Yearly Archives: 2005
Troy Garity
I bumped into Troy Garity wandering around the lot today. I’ve only seen him once before when he wasn’t on set, but this is the first time I got a chance to talk to him. He was with some other people on his way somewhere, but I had to take a moment to tell him that my husband, Dr. Brian Cox, thought Troy was very clever.
Brian came in before filming started to do a science talk for the actors. Troy asked a lot of questions, more than anyone else, and every one of his questions was exactly the right question to ask at exactly the right time. Troy would ask a question and Brian would say, ‘Actually, the answer to that is on the next slide’. Brian was very impressed as being able to ask the right questions is equally as important as knowing the answers.
Troy is a nice guy, a talented actor, has been in all kinds of films that everyone thinks are really fantastic and even a high-energy physicist from CERN is impressed with his intellect… But do you want to know the most amazing thing about Troy? His mother is Barbarella!
Update from 2014: The photo and videos were not in the original blogpost
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Craft Services
Mike and Andy from Natural Addiction are the heart and soul of this shoot. Everyone from Andrew the Producer to Phil the Floor Runner has praised them. The other day I was talking to Benedict Wong who singled out Craft Services above everyone and everything else for their complete and utter brilliance.
Not only are they always ready with a joke, but they never seem too busy to make you that much needed cappuccino. They specialise in the dreamiest fresh fruit smoothies which is exactly what you need when your blood sugar starts to dip at about 4pm. People are always milling around their van, having a chat, drinking a coffee, answering their ridiculous daily questions. Last night they even had a barbeque right outside the Flight Deck set.
Everyone loves Andy and Mike.
Space Cadet
They are filming on the Flight Deck now- as I type they are doing a scene with Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Troy Garity and Benedict Wong.
The Flight Deck is the most ‘tecchy’ of all the sets. There are monitors, wires, dials and switches everywhere. The ceilings are low, the space is cramped… but, oh, the captain’s chair is comfortable.
Detail
Every single time I go on set I’m struck by the detail. The tiniest little things that surely won’t show up on camera are everywhere. Little inspection stickers on panels as if they had gone through stress tests before being sent up into space. Instructions on how to open the airlocks and who to ask for help. Warning labels in English and Chinese. It makes me feel like I’m actually on a spaceship.
The Oxygen Garden
Oxygen production is vital for manned long-term space flight. Machines can break down, as the crew of the International Space Station knows too well, which could be absolutely devastating to a mission lasting several years and travelling millions of kilometres away from Earth. Ideally, a long-term mission should have a natural, unmechanical way of replenishing its oxygen supplies.
NASA has already started doing research into space gardens and the Biosphere 2 experiment, conducted in the early 90s, sought to discover whether a completely closed environment could be created to sustain several people for many years.
In the film, the Icraus spaceship has the Oxygen Garden for their O2 replenishment. The set has only just been finished and they’ve done one day of filming on it. Michelle Yeoh will definitely be doing more filming there as her character, Corazon, is the biologist in charge of the Oxygen Garden.
It’s one of the most interesting sets here as the cold, clean ’spaceshipness’ is juxtaposed with the wild, dirty nature- this is the only set where there is anything ‘green’. All of the plants you see on the set are real, there’s not one plastic fern in there at all. When you walk in you are immediately struck by how the set smells.
It smells alive.
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Terrifyingly Beautiful
I’ve just run back upstairs to my computer after watching one of the most incredible shots filmed so far. There were about eight of us standing around the monitor during the filming of a close-up of Hiroyuki Sanada’s big scene. We watched in stunned silence. Danny called ‘cut!’ and we all turned to look at each other in wide-eyed amazement. Danny asked to see it back and more people came to the monitor. Again everyone sat there, stunned… when the take finished there was a collective ‘that. was. unbelievable…’
As I was leaving the studio, all I could hear from everyone was ‘did you see that?!’ ‘amazing!’ ‘how did they do that?!’ ‘that was incredible!’ Everyone seemed as excited as I feel right now.
Hiro’s acting along with Alwin Kuchler’s camerawork, Reuben Garrett’s lighting and Danny Boyle’s direction has produced one of the most terrifyingly beautiful shots I’ve ever seen.
I genuinely cannot wait to see this film.
Note from 2014: The scene I’m talking about here was Kanada’s death
Sunlight
Today, they’re getting the last few close-up shots from the spacewalk with Hiroyuki Sanada. As I arrived I saw Hiro sitting outside getting ready to film. Every time I see him he is loosening-up, stretching, preparing to film. You can almost feel the intense energy coming from him. He’s remarkable to watch.
This morning I arrived on set when they were still setting up the lights. Danny asked me not to take pictures of Hiro as he’s not feeling particularly well today. Instead, I got Danny talking to Alwin Kuchler, the Director of Photography, bathed in ’sunlight’.
