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Two Pictures a Day in Peru - 2
Second Week : August 6-12, 2024
Gilles Porte, AFC, is currently shooting Lady Nazca in Peru, a film directed by Damien Dorsaz. As he did previously in 2014 with Mai Nasri’s 3000 Night and in 2015 with Safe Nebbou’s Dans les forêts de Sibérie, Gilles once again offers us two images a day, photos that he has taken himself (unless mention to the contrary), with a comment. A sort of journal of things seen or felt, instants captured with the camera or smartphone.
Here is the diary of the second week.
Here is the diary of the second week.
August 6, 2024 | Photo by Isabella (met in the restaurant)
1:30 p.m., Loco (gaffer) asks me if I want to come eat ceviche with them... Rafo (key grip) come too… Following them, I realize that they are not heading towards the canteen but outside our improvised studio in the Quinta Heeren area of Lima... I also notice that there are not just the three of us : all the electricians and grips are coming along, too… After 200 meters I understand the reason for this escapade : it is Tuesday and no one wants to eat the vegetarian menu imposed by the production !
August 6, 2024 | Photos by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
The camera returns to a zenithal position to better observe figures on the map made by Maria (Devrim Lingnau). She shows them to the archaeologist Paul d’Harcourt, played by Guillaume Gallienne, under the very attentive gaze of Rafo (key grip).
August 7, 2024 - Damien’s Books | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Wednesday... First day off since we started filming and since I arrived in Peru on July 4. I stop at Damien’s and ask him for permission to take pictures of the books he took. He tells me, smiling, about the one with the yellow cover just in case... [English translation of the title : "The Virtues of Failure”]
August 7, 2024 - Master Class
Micaela (center) offered me the opportunity of teaching a Master Class to some of her students and young cinematographers. There are also two camera assistants. I start with words that I had translated beforehand, then I speak a little about images : “Those who think something is impossible are kindly requested not to bother those who are trying to achieve it”. In the photo, with the book “PORTRAITS / SELF-PORTRAITS” is Vitu, my DIT, to whom I gave a copy. He just sacrificed three hours of his day off, and has to start work again tomorrow with me at 9:30 a.m....
August 8, 2024 - Beto | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Beto is playing the character of Bocanegra, a Member of Parliament... He also holds the position of "Casting Director". Around him, from left to right, Loly (head makeup artist), Cynthia, Cat and Molly.
August 8, 2024 - Marius’ Birthday | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Today, is Marius’ eleventh birthday. Damien’s "Lady Nazca", seventeen !!! I remember every time my daughter came to visit me on sets abroad. This time, Syrine will not come. After several years of university, she decided to take "two gap years" to travel by herself, on a one-way ticket ! After Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, New Zealand, Syrine is now flying to the Fiji Islands in a week. Will Marius also want, at 21, to travel alone to better "discover himself” ?
August 9, 2024 - Children at school, in class and at mealtime | Photos by Gilles Porte
Before embarking on what would be the fight of her life, Maria Reiche was a mathematics teacher in Lima. The children in her class have lunch in costume. In the afternoon, a drawing by Daniela, 11 years old, catches my attention. There are no equations in her mathematics notebook, even though many are written out in chalk on the blackboard...
August 9, 2024 - Overloaded grip truck | Photo by Gilles Porte
We have just left the locations where we had stayed for 7 days. In 3 days, we will travel 384km into the Nazca desert. No vehicle will be overweight, and as far as I’m concerned, I’ll be leaving lighter !
August 10, 2024 - CU Maria on the plane | Photo by Matthieu Zeller, Octopolis producer (iPhone)
Excerpt 1, Seq 116 : “(...) The plane makes large circles in the blue sky... Now, it advances again in the middle of a canyon... It turns right, approaches the pelican figure (…)" A 9kW HMI on a circular tracking shot with a diffusion of 216 and a ¼ 85... A camera on a slider with a 75mm and a 150mm... Grips move the plane by tilting it sometimes... A polarizing filter that I rotate... A green screen background that I hope to replace with a real blue sky... “I hope”, because I have no choice but to shoot these close-ups before the wide shots of this same plane which will fly over the real Nazca lines, followed by a drone...
August 10, 2024 | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Excerpt 2 Seq 116 : “(...) Maria (Devrim Lingnau) circles around the monkey figure (…)”
August 11, 2024 - Library | Photos by Gilles Porte (iPhone & iPad)
Excerpt Seq 35 : “(...) At the library, Maria faces huge shelves and is looking for a book (...) She continues to leaf through a big book and comes across : Cuzco, rendición o muerte de Atahualpa, el último Inca (...) Excerpt from my digital filming diary (iPad) with Blanca (production designer) and Damien (director) take turns playing Maria for me...
August 11, 2024 - Library | Photo by Daniela Talavera, still photographer (Canon EOS 5D and 50mm f1.2)
Seq 35 - Int Day - Convent of Saint Dominic - Library - Checking the frame for the 35/4 shot, from left to right : director (Damien with viewfinder), Maria (Devrim Lingnau), DoP (Gilles Porte)
August 12, 2024 - Leaving Lima | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Pan-American Highway - 8:24 a.m. - Lima 59km - Nazca 365km. In Peru, when you want to say “End of filming” or “End of the day”, you shout "Chicharrones", I’m not sure why... Given the second very different shoot that awaits us, it seemed appropriate to me to close the Lima part with these “Chicharrones”.
August 12, 2024 - Arrival Nazca | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Pan-American Highway - 3:59 p.m. - Lima 400km - Nazca 24km. As always, the blue sky opens up once we leave Lima. A condor, whose wings have nothing to envy from those of Baudelaire’s “Albatross”, seems to greet our arrival...
