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[HOPE AND FEAR] : BEHIND-THE-SCENESShooting the episode begins |
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Additional commentary by production staff is in this colour.
Scans by Janet.
On 27th February, after completing the shooting of three scenes with Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan, the company moves the filming equipment back to Stage 8 (Voyager's bridge set) for the rest of the day's work.
The bridge is a comfortable set for the film-makers as they know it well and understand instinctively how to accomodate any last-minute decisions the Director will make.
Pages from the script. Scene numbers might differ from the final shots.
Picture by/copyright: Peter Ioving
Chief Lighting Technician Bill Peets (in the white shirt) contemplates the effect created by removing the Plexiglas plate on the front of Paris' console to reveal hidden fluorescent lighting. Next to him, Rick Kolbe peers through his viewfinder to see what the shot would look like.
It is now, just, 28th February. Robert Duncan McNeill, known on set as Robbie, and Robert Beltran, known on set as Robert, go to Take 6 of Scene 87. There is a rehearsal for Scenes 100 and 102. It is 12.42 a.m. - the schedule is somewhat behind! Scenes 100 and 102 would work as a single scene, except that the script separates them with Scene 101 which takes place with different characters on a different set, so Adele Simmons refers to them as if they are a single scene when calling a rehearsal. The actors wait at their characters' regular stations. This should not be an extensive rehearsal as the Scene contains a simple exchange of dialogue:
100 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
Red Alert. Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris, Kim, N.D.s. Fast action:
TUVOK
Direct hit!
(reacts)
The vessel's shield's are down.
Transporters standing by.
CHAKOTAY
Get a lock on our people!
Kim works...
The First AD (Assistant Director), Cinematographer, Camera Operator, Key Grip and Gaffer gather on the bridge near the Director. "Rehearsal - Action!" Adele Simmons calls. The actors dutifully go through their paces once and wait while Rick Kolbe mulls over his thoughts.
Rick Kolbe says: "I want to show both Tuvok and Chakotay in the same shot." He comes up with a way to imply that all four key characters are there while showing only two on camera. "Let's have Robbie sit in place so that Robert has to walk around him." This puts Paris out of the camera's sight line, but Chakotay's move around him indicates to the tv audience that he is there. "And Robert should look toward Garrett's station when he says the line about getting a lock on our people." Kim will not be seen but the audience will feel he is there. This technique eliminates the need for additional coverage, or insert shots, of the missing two individuals - it saves time and budget.
"Okay," Adele Simmons calls out. "The set belongs to Marvin." The actors step off of the bridge to relax for a few minutes, leaving the set to the Cinematographer, Marvin Rush. He points at an area near the back of the ceiling and a member of the electrical crew climbs a ladder to add a bulb that will better backlight Tuvok. A stand-in assumes Tim Russ's position so that he can see how the lighting will throw the shadow across the console.
Meanwhile, several grips carry a sheet of plyboard onto the bridge and lay it down on the carpet just inside of Paris's station. Several others lift the dolly, with the mounted camera, off of the track, step up onto the platform with it, and carefully set it on the plyboard.
Off the set, Second Assistant Director Michael DeMeritt approaches Adele Simmons and says: "I think that I should bring my crew in at 4.00 a.m. on Monday," referring to the production assistants who must arrive before the make-up staff each day. Adele Simmons takes the thought to Unit Production Manager Brad Yacobian who says: "It's too early to decide. We'll have to make phone calls over the weekend."
Adele Simmons steps onto the bridge to consult with Marvin Rush. He is almost ready to start shooting. "Five-minute warning," she calls. Members of the make-up staff touch up the actors' face make-up. Wardrobe personnel tug at each uniform's sleeves and collar.
Off the set, a friendly conversation among several crew members elevates in volume. "Shhhhhh!" The ADs simultaneously hush the talkers. Brad Yacobian looks around the set. "Only one person should be talking," he says. "Who's that?" someone calls. "Er," Brad Yacobian hesitates, then: "Rick."
The Director calls "Action!". Tim Russ delivers his lines, then Robert Beltran steps behind the unseen Robert Duncal McNeill and delivers his own line while looking off camera, as directed, at Garrett Wang. Having Garrett Wang there guarantees that Robert Beltran's eyeline (the trajectory of his gaze) is geometrically correct. "Cut." Adele Simmons calls out: "Any objections to that rehearsal?"
Rick Kolbe gives a new direction to Robert Beltran. "Stand out of frame and step into it just before you start to deliver your line." Marvin Rush informs the actors they will do a "rack focus" i.e. the camera will go from Tim Russ, who speaks first, to Robert Beltran, who speaks second. Rick Kolbe checks what lens Marvin Rush is using. It is 110mm at a T3 f-stop. The rack focus will go from thirty feet to seven feet and back again."
"Okay, let's shoot it," says Kolbe, in position behind the two viewing monitors. Sound Mixer Alan Bernard pushes a button on his cart, simultaneously setting off a bell inside the stage and flashing red lights outside the stage. Outside, the guards stop whatever traffic may be in the vicinity.
12.55 a.m. Take 1. Robert Beltran does not look directly at Garrett Wang.
12:57 a.m. Take 2. Tim Russ does not like the way he delivered his line.
12:58 a.m. Take 3.
12.59 a.m. Take 4. "Very good. Let's do one more," says Rick Kolbe.
12:59:30 a.m. Take 5. "Great! Brilliant. Print that."
Crew who are not busy gather round a tv monitor where an interview Kate Mulgrew gave on 'The Late Late Show' is playing. Meanwhile, on the Voyager bridge set electricians change a bulb in an overhead light and remove a standing lamp on the floor. The grips put the camera and dolly back on the "train"-style track, still in place from an earlier occasion in front of Paris's navigation console. The move, this time, will go from left to right. Two grips carry ladders off the bridge. Marvin Rush decides to change the camera's mount from the gear head they have been using to a fluid head as it will give the camera "a bigger tilt and a smoother ride." That done, the set is once again ready.
1:24 a.m. Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Garrett Wang step onto the bridge for a rehearsal of Scene 102. Tim Russ will not be seen in this shot, but he is "there for eyeline." The Director waves to the video operator, and both screens suddenly show the same image of the bridge set, banishing the Kate Mulgrew interview.
102 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE Red Alert.
Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris, Kim, N.D.s. Fast action.
KIM
Direct hit!
(reacts)
I've got them, Commander
-- Transporter Room Two!
CHAKOTAY
Alter our slipstream -- hard
starboard -- take us back the way
we came!
Rick Kolbe asks the actors to deliver their lines from Scene 100 and continue through 102. He feels this will put more emotion into the dialogue for the second scene. Before he begins the next rehearsal, he decides he does not like the angle of the lens at the end of the shot, when it pans and focusses on Paris. He asks camera operator Douglas Knapp to try several different angles and is finally happy when the top of Paris's console does not come into frame. "It feels more natural now," he says and calls for a second rehearsal. He gets up from his chair among the monitors and goes to the set to suggest that Robert Beltran stop his forward movement at a different position. A camera assistant immediately kneels to remove the taped "X" at Beltran's original "mark" and place it at the new position.
1:32 a.m. Sound Mixer Alan Bernard sounds the bell. "One Hundred Apple," a camera assistant calls out. The new numbering system will indicate to the Editor that even though this material includes Scene 100, it is different from the earlier footage, which did not carry a letter designation. "One Hundred Apple," is Scene 102 combined with the dialogue from 100. "Action." The actors go through the scene. The Director calls "Cut. Not too shabby."
1:34 a.m. Take 2. "This should be the martini shot," Adele Simmons calls, indicating the last shot of the night. Twenty-five seconds later, Rick Kolbe calls, "Cut. Let's try another one."
1:36 a.m. Take 3. "Hold the roll please," he calls. "Robert, can you lean into the camera a little?"
1:37 a.m. Take 4. "Good beginning, but..."
1:38 a.m. Take 5. "Cut. The camera did not follow."
1:39 a.m. The actors are now giggling. "Hold the roll."
1:43 a.m. Take 6. "Better. Once again for the camera."
1:44 a.m. Take 7. "Action." Twenty-one seconds pass. Everything goes smoothly. The actors are right on their marks and lines and the camera follows perfectly. The rack focus, this time from Chakotay to Kim to Paris, is exact. "Cut."
Adele Simmons says: "And that's a wrap." It is 1:45 a.m. on Saturday morning.
As the security guards wait to lock up, the weary crew begins packing away their tools and the actors head for the trailers to remove their make-up and change their clothes. The wardrobe staff prepares the costumes for cleaning. The props and camera equipment are properly stored away in their cases and loaded into the trucks for safekeeping. The ADs complete their production reports.
However, the day's scheduled work has not been completed. Four scenes listed on the call sheet must be rescheduled. The producers had hoped that, with energy and luck, they would be able to catch up, but the production is still behind by approximately the same number of hours it was forced to delay its start.
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