I've Seen Angels: Shoot Day 3

Cai Thompson DP and Adam Deacon boom operator

A very long day today which involved lots of set-ups and a great deal
of nervous energy - which was mainly focussed on the love scene between
Rebecca and Michael. Fundamental questions always arise for such
scenes - will the actors do it with simple truth and not lose sight of
the purpose of the scene? As young actors who've not really done a
'proper' love scene - in this case an extended montage of shots which suggest
some approaching sexual encounter (but without any nudity) with a lot of
physical contact and a genuine erotocism - will they be OK? Will they be able
to do it well?

Nathan Williams and Siobhan Thomas - What's a call sheet?

As a director you've got to approach such scenes with a great deal of both
caution and respect. Firstly, it's making sure the scene plays - I tell the
actors it's all about their faces - the camera will be focussed mainly on
their faces. Secondly, it's telling them what you want and getting their
permission to do that - in essence establishing a protocol that we've all
agreed on. Thirdly, let them play with it a little - in this case Sam and
Jordana spent a bit of time in the morning working out what they were going
to do and then agreed they'd show me what they'd got. I was expecting to
have to say that it was very good, but it needed more passion, more emotion -
because I knew they were both very nervous and not looking forward to really
doing the scene - anyway their rehearsal was brilliant and I knew from
then on that everything would be OK.
In the afternoon we went down to the Machynys Bay estate - shot the opening
scenes with Rebecca and Ariel - then on to a showhouse on the seafront of
Llanelli (secured for us by associate producer Siobhan Thomas). As we're going
through the afternoon and the evening, you could feel the tension rising as we
got closer to the love scene. We had a closed set, with myself, Cai the DP,
Emily Graham on the boom and Jordanna and Sam. Spent about half an hour
shooting the scene before finishing off the day with exteriors of Ariel catching
them inflagrante (what a look by Emily!), then running off an being pursued by
Michael and Rebecca in the car.

Richard Lewis - filmmaking should be fun!

At the end of the day a feeling of relief (I know the scenes play beautifully) and
also a feeling of great privelege - that these young actors will work with such
courage and integrity and invest so much into my story. I hope (and kind of predict)
that when audiences see the 'love scene' that they'll go very quiet and be captured
by it. I also hope they'll understand the significance of the scene - it's the last
moment of pleasure for this particular young woman (Rebecca).