Rivers of Blood

After Yahel revealed herself as a healer in the previous episode, I mean post, the plan was to shoot a Last Meal and a Gethsemane Moment for the Female Christ and her followers.

That was scheduled for the weekend after the possessed man had been freed… and healed.

On Thursday before that weekend, part of the crew got together to plan what was ahead. There were some good ideas thrown in. Mila, was the only member of the cast present, she had a personal meeting with Jac that day.

During the meeting the decision was made to shoot the scenes previous to the Market Sequence, including the Last Super and Gethsemane scenes. Sunday was reserved to try out the crosses, which meant a lot of work because the plan was to work on the details and see if everything planned works. Everyone left happy, ready to take on the job ahead.

The very next day, Jac got a message from Mila saying: I won’t be able to work on Saturday, my mom passed away last night. Jac was in shock. He immediately communicated to the cast and crew that the shooting was cancelled. He also told them of Mila’s mom passing. Everyone was sadden, of course, and all those who could went to the wake that evening and the funeral next day. Mila received all the support from the cast and crew and everyone understood the situation, including the people at the location who also expressed their sorrow.

In the middle of the week after those sad events Jac called a meeting with some of the crew and also wanted Mila to be present. They discussed the coming weekend and made decisions. What was cancelled the previous week was going to be done that weekend and the heavy scenes were planned for a week later.

On the positive part, they went over everything they need for the Market, Scourging and Crucifixion scenes and were satisfied that they have all they need.

During that meeting Jac had a heart to heart talk with Mila. He was concerned about her well being and everything she was and is going through. Mila lived with her mother who was fine, as far as Mila knew. The day of the meeting, that fateful Thursday, Mila went home, everything was normal, she prepared dinner and when she went to tell her mom that dinner was ready, found her dead in her bedroom, sitting on her chair. Mila first thought her mother was sleeping and when she tried to wake her up was shocked to learn of what happened.

She reacted and made the mandatory calls to paramedics, police, family and jumped into the obligatory and dreadful tasks of organizing what was coming, the wake and funeral.

Jac helped Mila with the unexpected costs of the funeral and threw his support to her during those awful days.

At the new meeting last week, Mila mentioned that she’s completely on board to continue with the work, not only Seditiosa, but whatever else comes next. She said she needs it now more than ever, not only because of the money, but because she needs to keep busy, the busier the better.

I didn’t mention all this before because I was in shock, like everyone else, we’re family, we all are, and when one of us suffers, we all do, naturally.

We’re now returning to the work ready to give strength to Mila.

This past weekend was very productive in many fronts. Two very important sequences were completed. The Last Supper, which everyone agreed looked more like a last breakfast.

In the story the protagonists take a break just before they venture into the market, they stop to eat some bread and cheese and have some of that very good wine that probably Yahel herself makes, maybe out of water.

As they share the bread Magdalena voices her concerns, so does Deborah who expresses her fear that something could happen to her savior. In response to those fears Yahel says, if something happens to me, you can remember me when you have some wine and bread.

The scene is very last supper. Beautiful and sweet and the performances are great.

At one point Yahel tells the women that she has to do something and goes up a hill. Her followers continue having the wine and the bread and the cheese. Joana (Sol) wonders aloud about where Yahel is going. Judith confides that Yahel wants to chat with her ancestor Janai, who sometimes advises her without saying a word.

Yahel looks around her surroundings, she questions herself about what is coming, which she doesn’t know. It’s her Gethsemane moment. Her sweat turns into blood as she ponders about the horror coming to her, she doesn’t want to add her blood to the bloody river before her. She asks herself about who is going to write about her when she’s gone. Then comes the acceptance.

With those two sequences in the can, everything is set for what is next in the production schedule, The Market Sequence, where the Crucified Three get arrested. The preparations for that incredibly elaborate sequence are ongoing right now.

The next day, Sunday, part of the crew and the main cast were at the location to figure some things out. The Market is pretty much organized. There are some ideas Jac came up with, like the selling of a slave woman and for that he needed to see about where the slave would be in relation to the place.

The team went to the market area and Jac placed Ligia, who plays Deborah, in front of a post in the spot for the slave, which is in the center of the large field, he had the others walk to her. The slave will be chained to that post, Yahel and company will rush there to confront the slave seller and attempt to free the unfortunate woman, that’s what they do. That’s the moment in the story when all hell will break loose.

​Jac wanted to see how much of the area was in frame from behind the post. It was working.

After the confrontation at the market the three will be arrested and soon after they will suffer the scourging. Will it happen right then? In public? In private? Those were the thoughts Jac was indulging in at that moment, and because of it, the enthusiastic group went to check the possible places where the scourging could take place.

One possible spot is, of course, the interior of the construction I mentioned before. But, if the scourging becomes public, Jac wanted to take a look at the possible scenarios. One of them is the center of the construction’s roof, it has a nice post in the center holding the canopy like structure on top. Yahel took her position in front of the wood.

Another interesting area on top of the construction is where the three women will be presented for sentencing, at the edge of the terrace like roof which looks like a good stage for sentencing.

There are posts holding the large wooden ceiling which can be used for the scourging as well. Jac positioned the ladies in the areas where they could suffer the scourge in front of everyone. That possible scenario is something he’s thinking about. Should they be scourge in public view? Should Yahel be crowned in public as well, as a staged mockery? A cruel mockery of the queen wannabe?

All of that happened at the end of the day. The main reason they went to the location that Sunday was to set up the crosses. The posts for the crosses had been placed in their holes a while ago, there was one small attempt to see how it would work, but as the Crucifixion Sequence approaches FAST, it became urgent and necessary to actually test the ideas. Jac doesn’t want to be trying things out the day of the shooting, it would take too long.

At the same time, the famous director wanted to have the actresses carry their really heavy crossbeams the entire walk from where the sentencing will take place and walk past the market, past the Gethsemane, past the place where Yahel cast the demons, past where the three saved the woman from stoning and all the way to the hill of the skulls, and not only The Crucified Three, but their two companions as well, just in case.

The ladies carried the heavy posts all the way to the crucifixion location, a very long walk. Almost at the end of their painful journey Jac asked them to take their shoes off and continue the walk barefoot. The idea was to find out how they feel walking without feet protection on those grounds. They obliged. It was fun. They suffered a lot. Lots of complaining. It wasn’t pleasant for them, of course, the sharp stones, the needles like grass, the bugs… all of that under their soft and tender feet, pressed down under the weight of those large pieces of wood they were carrying. One of them was heard saying A giant ant bit me!

After they were done with their long walk, they had to prepare for their crucifixion. The art director’s assistant measured them holding their posts, their arms across the long pieces of wood, to mark where the nails will go.

In the meantime Victor and his assistants were done with the set up for the crosses.

There were some tests made with Dani going up and down one of the posts with the help of a harness. Jac was being nice to the Art Director who took the trouble of setting it up. The harness, I mean.

Simonne mentioned that they will be naked on the cross, they can’t use a harness, but Jac decided to go ahead and test Victor’s idea with Dani. She had fun.

The principal preoccupation for Jac that day was to have the crosses set up so they could hold the women safely, securely and nicely. There are some ideas in his head and in the script, different positions for each individual character, other positions for all three of them, depending on how the crosses would be finally set up.

There were some discussions as to what can be added, what works, what doesn’t work in the location.

There’s a big difference between working inside, like in the set Jac uses for many of the films, and working outside where there isn’t a lot of control over the environment.

So far it looks like it’s been settled that the crucifixions will be in the traditional way. The three victims are nailed to their crossbeams, raise up, their feet are nailed and are left to agonize.

The crosses were set up for that purpose and they work. All three of the women were placed on their respective crosses, not an easy task, after each one of the courageous ladies was occupying their painful accommodations, they were left there for a long time, long enough for Jac to decide that the crosses are secure, safe, and ready. He also recorded a good number of angles to see if it all looks as amazing as his eyes saw. 

While on their respective crosses The Crucified Three were joking. It’s all on video, which we’re preparing to upload to Patreon. It’s nice.

Simonne said something like, I could last a few minutes up here naked. Dani replied I could last about 20 seconds, all naked.

Since there were five principal actresses present, the five characters that appear in all of the film, Jac decide to crucified them all. That’s why they all had their own, personal, crossbeams. After the three protagonists tested their crosses, Jac had Ligia (Debora in the film) to go up there. She did.

The other character, Joana, played by Sol, a beautiful 19 year old, was also in hand for some testing. The day before, when the cast was getting ready for the last supper scene, Sol showed her bare arm and said, this is a tan for me. Her arm was very white. She continued, if I were to appear naked in a scene, my body would be whiter than this. Her comment gave Jac a pause. He hadn’t mentioned to her anything about appearing naked in the film or in any film.

When all three of them were being measured on theirs crossbeams, Sol commented they are preparing me for my crucifixion. Jac took that as a message.

Soon after the protagonists and Ligia suffered their crucifixion tests, it was Sol’s turn and up she went.

That’s when Victor, the Art Director who so enthusiastically worked on the crosses commented for everyone to hear Jac crucified all of them!

Jac is considering some future work in the same location, he’s even thinking of shooting some scenes now, taking advantage of everything, in one of them Ligia could be a runaway slave who is caught stealing bread at the market, she’s hungry, and …. well, she ends up crucified.

Another story is that of the Priestess of Isis who suffers the cross, another one involves a noble Roman woman accused of murdering her husband and off to the cross she goes… and so on… and there’s even a possible story for Sol, a young victim of a crucifixion.

Another possible scenario is for both, Ligia and Sol to be persecuted as Yahel’s followers, to be put to trial, scourging and crucifixion. At this point anything can happen.

In any of those possible scenarios, the beautiful new cast members of Pachamama Films are all set and willing to suffer whatever comes their way and I heard that Jac is planning to give Ligia a good flogging to test her resolve, and she will be naked. It might be happening right now.

And finally, I just got word that an International Film Festival wants to do a retrospective of Jac’s and Amy’s films in November of this year and to show a new film by either of the dynamic duo, maybe Seditiosa?

I’ll have a lot more to share next week, after the Market scene is done!

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