Cinema Canada (May 1980)

Te crew had an international flavor ; a cinematographer from Venezuela, an assistant director from California, an assistant cameraman from England, and an editor from Lebanon. The inherent hardships of the lowbudget feature notwithstanding, the production more than proved a few of Murphy’s Laws. The first week, one of the leading players had to be replaced after a disagreement ; the second, astray welder’s spark started a fire on the set. From there on it was easy street — the makeup artist had to go into hospital ; 6,000 feet of film were forgotten in an Air Canada warehouse, for three weeks, en route to the lab: the Steadicam, rented at $500 per day, didn’t work (never mind it disappeared — all four cases — from an Air Canada warehouse on its way back to the rental company) ; and the topper of it all... another submarine movie production with a budget of $18 million plus, expressed interest in buying the set, then decided against it. Two days after the set had been scrapped, they called up and said they wanted to buy it after all! Michael Donovan, generally the calmest of souls, almost told them to shove it in their aft torpedo Medallion Film Laboratories Limited 559 ROGERS RD., TORONTO, M6M 1B4 « (416) 653-6176 4/May 1980 tubes : instead, he sold them the remains and shipped it off to Toronto. Ah, but things weren't always tough. After six weeks of shooting in a cold, wet warehouse, the cast and crew flew to balmy Belize in Central America (formerly British Honduras), for some exteriors. It was R & R after six-day weeks and ten to twenty-hour days on as claustrophobic a set as one could imagine. No efforts were spared in the construction of the set — to the specifications of an “S” class World War 11 British submarine. This meant an added element of realism, but very limited shooting space. Proper lighting requires the use of many small lights and mirrors to increase the light spread. The new Lowell “Omni” lights were brought in because of their light weight and high output, but it was found that they burned so ‘hot’ that their ceramic bases and bulbs went like “hotcakes.” The reliable old ‘Inkie’ stood up much better, even when sprayed with water. Water — yes, there wasa lot of that ! the havoc wreaked by depth charges made walking through the set quite hazardous during filming. One was likely to get hit by falling ventilation ducts, or sprayed by red-hot metal from an arc welder, run bya fearless crew member perched atop the set, amidst the water gushing from highpressure hoses... Despite the shooting conditions, the morale of the cast and crew was remarkably high. The hierarchical peckingorder present in many film productions was non-existent. Prior to filming, the director and the director of photography could often be found building parts of the set with hammer or cutting torch in hand. The actors helped with the props and provided musical entertainment ; the unit manager proved to be the most prolific dish-washer on the set ; and no one really complained very much about the food being ostensibly vegetarian. The aim was to finish the film on schedule, to prove to the investors that it could be done, and to qualify it as a Certified Canadian Production for 1979. The final night of shooting — December 31, 1979 — was a long one; but the champagne was from France. Post-production will be finished for Cannes, and a late-summer release is expected. Chuck Lapp Chuck Lapp, coordinator of the Atlantic Film Co-op in its early days, is a Halifax-based filmmaker and free-lance writer.