Survivor's Club: Singing in the Rain

There are a lot of days when we film in bad weather - days so hot your eyeballs feel like they're frying, days so cold your hands might fall off, and rain pouring so hard you could almost drown on set. Each month we'll remember one of those horrible weather days and celebrate the survivors who braved the elements in order to film.  Why would we want to remember those days?  Because going through hell on set has a way of bringing everyone closer together when they can say they survived mother nature AND filming on a Yibble set.

SINGING IN THE RAIN

The summer we filmed The King of Elflin’s Daughter had some nature issues. Aside from that being a landmark year for cicadas and their freakishly loud sound (which I’ll talk about in a later Survivor’s Club post), it was also a pretty wet summer - at least it was a wet June which was the main month of filming.  I imagined the fairy world of Elflin to be a lush green paradise of constant sunshine and summer.  I got the summer part, but the sunshine? Not so much.

There were more than a few rainy day shoots for this production which makes sense if you factor in Murphy’s Law since almost every scene was filmed outside.  Now that I think about it, The King of Elflin’s Daughter was one of the first productions where actors ended up filming in the rain. Lucky them.

One of the rainiest days was when we were filming most of the minstrel songs and scenes at Allerton Park. It didn’t start out raining, but the skies clouded over shortly after we arrived. It rained off and on all day, but most of the time it was just a light drizzle. We were able to film a couple of scenes in sheltered areas when there was only a little sprinkling of rain, but there were a few other scenes where it was a steady drizzle and even a few where it was pouring.

My main motivation in writing and filming The King of Elflin’s Daughter was to be able to film in as many of the gardens at Allerton Park as possible, so almost every scene was in a different location and most of them had no shelter or cover. Actually, I wrote it to star Melina T., and was inspired by an album called Pheonix: Keepers of the Flame, but I was also looking for a project that would let me film all over Allerton Park. 

 There’s a little gazebo hidden among some trees across the lake from the mansion that I had discovered a few months before, so when the rain began to get more steady and less mild we hurried over there and filmed a scene inside the safety and shelter of the gazebo. That worked out well.

Other scenes, primarily the ones on the way to and inside the Sunken Garden, were filmed where there was no real shelter and the rain was getting worse.  We filmed the end of a specific scene in the Sunken Garden and, although it wasn’t pouring, there was a steady enough rain to affect the instruments, so Fiddle ends up “playing” the music while his violin is actually inside it’s case where it’s protected from the weather. Violin’s are expensive and Annamarie wanted to protect hers, which I totally agreed with. Thanks for letting us use your violin, Annamarie!

The point at which it really started coming down was when we were filming in the Fu Dog Garden.  The actors had to sing and dance walking away down this really long row between the Fu Dog statues – and they had to walk the whole way down there, not just for a short part of it. It was pretty much pouring at that point. 

Luckily they were able to film the first part of that scene inside the Buddha Pavilion where they could stay dry.  The cloudy skies and constant downpour made for a dark and gloomy scene, which would be okay if it wasn’t supposed to be the fairy princess’ wedding day!  Damn it, Murphy!

The tables turned when I wanted to film a shot of the minstrels on the second level of the Buddha Pavilion. I had arranged with the park staff to open the doors (which were usually locked) and let us film inside that day, so it was exciting to be able to go up to the second level. The actors probably still got a little rained on since they were standing on the balcony area that wasn’t fully covered by the roof.  However, I was standing out among the Fu Dogs in the pouring rain in order to get the shot.  I pretty sure I had an umbrella to protect Horatio, otherwise he would have become unusable having to stand out in that much rain. So, at least I had to get soaked along with the actors and understood their pain.

When we filmed the inside “studio” shots for the minstrels’ songs a few days later it was bright and sunny out, of course.  By then Annamarie MacLeod had come down with a very bad cold, or possibly the flu and had trouble filming.  She did it and did well, but I know she was miserable the whole time. 

How did she get sick? Gee, I wonder… I mean, it’s not like I made her walk around in the rain for five hours. Oh, that’s right. I did. Sorry, Annamarie!  I’m really glad that no one else got sick or worse, got pneumonia and died. That would have been bad.

To those who survived, the mud, the bugs, the drizzle and downpours of this and other King of Elflin’s Daughter film shoots, I thank you and salute you:

Rachel Anderson

Chris Hutchens

Annamarie MacLeod

Jacob MacLeod

Nina Samii

Melina T.

Here are some toasty towels fresh from the dryer, go dry off, change clothes, and drink some Echinacea tea so you don’t die from pneumonia.