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FrTwo Pictures a Day in Peru - 5
Fifth Week: August 27-September 2, 2024
Photo by Daniela Talavera (Canon 5D and 50 mm f1.2)
Gilles Porte, AFC, is currently filming Lady Nazca in Peru, a film directed by Damien Dorsaz. As in 2014 on 3000 Night, by Mai Nasri, and 2015 on Dans les forêts de Sibérie, by Safy Nebbou, Gilles once again offers us two images per day, taken by him (unless otherwise stated) along with his commentary. A sort of diary of things seen or felt, moments captured on the camera or smartphone.
Here is the diary of the fifth week.
Here is the diary of the fifth week.
August 27, 2024 | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Day off… 3:03 p.m. I am accompanying Damien to a reception. He is being made an “Honorary Citizen of the City of Palpa” where he is shooting the majority of his film… This is an opportunity for the mayor to improve the image of his town, which only has 5% of the budget Nazca does, even though it’s only 50 minutes away by car… On Damien’s new certificate, the “S” and the “Z” of his surname have been swapped.
August 27, 2024 | Images by Mayerle, dubbing and language coach (iPhone)
Before going to sleep, Damien sent me a video via WhatsApp. It was an iguana rushing towards the woman filming him… You can hear screams off the screen. I recognize Olivia’s voice (Amy) and the Majoro hotel. From the other side of my bedroom wall, which is about as soundproof as a sheet of paper, I hear Damien’s muffled laughter… Watching the video again in slow motion in order to get 4 still images from it, I am reminded of Muybridge’s work. Like the galloping horse, a running iguana doesn’t always have one foot on the ground…
August 28, 2024 - Somewhere in the desert | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
At 6 a.m., I get a message from Vitu (my data manager) to share a tragedy with me: his younger brother (32 years old) has suddenly passed away… Although our little caravan continued on without Vitu, who had to return to Lima, the entire shooting crew is very affected… My assistants and I come up with a plan to share the work so that we won’t have to replace Vitu before knowing whether or not he’d like to return to us for the few remaining days of shooting. I let France and Germany know that they won’t have the dailies right away…
August 28, 2024 - Day 23, 1:30 p.m. | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Marina (actress) and Jorge (actor) are from the same village in the Andes where everyone has a hat they personalize with flowers… I took this photo in the hopes of seeing Vitu back with us, as his smile, professionalism, generosity, tenderness and enthusiasm left a strong impression on me…
August 29, 2024 | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
This photo represents Maria Reich’s camp in an oasis a few kilometers outside the Nazca desert. This set was inspired (as were all the other sets) by the many archival images Damien had collected over a seventeen-year period.
August 29, 2024 | Archival images and stills (Arri Mini LF and Arri Signature)
Top: Archival photo of the real Maria Reich towards the end of her life, in the middle of the Nazca desert. | Below: three stills from sequence 117 from my shooting album. These images represent Maria Reich’s camp at the end of her life, when, at over 80 years of age, she was still studying the Nazca lines.
August 30, 2024 - Juana’s Farm | Preparatory sketch and panoramic shot
Top: color palette we wanted to work with | Middle: “Perspective” by Blanca, our set designer | Bottom: 1:37 a.m.… panoramic shot (photo by Gilles Porte, iPhone)
August 30, 2024 - Shot/Reverse Shot | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
L: Walter (prop manager), Sergio (director-intern), Devrim (actress), Molly (wardrobe) | R: Camacho (location manager), Kelly (casting), Solo (location manager), Mayerle (doubling and Devrim’s French and Spanish language coach), Léopold (Guess)
August 31, 2024 - Marian and Devrim | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
I took this photo between two takes… I came away from the camera placed 3 meters away from the actresses, in the same axis… Marina Pumachapi (actress) and Devrim Lingnau (actress) have fallen asleep… We were shooting in day for night… Omar, the sound engineer, wanted to change a microphone… Walter, the prop manager, blew out the candles because the double door that kept out the light had been opened… Lady Nazca’s shooting schedule was only six weeks, 12 hours a day. The entire crew is exhausted, especially the actresses, who have to travel two hours each way to a cozier hotel… It was surprising to realize that this photo might recall those of Dorothea Lange, who was one of our references when Damien and I had begun discussions about his film…
August 31, 2024 - Iguana | Photo by Daniela (Canon 5D and 50 mm f1.2)
If I decided to pick up a camera, it’s probably because around the age of 10, my twin brother Pierre showed me a book titled “Christian Zuber, caméra au poing”. I remember the photos, in particular. Of all the animals I decided to follow, its “man who, with a remote control and a flushing toilet, is a sedentary animal who (sometimes) lives happily.” (Bernard Pivot)
September 1st, 2024 | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
The sky is grey. Damien is hoping for a beam of sunlight to pierce through the roof of the little Indian hacienda where Maria is staying. I take a spotlight (9kW HMI) and ask Loco and Rafo to hoist it up on a rostrum above the roof and “swing it around in real time” to see what will happen…
September 1st, 2024 | Photo by Daniela (Canon 5D and 50 mm f1.2)
The results are pathetic (as you can see on the left-hand photo)… Just as the sunlight begins to shine through, I change strategy. Angelo (spark) makes other holes in the roof and allows the sunlight to take possession of the space… I didn’t use a single spotlight for this scene…
September 1st, 2024 | Photo by Gilles Porte (iPhone)
Since Damien wanted a dreamlike atmosphere in this sequence, I added smoke… I was again saved by the bell thanks to the Peruvian sunlight…
September 2, 2024 | Left-hand photo by Sophie (iPhone) | Right-hand photo by Gilles (iPhone)
The oasis Maria (Devrim) arrives at after her days spent in the Nazca desert appears idyllic in the film, but in reality, the insects, spiders (in my hair), scorpions (in the tent) and ticks made shooting very difficult. Besides Nicolas (my 1st camera assistant) who found the sand hellish, the rest of the crew much preferred shooting in the desert…
September 2, 2024 - Colorful Sergio | Photo by Daniela (iPhone)
This is the last day of (official) shooting of Lady Nazca. I say “official” because Damien and I will stay for another week, with a skeleton crew, to shoot the Nazca lines from the sky with a drone, a plane, and stunt doubles before flying out on September 11th. As is traditional in Peru, everyone who finishes a feature film is “baptized” (or perhaps “hazed”). This was the case of Sergio, aged 21, a director-intern who spent his days protecting the actresses from the sun with an umbrella… Here is at least one photo where color was required!
(Behind Sergio is one of the famous plateaux of this region, without which all of these lines wouldn’t exist)
(Behind Sergio is one of the famous plateaux of this region, without which all of these lines wouldn’t exist)
Photos of the crew before setting out on our last week of shooting with a skeleton crew
Photos by Renzo (assistant set designer) & company
