop me from being distracted by the millions of things that had nothing to do with why I was sitting in the prop warehouse. Swords, marionettes, musical instrument, containers and vessels of varying sizes—-it was dizzying to be surrounded by all of it.
The prop guys are amazing. Alchemists in their own right, I was watching them create out of nothing. It’s a tougher job than I could have ever imagined and they are superstars, really.
After all the consultations, I came face to face with the Great Wheel —repaired. She was a beauty for sure, modified to fit the screen needs but not my personal needs…..(which saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how I was going to fit it in the car after shooting was over for the day)
I found the most beautiful vintage spools to wrap the fibre around and stuck to that task. The rolags had already been done and the mountains of unprocessed fibre wouldn’t be necessary until the scene was ready
to shoot. I couldn’t get over how nicely the core spun prep turned out, but not a preparation I would ever recommend for spinning bast fibres. Hence Pearl’s gift of the goggles.
The wheel was spruced up and beautiful with a new whorl and drive band; cracks were filled and it was truly a work of art. The morning flew by. The film industry is always trying to feed you, but I really didn’t have much of an appetite and didn’t want to leave the prop room even for a minute. I did enjoy mega doses of caffeine which was in sympathy with the pace I was working at.
Then setting the stage was before lunch. The green screen is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Very little was on set except for the wheel and fibre and a table full of alchemist tools and potions. So I went to work, first the unprepped fibre mountain, and then the collection of rolags piled on top and arranged just so and then arranging the wheel and the fibre for the actor.
Then a walk through of the scene with the actors and suddenly everyone was gone…Lunch. OMG, cold grilled mushroom salad, steamed orange roughy and a rhubarb crisp –and more coffee. I’ll let you know how the afternoon went tomorrow. I still have a lot to process and I think a massage may be on the agenda.
I’m always busy. When people ask me how I’m doing or what’s going on I will usually answer “oh, same as always–busy”. I’ve now realized that I can’t always be “busy” and if I am there are certainly different levels of said – busy.
Normal Busy-
Panic Busy (includes Normal Busy as well)
www.toonpool.com
Category One Busy(includes Normal Busy and Panic Busy)
Def Com Busy(includes Category One Busy) and was named after something I think I saw in a Sylvester Stallone movie
With the exception of the extra work for Once Upon a Time, I would qualify this as Normal Busy —Panic Busy doesn’t start until next week.
Especially if it gets to look like this little lovely. It took hours to core spin flax on to a thread. Why would I do this? Well, the smoke and mirrors that are filming have to hold up to sturdier stuff than a regular fibre. It gave me ample time to study the behavior of the fibre —-and unlike last night, make me want to spin more. It was coarse but still lighter than air and
created magical little whispies as it slid by my fingers. Just lovely. I thought it was wonderful that the honey colour of the fibre matched the finish on the Sonata and the bobbins and that how it all was so matchy and organic.
i pictured myself sans bonnet in an old farmhouse with a Great Wheel, finding time for myself and not at all feeling like the spinning was some chore to complete. Like “me time” but 1800’s style.
The reality was a rerun of last weekend’s episode of Torchwood and True Blood. I somehow managed to miss seeing segments of both of them.
The fibre wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t aiming for that. I wanted something a bit more rustic and was pleased with what I achieved. The full bobbin couldn’t have weighed more than 50 or 60 grams at most. I wrapped it in a little bag, nestled on top of all of the carded rolags and waited for the guys to come by and deliver it to the set. I kept a small bit back for my fibre scrapbook, a fly away hunk that wafted across the hardwood floor.
Who knows when I’ll have a chance to do something like this again. I appreciate the opportunity it gave me to work with non wools. It was a lovely experience.
I’ve left a small bit of the spun fibre trailing off the wheel and instead of packing it up like I usually do, I put the wheel beside the fireplace.
The cats are a bit miffed to have their place disturbed, but I thought it looked kind of cool, and we have the room, and well —I also managed to clean up the living room a bit.
I still seem to have flax eye and I didn’t put on goggles like I said I would. But that’s okay….today was an awesome day and now back to the more mundane tasks . Barring any complications, I’m not needed on set until next week. And my spinning mojo —a bit ramped up.