The shoot in Poland Part One.

So the Poland story continues!!
We had 5 days to shoot the whole 15th century and no contingency days. The budget didn't allow for more as all the crew, equipment trucks etc. had to travel to the very south of Poland and be accommodated for that period of time. We thought that 5 days would be OK until the realisation dawned on us that we had no contingency days. What would happen if it rained and the trucks were not able to travel up the muddy road to the location of the forest, what if in the "sad forest" it was sunny - what if we just didn't get the shots? A deep cold shiver ran up all our spines. As we were refining the schedule making sure that there was a 12 hour turn around, and heard all other limitation that came with that it all stated looking rather grim. We came to Poland to get the beautiful shots and now were in a situation where the machine of the production was OK ie everyone was going to be employed accommodated and fed but the shots and the actual film was going to be potentially compromised. When you have alot of people working on the film ie. 30 something, it takes much longer to feed them and to move all the trucks from one location to the other... if we were to shoot at the speed we needed to, in order to make a great film it had to be fast ... that was our main concern. The day before Daryl Marcus and I were leaving for the location (allowing us a day before everyone else arrived), we had a crisis meeting.
This is the sort of meeting that you have to have at least once...as far as the production was concerned they were happy because all the boxes were ticked but nobody at the end of the day remembers the problems, they just see the final product. Either it works or not... our shooting schedule was not going to work. This was mainly because we had a very tricky descending and ascending camera shot and also needed dawns and dusk's which meant not enough turn around hours. we all sat in silence look at the schedule and hoping something would just jump out as a solution. On a film shoot there are people for whom its just a job they get paid for and leave, for others they extend their concern for the process, vision and the whole, and this was the moment where the seas parted. Suddenly Marta (the production wiz 2nd assistant director) who was under a tremendous amount of pressure, came up with an alternative shooting schedule. She understood our point of view and the need to the creative process to be followed through and also making sure that the production machine was still working well. Hallelujah!!!
Next day, after not much sleep we left Warsaw and travelled to Krakow and then to Sanok, not knowing that this was going to be one of the most difficult days on the production.

The Dreaded Mud as some of the crew are using plastic bags on their feet before entering the car.



Looking for the magic schedule answer. Sometimes the answers are on the floor.