i have a really nice example
of a director who tried to prevent that
& he failed
i'll tell it below
Discussion
That sounds intriguing! Can't wait to hear the story you have to share. Directors always have interesting challenges to overcome.
Russian Ark (Russian: Русский ковчег, romanized: Russkij kovcheg) is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. The plot follows an unnamed narrator, who wanders through the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, & implies that he died in some horrible accident & is a ghost drifting through. In each room, he encounters various real & fictional people from various periods in the city's 300-year history. He is accompanied by "the European", who represents the Marquis de Custine, a 19th-century French traveler.
The film displays 33 rooms of the museum, which are filled with a cast of over 2,000 actors & 3 orchestras. Russian Ark was recorded in uncompressed high-definition video using a Sony HDW-F900 camera. The information was not recorded compressed to tape as usual, but uncompressed onto a hard disk which could hold 100 minutes which was carried behind the cameraman as he traveled from room to room, scene to scene. According to In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark, the documentary on the making of the film, four attempts were made. The first failed at the 5-minute mark. After 2 more failed attempts, they were left with only enough battery power for 1 final take. The 4 hours of daylight available were also nearly gone. Fortunately, the final take was a success & the film was completed at 90 minutes. Tilman Büttner, the director of photography & Steadicam operator, executed the shot on 23 December 2001.
Alexander Sokurov & Tilman Büttner
rehearsed together
the plan was, & what they rehearsed, was Alex would stay behind Tilman with simply one hand on his shoulder as they moved thru the rooms.
They rehearsed signals Tilman could make to tap out.
By the time they approached the climax of the film, a huge room full of so many extras & an orchestra, Tilman's body gave out. He was not strong enough, not fit enough, his body could not bear the weight of the camera.
He signaled that to his director but the director mistook it as him simply overcome by the room because that is what Alex, who was not carrying the burden of the weight of the camera, was experiencing.
As in, moving thru so many rooms, rehearsing it so many times, knowing each-other so well, Alex's hand never leaving Tilman's shoulder
to Alex? they were as one
but only Tilman was carrying the weight of the gear.
Alex, having misread Tilman's signal in that moment, pushed Tilman forward, Tilman completed the scene & the film
it came at the cost of his spine
serious spinal injury
is this film i enjoy so much
(& so many others do)
a feat of excellence truly
worth Tilman's spine?
~No.~
not to me anyway
any day of the week i would trade not seeing it or experiencing it even once
if it meant Tilman was not injured.
That's my personal opinion
the opinion that matters way more is
what Alex would say
& what Tilman would say
in their heart of hearts
not publicly
in their real heart of hearts