Making of Kassandra - 4 - Tarot cards

Eager to see more making of videos? While we organize the material recorded during the filming and pre-production, follows an appetizer: a test of black-and-white tarot (which was not used).  In the background, diretor Ulisses and producer Roberto Coutinho were talking about one of the locations - an old mad house... (video in portuguese).

Wanna know more about the tarot cards in Kassandra? Go check this post here.

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 first images - 1

Some of the film was already been made. Check out the first pictures made during the production:

"Reach out a bit more, Renata. That's it, now a bit lower"

 

Maico Silveira smiles the gather sympathy.

Suzana Witt wants YOU to watch Kassandra!

The sad funeral for producer Roberto Coutinho.

The Wind of the Gods.

Jackson Ritter's last production list

A great misfortune: producer Jackson Ritter is finishing his job in Kassandra. Here’s his final list (see the other lists here, here and here): 

1 - Fake blood: OK!

2 - Bird: My woman did not liberate Galato, the parakeet with Grêmio’s colors. Let’s buy the birdies;

3 - Cockroaches: we discovered that ether (what I would use to dope them) have controlled sell by the Brazilian Army. I believe that this information scared the production a bit and the cockroaches were cut off. Such a pity;

4 - Slider: OK! 

The crow now goes for Robert Coutinho, who will replace Jackson. But the spirit remains: 

1 - Syringe. Note: catch the biggest syringe in the market;

2 - Dagger.

3 - Fake glass. Preliminary Observations: A) formula glues in absolutely anything. I ignore if it haves chemical, physical or quantum reasons.  B) My employee got cut with it, so perhaps the formula is not functioning. C) I am using sugar and maize glucose. Maybe don’t work as glass, but at least I already know how to make lollypops.

Kassandra's Tarot

One of the main elements in Kassandra is the tarot cards. Actually, the cards are the film’s great mystery: everyday, a new card appears mysteriously inside Kassandra’s apartment. 

Director Ulisses of the Motta Costa says: “The tarot cards have something puzzling in its image. Most of the people do not know its esoteric meaning but they search in it at least a suggestion of some occult meaning to be disclosed. Therefore, they are part of what is hidden in the universe of Kassandra". 

Although the tarot don’t have esoteric function in the narrative, the scriptwriter Roger Monteiro decided to respect the meaning given traditionally to each card, relating it with specific moments of the film and with the character’s state of mind.

Kassandra's home

It's time to present Kassandra's home, where most of the scene take place. It is an apartment in Moinhos de Vento, in the City of Porto Alegre. In the picture above, art director Ana Gusson evaluates the place. That's right, it's not a ghost. 

The apartment have the necessary size and characteristics for the movie, as the long corridor in the picture bellow.

The place is also the production headquarters and meetings and rehearsals have been made there - which helps to capture the film's mood and atmosphere.

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.

Jackson Ritter's production list - 3

Yes, we know that people are eager for an update in Jackson Ritter's production list (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here). Here we go:

1 - Wall tiles: All tests fail. We will use a real location;
2 - Fake blood: OK! Tomato sauce stains. Better results were obtained with corn glucose, detergent thickening and a copy of the Daily Gaucho crushed and chopped;
3 - Birdie: Build a  puppet bird (Note: do not tell the director how to prepare it to make him worried on purpose);
4 - Cockroaches: Tests with ether have been unsuccessful  (Note: stop using ether for other reasons);
5 - Slider: OK! The wheels can't shake (Note 1: Beat the hell out of a skater. Note 2: Remember that I'm beating a skater because we need the wheels, not because of the simple fact that he is a skater).

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). 

Nosferatu and Snow White

Hello, Ulisses da Motta Costa here again.

References are essential elements when you are making a film. The references help to create narrative, visual, acting and sound conceptions. Cast and crew debate references all the time.

But sometimes, a reference comes in a subjective manner, because it’s already within the project. That’s what happened to Kassandra.

When we were going for the second draft of the screenplay, writter Roger Monteiro and me discussed the need for a good character presentation for Kassandra. Roger came up with a good Idea, involving her and a bird. 

As soon as I read the new scene, I remebered Nosferatu (1922), a horror expressionist classic. Not because of the movie itself, but because of the presentation of the female character, played by Greta Schröder. Our scene was kind of a distant echo of Nosferatu.

“Such a great reference”, I thoght. I called Roger on Facebook chat:

Me: Dude, I really liked Kassandra’s introduction. Reproduces the heroin's trajetory in Nosferatu. It is coincidence or inspiration?

Roger: No. It came from Snow White.

Me: The scene just became even BETTER.

Unbelievable how things live in our cultural unconsciousness. I was exulting with the unexpected relation between two cinema classics. So pretentious from our part. I love  both movies and I’d always though that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1938) was kind of a horror movie. It’s dark and sinister -- the evil queen metamorphosis is just horrible.

Anyway, we become sure that we’re in the right track when the references come up naturally.

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.

Making of Kassandra - 2 - lots of blood

The new video from Kassandra production shows the fake blood tests, for different uses in the film. Many of the tests just didn't work... (video in portuguese).

Check also the first video from Kassandra here.

Oh, yes: Jackson Ritter's performance is outstanding. Remeber his production list (here and here)?

Jackson Ritter's production list - 2

After a while, check out how Jackson Ritter’s production list is going:

  

1 – Wall Tiles: silicon holds the tile, but stains the wall; hot glue doesn’t stain, but also doesn’t hold;

2 – Fake blood: metallic taste neutralized. Try to make a solution that doesn’t stain. (Obs: test tomato sauce and gelatin);

3 - Birdie: task transferred to the art department. They’re afraid that I actually kill the BIRD.

4 - Cockroaches: still studying how to dope them. I’ve got the impression that ether might work.

5 – New task: build a slider. Piece of cake. Manual or with a motor?