This post first appeared on Ren’s Patreon page.
We have completed our first five days of filming on Ren: The Girl with the Mark – Season Two! It is very surreal to write that almost nine years after principal photography on the first season wrapped. Everyone – including me – thought we would never get here, but we did. A huge, huge thanks to the cast and crew who have worked so hard and so enthusiastically over the last week (and many weeks before that!) to get us to this point.
On Tuesday we collected the camera equipment which ARRI Rental kindly gave us an amazing deal on, the same camera which has been used on countless big TV shows and movies, and the same lenses which have been used by the likes of Kubrick and films such as Casino Royale. Then we headed down to Surrey ready to start early on Day One.
Conventional wisdom says you should start a long shoot with something relatively simple to let everyone get up to speed… so we started with a horse chase! In a weird way it was easier because we weren’t recording sound (all the sound in action scenes gets replaced in post-production anyway), we didn’t have the lead actors, just their doubles. Working with animals is usually slow, and it was quite late in the morning before the camera finally rolled, but Nicky de Neumann’s team from Equestrienne Stunt Shows did us proud. The sight of Ren and Hunter cantering through Staffhurst Woods pursued by three mounted Kah’Nath archers was an amazing way to kick off proceedings for Season Two.
Oriana (Ren) and Alex (Hunter) came along to observe, and on Day Two recorded their first scenes for the season. The day went really well, although rain in the afternoon put a literal dampener on the proceedings and left us with a van full of wet and muddy gear to transport back to Cambridgeshire!
Day Three found us in St. Ives near our studio, shooting scenes by the riverside. It was a relatively short day to give us some recovery time from the Surrey shoot, but all went well and we got some lovely moments in the can.
Day Four was one that I’m not ashamed to say I was very stressed about. We were due to record the bulk of Episode One’s running time, featuring as it did some key dialogue scenes, and I wasn’t sure we could make it. But the weather was lovely, many friendly faces showed up to help us on the crew side, and thanks to Kate we got everything we were scheduled to get and more. We shot at a couple of different spots around the farm and campsite where our studio is located and certainly got some interest from the weekend campers!
The fifth day found us inside the studio for the first time, shooting entirely against a blue screen with fake horses. For me as a DP this was an easy day, because the lighting didn’t have to change after it was set up, and the camera barely moved. For the art department it was very different story, having to shift the heavy phoney ponies around all day, rock them, bob the horses up and down, not to mention making last-minute ears and heads! The ponies actually looked really convincing on camera, especially once Oriana and Alex got on them and sold the urgency and desperation of the chase.
Plenty of challenges still lie ahead, but at long last most of a sixth episode of Ren: The Girl with the Mark now exists, and that is a huge achievement. Thank you to all our Patrons for helping to make it happen.