DAY 12 VS THE DINNER

MARIA FERNANDEZ and JOEL MIELLE on set for the day's shooting

FADE IN:

INT. WILLIAMSTOWN STUDY. DAY

On the 20th of June at 2.00 p.m., we returned to Northcote, the same location we used on the 6th of May to do various love scenes involving Alex Kadamani -- thanks to our dedicated Production Manager Georgie Smibert for arranging the usage of the dining room. The charming and entertaining Lia Beth was our make-up artist for the day.

PETER KALOS, as Nathan, and MARIA FERNANDEZ, as Lucia

It was the first scene in the film that involved four characters having a conversation -- this, of course, is a bit of a challenge for any director. It's clear in the script that the leading character is Lucia, played by Maria Fernandez, so it was important to place her in a position of authority.

The scene takes places towards the end of the story, and by then she has decided to go back to Nathan, played by Peter Kalos, and marry him. As a result, I placed both characters next to one another so that their physical closeness would reflect the new strength of their relationship. I originally wanted Lucia to be central in the establishing shot, but this proved difficult with the way the table was placed in the room.

JOEL MIELLE and LAURENT BOULANGER

After some discussion with Joel Mielle, DOP, we ended up doing both a ceiling shot and a tracking shot to ensure we had enough to choose during editing. This was followed by a variety of two-shots, medium shots and ECU shots.

ADAM TURNBULL in the role of Walter

Walter, played by Adam Turnball, and Samantha, played by Audrey Lamont, were also at the dinner table, and we ended up with an interesting debate between the characters discussing what should be done with the 'recordings' the Interviewer, played by Cameron Daddo, took of them during the past few months.

The main challenge in the shooting of the scene was ensuring that continuity of the food on the table -- once people start eating, it can be quite difficult to ensure that the food is 're-set' when shooting a new angle. This took us quite a bit of time to establish, but we covered a lot of angles to ensure some reliable continuity during editing.

We wrapped up on schedule, and by 8.00 p.m. everyone had left.

Next: some outdoor scenes that are challenging us to scout for appropriate locations.

Laurent Boulanger
Director/Scriptwriter
of Six Lovers

FADE OUT