SHOOTING DAYS (Page4)

....‘Hallo, I’m Daniel’. I look up to see Daniel Radcliffe standing in front of me. He’s beaming away and eager to shake my hand, we laugh about the finger nails, which make hand-shaking impossible. ‘Hi, I’m Jenny’. I smile back.
‘I love the mouse in your dress’, he says. ‘That’s nothing’, I whisper, ‘Look at the back of my hat!’
My God!’ says Daniel, ‘What is it?’ I tell him it’s the head of a bat and he’s fascinated, ‘Oh that’s really cool’, he says, ‘Got any more dead creatures draped around you?’ I show him the Stag Beetle ring but our attention is grabbed by Chris who comes to explain the shot to Daniel and walk him through it. Having done that, the assistant director calls for rehearsal and we try out the moves to see how they work for everyone. Daniel has some problem with walking backwards and being startled by me. It’s very difficult for him not to anticipate my arrival and turn before I pounce! We slightly re-work the moves so that our meetings co-incide. I still have problems with my tray of nails. To be honest, I now can’t remember whether we cut them altogether or not. There doesn’t seem to be a sign of them on the film.
It is a real joy to work the scene with Daniel. So far, I have only had the stand-in to react to, and their job is not to act, but to just be a presence to respond to. Daniel gives me a great reaction and it makes all the difference to a performance. Harry’s fear helps the Aged Witch to be more predatory and frightening. Because I am genuinely impressed, I say this to Daniel inbetween some lighting changes. His response is very typical of the really nice person he is. He is absolutely delighted. ‘Oh were you pleased?’ he asks, ‘Did it really help you?’ ‘Yes of course’, I say. He seems really happy that I can compliment him on how well he has acted the scene. Chris decides to go for a take. Everyone takes their places and make-up girls scurry about checking that all hair is as it should be and make-up is patched and powdered. Somewhere someone shouts. ‘Clear the set please!’ and all the technicians disappear round corners and into doorways out of sight.’Complete silence please everyone! We’re shooting!’ Everyone stands still exactly where they are and silence falls, even those at the back of the set making coffee or waiting for the next scene have to stop what they’re doing. The boy with the clapper board steps forward and holding the board upto the camera, calls ‘Scene 27 Take 1!’ and snaps the clapper. The assisant camera man says, ‘Camera rolling’, the sound man says, ‘OK sound’ and finally Chris calls, ‘Action!’ and everything bursts into life. We finish the master shot which goes from Harry leaving Borgin & Burkes and turning to see Hagrid at the top of Knockturn Alley. There are no major hitches. No-one fluffs a line or forgets what they are doing. Although I can’t remember exactly how many takes the scene took, I know it was more than one. It is extremely rare that a first take gets everything perfect. There are many reasons for having to re-shoot scenes. Sometimes the actors have problems with remembering the script or tripping over words. Sometimes (a lot of times!), actors get the giggles and just can’t get through a few lines without bursting out laughing. This is infectious of course, and often the more you have to do it, the worse it gets. But mostly the reasons for more takes, are technical. Particularly when a large number of people are involved. Someone is just a step too late coming down the alley or gets in the way of the main focus of the shot, or a physical thing goes wrong such as tripping over your cloak or turning around too soon or too late etc. They seem minor details but on film they make all the difference to smooth action. I do remember that inbetween each take, Chris Columbus would come on set to have a little word with everyone, ‘That was great, Jenny. Just keep your hand a second longer on Harry’s shoulder’. Or, ‘Jenny, just turn to camera a split second later. But I love you being that close to Harry’s face’. Every correction he asks of me, is balanced by a compliment and if each take is to seem fresh, a good director knows that his cast have to remain confident and enthusiastic. We go for another shot. Once the director is finally happy with what he sees on the monitor, he asks the sound man if he’s happy, the camera men if they are happy and if everyone says yes, then he will say, ‘OK. Check the gate!’ This means take a final look at the camera lens to make absolutely sure that no foreign bodies got in there - a speck of dust or a hair - which could ruin the shot. Once the gate is checked and it’s clear, then the director will call for preparation for the next shot.
In this case, it is the same scene filmed from my POV. (which stands for Point Of View). One shot will be of the Witch over Harry’s shoulder (Harry’s POV) and another of Harry over the Witch’s shoulder. Mostly on films only one camera shoots the scene at a time. On a major film such as this, there may be several. It was possibly because of the lack of space that we had to set up the scene again with slightly different lighting and angles. During the new set-up, the actors are sent back to their dressing rooms, or take lunch or if the break will be short, then they just take a seat at the back of the set and ‘chill out’. Daniel and I are led off set and asked if we would like tea/coffee or a cold drink. One of the girls comes to check my fingernails. I seem to remember losing one during the shoot. We sit down and chat. Daniel mostly wants to talk about the real world, such as if I had any children and how old they were. I tell him about my son who is fifteen. He asks me where he goes to school and what he likes doing. I tell him that he has a girlfriend and that seems to be taking up a lot of his time. Daniel wants to know all the details! ‘He sounds really great!’ he says. ‘I think that depends on whether you’re his friend or his mother!’ I reply. Daniel grins. He is easy and charming to be with and entirely without any sense of being ‘a star’ or in any way different from anyone else on the set and this must be very difficult for a young person who is known world-wide and worth a considerable amount of money. He tells me he’s looking forward to his new school although he will only be there a term before filming starts on ‘Harry Potter 3’. He says he still loves the whole process of what he’s doing and is anxious to improve his acting to be worthy of colleagues such as Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman, but I’m not sure that he sees himself choosing acting as a permanent career. There’s something so refreshingly normal and grounded about Daniel Radcliffe and I am sure that this quality comes through his performances.
You may think that it has been perhaps an hour since I was called down onto the set. Actually, it has taken five or six! We had lunch quite early on, before Daniel was called and now it’s 6.30pm! There are strict limits for the amount of time that children can work and so it is decided to finish filming for the day. I am whisked back to my dressing room in my ‘witchmobile’. The girls are ready to help me out of my soaking wet costume which is immediately sent to be dried and the long process of removing fingernails and face pieces begins. It takes the best part of an hour and is not without some pain! My driver is sent for and I fall exhaustedly into the back of the car to be driven home.
Tomorrow’s call is for me to be in wardrobe at 6.30am. I decide to try and get some sleep in the car on the way home. It has been a fantastic day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow but I actually wonder if it’s worth going home at all!
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