FOR THE DURATION - Film shoot with Marcel Stoetzler

Here is a short photo-account of the first day of shooting with the protagonist of the film, played by Marcel Stoetzler, a rock musician and senior lecturer in sociology at Bangor University.

The first location was Brewit Bridge near Penrhyndeudraeth.  Under the bridge Marcel was filmed waking up next to his all important suitcase.  This is how it looked to him:

After this, we went over to the destroyed forest location, which was about a 20 minute drive.  After making Marcel lug the suitcase across extremely challenging terrain the director realised he was in need of a pannad (hot drink) and so a break was called:

The next location was the large black water pipe.  More walking/struggling over uneven ground was required by the actor, together with some direction from a distance (the director shouting).

It was time for the catering van to arrive, so a comfortable spot in the sunshine was found to settle down to a relaxed lunch in the stunning surroundings of the Snowdonia national Park:

After lunch the crew decamped to the radio mast, and then on to Dorothea Quarry near Nantlle.  Here, the director is set up to film the protagonist's entrance into a small tunnel, which in the film will become miraculously become larger, and lead to the location of the film's denouement (the old slate finishing factory building):

After this scene, which took just a few minutes, it was time to make a trek up through the old quarry buildings to reach the huge hole at the top of the complex, where Marcel's character encounters the strange water pipe that intermittently dispenses a gush of water.  Before medium and close up shots were taken, the actor was instructed on where to walk across the bottom of the quarry while the director/camera filmed from above:

Once the character had reached his 'mark' (the water pipe) a long lens was used to flatten the space and provide a long shot with some detail.  The director had to shout down to the actor and tell him to put his trench coat back on.  The actor heard some shouting but couldn't hear properly.  However, he correctly guessed what the director wanted and duly obliged.

The day went well - all the shots that were wanted were achieved with the minimum of fuss, though each framing was improvised on arrival.  Success in this was possible as the director had recced each location several times and worked out in his head where the best shots were and where the camera would need to be set up.  Effectively, the story boarding was carried out, but not on paper, as the director would be operating the camera.