Just Don’t Call Me Swamp Thing…
I knew I was in trouble when the director of the Triple Video sat me down and told me to just hear him out. “What we want you to do is go underwater with the violin. We want to see bubbles coming from your mouth once you are completely submerged in the water. Obviously, we will have to do this in one take.”
Really?
After scouring Ebay, I found my accomplice-a $140+$60 for shipping stunt double “Guarneri model” made in China. Yes, that’s right…$60 for shipping. Well, it was coming all the way from China!
When it arrived, I heard a large rattling sound and saw that the sound post was loose and rolling around the entire belly of the violin. When I asked the maker (factory rep) what to do to correct it, they answered briskly, “Get a professional or teacher to insert tweezers into the violin and position the sound post.” Hmmm. Suddenly I was a dentist? For some strange reason, I was determined to make this rattling piece of spruce sing but surrendered after the director said he needed to tape it to help seal out the water when it was to be ‘Excalibured’ over and over.
I hesitantly put on a beautiful gown made by the beautiful Parisian fashion house, J Mendel, and knew I would emerge a different woman after my one and only shot at water submersion. After spending the day in the cold water shooting many scenes all while fearing water snakes might make their way up my gown, here is the one and only take!
The 3 solo voices of the Triple Concerto are symbolized as water, fog and ice.
PS I did send the dress to the cleaners but it sadly never made it back the same a la Stephen King’s ‘Pet Semetary’.
