This was a joy to shoot, we had 3 days in Lisbon and my normal commercials AC. I came straight to this job from the Estoril Grand Prix where I'd been filming Nigel Mansell preparing for the race. I was still running at race speed for the first few hours of this job, recce'ing the first locations at 2 in the morning.
The brief was to make her look "Vogue and sexy", we succeeded so well that almost a whole days rushes were never used. "Too Vogue and too sexy".
We'd set-up on a balcony for a sunset tracking shot when the sky started to go black and the biggest thunderstorm to hit Lisbon in years started. We went with the fill-light as a key and used the lightning in the background as effects. My electricians were moving as fast as they could to re-position HMI's to light the surrounding buildings.
The shot on the cliff was one of the scariest I've operated on. We had a Panther with a jib starting level with LISA and then jibbing up and tracking forward to reveal the 200' drop behind/below her. Lisa had 2 people holding onto her legs. I was jibbing up into a hurricane!. We did 4 takes with a 35mm and 4 takes with a 50mm before I refused to do any more.
Director Steve Lowe
Producer Ronnie West
Telecine Colourist Mick @ VTR
AC Martin Shepherd
Gaffer Riki Butland
All text and images copyright Geoff Boyle