From: Helen Krummenacker avona@jps.net

(long snippage of internal workings of Avon's mind)

...

But the one thing he is not is a quitter.

Neil

Character Junkie!

I'm afraid not. One thing that struck me deeply at Iain's performance workshop was just how blind I am to the performances of the actors. I don't watch the characters. I just hear the words. There is a bonus side to this, though - I don't notice all the bad acting. (Unless it's really bad, as in Piri bad.) I suppose I'm in the minority that thinks Brian Blessed always give a carefully moderated performance.

What I'd never noticed before Iain's workshop was just how mobile Avon and Anna are in that death scene. I guess I had to see Una and Calle almost motionless down on the floor a couple of times to realise how the pro actors are bouncing up and down like a couple of 5 year olds on their new spacehoppers.

Also interesting to compare the way Calle spun and fell in front of Una on being shot, when PD had to make a triple jump across the set to get behind Lorna Heilbron. Iain showed us that moment in slow motion, when it becomes all too painfully obvious.

Talking of Una, I'm sure she'll be delighted to know that a certain photograph of her wearing a certain outfit near a certain fountain after a certain exercise in cultural nostalgia of the popular music variety came out very well indeed.

Neil