Alt Title: The Day the Hair Got Snipped, Shorn and Shaved Off!

The announcement, take one (with AD Charlotte Purser):

Day 9 in the 10 days shooting “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” was fully devoted to the court room scene. The Protagonist is brought before the Inquisition and the Judges sentence him to death. Edgar Allan Poe in his short story doesn’t so much describe the scene as has his Protagonist remember that it happened while languishing in his light-less cell. My musical short story enacts the arrest and trial in a musical Prolog.

Above are the three Judges of the Inquisition. You only need to watch the film’s trailer to know that when the Judges take off their hoods to reveal themselves, the Protagonist is faced with yet another horrific surprise (worse even than a death sentence? – I’ll leave that up for debate).

The Judges are also the Protagonist, but without the beard and full head of hair. Bald alter-egos stare back at the hero. He is condemned by himself in triplicate.

So while we could employ doubles to play the Judges when hoods mostly cover their faces, once the Judges reveal their visages, it had to be me, hairless. VFX would be needed to put me in frame in triplicate. But since my hair and beard were real, and could only be shaved off once, the court room scene had to be scheduled after all the other scenes with the Protagonist had been shot. Which explains why the courtroom scene was scheduled for the penultimate shooting day. Also all the Protagonist shots in the courtroom had to be covered in the first half of the day. We had to make sure we needed no more hairy Protagonist shots before sending me to scissor town and razor city.

Once the hair had to come off I would shoot my Judges shots.

The Announcement, take two (not as fun, but better hair exposure):

Yes, you guessed it. We made sure to fully document the process of turning me from hirsute to baby’s bottom.

Enjoy the video footage and choice pics – and some insight behind the scenes of the filming of “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” as my colleagues and I talk hair as well as the work at hand, plus some incidentals and pop culture trivia.

Co-producer Henry Borriello held one camera throughout. DP Jason Chua and VFX designer Jimmy McCoy shared the other camera.

First the beard had to go. Sami Eddy, responsible for wardrobe and make-up on set, used the electric razor on it.

“How does it feel, Danny, clean-shaven in how long?” (That’s co-producer Henry Borriello asking)

“Last time I was clean-shaven like this is when we did “Tell-Tale“.

“Is Ed gonna be happy that this is gone?”

“No. He likes me hairy.”

A look at the scar I received Day 2.

Another angle on the same scene.

By the way, the organization that received my hair and is turning it into a wig is called “Hair We Share“. Sadly I misremembered that while we were talking about it this day.

Next step, a close shave:

Spoiler alert – we talk about the surprise ending of the film while I shave.

Also, I refer to the “Queer Eye” guys, but it sounds like I just said “queer guys”…

Of course the truly hair raising – as in raising it right off the head! – stuff is coming next:

The hair gets bound, cut and stored in zip lock baggies for charity.

“Oh my God! Look at your little face!”

“Do I look younger?”

(editorial comment: eyeroll emoji)

Another angle of the same:

Bagged to be mailed off the next day to Hair We Share.

The loooong uncut video of the head being shaved.

(Who loves ya baby! (Who said that? 😉 ) )

“You’ll finally learn the shape of your head, Danny. Are these questions you’ve always wanted the answer for?”

“Oh shit, I forgot to hit record…”

I’m sorry Ed, but it will grow back, you know…”

“I mean, if he divorces you now…”

“It was always a very superficial love.”

(also stay tuned for my “pendulous” Les Miserables” warbling…)

“Oh my God! Look at me!”

Alternative angle Part A:

Now that’s a Nohawk!

Alternative angle Part B:

“I’ve got a shot right now with a ton of negative space that if you were making a dvd this would make the perfect menu screen for it”:

Finally I was in full Judge mode and back on the set.

For the shots that feature all three unhooded Judges in frame the camera had to be locked in. And the table and chairs had to remain strictly in the same spots as I carefully moved from chair to chair to shoot each Judge’s takes. Each separate shot needed three versions – at least one take for each Judge, but we did a minimum of two each – to get all the necessary materials for one complete shot.

Each take also required me to lip-sync in Latin. The Protagonist speaks and sings in English, but the Judges exclusively sing Latin. (Perhaps a future blog post will describe the process of writing lyrics in a language I don’t speak…)

DP Jason Chua and 1st Assistant Camera Zanin Lindsay look on as we set up a take for the middle Judge.

Gaffer Ja’rel Ivory looking over my shoulder.

VFX designer Jimmy McCoy could show us already on set a preview of the combined shots. This is one of the “diagonal shots” you hear us refer to in the videos above.

Selfies at the end of the shooting day.

More Judges scenes to be filmed the following day, our 10th and final shooting day. Stay tuned for that on-set diary post…