Riga part 3. - the final countdown

On Saturday we slept quite well cause we weren´t in hurry. All the shots took place on or after the sunset, so the day was free for preparation. Thanks for time we had spend there, everything was quite well organized and planned. Although that was the only way that we actually could get the scenes and shots we needed cause there was lots to do and only the evening/night to do it.

The first shot was from a rooftop of a building down to street going in front of on of Rigas old and beautiful churches. Again we couldn´t shut the traffic by any means, so it just went the way that the actors had to go by the regular street flow. The thing that made this shot partly tricky was that the assistant director was acting in it too. Cause our crew was quite a small and we were doing the whole production with as small as budget as possible it was quite something to keep the whole thing together. Luckily the shot succeeded with second take and we carried on with the next one that was the same but from different angle.

The location for the next scene was just around the corner and was somewhat easy and quick to do. There was some hassel with a massage place and some security guard but both of them were harmless after a little chat. This shot was about the leading actor going to get a gun from a pimp. The actual interior scene is going to be shot in Helsinki later on but we wanted the exterior from another city that it wouldn´t look as finnish. We had had some extra lighting in some of our shots, but mainly we have worked with the existing light. This was one of the shots that we used some extra lighting and it might be just the one that needed it most to bring it to another level.

From here on we carried on to shoot the final shots of the Latvian part of filming. It was located in the other side of the city if you´d look at the location we were at. We had only one car to travel with, so part of the crew decided to carry on to our hostel and wait for a call from the director if they´d need more help. The scene was really intense and is one of the main ones in the whole film. First it looked like it´s more or less impossible to make cause most of the camera equipment was at the hostel but after the shot was taken and we checked it out it looked amazing. The whole light, the city at the background the location, weather, everything - it just worked the way that it´s hard to imagine what could be different.

So the first foreing part of the film was now shot. The feeling was unbelievable. Even thought it had been a long an exhausting ten days since we left for the trip, there had been just so many memories, so many good times and of all things the shots and scenes we came to get for were done and looked amazing.

After going back to hostel to drop our equipment we headed for the second karonka so far. The night went on all the way to next morning 10:30 o´clock and apart from couple of misfortuned members that had to go and arrange our camera and sound equipment to the leaving car, the rest of us got a well deserved sleep till 17:00 o´clock in the evening.

We continued to Vilna for a 5 day vacation with part of our crew to celebrate to film and everything we had done and worked for it so far. Even though the first part of shooting the short film was done there was still about one third left to do in Helsinki. Apart from the five day vacation in Vilna the work continued again back in Finland. For some of us it also ment the end of our "summer holiday" and getting back to our day jobs. It had been hell of a ride so far and for more what has happened since later on. Some pictures, video clips and such coming soon also so be in look for those too, so keep on checking the blog now and then.

www.silentpaprikafilms.com

-SPF