Locations
Locations
There’s a crucial time in film making, that is, when the film is shared with the team with whom it’ll come true.
Carla Simon prepares materials in high detail so as to accurately convey to the people who join her team her ideas, intentions, research and wishes regarding locations, actors, visual plans…
The 21-page document “location notes” is particularly rich in details.
The accurate introduction deals with the relevance of space, both in terms of the main character’s vital journey as well as the emotional one throughout the film.
The spaces (the new house, the forest, the village) are crucial at the time of building that journey.
The spaces are subsequently analyzed and every substantial detail is carefully annotated. Reference photos are attached, some relating to her own childhood and others to photographers and films. There are proposals of some sites and specific houses which she had explored and taken pictures of in the area of La Garrotxa, where her house is and she wants to shoot the film.
Based on that document, Albert Blanch –the locations manager– spent 3 or 4 months in La Garrotxa area trying to spot the ideal house. The film was actually shot in two of them, the exteriors, kitchen and carpenter’s shed belong to some Carla’s parents’ friends property, where she had spent time playing in her early days. The other interiors and the stables are located in the area of La Fageda.
Location list
The document encompasses a list of all the film locations (at the time of writing, for instance, in later versions of the script the grandparents’ house will be removed).
Locaition list on the document:
- -Grandparents’ home (courtyard from where both inside and outside are seen).
- -Barcelona or Badalona
- - Neus’ flat (Neus’ bedroom and exterior) – Barcelona or Badalona
- - Car
- - Marga & Esteve’s house (girls’ bedroom, parents’ bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, dining and sitting room, hall, exterior, wash house, entrance) – La Garrotxa
- - Marga & Esteve’s vegetable garden – La Garrotxa
- - Esteve’s carpentry shed – La Garrotxa
- - Village (market, streets and square) – La Garrotxa
- - Butcher’s shop – La Garrotxa
- - Country roads (from Marga & Esteve’s house to the village) – La Garrotxa
- - Gabriel’s country house (exterior, chicken pen, fields, path, chapel with a virgin Mary) – La Garrotxa
- - Hospital (paediatric rooms) – Olot
- - Swimming pool (pools, dressing rooms, bar and rest room) – La Garrotxa
- - Patio with oversized head figures(capgrossos) or pavilion – La Garrotxa
- - Dry riverbed – La Garrotxa
- - Gorges – La Garrotxa
- - Chapel – La Garrotxa
- - Forest – La Garrotxa
- - Friends’ house (pig slaughtering) – La Garrotxa
Location notes (a selection from the 21 pages)
“Photographs of the exteriors of the actual house at the time when the action of the film happened.”
“Photographs of the provisional house where I lived at Les Planes, while my adoptive father was fixing another place. Mostly used to give an idea of the settings though the exterior may be inspiring.”
“Photographs of a house in the area. If we had had a house this large they might have fixed it only partially. What I like best here are the surroundings.”
“Current photographs of Hostalets d’en Bas, a possible location for the house surroundings. The actual house would be a good example and likely, only one part would have been renovated. This one, however, is a bit too run down.”
“Photographs of the exteriors of Le Meraviglie, a house quite similar to what we are looking for.”
“Other examples of country houses that might work.”
“I imagine a forest in the surroundings of the house where Esteve and Marga live. In terms of the location it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the same site but it has to be a typical La Garrotxa forest. I enclose some inspiring pictures though no need of an identical setting. What matters is a cinematic quality, with sun rays filtering through the trees, suggesting leafiness and even danger. It would be interesting to choose the forest bearing in mind the type of trees we are looking for, according to summer colours and matching the palette provided in the general dossier.”
