Behind the Scenes: Who’s Gurkhan?
Part Three
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 15
“You Want Me To Beat Him Up How Long?”
When last we left our crew, Lucy was playing “makeup” with her body double and Renee was getting ready to slit Gurkhan's throat. For the blocking of this scene, Renee lies on top of Calvin on the bed while Michael, Waka and Dana move around them checking the angles of how they'd like to set up the shots.
Renee goes through her lines while checking out just how much in Gurkhan's face Michael wants her to be. She gets nose to nose with Calvin and Michael loves it. The next move in the story is for Gabrielle to stand and start beating up Gurkhan. Stewart, the stunt coordinator, tells Renee to start with a couple kicks to Gurkhan's ribs.
NOTE: In a television fight, no one really gets hit - at least not intentionally. Mistakes may happen, but the camera shoots at such an angle that it seems blows are closer than they really are. This is common knowledge, but I wanted to reiterate it because I will be using the words “hit” and “kick” when describing fight scenes in this episode and I didn't want anyone to think it meant contact was being made. Now, back to our story.
Renee kicks Calvin in the side and what I noticed was that he made the appropriate reaction move to the kick. Later in this sequence, Renee slaps him across the face and even during blocking and rehearsal, Calvin moved his head in response to the slap. This surprised me at first, but then I realized, the reaction shot is important to the fight and needs to be practiced as well.
The sequence goes as follows - Gabrielle lies on top of Gurkhan with a knife to his throat - she stands up and kicks him - she kneels next to him and pounds his chest - exhausted, she sits facing away from him. As you can see, Renee will move from low to high then back to low again.
The camera is placed for a closeup of Gabrielle nose to nose with Gurkhan which means it won't be possible to follow her standing up. Michael decides to shoot it in two stages. He'll film all the sitting parts first then do the kicking scene at the end. Michael tells Renee she can walk away and get worked up for the exhaustion part at the end. Another example of the actor's skill at making you believe they've just done something they actually haven't.
Renee keeps one ear on Michael talking with the camera operator and the other on Stewart who begins to tell her how he envisions the beating - two kicks to the ribs, a stomp to the neck, couple of right crosses, etc. Michael chimes in that the most important part for him is the chest-pounding. He tells Stewart he doesn’t want anything clever or complicated, just a mindless, pouring out of Gabrielle’s hatred for this man who killed her parents.
Dana moves Lucy into place in line behind Renee for the shot of Xena's reaction to what Gabrielle is going through. Michael tells Renee that this is a medium shot that will include her face and Calvin's. Therefore, he tells her, some of the violence will have to be faked because, obviously, she can't let loose and really hit him. Michael tells her there will be a later “hero” shot on Gabrielle's face where Renee will be pounding on pillows and that's when they'll capture Gabrielle’s violence and rage. No comment from the pillows on this upcoming pummeling and, unfortunately, I wasn't there for that moment.
With the shots lined up, everyone goes into motion to prepare the scene - lights, reflectors, props, cameras, etc. While this is going on, Renee and Stewart get to work on the actual fight with Michael looking on. There's a cute bit of dialogue between Renee and Michael.
Michael: “You can go (pound on him) until you can't do it anymore.”
Renee: “How much do you want me to do? Until I'm out of breath? Cause I can do it for a while.” She laughs and I'm thinking this woman is really in shape and Calvin's in for it!
Michael smiles.
Renee: “You're all right with burning (using up) the film?”
Michael nods his head yes.
Renee: “Okay, great!” And she claps her hands gleefully.
During this exchange, I learned something else about filmmaking. Renee was conscious of how much film they could use up doing this because she knew her own stamina and she wanted to make sure the director was okay with it.
“A Trailerful Of Maggots And Other Wishes”
Rob wanted us to include as many different aspects of the making of an episode as possible. I'd be getting ready for bed - at 8:00 because that was midnight Los Angeles time and my time clock never did adjust - and the phone would ring. It was Rob letting me know about something new I could catch.
One night, he was driving away from the studio and in his rear view mirror he could see into the wardrobe department and spotted Lucy having a costume fitting for a future episode. He grabbed his car phone and said, “You gotta get one of these.” Luckily, a fitting with Renee for “The Haunting Of Amphipolis,” the next episode on the schedule, showed up on Day Six and I grabbed it. He was passionate about recording everyone's contributions to the show. So, as Renee prepared to beat the stuffing out of the pillows, we dashed over to the main offices to check out a Heads of Department meeting for “The Haunting Of Amphipolis.”
You might want to review the article on the video in issue #13 to reacquaint yourself with the purpose of this gathering and the who's who in attendance. I'll wait... Okay, I'll touch on the highlights of what was covered.
The first point Garth Maxwell, the director, makes is that he wants to take the episode into the area of German Expressionism in terms of the lighting of the set. He feels this is important to define the different realms in which the show takes place. It should have the feeling of a psychic storm. They talk about sharp angles in the sets and the revealing of each of the suspenseful surprises in the story. The use of track lighting and shadows to animate inanimate objects. As our camera peers over Rob Gillies' shoulder, you can see him making preliminary set drawings.
One of the first discussions is how do you show that most of the people Xena, Gabrielle and Eve are bumping into in the house are ghosts. As Rob Tapert points out, “Ethereal is expensive.” But the audience needs to know right at the beginning that there's something really spooky going on here. Garth proposes that, in the teaser, Xena’s mom, Cyrene, walks through Eve and, for just a moment, becomes an X-ray of a skeleton. Sure caught my attention. Made me want to rewind to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.
One of the existing sets they'll be using has a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Garth thinks about shooting down through it onto Xena’s face for an unusual, jarring camera angle to give the viewer a feeling of discomfort and unease.
Another point is raised about the mausoleum where Xena discovers her mother's burned bones lying on top of her sarcophagus. Is this the village mausoleum or just a small family crypt? Rob Tapert chuckles and says that Cyrene was a well-to-do innkeeper and would have had her own place - one sarcophagus for herself, one for Xena’s brother, Lyceus, who died many years ago, and one waiting for Xena.
Onward to the maggots. Gabrielle has been eating fruit with Eve and looks down to see the piece in her hand covered in maggots. She rushes out of the room to be sick and Eve looks down at the courtyard floor to find it covered with the critters. The maggots are multiplying exponentially. And everyone looks to the woman who will be supplying the wriggly things to know how many she can come up with.
“What do maggots come in - buckets?” they ask. She grins and answers, “Cupfuls.” Her first estimate is enough to cover an area the size of a piece of paper. Oh, no - not nearly enough! Garth: “How about a trailerful?” Eric: “Enough to cover this 12-foot-long table?” She promises to work on it. This icky discussion elicits laughter from everyone.
Rob talks to one of the special effects people about having maggots on Gabrielle's face. She explains that they would use rice initially and then a fake head with real maggots for the closeup. And with the image of maggots crawling on Renee's face seemingly permanently lodged in my mind, we shut down the camera and head back to set.
“A Visit To Never Never Land”
We've arrived in time to see the rehearsal of Gabrielle crawling across Gurhkan's bed to slice his throat. The camera is above them to shoot over Renee’s shoulder onto Calvin's face for his reaction to what she's doing to him. Renee crawls over and begins to seductively stroke his neck with the knife. Delivering her lines, she suddenly becomes aware of a shadow falling on Calvin’s face and adjusts her position.
Renee stands up and mimes the kicking and stomping. Michael checks with the cameraman to make sure they are getting a bit of Renee's shoulder in the shot. She walks across the bed under the camera and then comes back to fall down at Calvin’s side and does a slow-motion, backhanded, close-fisted punch to his face. Renee moves the punch back and forth measuring the distance and Calvin moves his head in response to the punch each time. Then she does the pummeling motion to his chest. The bit is over - Michael's happy with the rehearsal and Carmen calls out for final checks.
Renee stands surrounded by three people. One is touching up her makeup, and the other two are putting on the arm and wrist jewelry. A bit of double-stick tape secures the costume. A touch of eyebrow pencil to Calvin's sideburns and they're ready to go.
Carmen calls action and, while standing behind Renee who is waiting to crawl across the bed, says Xena's line, “If you’re going to kill him, do it now.” Renee will be out of camera range until she is on the bed. She draws her knife out of its sheath and pauses to give Calvin time to gather his emotions of fear. Our soundperson, Deana, is wired into their sound system and I can hear Calvin's frightened breathing. Renee’s tortured, “I hate you,” brings chills to me.
Renee stands up, grabs Sally's (safety supervisor) hand for balance and begins kicking him. It’s vicious and Renee grunts with the force of her internal emotions. She backs out of camera range for a couple of seconds to reset for the next part of the action, then steps back in, drops to her knees and begins pounding on Calvin's chest. She wails away at him until one of her armbands slips to her wrist. “Cut.” Renee clambers off the bed and takes the robe handed to her. As she walks by our camera, she puts her eye up to the lens and peers in at Fred looking back at her. With a grin, she walks on.
A few minutes later, they’re ready to set the camera for the same scene only in a very tight closeup of Gurkhan's face. Renee and Calvin get into position and hold it while measurements are taken. In a moment, they’re ready to go. “Action!”
Renee whispers her lines into Calvin's face. She stands holding Sally's hand again and kicks him. Her jewelry slides down her arms and she pauses to adjust it. All the while, the expression on her face remains in character. Renee falls down by Calvin’s side and vents her rage on his body. And when she’s done and Carmen has yelled cut, Renee leans over taps Calvin on the stomach and shakes his hand. Job well done.
And one of the mysteries of filmmaking has just happened right in front of me. Gabrielle is filled with hatred and Gurkhan’s terrified. She brushes the knife across his neck as he shivers facing his own death. You couldn’t have a more intimate moment. And what I see is a microphone inches from the top of Renee's head, 30 or so people standing around them, a camera over her shoulder. There's even a man on the bed with them holding a light reflector! Yet, when I see this episode on my television at home, it will be as if they are the only two people there. Even knowing what I do about how it was done, the actors make all that invisible. Nothing will exist for me but the emotions they have drawn from within themselves.
The characters aren’t real, the words they speak and actions they make come from someone else. What is the magic they can cast over us? How is it that all these people working together manage to make me believe? Know what? I hope I never figure it out. But when Peter Pan asks if we believe, I'll be the first one clapping.
(to be continued)