The Path (Bora Rex)

6.45AM IN THE DEER PARK

In the midst of filming 'CTRL + Z', I also worked as the Sound Recordist on 'The Path'. The crew was very small: the Director, Bora (the 1st AD on 'CTRL + Z'); the Director of Photography, Hugo (also the DoP on 'CTRL + Z'), and myself.

The script is a beautiful reflection on the nature of dreams and how they reflect on desires. Two characters walk down a path as they have this philosophical discussion. The film was intended to be one shot: the characters approaching the camera as they walk down the path, so this meant that we needed lav mics in addition to the boom pole. We had a very limited budget and bought one lav mic for £15 (and sourced the second from a friend). The mics were of surprisingly good quality for their price; however, it was difficult to capture clean sound because the actors were consistently moving. After some trial and error, we managed to get a good take from each actor – we did not have radios, so we had to complete the take and then I would check the sound after. I also did one take with the boom where I walked alongside them, so this sound could be used for the first chunk of the film where they are not visible.

We began filming around 6.45am in Magdalen College (next to the deer park). The path becomes fairly busy in the morning with runners, so we started the shoot early. We had wrapped the first day of filming for 'CTRL + Z' at 11pm the night before. Shooting went smoothly and was fun! We reached 10k steps by the end of the shoot from running up and down the path. We had a one hour break and then we met up to continue filming for 'CTRL + Z'.

UPDATE: Bora finished the edit quickly and the film is beautiful!

-Emma