'Passionada'

Where the magic meets the mundane

2

(continued from page 1)

(click on each photo to view caption)

Director Ireland arrived. Like most folks on the set, he wore a T-shirt and shorts. His shirt was dark blue, the shorts a darker blue.
Mr. Ireland was easily the crew's most upbeat member, effusive with everyone. "Everything has worked in our favor," he said, when asked how the film was progressing. And he's still in love with New Bedford. "I've got to love it, at least until we finish shooting," he said, laughing.
Like many on the set, he has been calmed by the arrival of Jason Isaacs, and he is pleased with his professionalism.
"The crew is happy now. It's a sigh of relief," Ms. Ontiveros said.
The English Mr. Isaacs, who played in "The Patriot" and "End of the Affair," was an emergency replacement for David O'Hara as the film's lead male character. Charles Beck, or "Beck," as all refer to him, is a British gambler in as much need of emotional rescue as the Azorean immigrant (Celia) he's about to meet and fall for.
Out on Brock Avenue, Mr. Hale was on the horn.
"I called the Holiday Inn. Is Lupe down?"
"They're traveling," a voice replied.

Soon, on the second floor front porch, cinematographer Claudio Rocha and his crew prepared for the day's first scene.
Below on the sidewalk, Paul Bernard was trying to get things under way. He would spend the day close to the camera and actors, keeping things moving, transmitting Mr. Ireland's orders and barking, "Quiet on the set!"
A veteran of "Three Kings," "The Patriot" and "Small Time Crooks," Mr. Bernard speaks of moviemaking as a kind of military operation.
And the enemy?
"Time, money, weather, fatigue," he said, without hesitation.

A PA polished a 1974 Jaguar convertible parked in front of Celia's house. This was Beck's car.
"Is there confidence we can have the actors in 10 minutes?" Mr. Bernard asked someone on the other end of his walkie-talkie.
Fifteen would be more like it, he was told. Dressed and made up for the first scene, Mr. Isaacs and Ms. Ontiveros arrived at the front of the house. In this, scene 95, Ms. Ontiveros' Angelica, standing on the second-floor porch, would turn thumbs down on Mr. Isaacs' Beck as he left the house following a failed encounter with Celia. "Clear out the set!" Mr. Bernard shouted. "Let's do this, guys. We gotta get going.

"Big day!" "Rolling sound!" someone called.

The chant of "Rolling!" began near the camera and passed along a chain of crewfolk all the way to the sawhorses on Brock Avenue, like commands transmitted by a shipful of sailors. Now, amazingly, the neighborhood grew silent again, except for the birds of Brock Avenue, chirping above it all. "95, Take One," Mr. Bernard intoned.

"Quiet everyone."
"Mark."
"Set ... and ... Action!"

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