Searching for Dottore
NEWS
Searching For Dottore was officially nominated at the bafta qualifying festival Carmarthen Bay Film Festival which is fantastic!
I’ve been travelling to italy a lot this year to meet film commissions, producers and talent. My first ever trip to Bologna and Ravenna which are both in th emilia-romagna region, ever region has a unique story.
You can follow my stories on instagram @searchingfordottore.
Logline
Saba following his death in London, searches for his spirit in rome, she ultimately discovers she is searching for her own inner peace.
Synopsis
Saba following her father’s death in London, unable to process the grief, she searches for his spirit in rome. She meets his old friends and visiting places he’s visited when he lived and worked in rome.
She regains her joy for life in rome through exploring the space and interacting with people again.
She ultimately discovers she is searching for her own inner peace.
Production Notes
London
It was my first shoot during the summer, usually shot in spring or autumn so imagine my shock when all the hire houses were empty, coronavirus halted jobs were then greenlit so all the corporate and commercials booked out everything! It was a case of Fat Lama and thankfully Courtney the dp had some of his own equipment. He amazingly came on the board the London shoot a few days before.
The day in tottenham was overcast and it didn’t rain which was great as we were mostly filming outdoors so no shadows!! No dialogue as well which helped but with 6 locations all within a mile of each other it was just logistics.
A half day shoot finished on time, we were all gasping for lunch!
Rome
Imagine, the date is booked for the 1st shoot in the eritrean restaurant called Africa in rome then my dp Luca has to move it for work commitments.
No problem so it gets moved.to Monday16 August.
I then find out 15 August is Ferragosto in Italy- an Italian holiday where veryone leaves the city for weeks and those who stay don’t work or charge huge fees. Thanks to Carl at the Rome International film school manage to find students to help us out
Monday the restaurant is always closed on mondays so we could navigate the whole space, a half day shoot turned out to be nearly a day, we had the space and this allowed time for each scene.
I had to split the rome shoot in two due to coronavirus restrictions
Rome.2 & 3
This last rome shoot (or so I thought) was over 2 days over the weekend. I went out there a few days early to prep some last minute recee, doing a recce abroad during covid on a microbudget is something else.
The first day started off exterior scene on one of the busiest shopping streets via condotti so we got there early. We finished late so we were running to the next location via cavour which was interior and had dialogue. Thankfully it was Fede’s flat, longtime family friend so even though w wouldn’t be kicked out we still had keep moving fast as the next location was further from the centre of rome in Trieste and that meant rome traffic. Trieste held much meaning to me as it featured roads named via asmara and viale Eritrea. As someone who hasn’t been to eritrea in years it felt like a home from home. The crew said to shoot it another day, I insisted no we had to shoot there as well as the final location piazza di trevi in the evening. Non dialogue essential street scenes. I insisted on it due to budget and availability, I don’t live in rome currently so I couldn’t just reshoot the following week plus then you have to negotiate use of gear for this extra time., the budget had to be kept tight.
The second full day were exterior scenes in the lovely leafy Trastevere part of rome, it has a village feel. Circo Massimo was next on th lsit for the dance scene, this was the major turning point in the story. It was just a case of running again to catch exteriors we missed from the previous day as the evening had two locations at the hotel, in a hotel room shooting with a cute kitten that doesn’t act so that was interesting. The rooftop with the pool and view was essential, my first underwater shoot and showcasing the coloseeum which is the heart of the story. We had a deadline of 8.30 in the evening to finish shooting, somehow we managed it, all I remember was the 1st AD counting down the shots and saying this had to be the last shot, we did it!!
For the museum which used to be an old convent they would only allow us to shoot on monday when the museum is closed so that was short shoot on monday morning then to the wrap lunch!
I had to come back to rome for a third time for a reshoot of circo massimo as we needed more close ups to build the scene. I also did some ADR but first to find new crew as everyone was now busy!
