Xena Magazine #16: Author: Kate Barker
Source: Titan`s Official Xena Magazine #16
Date: 1/13/01
Titan`s Official Xena Magazine #16 features a report from the set of Dangerous Prey and follows some of the action as directed by Renee O`Connor.
We also learn a bit more about the episode. Amazon queen, Marga - seen in Coming Home - has been killed by the hunter, Prince Morloch. The headstrong Varia (Tsianina Joelson) is intent in revenge, which Xena has to deal with.
"The main thrust of this set of shots involves `pinball action`, which describes, in this particular case, the effect of Xena`s chakram and Morloch`s sharp-edged throwing stars hurtling through the air, bouncing off the cavern walls and basically looking very effective. In a trick of the trade revealed, a crewmember walks slowly through the line of trajectory of one of Morloch`s stars, turning the weapon over and over with his hands as he holds it carefully by the edges. The same will be done with Xena`s chakram, and in post-production the crewmember will be edited out, leaving spectacular shots of the weapons doing their thing.
Somewhere along the line, Xena gets distracted while trying to protect Varia, and one of the spinning stars hits her in the arm. Lawless doesn`t have to be there to film this; it`ll be done in CGI too. The spinning star shot is what`s known in the business as a `CGI reference`. It`s said just before `action!`, and is necessary for the actors to know what to react to, and so that those in postproduction know where and when to put in their effects.
In the following shot, Xena is crouched by a hole in the rock, watching the star`s journey, or at least watching the places where it would hit if it was being thrown in such a way as the finished product would suggest. The sequence follows on with Xena letting fly with the Chakram, watching as it zooms out of shot, then supposedly catching it when it returns. In reality Lawless throws one chakram - a soft foam or rubber one - out of shot, and it lands safely on a mat off-camera, while Lawless plays at watching where it`s supposed to be going. When the time comes to catch it, her hand reaches out of shot and indeed comes back into frame with a chakram. Except this time its the steel one, which has just been handed to her. The reason? Apart from the fact that the actual weapons don`t boomerang
Xena in Amazon mode in S6`s Dangerous Prey
© Universal
back like they appear to on screen, metal is much better than foam rubber for close-ups.
During this crossfire, Xena and Varia are doing a lot of ducking for cover. The current altercation is begun with a bit of a shouting match between Xena and Morloch, and quickly escalates into all-out warfare. At this point in the scene, Xena spins sideways towards a very convenient hole in the cavern wall, which she will jump through and continue the fight from the other side of. In the first rehearsal, the action is done in a flash as Lawless very deftly does her bit. In fact, it`s almost too good. "Lucy," calls O`Connor after the end of the shot. "Visually spot the hole before you go for it, okay?"
"Oh," answers Lawless in mock surprise, "going for the hole; is that what I`m doing?"
Of course Lawless knows exactly what she`s doing; it all runs smoothly and the crew are soon setting up for the next shot. It`s not hard at all, especially since at right-angles to the hole in question there`s an adjoining piece of set with another hole in it, which looks remarkably like the first one would if shot from the other side. The cameras don`t need to move much because of this, and it saves a lot of work. This shot takes very little time; for Lawless its just a matter of repeating the last shot`s moves, but from the opposite direction. One particular take is more than perfect, and O`Connor reacts suitably with an encouraging "Whoo-hoo!" It`s great when things like this come together."
Renee spoke more about her experiences as director, and getting the technical parts correct.
"It was bizarre," she remembers. "The director of photography, Aaron Morton and I were both risking new sorts of ideas. We were using hard sources of light from above down into these dark tunnels because we wanted to go for this sort of film noir effect. So every time we went for a new set-up, there would be a lot of time spent for the lighting to be perfected because it was so specific. We were getting something like one shot an hour, which is slow for this show. But it was really fun and exciting!"
Exciting may not have been the first word to come to mind when, at one point, they were shooting in a particularly dark part of the tunnels and the lone figure in the darkness was less than clear on the camera monitor.
"My stomach churned when I suddenly couldn`t see Lucy`s face in any of the shots!" O`Connor confirms. "I thought, `Oh, I hope this is going to work...`
"I said to Aaron, `It`s really, really dark,` and he said, `Don`t worry; it`ll be fine,` and it was! He was really cool about it.
So has O`Connor learned anything new about directing from her experiences on Dangerous Prey? "I just realised how enjoyable acting is!" she responds, laughing. "Compared to directing, it`s just playtime!"
O`Connor smiles, and it`s obvious that, whether acting or directing, she finds it all enjoyable. "Directing is really different," she agrees, "but it`s still all great fun!"
Source: Titan`s Official Xena Magazine #16
Date: 1/13/01
Titan`s Official Xena Magazine #16 features a report from the set of Dangerous Prey and follows some of the action as directed by Renee O`Connor.
We also learn a bit more about the episode. Amazon queen, Marga - seen in Coming Home - has been killed by the hunter, Prince Morloch. The headstrong Varia (Tsianina Joelson) is intent in revenge, which Xena has to deal with.
"The main thrust of this set of shots involves `pinball action`, which describes, in this particular case, the effect of Xena`s chakram and Morloch`s sharp-edged throwing stars hurtling through the air, bouncing off the cavern walls and basically looking very effective. In a trick of the trade revealed, a crewmember walks slowly through the line of trajectory of one of Morloch`s stars, turning the weapon over and over with his hands as he holds it carefully by the edges. The same will be done with Xena`s chakram, and in post-production the crewmember will be edited out, leaving spectacular shots of the weapons doing their thing.
Somewhere along the line, Xena gets distracted while trying to protect Varia, and one of the spinning stars hits her in the arm. Lawless doesn`t have to be there to film this; it`ll be done in CGI too. The spinning star shot is what`s known in the business as a `CGI reference`. It`s said just before `action!`, and is necessary for the actors to know what to react to, and so that those in postproduction know where and when to put in their effects.
In the following shot, Xena is crouched by a hole in the rock, watching the star`s journey, or at least watching the places where it would hit if it was being thrown in such a way as the finished product would suggest. The sequence follows on with Xena letting fly with the Chakram, watching as it zooms out of shot, then supposedly catching it when it returns. In reality Lawless throws one chakram - a soft foam or rubber one - out of shot, and it lands safely on a mat off-camera, while Lawless plays at watching where it`s supposed to be going. When the time comes to catch it, her hand reaches out of shot and indeed comes back into frame with a chakram. Except this time its the steel one, which has just been handed to her. The reason? Apart from the fact that the actual weapons don`t boomerang
Xena in Amazon mode in S6`s Dangerous Prey
© Universal
back like they appear to on screen, metal is much better than foam rubber for close-ups.
During this crossfire, Xena and Varia are doing a lot of ducking for cover. The current altercation is begun with a bit of a shouting match between Xena and Morloch, and quickly escalates into all-out warfare. At this point in the scene, Xena spins sideways towards a very convenient hole in the cavern wall, which she will jump through and continue the fight from the other side of. In the first rehearsal, the action is done in a flash as Lawless very deftly does her bit. In fact, it`s almost too good. "Lucy," calls O`Connor after the end of the shot. "Visually spot the hole before you go for it, okay?"
"Oh," answers Lawless in mock surprise, "going for the hole; is that what I`m doing?"
Of course Lawless knows exactly what she`s doing; it all runs smoothly and the crew are soon setting up for the next shot. It`s not hard at all, especially since at right-angles to the hole in question there`s an adjoining piece of set with another hole in it, which looks remarkably like the first one would if shot from the other side. The cameras don`t need to move much because of this, and it saves a lot of work. This shot takes very little time; for Lawless its just a matter of repeating the last shot`s moves, but from the opposite direction. One particular take is more than perfect, and O`Connor reacts suitably with an encouraging "Whoo-hoo!" It`s great when things like this come together."
Renee spoke more about her experiences as director, and getting the technical parts correct.
"It was bizarre," she remembers. "The director of photography, Aaron Morton and I were both risking new sorts of ideas. We were using hard sources of light from above down into these dark tunnels because we wanted to go for this sort of film noir effect. So every time we went for a new set-up, there would be a lot of time spent for the lighting to be perfected because it was so specific. We were getting something like one shot an hour, which is slow for this show. But it was really fun and exciting!"
Exciting may not have been the first word to come to mind when, at one point, they were shooting in a particularly dark part of the tunnels and the lone figure in the darkness was less than clear on the camera monitor.
"My stomach churned when I suddenly couldn`t see Lucy`s face in any of the shots!" O`Connor confirms. "I thought, `Oh, I hope this is going to work...`
"I said to Aaron, `It`s really, really dark,` and he said, `Don`t worry; it`ll be fine,` and it was! He was really cool about it.
So has O`Connor learned anything new about directing from her experiences on Dangerous Prey? "I just realised how enjoyable acting is!" she responds, laughing. "Compared to directing, it`s just playtime!"
O`Connor smiles, and it`s obvious that, whether acting or directing, she finds it all enjoyable. "Directing is really different," she agrees, "but it`s still all great fun!"
