pretty much everything with the three main protagonists and some new
supporting cast.
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| My God, look at them listening! |
First up are all the scenes with Michael and the ICU nurse (played
by Ceri Morris). In no budget filmmaking, creating and ICU can be
problemmatic - but then less is always more - it's about the actors
and the story: an angle poise lamp, a vase of flowers and it works.
Sam Ward, playing Michael, is actually lying on two tables. Some
lovely makeup from Tamsin Rogers on Sam as well. In reality his
face would be pulp, but we've avoided realistic bloods because I think
it actually gets in the way of the story - it's about understanding
the characters not repulsing or shocking the audience.
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| Nurse Ceri Morris |
Today is also the first of my 'apologise to the mother' episodes.
In "I've Seen Angels", all of the mothers are played by the actual
(non-actor) mothers of the characters with mothers. Today Susan Ingram
played the mother of the young boy dying in hosiptal (excellently
supported by her actual husband and Ed Price playing "the Doctor"). So
first up I have to apologise to Susan for having to put her through this.
Her performance is touching and I have tears in my eyes doing it. It's
very visual and there's a wonderful shot of her holding her son's hands as
he dies.
The young boy is played by a young man called Fenn Ingram who lives in
Kidwelly, West Wales. He's done a little bit of film acting before, but he's
terrific. Doing very little for a young actor is difficult, but he does
it subtly. Then Emily Graham, playing Ariel, enters the scene - to really
take the young boy away from this life and from his family. Emily has to
caress and kiss Fenn (and he's not too keen on this - I tell him he'll get
use to it and get to like it soon enough) - but she plays the scene with
incredible softness and tenderness - in essence her character is becoming
the mother she didn't become in her previous life. Some of the crew admit
to crying during the scene.
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| Fenn Ingram and Emily Graham |
Following this to keep to our tight schedule, we record some voice overs with
Fenn - these are all based on real words dying people have spoken - in this case
a Japanese boy who asked his mother to forgive him for dying and for his body
not being strong enough. Also, the motif of angels appearing in the film
for the first time, "...I would give wings to children, but would leave it to
them to teach themselves how to fly..."
In the afternoon, we shoot a wonderful scene between Rebecca (Jordanna Moran) and
Michael (Sam Ward) - where she tries to tempt him into dying and being with her.
Initially, this was going to be more of a kind of 'seduction', but in the re-write
changed into more of an admission of love. I leanred today to shoot everything
with Jordanna, including rehearsals: we had a run through and it was incredible.
The actual takes were equally as good, but these actors work very quickly and don't
need any warming up.
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| Fenn, Emily and Cai on Pembrey Beach |
After lunch it was down to the beach at Pembrey outside Llanelli, West Wales.
Again the gods of film smile on us - the weather is superb, the quality of light
possessing that unique northern european autumnal softness. Incredible hand held
camerawork from Cai Thompson - it feels as if every moment has been choreographed
when it hasn't - the film is taking care of itself as I go along.
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