Paul Hills & The Candle Wax – Epic Studios Norwich – 6th August 2011
The days are really long, we arrive on set for seven am and have breakfast. We then shoot through till lunch time this can be any time between one and three. This is after all a Paul Hills film and as a result we are all destined to lose weight (he is, dramatically) as the food is served cold. We plough on until we drop. Dinner is at eight thirty to nine pm. At this time the crew wrap. For Messer Manson and Hamer we have to go back to the digs and start the tape downloads on to his mac. Admittedly as this happens we have been buggering of to “the Fat Cat” public house for a couple of beers and some emotional down loading.
Theoretically it is at this emotional down load time that I should be writing Manson’s eye blog. I mean Paul Hills can do it and direct a film but it is too much for me I am shattered. When we get home we have to look through highlights of what we have shot. Ironically trying to gage what we have just done, it is surprising how quickly you can forget things. As a result of all this activity it is rare to be in bed before two, up again at six to be at breakfast for seven. I am getting four hours sleep a night. Did someone say Mrs Thatcher only got three hours sleep a night? God I don’t ever want to get that mental. (sorry Mrs T that’s just the way I see it – crazy fool)
As a result of all this sleep deprivation my blog has gone to hell in a handcart. Off to visit Baphomet!!! I do want to share some of the stories from the first week.
Story number one.
Valentine Pelka’s first day on set was a surprise for everyone apart from Paul Hills and Panda his 1st AD. Valentine is playing Del the head of the religious cult. In Paul Hills inimitable psychodynamic methodology Magda knows nothing. She doesn’t even know who is playing the part of Del everything has been kept from her.
On the first slate Del enters the dungeon and walks down the corridor. Magda freaks out big time and throws her lit candle at Del. Poor Valentine was not expecting this and fell out of character and flinched (Like a girl I am told). This sends Paul apoplectic with rage. He sends Valentine off the set and to his dressing room.
Hills grabs me “He fucking flinched.. I don’t fucking believe it he flinched.. Follow me…..” With my camera rolling I follow Paul to a table where he picks up a virgin candle. He lights it and lets it start to melt. He walks of the sound stage and bursts into Valentines dressing room. As he speaks he pours candle wax on his head, on his arms and down his chest. “You are Del, the head of this satanic cult… You fear nothing. Nothing. No animal, not human not even daemons dragged from the depths of hell.. Nothing FUCKING SCARES YOU…. and defiantly not a fucking candle thrown by a bloody girl”
Valentine attempts a protest but I think he recognised the truth immediately. The next take was amazing. I didn’t see it but the entire crew now have their faith restored in this giant, I am told the candle hits him in the face and as the boiling wax hardens around his eye there is not some much as a hint of a flinch just a smile that would make Hannibal Lector look like a Sunday school teacher. AMAZING.
I see Paul’s methods and I love them instantly. I see how this is going to harvest gold. But I also see how easy it is for this to go wrong, I wonder if there is a possibility of compromise a way in which he can offer his cast the chance to prepare. Compromise I wonder if that is a word in his vocabulary. I have I guess just seen for myself that sometimes mining gold starts by digging in water.
Later I interview Valentine in his dressing room. He is such a professional that when I mentioned Paul Hills intervention he laughed it off with grace and humility and a final gag. It is so nice to work with these seasoned war horses, they make the job so much more pleasant and if truth be known, a little easier.
Story number two.
Jess and Magda are taking lumps out of each other. It is more like watching a boxing match then acting at times. But this is the truth, this is how it would be, or at least in the way they are experiencing it. I know this to be true, I have footage of the crew sobbing their hearts out finding the work so powerful that they can’t cope. There acting is like an emotional tsunami dragging tears from eyes and ripping the strings from hearts (fuck pulling at them – this is the real deal).
This does have a down side too. After one scene, Jess is bleeding around her neck and has to get some make up sorted before the next take. She is in floods of tears this is a tough piece of work. I run after her and try to get some footage. Malis, make up designer gets in my way. “Not now can’t you see she is crying” I try to push past her and before you know it Panda is there too “NOT NOW MATE. LEAVE HER ALONE!!!!” I foolishly back down.
Two days later Jess ask’s me “why didn’t you film that. That was real! I wanted that in the documentary. It is proof of how much I am putting into my work.” I feel as if I have let her down. I should have followed my instinct and heart. If she is giving 500% so too should I, her craft is worth that. My anger is misplaced and I find myself resenting Panda in particular. Armature hour, he should know better. Malis is trying to protect her star I get that. That just needs a conversation. But Panda, you are supposed to be a bloody film maker. Arrrggggghhhhhhh! So am I, I should have ripped his heart out and got the truth. I wanted it as much as Jess.
Story number three.
On Saturday night the crew wrapped late and we all headed out in to town and got very, very drunk. I don’t want to give too much away, but when you watch the making of documentary for the power I suspect you will see.
Paul Hamer interviewing Paul Hills as he takes a piss in the toilet of the Kings Head public house. In the background you may well see an entire camera and sound crew laughing their arses off.
Little Amos as he is now known getting naked in the high street just outside a club called Havana’s this was at about four am
Paul Hills getting banned from Delanie’s this is around quarter to eleven
A good days work was done. He he
Ian Manson Film Maker