Kassandra's images - 4

And there it is: new pictures from Kassandra's set.

You can also see more images here, here and here.

Actor Leandro Lefa and director Ulisses Costa in the set

Renata Stein and Blá-Blá, the doll

Improvising a curtain for a point of view shot

A ghostly image

Leandro Lefa geting into the character

Kassandra's Images - 3

New photos from Kassandra's set.

See more pictures here and here.

Shooting Renata Stein

Leandro Lefa (right) ready for action

Cinematographer Pablo Chaseraux and director Ulisses da Motta Costa

Watching the "film inside the film"

"And... Cut! More blood!"

Kassandra's Feelings - III - the shooting

Renata Stein's impressions during the filming of Kassandra. Her impressions about the rehearsels can be read here and here.

Day One:

It was a hard day, actually, I've got a little "soft" on the set. It seems that it took all day to get used to working with so many people in the room of Kassandra’a home. Nevertheless, I believe that I did reach the mood of the life of Kassandra quickly. But it made ​​me quiet throughout the day, which left me a little "down".

The focus helped me in the most difficult scene of the day, Scene 5, when I needed to cry, and even then it was complicated. I felt sensitive to every situation, I got involved, but the tears did not come so easy. I also know that much of this difficulty is because of the many cuts that have between one and take another. The few tears came after a look from director Ulisses. It helped me think I might be disappointing him.

The presence of my colleague Maico made ​​me feel better since he was one of the few people I knew and felt comfortable as Kassandra. I arrived on set already preparing myself for Kassandra, most of the people I knew right there and I had no opportunity to mingle with them. So it seemed that only Maico and Ulisses believed in my work, and it made ​​me more reclusive.

Talking with the director, we realize that this is one of the differences between theater and cinema. There are many people working on the set, each with a function and concentrated entirely on it, lots of breaks to change the camera and light and I, in this case, alone without other actors, trying to concentrate. In the theater we got months of preparation and testing, always with the same actors, creating a confidence relationship.

I came home exhausted and extremely sensitive.

Day Two:

Today it was lighter, in terms of concentration and sensitivity. I got more comfortable on the set and Maico came early, and Susana Witt and Leandro Lefa were there too. So I laughed and I relax more, but I did find it harder to concentrate in certain scenes later. I realized that no matter how hard it is to be Kassandra, you need a lot of concentration to be her. So I went back a little to a self seclusion.

What were heavy today were the attack scenes, escapes and other disaster. It means a lot of beating and as a result, many wounds. There were some complicated scenes with birds, after all, it seems that they all had a problem similar to that of Kassandra...

Day Three:

Behold the Great Man. Today he decided to appear. We recorded the scenes with him, ande the ones with blood.

What a strange and awkward day. I do not know, or better, we can not say why, but it was weird. I also thought the director was more impatient today (will he allow me to post this?).

Today I thought I didn’t give everything. I think it was exhaustion. Being Kassandra is not easy. And despite all the tiredness, at the end of the recordings I stayed there on set. Laziness? Farewell? Or is it just Ramona’s wonderful snacks and Maico’s massage that holded me there?

Kassandra now only in the coming months with more blood and color.

I am very grateful to all staff that is giving life to this Ulisses’ dream that now is also mine.

Music on the set

There was solid certainly even about Kassandra’s shooting even before Roger Monteiro presented the first draft of the script, and that is we would make the scenes with music.

The film has little dialogue and most of its sound will be recorded in post-production, which allowed the presence of music on the set. The idea was well received by the crew as a whole, especially by composer Chico Pereira (pic), who made a playlist to run not only as the scenes while shooting, but also in the intervals. Renata Stein also enjoyed the idea: she could choose her own music for the emotional scenes, helping her performance.

Below are two examples of the songs played during Kassandra’s filming. The first is a piece of Phillip Glass, one of the references collected by Chico, and the second is the theme from Requiem For A Dream, composed by Clint Mansell, chose by Renata to play in a few moments of the film:

Metamorphosis - Phillip Glass

Lux Aeterna - Clint Mansell

The Women in Kassandra

Ramona Barcellos, the mother godess

In the role of productor, Ramona treated the team like a large family who should have confort. Besides the hours devoted to organization, as soon as the filming began she was started to cook, right there in the location, in order to lower the film’s cost.

By Roberto Coutinho (producer and sound engineer): "It is great to work with a woman like Ramona! She’s efficient, responsible, helpful and organized. She can keep a straight face while being extremely nice and sweet."
By Victor Fiuza (assistant director): "A producer I would love to work with many times. She has the attributes necessary for the production management and at the same time maintains a calm control."
By Ulysses da Motta Costa (Director): "When Ramona looks you with those eyes infinitely blue and asks you 'but will it work?', all you want is to do your job right so you’ll not disappoint the 'boss' ".

Ana Gusson, the amazon warrior

Ana never got tired whatever was the task. When she had finished her work, would immediately help someone else. Besides, of course, the additional aesthetic that she gave to the scenery and film visual as a whole.

By Roberto: "If you do not know Ana, your wasting time! Even tired and stressed, she always had a smile on her face. She’s never in a bad mood or bored. And to complete, she is the best art director I ever worked with! "
By Ulysses: "She has that cut way that only people no fear have: Anna is not afraid to hug you tight when sees you - and also not afraid to raise her voice up even to the director when needed ..."
By Maico Silveira (actor): "A sweet girl who is frightened by any ‘hi’".

Suzana Witt, our psyche

Susana always put the soul in work, even when it’s fast. She doesn’t mid the status of being an actress and involves rapidly in the middle of the crew, exercising the tranquility she expressed on the screen.

By Leandro Lefa (actor): "Susana has a enviable naturally, she seems to have years of experience with the camera. Best: It seems that neither had a camera there, only Susana doing her thing."
By Daniel Coutinho (film publicist): "Susana is an actress of great talent and also is a very dear person. It is a pleasure to work beside her. She’s competent in the set and a great company for a good chat and laugh behind the scenes ".

Marina Cardozo, all the muses in one

Kassandra’s script supervisor (who served as assistant director when needed) can do anything of artistic character. During breaks from filming, it was easy to see Marina painting in an Ipad or singing. She’s always making art – and always keeping the enthusiasm.

By Roberto: "Besides being a great partner to whatever silly plans (boring, stupid and clueless as they can be), Marina is the most versatile girl I know. Each time I discover a new talent: writer, dancer, painter, musician, director, actress, gourmet ... Is there anything that Marina do not know? "
By Daniel: "A girl committed to work and who is always in good humor. Marina is very spontaneous and fun. A company very dear in and off the movie set."

Isabela Boessio and Giulia De Cesero, the nymphs

If there was laughter echoing through the set (and sometimes outside it), everyone knew: it was the costume designers and makeup artists Isabela and Giulia. But beyond the laughter, there was dedication.

By Ulysses: "To have those two girls on the team made us all quite tranquil. We knew that we will not worry about the costumes. They do their job no matter if the world is falling. Besides, of course, they are beautiful and enjoy this crazy process that is to make a movie. "

By Chico Pereira (composer): "They give lots of laughter. That alone would be enough for everyone to like them. But, moreover, they are talented." 

Renata Stein, the persephone

Like the goddess of greek mythology, Renata lived in two worlds. Despite her cheerful disposition and sweetness, she was not afraid to dive into darkness to be able to give life (and fear and anxiety and anger) to Kassandra.

By Leandro Lefa: "Renata makes us feel small. You look at her and realize that she is thinking a million things and it seems that a whole universe will be created to complement her performance when one says ‘action’. I think it actually happens. "
By Victor: "Young actress, but with professionalism and devotion to the craft dormant, revealing an early maturity development, which therefore opens great expectations for her work."
By Chico: "A precious stone. She’s a little monster as a person and a huge monster as an actress. By ‘monster” I mean the best sense of the word. And these two Renatas do not seem to be the same person, which proves her talent for acting”.
By Maico: "A girl of few words when working. Because when she's not ..."

About the cast: Leandro Lefa

He’s the last one on the presentations. Doesn’t mean he’s less important: Leando Lefa plays one of the main characters in Kassandra, a weird and nameless neighbor which represents a threat to the leading character. However, the actor was the last one to be confirmed in the movie.

According to director Ulisses Costa, the difficulty was to find someone different from the other men in the cast. “Roger Monteiro, the writer, imagined someone older and possibly ‘bigger’”, he remembers. “But I was really afraid that the character was confused with the Big Man”.

Ulisses chose Leando Lefa also because their long friendship. He was one of the actors of  The Screamer (watch it with english subtitles), the director’s first short movie. The promise that they would work together again stood and more than one project was thought to continue the partnership, but none worked out. Another point well considered about Lefa was the fact that he already had done a horror movie – played a role in the almost legendary Beyond the Grave, a zombie movie shooted in Porto Alegre, never released commercially.

The construction of the character had to be really specific. Even with a tight schedule, Lefa was able to email pictures to the crew, showing some ideas of costume, make up, facial and body expression (pic). “Despite the lack of time to rehearse the way we did with Renata, for example, Lefa’s dedication was essential to make the character as ready as it was in the day of shooting”, tells the director.

“Ulisses’ merit: with intelligence and sensibility, he knows exactly how to say what he wants and then things just flow”, says the actor. “All I needed was the script, one coffee and three minutes of improvisation exercise where enough for me to feel completely safe and comfortable with my character and the whole crew, particularly with the rest of the cast.”

Coffee? Yep: on his first scenes, Lefa needed to look dirty. Art director Ana Gusson, suggested that a shirt was stained with coffee, to make the filthy look on the black and white photography. After that, the actor wore a wet shirt with a strong smell of coffee for several hours, what resulted in many jokes from Renata Stein.

About working in more than one horror movie, Leandro says: “I wanted to create a guy without deepness, driven by sex, who thinks is fun being grouse and repulsive. It’s interesting that in Beyond the Grave I also played a man intellectually limited and who didn’t know how to act like a person, but the characters are completely different”.

About the cast: Luis Franke

 

Somewhen, during the footage of Kassandra, the following dialogue happened between actor Luis Franke and director Ulisses da Motta Costa:

Ulisses: You do know I’m a nonsense director, don’t you?

Luis: No. You have some sense. Some.

A few minutes later:

Ulisses: Luisão, do you know why I’m a nonsense director?

Luis: Why?

Ulisses: Because only a nonsense person would call an actor two times winner of the Açorianos Award to play a character that… doesn’t speak.

Luis Franke is the mysterious Big Man: a man with huge proportions, whose only purpose is a mystery to the main character, once he usually appears as a threat. “Kassandra is a walk through the real and the imagination, the lucidity and madness, the fight and the encounter with our real ‘me’”, defines the actor.

 

During the rehearsals, Luis was worried discussing the meaning of each character and their actions along the narrative. He wanted to know the role of the Big Man related to Kassandra: “I think my character represents the sleeping courage in her, which will be awake whenever she needs”, said.

Wanted by cinema, publicity, television and, of course, theater, Luisão won one Açoriano Award (a theater award in Brazil) for his work on the play O Sobrado – as a supporting actor – and another, for best actor, in an adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s The Broken Jug. 

He praises the whole cast and crew: “I have the biggest pleasure on being in the cast of Kassandra. The high level crew, coordinated by the great Ulisses Costa, who directed the process beautifully, allowed all the actors to connect with their characters and reach the deepest point of their minds. Acting with the young Renata Stein and my friends Maico Silveira and Leandro Lefa was, more than anything, an honor”.

Making of Kassandra - 5 - when a cell phone rings

We talked about Maico Silveira's participation recently, so let's check one of the rehearsals with him and leading actress Renata Stein. That's until someone's phone starts to ring.

And you know: never let yout cell phone ring when an actor ir performing (video in portuguese)...

Kassandra's Images - 2

More pictures from Kassandra's filming, starring Renata Stein's with her thousand faces. Check out for more pictures here.

 Marker and action.

Leandro Lefa in scene.

Ulisses da Motta Costa directing.

"Calm down, Kassandra. It's just the world outside".

Bye-bye! See you in the next post!

Fake blood: such a hard work

Kassandra’s team had a really hard work with fake blood. Sounds strange? Well, work with fluids is an exhaustive job, due its unpredictable nature.

During filming, two shots involving blood took an hour and a half hours to me made. In one of them, one of the actors had to spit blood. Crew rushed between each take to clean set, costume and actor, and also to find some glass so he could pour out the remaining blood in his mouth.

Even harder was the shot in which Kassandra’s face was dripped with blood. Director Ulisses da Motta Costa did use his fingers to release the drops in Renata Stein’s face. But his hand eventually showed up in the camera. So he stood a bit far from the actress and made the second take.

It was a disaster. The drops did go everywhere: in the floor, in the set’s curtain and even in the script girl Marina Cardozo. Nor a single drop in Renata. While art director Ana Gusson and producer Roberto Coutinho furiously cleaned the mess up, a beaten Ulisses changed the shot to make the dropping task easier.

At least the blood made by Roberto and Jackson Ritter didn’t stain…

Kassandra's Feelings - II

Written by Renata Stein during the rehearsals on Ulisses da Motta Costa's notes. See here the first part.

- Do you want it always?

- I was in a place where my back was vulnerable and this is horrible.

- I didn't know what was worse:
                           your voice
                               or
                          the silence

- It was kind of "strange", because I didn't cry, but my body was sensible, I don't know...

- I'm almost hungry. :P

- Good rehearsal. I like Kassandra very much.

Making of Kassandra - 3 - Acting

Kassandra’s new video shows a bit of the work that director Ulisses da Motta Costa is making with the cast. Here, an exercise between leading actress Renata Stein and Maico Silveira, one of her co-partners. It was in the same occasion that she wrote the first of her Kassandra’s Feelings.

The rehearsal’s objective is to increase the cast chemestry. This work helps to create new dynamics and also helps to build the characters (video in portuguese). 

Kassandra's feelings

Written by Renata Stein during the rehearsals on Ulisses da Motta Costa's notes. Topics are deliberately random and reproduced exactly as she wrote:

Kassandra's fellings.

- I'm anguished, I can't talk.

- I was bitten.

- I'd puke I if were him.

- Oh, the "fag" don't eat chocolate.

- To eat -- that's very easy

- THE FAMILY PICTURE

- My birdie is awesome.

- No, I mean that I also felt it.

Here is Kassandra

Nothing better than presenting the leading actress of Kassandra, the person who will be the face, the life, the expression of the heroin on the movie: Renata Stein (pic).

Renata is an actress and a ballerina (also a light and youthful infectious soul). Soon, she will write here about the experience of portraying a character who doesn’t speak and who has to express its feelings just with face and body language.

According to the director Ulisses da Motta Costa: “Renata was the first person to know about the project. If she hadn't accepted, I think we hardly would find another actress for the part”.