The Coming Storm

Sometime ago Jac shot a music video for Erix. Lots of green screen work because the character in the clip does a number of things and the background behind her changes a lot, long story. Jac is also working on the editing of that clip and he captured a couple of shots of Simonne, who plays the girl in the clip, and added some background pictures from the series Rome, which I shared with him, and created a weird image using the name of the main character in Seditiosa. The result:

After the amazing sight of those halos around the sun, people began to wait for the coming storm… because it is said that when those halos form around the sun it means a storm is building up… and yet… no storm!

And the same is happening at our HQ, we’re expecting the big storm and it’s not showing up, but as we wait, we know that a lot is happening behind the scenes, behind the big skull… right in the center of those brain cells that keep pumping up ideas and imagining scenes.

Jac got physical again, there were no meetings the week that is ending, a couple of those scheduled meetings were postponed because of various reasons. The main cast of those two movies in pre production had some things to do outside the work and Jac needs to organize too many things, so it was fine to cancel meeting and get physical, at times, drilling holes with a drill bit that is meant for metal, not cement… but I don’t really know how that works, moving all those books, tapes, and all those big and little things that belong on the shelfs, and more.

The set for 69 Année Érotique is almost done, a bit more decorative details and it will all be ready to start the production of A Bizzarre And Quite Erotic Version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Jac is preparing the scheduling, which is, in itself, time consuming.

Yahel is the biblical Jael who hammered a tent-peg through the head of the Canaanite commander Sisera when he was sleeping off the drink she’d plied him with (Judges chapters 4-5). In Hebrew, the word apparently means a mountain goat, which I think is rather a nice name for a feisty young woman. Not that any of that matters, it’s a good name. Maleficarum was just right, at least it rings a bell for anyone who knows of the Malleus Maleficarum – though literally it’s genitive plural, ‘of witches’, MM is ‘The Hammer of Witches’.
Eulalia

Yah means God, as in Yah, Yahel means Power of God, but Yael has also a couple of other different meanings. Jac loved the name Yael when he first came across it and decided to name the main character in the female christ movie, Yahel.

In Maleficarum, the inquisitor, with his last breath, whispers out Maleficarum! before dying, while pointing with a shaky hand at the two women he had tortured and executed. For the inquisitor, both Marianne and Francisca are witches.

Thinking about the setting – I think a lot of portrayals of the life and crucifixion of Christ tend to overdo the ‘Roman’ aspect. While Jerusalem of course had the Temple, and some grand public buildings, most of the ordinary dwellings even in the city would have been quite simple brick or even adobe type buildings, and in the villages and small towns of Galilee even more so. I think older parts of some towns and villages in your part of the world, Margot, would have the same ‘atmosphere’ – which, as you’ve said, is more important than historical accuracy.
Eulalia

Indeed. I’m watching the series Rome, an oldie from HBO, and I’m getting screen shots when I find some interesting costumes and even locations that are in some ways similar to places we know. There’s an episode set in Egypt, where you can see one reed boat, ONE… and we have hundreds of those at the TitiKaka lake. So now we will have a scene with a boat like that. The lake is a lot bigger than the sea of Galilee and even bigger than the Red Sea… and the reeds at the lake beaches are very much like what you see in biblical settings, like where Moses was found or Cleopatra’s young competitor was drowned.

I’m also looking for costumes, particularly for women and what I see on the big TV screen looks great and simple at the same time. Some costumes are easy to make, easier, a lot easier, than what Amy did for Maleficarum.

And it doesn’t look like finding the right materials will be too hard, in some cases, we might have them. We have tons of materials for costumes.

But for the Roman soldiers, centurion and all those characters that wear very particular costumes, we will have some difficulties. It will cost a lot more to make a Roman soldier uniform, sword and helmet included than what it costs to make a sexy dress, or a simple tunic.