My excuse is that I thought it was odd to write this while I was back in Melbourne (seeing as it is called Charlotte in London! I'm very literal minded) and since I've got back I've hit the ground running.
First things first. The prison film.
It was a low security prison, level C (the top level is A, the lowest is D, which is an "open prison" so prisoners are allowed into the community during the day but return at night.) Having said that, my cast and crew consisted of 4 murderers and a paedophile! I was pretty nervous the first day, when I had a rehearsal and met the inmates for the first time. I wasn't worried about my security, but the prison officer in charge of the filming had managed to give me the impression that the playwright and actors would be utterly unimpressed by my attempts to make their script more "filmic". I'd been given a play script so naturally I'd written it into a film, seeing as that's what we were making - turning some talking to the audience moments into voice over and cutting it down a bit (not much). When I tried to explain this to the prison officer she shook her head and looked unimpressed and said "Ooh no, they like doing the talk to the audience bit. I don't know about that..."
Consequently, when I met the inmates for the first time my leg was shaking, I had to concentrate to stop it from jiggling up and down! The author of the play had had a heart attack the week before and so we had to move to his wing, where he read my version of his script stoney-faced. No emotion at all. At the end of it though, he clearly approved, and instructed his fellow inmates to go along with the changes and follow my instructions. The playwright appeared to be something of a leader in the prison.
The shoot went remarkably well, despite some rather hefty obstacles. One was that we only had a day to shoot, and a small crew. And the day before I was told by the prison that the inmates would have to be locked up in the middle of the day for lunch, giving us 2 1/2 hours to shoot in the morning and only 2 in the afternoon! So only half a day in actual fact! Thankfully the producer called the head of security and got our cast a special dispensation to stay on the wing during lunchtime. We still had a lot to shoot, but we got it done exactly on time, even managing to get a bit of coverage. The camera operator was grabbing cutaway shots whenever he could.
All in all, it was an eye-opening experience. Three of the four men who had committed murder were very polite and rather charming, it was hard to imagine how they managed to do what they did. What it really made me think about was the girlfriends, wives and partners of these men. I find that I can't help experiencing a flicker of judgement when I see on TV partners supporting their loved ones in court, defending them, despite their obviously violent natures. But I find it easier to understand now how someone could fall in love with a man and have no inclination of what he was capable of, until it was too late. This goes for the paedophile too I guess.
Sadly can't put the film up on Youtube or anything to show you guys, due to victims rights laws (fair enough too - I wouldn't want to see the man who murdered my sister on Youtube making a film about diversity in prison!!).
Anyway, I'll write about my special weekend in NYC with Ben tomorrow... I promise!
PLEASE NOTE: My sister is not actually dead. The reference above is in relation to a hypothetical murderer! Please don't be alarmed. She is safe and well...!
No comments:
Post a Comment