Seditiosa Takes Over The Location

There’s a saying in Spanish, Otra Cosa Es Con Guitarra, which can be translated as it’s a whole different thing with Guitar in hand. … Kind of.

It is one thing to think of something and another to actually do it.

All is well in the production front. The work is advancing at its normal pace with many interesting surprises and even better than we expected considering we had a major issue last week.

During the try outs to assign the roles to the cast, some inspirational moments came into play. Some of the new actresses proved to be a source of ideas which were incorporated into the story.

All that inspiration meant that Jac had to create a pathos for those characters on the spot and to figure out their arch in the story. A task in itself, but a great task because what was a great idea with great possibilities, it is turning into a truly solid and amazing story.

There are almost 30 women in the cast and an almost equal number of men, which make things interesting, challenging and somewhat costly.

And that’s not all!

As the team worked on the preparations of the production, all those perky details, like the costumes for 60 people, all the props to fill up the market… yes we have a market to fill up with goods, all kinds of goods, from ancient times, the ideas kept rolling down the hills of creativity. Visual ideas, dialogue ideas, action ideas… all of them as a result of the preparation work.

But that’s not the most interesting part of what happened!

Jac and Victor, the Art Director’s name, visited the location to plan all the work needed. The visit was full of surprises. They took the same walk Jac journeyed during his previous visit and at each area Victor had suggestions and ideas.

When they talked about the crucifixion posts, the distance between them and all of those practical issues, Victor was also full of ideas and advice, he even mentioned he has the tools to do the work properly, he told Jac exactly how deep the posts should be, how they will be align and everything else.

When they were at the market area, they took a lot of time to go over, measuring the spaces to calculate all the material it needs, and so on. Again, Victor was full of suggestions and ideas for all the different shots that are possible in the space. One phrase he had was ‘in the interest of the shot‘

When they were done and were about to leave, the spirit of creative curiosity took over. They walked around areas that Jac ignored before ending up in a construction that he didn’t think was of any use but boy he was wrong.

They approached the construction. Jac saw the windows with metallic barns, which are not good for the film, but that could be easily covered.

They came upon a very low door it was not locked, they ventured in and oh my goddess, Victor could hear Jac’s thoughts, they were so clear. The interior of the ignored construction was perfect for the dungeon that Jac had in mind at the beginning of this adventure. He discarded it because there was no area in the location, that he knew of, that could serve as a dungeon. That’s why he settled for the ‘stables’ area.

The possible dungeon location had some intriguing elements inside, one in particular, a ladder that went up to what our creative adventurers thought was to climb to an upstairs room, but no, it went OUT OF THE PLACE to the roof, which can be set as a stage like area. Oh my goddess… Jac thought again to himself, or maybe even said it and maybe Victor heard it because he agreed.

He checked the stage area and it was perfect for the SENTENCING! Another scene that was changed as far as its possibilities because there was no area appropriate for what the original idea called for.

He envisioned the sentencing sequence with the new discoveries in mind.

Yahel and her companions are arrested at the market, not far from the construction. They are taken to the dungeon, up to the area where the opening for the ladder is, they are forced down the ladder to the dungeon where they are scourged. That scene grew in its possibilities.

After the scourging, subsequent crowning, and so on, The Crucified Three are forced to climb out of the dungeon to the sentencing area, where they are led to the edge to be in front of people waiting to hear what will happen to the women.

Yahel and her companions are up on a stage-like area, facing the crowd below and they are sentenced. After the sentencing they are forced to take their crossbeams and walk the entire walk they had before, when they went up to the market, but now in the opposite direction, to the crucifixion area, where it all started. A very, very long walk

When Jac was in front of that possibility, his creative powers went full throttle. When discussing his ideas with Victor, the talkative art director became so impressed that he could not believe that it was happening. He was witnessing the power of imagination creating art in front of his very eyes, making him express his feelings with that’s filmmaking!

When the visit to the location was over, everything that Jac had initially thought and felt it was not possible, was now not only a reality, but better than what he originally envisioned. .

The location is perfect, the cast is perfect, the time to make it happen was the right time. Jac’s vision was complete. It couldn’t be better.

The team was all set to move into the location to begin the work, beginning with the building of the crosses, producing a test scene with the protagonists, which included bringing in the Make Up artist to work on Mila and Dani, to cover those tattoos, and have a real sense of how long it takes to do both of them.

The night before the scheduled day, Friday, Jac woke up in the middle of the night because a huge storm made so much noise that it scare the cats. It was huge, a mixture of rain, hail and snow, accompanied by loud thunder, bright strokes of lighting, the works. A combination not seen often in Jac’s side of the world.

He hoped that the rain would stop before his scheduled ‘walk with Rocky‘ (the dog), the daily activity set for early morning, before his crew was scheduled to arrive.

The rain didn’t stop. He couldn’t take Rocky out, his crew could not leave home. And it rained, and it hailed, and it snowed all day long, and it continued through Saturday and Sunday. It was so huge that it made the news and social media filled up with anecdotal pictures:

​Roads were blocked, the landscape was amazingly beautiful, a treat for the eyes, and it was freezing cold. So… the plans for that weekend were cancelled.

One week later, the sun was up, luckily, no clouds, no rain, no snow, but the air was and is, still, very, very cold, but needless to say, part of the team ventured to the location, with the plan to accomplished at least some of what was planned for the previous Friday. Jac decided to scheduled their adventure for a Saturday, but in the afternoon, just in case. So, at the scheduled day, the team went to take over the location.

After one and a half hour drive, the team arrived to Alkamari, the site where everything will take place. Almost immediately, the tasks were assigned. The Art Director and his Assistant were in charge of carrying the incredibly heavy 4, 5 meters long logs for the crosses from the top of the location to the far away crucifixion area where they will be planted. A huge, time consuming task because they had to cover a very long distance over a rough hilly terrain taking each of the posts one by one.

Victor’s comment about the uprights for the crosses was: They are perfectly old but need some make-up to make them look hideous!

He also said that he has the tools to make those patibulums and make them fit the uprights. Now, that’s a time and money saver, Jac thought.

Jac had a meeting with Carmen, the manager of the place, to settle all that needed to be settled. The agreement was reached, the dates were set, taking into account the imponderables, like the weather or anything that cannot be predicted. There were some requests for a couple of the dates, like the 27th of May, Mother’s day in Bolivia, when the area will have more people visiting than usual, so that date and the dates around it should be used to shoot with the least number of people possible. No large crowds.

After that brief meeting everything was in our team’s hands to do whatever they wanted to do from that day forward, through all of May and even June if that became necessary… which was music in Jac’s ears, the kind of music Roger Corman or Jess Franco heard when they took hold of a location and were told that Time Was Not A Problem… Jac could take all the time he wanted and could afford, the possibilities were endless!

Two of our protagonists were at hand that day, Dani and Simonne. Mila had some urgent things that day.

Dani and Keymi, the Make-Up artist, went into the cottage that was selected for changing into costumes, doing make up, storing things, resting and anything else needed, to have Dani’s tattoos covered. That activity was going to be timed to determine the length of time it will take for that job.

Jac and Simonne, who was already dressed as Yahel, walked all the way to the crucifixion area where the story will begin. As they walked, Jac took the opportunity to do some shooting of our heroine getting familiar with her surroundings, her world. They walked down the many hills discussing her role as well.

A couple of days before this adventure, Jac and Victor went over what was needed for the crosses, the most critical elements in the story. They have to be perfect. They also went over all the materials needed for the Market, which is a lot of stuff to make it look very good. It involves cases worth of materials.

As they checked everything, one thing became clear, they had to test the logs they got for the crossbeams. Jac and Victor themselves checked them, putting them over their shoulders. The big logs were heavier than the logs Jac used in other films, a lot heavier. Jac got worried that they were too heavy for the protagonists. Jac decided that the protagonists should carry the heavy logs over their shoulders climbing up a hill with them as a test.

When Dani was ready to go to work, after Keymi finished the job of covering her tattoos, not all of them, just what Jac wanted to see, she joined Jac and Simonne.

Jac decided to shoot part of one scene where Yahel and Judith have an interesting and lengthy dialogue about Janai, Yahel’s ancestor, who appears in front of our Heroine a lot.

After they were done with the scene, Jac told them that they were going to carry the logs up a hill and with less clothing than what they were wearing. Obedient as they are, they took off part of their clothing, it was freezing cold and Dani was screaming about it as she walked to take her position to walk up the hill. It was fun, it’s all on video and we will be sharing that moment. We won’t share the scenes, just The Making Of some scenes, or tests, or anything like that. Not the actual scenes. There was a lot of laughter when they were testing their crossbeams. Victor was amazed at the energy and strength Simonne and Dani had.

Our team is now officially in control of the location and the shooting of the film has begun with parts of the first scene. The shooting will go on in full force this coming Saturday.

On Friday the crosses will be finally set in place with everything that’s necessary to accomplish the job of having beautiful ladies nailed to them. Setting that up involves a lot of work and it was decided that Victor needed at least two more assistants to have those crosses up and ready along with all the decorative things needed, like the skulls and bones.

The shooting of the film has officially begun. It will take at least 7 production days for the whole film to be completed and depending on how Jac organizes the schedule, based on what each sequence requires and the new information he has now, It should be done by June 4th. Jac has a tight schedule but he knows things can happen, so he’s not going to be freaky about it. He wants to work on every sequence with the utmost care, sparing nothing. Each day of production will dictated the next. But he has the first two days scheduled in a way that it will give him a real taste of how long he needs to work on each scene. Those two first days will not involve large numbers of people. He decided to work with the smaller scenes at the beginning, like the stoning and the healing of the ‘possessed man’, which does not involve more that 15 actors each, maybe less, saving the large crowds for later dates.

The scourging and crowning scenes will take a lot of work because of the make up and everything that is involved and it will probably take two days.

Jac is concentrating on getting the scenes for Saturday and Sunday ready.

Saturday will be a nice shooting day with only four members of the cast involved, Simonne (Yahel), Dani (Judith), Mila (Magdalena) and Geraldine (Janai) to complete The Opening Sequence. At the end of the day the Crucified Three will be put on their crosses to make sure the set up works the way it should.

Sunday will be dedicated to the Stoning Sequence, The Healing of the Possessed Man, and ‘Gethsemane‘ scene where Yahel confronts her fate. In those two days almost a third of the film will be in the can.

The production of Seditiosa is ON!

It wont be long before I’ll have the great news that the production was wrapped.

We can use your support.

During the production we will have exclusive posts, with pictures and videos at our Patreon page. We are featuring a nice and fun clip of Simonne and Dani testing their crossbeams.

Join Patreon and get the updates on our projects, with great pictures and videos, here:
https://www.patreon.com/rfpix?fan_landing=true

You can also help by watching our amazing movies over and over again, you just have to get them