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NEW!! 2006/07/01
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Horatio Hornblower:The New Adventure
Transcript from Extra Feature Commentary DUTY
Voices of Producer Andrew Benson & Director Andrew Grieve
with John Mollo, costume designer.


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Part5 of 5

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:17:41-Hotspur at sea...in the snow!

GRIEVE: This was a very difficult scene to do, in the middle of summer. Snow and ice on a ship in the middle of the English countryside. I think it was in the middle of August. Wasn't it?

MOLLO: Yes.

HH3 Duty Commentary GRIEVE: I love that wooly muffler you've given Mr. Prowse there, John.

BENSON: Did you get many complaints from the artists, John, having to wear clothes on a boiling hot day?

MOLLO: Ah, there was a certain amount of grumbling going on, but they were pretty good on the whole. They took them off between takes.

GRIEVE: But I was constantly saying to them...It's Cold! Act cold! Because it was absolutely boiling hot. And all the bushes here have been frosted up by the art department. There's a bit of snow put down, afterwards. Because we didn't have snow machines out with us. And I think, some of these little bits of snow, were put on after the sun went down.

HH3 Duty Commentary BENSON: Absolutely. I think that the green screen shots of the ships in the distance...

MOLLO: Did you spray that?

GRIEVE: Yes, the models are all sprayed to look icy and then put into the background.

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:18:59 Scene with Hornblower and Bush being rowed back in the snow to Hotspur.

GRIEVE: All the snow here was put on afterwards. And they've done it really well because it's falling between people. So it's the best I've seen. Fantastic.

BENSON: So actually, Andrew, this was another boiling hot day with blue sky and strong directional sunlight. It was a big problem for Chris O'Della.

GRIEVE: We just managed to get a little smoke down. But we had to do it under very strong light. But at the time, we were not sure if there was going to be snow all through the scene. It wasn't indicated. It was only when we started to put it together that we decided we would have snow right the way through.

MOLLO: You had to put the snow in afterwards in this shot.

GRIEVE: That's right.

BENSON: I think it would have been very difficult to do this scene right out on the water.

GRIEVE: But you see the snow melting on his jacket. That's put on afterwards. This is not real snow, but our snow. And paper snow, whatever it is we do use. What do we use?

MOLLO: Cellulose, of some sort.

BENSON: So this is all on the airfield. And affords us the ability of snow and fog and wind.

GRIEVE: But the noise of those machines! We had a jet engine, to make smoke so you couldn't see all the fields around. And every word of this is put on afterwards.

BENSON: Which means getting the actors back into a sound studio and asking them to recreate their performance. This has to be done to recreate it without any other sound. Which is quite a skill because they also have to match their lip movements. Some people are good at it, and some are not quite so good.

GRIEVE: Yes, the people who are good at it, are people who have usually learned their lines very, very well before they come onto the set in the first place. The ones who are bad are the ones who haven't learned their lines so well, because they tend to hesitate and it's very, very difficult to pause where you haven't done it on purpose before. And they often find it very difficult.

BENSON: Ioan is terrific, isn't he?

GRIEVE: He is absolutely amazing. And Paul McGann is fantastic. In fact, most of them are really good, I can't think of any...

BENSON: It's like a musical ability, isn't it? To recreate the phrasing of something as a singer would.

GRIEVE: It is, and I think I would think that is a very good analogy. If you're not singing it in some kind of way, then it's very hard to do it again. If you just came on and mumbled it, and ad-libbed, it's very, very hard to recreate.

BENSON: And I think what you were saying earlier is quite true, that often, it's only when you get to the editing process you discover things that you would like to add or subtract or change, because we do move things around. That is the nature of editing.

GRIEVE: And you also find things that you thought were going to work, but when you put them in context they don't work. If only you could remember the problem we had with the lights in this sequence. Cause we were trying to recreate in daylight, what a light in the distance would look like.

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:22:15-Scene with ship coming toward Hotspur. Red little light.

GRIEVE: There's a light. It was incredibly hard to do. In the end, we wound up pinching the light from a traffic light. And superimposing it over the film. And that works quite well.

BENSON: Because these are of course, model ships that we can see in the distance. But these (the lights they hang on Hotspur) are ones that we had similar problems with. A glow had to be put into them, so that we could read them better as lit lamps in the daylight.

GRIEVE: But it only became apparent, when we put the whole sequence together. That it wasn't working. When we saw the rushes, it seemed to be working perfectly well. It was only when we put it together that we thought..I don't actually believe this. And so we went to endless trouble to try and make it work.

BENSON: I'm really quite pleased with the end result now.

GRIEVE: Yes, I think it works well. I want to see when they unleash the big lights. They were all added.

BENSON: A whole lot of special effects snow here. A lot more than I think was envisioned by the special effects team.

GRIEVE: They were pumping it out by the gallons, weren't they? It's the noise of the machines that I remember most of all. And of course you don't hear any of that. It was deafening to work in that. It really blows your head off.

BENSON: What was fantastic I think about this, is when you see the first lamp being unviewed. That was not lit, but put on in post production.

GRIEVE: The post production is really important. This scene is really good because we were just towing a section along on a land rover, and the foreground is just a bit of ships rail and pulled along in foreground.

BENSON: This is what we never attempted to do before on this scale. Snow and ice. I'm really very pleased that this sequence that is in the book, we were able to recreate. I don't think it's something we could have done earlier.

GRIEVE: I don't think it's something we want to do again.

BENSON: No. Probably the first and last time.

LAUGHTER

BENSON: Once again, you will be cursing me for coming up with this, I know.

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:24:33 Scene of ship in snow...preparing for battle.

GRIEVE: There's a lot of detail here, on the side of the picture. In the American version which goes out on television, you might lose some of it, because of a loss in aspect ratio.

BENSON: Perhaps I can explain a bit about that. We shoot this film in a widescreen aspect ratio which is 16x9 which is what you are watching now on your dvd. But ordinarily, the broadcast ratio on American television is 4x3 which is standard television size. So you're actually losing a percentage of the screen. You're only seeing the middle of the screen, if you like, of the image that you are actually watching. So it's another reason for buying the dvd. You get the full screen version. There's a lot happening throughout the frame.

GRIEVE: there was a very difficult sequence, when one ship is coming alongside of another. It was very difficult to keep in within the 4x3 version.

BENSON: Which is very difficult. And we do have to pan and scan which is move the camera in post production so to speak so we can decide exactly which piece is in the frame. It's quite a laborious and difficult technical process. So I hope that people are getting the feeling that filming is far from over when we finish with the actors. The post production on a film this size is quite extraordinary. And we haven't even talked about the other thing we do when we cut the film. Which is talk to John Keene about the music.

GRIEVE: Yes, and what a difference that makes when you finally see everything with the music on. And John's done it for us, right from the very, very beginning. We have a fantastic working relationship with him. And he's really gotten into the mood of doing the pieces now.

BENSON: But in each film, you are talking about 45 or 55 minutes of originally composed music.

GRIEVE: And he does it very quickly too, doesn't he?

BENSON: And he does it very quickly. It isn't just composing it, it's arranging it for 65 musicians.

GRIEVE: What was the biggest orchestra we had? It was bigger than that, wasn't it?

BENSON: Well we've had 85 as the biggest we've had. And that's fantastic to be able to hear in the recording studio with 85 musicians. I think that's the most adventurous we've been.

GRIEVE: But that was glorious to have gone along and listened to that with him. Because you sit in front of those big television screens with that fantastic music playing and you think, this is really going to be rather good.

BENSON: So I hope once again, that if people are watching on dvd, and they have a good surround sound system, they will get more from the soundtrack than they would get from a book or television show. We do leave a little down, when we show it for broadcasting. But there's an awful lot of talented people who work tirelessly to bring us all those elements of post production. And the others we've discussed and the special effects...like that for example.

HH3 Duty Commentary
HH3 Duty Commentary
1:27:47 Scene through Hornblower's cabin window of American ship in distance.
Then cuts to Doughty and Hornblower.


BENSON: And that! Because we're not obviously looking through a real window. This is one of my favorite scenes in both films. Because I think it gives Hornblower a dilemma about what he's going to do about Doughty. And part of growing up and experience of captaincy is to obviously obey the rules, but you also have to exercise your own judgment. And that's what I think Hornblower is doing in this scene. I also think the performances are terrific from both actors.

GRIEVE: He's also exercising his humanity as well. And above all, he's a humane man. I think one of the things that shines through his character in the books and I hope in the films is his humanity. He's not a Captain Bligh. At all.

MOLLO: Was this one of the last shots we did?

GRIEVE: Yes, it was a studio shot. It's good that it is quite near the end, because it's quite an emotional scene. And I think the fact that they got to know each other, and had been through all the other things before we got to film this, was really important. It was lucky. It was good that it happened like that. Because there is a lot of friendship and loyalty and they kind of built up a relationship between the two of them.

BENSON: And we also for show that Ron Cook swim!

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:29:17 Scene of Betsey wearing blue cape on deck.

GRIEVE: Oh look, there's the two magic boxes that all the costumes came from!

MOLLO: There you are. You see, that accounts for the whole thing.

GRIEVE: But she didn't bring them on board with her, John.

MOLLO: Aha! Well, we didn't see them come aboard.

BENSON: You can blame the director for that one.

LAUGHTER

MOLLO: She's clearly got them with her in this scene.

GRIEVE: So that's where they've all been hiding all this time! Amazing.

MOLLO: There's she's got her waterproof cloak on. And we have to give her a waterproof cloak because she wore it swimming in the first scene when she arrives and we didn't want to ruin it.

GRIEVE: That's right. So we were protecting all the other garments.

MOLLO: We were protecting all the other garments.

GRIEVE: You always have a sub-text for all your costumes.

MOLLO: It's a budgetary thing, really. Everything we ruin costs about a thousand pounds.

GRIEVE: Oh, well that makes sense.

HH3 Duty Commentary BENSON: It's about $1500 dollars...

GRIEVE: And there's Ron swimming, bless him.

MOLLO: The marine's coat is quite interesting because those you cannot obtain from the costumer. But one of the extras was an re-enactor and he had this coat which he made himself, and we looked at it and thought, that's just what we want for the marines. And we asked him to make us one.

GRIEVE: Where did he get the button from? Was it genuine?

MOLLO: It was genuine. Anyway, we gave him an old blanket and props. And he came back with that coat a week later.

BENSON: How many do we have John? Just the one?

MOLLO: I think we just have the one, yes. I think we paid him 90 quid for it.

BENSON: A lot cheaper than 1500 dollars.

MOLLO: Absolutely.

BENSON: Those are the kinds of stories I like to hear.

HH3 Duty Commentary 1:30:51 Scene with Pellew, Hornblower and Diplomatic guy in cabin.

BENSON: Slight difference that we come to the end with the three of them together. But very soon we are going to allow Pellew to say good bye to Hornblower for what we hope is not going to be the last time, but certainly it is the last in this series.

GRIEVE: You know, one of the interesting things about Pellew is that filming in Falmouth, which we were doing the making of this, Pellew's old home is there, in Flushing. We were talking to somebody about this, and they said, oh, it's now Pell-U-it's Pah-Looo. So all this time, we've been calling him by his wrong name. And he was actually known as Admiral Pah-Loo.

MOLLO: Did you know that Robert is a close friend of the (Pellew) family?

GRIEVE: I did.

MOLLO: He dines with them, and goes and stays ...

GRIEVE: Does he go in costume?

LAUGHTER

MOLLO: Obviously we got it right from them.

BENSON: Robert's father was in the Royal navy but he wasn't an admiral. Yes, I think he was below-decks! So I think his father is quite proud that his son is playing an admiral.

MOLLO: Is it because of the aspect ratio as why we can't see his Order of the Bath? ( a pin or medal on his jacket)

BENSON: It would be.

BENSON: Hopefully we will all get widescreen to see it all.

GRIEVE: Perhaps you better explain the order of the Bath, John?

MOLLO: His order of knighthood. He has an embroidered star on his coat. Which very, very seldom appears.

GRIEVE: Is that because of the closeup?

MOLLO: It's just on the point, where you don't see it on closeup. And when you see it on full, it's too far away.

GRIEVE: But nevertheless, it's there.

BENSON: Did the real Pellew have that?

MOLLO: He did rather later. We gave it a little earlier than perhaps he had it.

BENSON: Robert wanted to be more decorated?

MOLLO: No, I just thought it would look much better.

LAUGHTER

BENSON: So you really just wanted to twist reality to suit your designs.

HH3 Duty Commentary
HH3 Duty Commentary
HH3 Duty Commentary
Scene: 1:33:18 At the family dinner table, Horatio, Mom and Mariah.

BENSON: I'm very pleased to hear it.

GRIEVE: But anyway, Pellew's history in the films isn't quite what it was because he'd left the scene in the books by now. And Cornwallis is the chief, the Admiral in charge.

MOLLO: Was it Keith?

GRIEVE: No, Cornwallis.

BENSON: We've sort of amalgamated a whole number of characters as we've done with others in the past. In order to run with the characters in all the films. And I think that has worked very successfully. What's terribly difficult, is when you have lots of different people flitting in and out of the action. Very difficult for the audience then to relate to them. And certainly now that the Hornblower and Pellew relationship is well established.

GRIEVE: In fact Pellew turns up in charge of the In Shore Squadron.

MOLLO: Yes.

GRIEVE: In the book. So he was around, but only briefly in the books.

MOLLO: I think historically speaking, general accuracy is perfectly all right to change it and alter it, as long as you know what it should be originally.

GRIEVE: Absolutely. And not do it by mistake!

MOLLO: Or ignorance.

Laughter

BENSON: So I think generally speaking, we are pretty accurate. True at keeping to the spirit of the period and I think of the original books.

GRIEVE: I think Forester did that.

GRIEVE: Oh, yeah. If you want to be picky. There's some dates that I find different in different books.

HH3 Duty Commentary BENSON: And now we leave Horatio with the startling news that he's going to become a father. And hopefully, he'll be returning for further adventures in the future.

GRIEVE: And we hope to see his off spring.

ENDING CREDITS BENSON: So thank you very much for watching and listening from me Producer Andrew Benson.

GRIEVE: And it's good bye from me Andrew Grieve, the director. I hope you enjoyed listening to what we had to say today.

MOLLO: And it's good bye from me, John Mollo, costume designer. It's been a pleasure to be with you.

BENSON: And remember, there's another seven films in the series you can watch before, hopefully the new ones come out. Thank you very much, and good bye.

End of DUTY Commentary.


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