Behind The Scenes And on The Set With Anthony De Longis

"DESTINY" - Page 4

The Finale - We're especially proud of the finale. It took everybody's best and was a real team effort. We wanted an uninterrupted flow from the start of the action until the climactic rescue of Fernando from the gallows. And the tourists visiting Texas Hollywood got their money's worth that day. Because the set is part of what is essentially a theme park, tourists on the set were a common occurrence. And this day, we had plenty of them--taking photos, shooting video, and getting great entertainment.

Photo at left - for safety purposes, Tessie wore a harness and was cabled to the roof. Anthony and Hernan stand by for additional security. The green at the bottom are pads to protect her from falling.

We started with Tessie herself on top of the church steeple, cabled securely, but still it's a bit scary to deliver dialogue perched precariously so far from the ground. As the soldiers fire, Tessie jumped down out of sight and the camera panned right. Here is where we pulled what's called a "cowboy switch," long a tradition in action westerns, where the double substitutes for the actor and vice versa by emerging from behind an obstacle. The action appears continuous and the switch goes unnoticed. We'll do this a lot.

My co-coordinator Ricardo Cruz and I brainstormed a lot about how the Queen could get off the roof. We examined the idea that she could wrap her whip around an aloe stalk constructed to match the existing one next to the church. She'd leap from the roof of the church and swing to the ground by revolving around the stalk like a maypole. That's something we'd never seen before. We also looked at the possibility of rigging the pole/stalk to pivot at its base to allow the Queen to ride it to the ground like a drawbridge. Unfortunately we had neither the time nor the resources to implement these ideas. In the end, we chose the rappel.

Photo at right - side of the church for the Queen's escape. Note the large stalk we wanted to use for the maypole escape--a cool, but unused, move.

Natalia Guijarro Brasseur, the Queen's marvelous riding double, threw the rope over the side of the church and rappelled to the ground. She then disarmed and punched Chencho, the soldier, slamming him into the pillar and scampering up his body like a ladder to the roof. Chencho is also the soldier who went flying into the jailhouse before the "Queen of Swords" appeared in the doorway. You'll hear more about Chencho, he was Peter Wingfield¹s double as well as one of the most active members of the stunt team.

On the roof we pulled another cowboy switch with Roberta taking out the first guard, then jumping to the next roof to fight a second. Here we cut to close-up and Tessie completes the disarm and pushes the guard off the roof into the hay cart. The camera follows the stunt and when it pans back up, it's Roberta, as the Queen, dodging the bullets and disappearing from frame. This was a bit tricky because she had to jump onto a narrow scaffold that took the place of the back half of the roof, which hadn't been built, yet.

Image at left - artist rendition of Luis Miguel Arranz, the rejoneador, fighting a bull on horseback.

The soldiers chase around the corner, we hear a strange thunder of hooves and the soldiers reappear fleeing as fast as they can, rifles gone, self-preservation the only thing on their mind. John Cassar had wanted a dynamic but plausible distraction that would enable the Queen to rescue Fernando in the confusion. After putting our heads together and discussing the details, Ricardo and I assured him we could stage a stampede and get the Queen's horse to climb the scaffold while the Queen slices the rope before it can stretch taut and strangle the boy. Again, top marks to Ricardo and his team. In very short order they trained two of the Queen horse doubles (yes. even horses need doubles, sometimes), Escandalo and Champion to climb a two foot platform onto the gallows platform and stop. Assisting Ricardo were Hernan Ortiz Redondo, another extraordinary trainer and horseman, and Luis Miguel Arranz. Luis is famous throughout Andalusia as an exceptional horseman and rejoneador, or mounted bullfighter. A rejoneador is a mounted matador with all the style and grace of the king of the ring with the added elegance and power of the horse. Both his safety and the safety of his mount depends on their riding as one to avoid the horns of their charging adversary. He is a joy to see on horseback and it was Luis who first rode Champion and Escadalo onto and off of the scaffold to train them for the sequence.

The stampede itself takes advantage of the horses natural herding instinct. We gave them a path through the pueblo to the nearby barn and blocked off their options with ropes and strategically positioned wranglers. After leading the horses through the course a couple of times, we were ready to shoot. The power of horses charging through town at the gallop created the confusion our story required as well as providing a very exciting visual. No one knew, until now, that the herd was just running back to the barn where the food is kept. It was easy for the horses, safe for the cast and crew and it told our story in an exciting way that we were able to get on film. This was a good day.

Photo at right - Natalia works with Champion on the beach near San Jose. Champion is 70% Andalusian, a bloodline very evident in his profile.

Natalie rode Champion onto the ramp and we switched him out with Escandalo for the jump off the gallows. We shot our inserts with the sword cutting the rope and put Tessie on her favorite horse, Chico for the closeups. Then Natalie controlled the horse while Fernando's double lept onto his back and they charged away with the soldiers in hot pursuit.

We pulled another cowboy switch when Natalia, as the Queen, rode Champion almost to camera, and dropped off Fernando in the field outside of town. Tessie, mounted on Chico, delivered her dialogue, and we switched back to Natalie for the ride off at the end. It worked just like its supposed to because Natalia is such an excellent rider and an extraordinary photo double. The camera can literally get to within ten feet of her without the switch being detected. You don't learn a lifetime of riding skills overnight and the producers would never allow the actress to perform the level of action that Natalia is capable of executing.

Well that's about all for Destiny. I'll be taking a hiatus from behind the scenes commentary for the next couple of weeks. I'm flying to Prague to play the third lead in a new pilot for television entitled, "Ariana's Quest." I play a good guy, what a wonderful change, and I get to sling swords and ride horses in an exotic medieval location. When it's good, it's really good. I'm looking forward to the work and when I return, I'll give you a report of the adventure as well as picking up where I left off in the behind the scenes chronicles for "The Queen Of Swords."