Eriztina's life

“Eriztina’s Life” – chronicles of the filming

For the production studio of the advertising company Amillidius, the “Eriztina’s Life” short film is the first cinematic project, a pen test. And, of course, mistakes, mess-up, curious and funny situations are inevitable here. But they give a new experience and become an organic part of the exciting process of filmmaking – something that all members of the film crew of “Eriztina’s Life” movie will remember with warmth and smile.
We can’t wait to share the moments of filming that remained behind the scene with the future film viewers.

Smokescreen or Eriztina’s slippery slope

The smoke machine, rented for filming the nightclub scenes, played a funny trick with the actors of the “Eriztina’s Life” film. After several takes, the extras involved in the scene suddenly started sliding across the floor of the site, where the shooting was taking place. Milena Kompaniets, the leading actress in the “Eriztina’s Life” movie, had the hardest time: wearing the high heels for the required image, the actress was barely balancing on her feet and was an second away from stretching out on tile flooring. In scenes where only close-ups are needed, Milena, with a sigh of relief, changed her shoes into more stable ones.

The smoke generator was to blame as it produced the so-called “wet smoke”. Its composition included glycerin that covered the floor, walls, paintings, equipment, as well as objects and people around with its thin layer. By the end of the shift, the DOP could rightfully be called a “slippery person”. As a result, to eliminate the consequences of the “glycerin party”, the actors, director, and DOP had to take a shower. And to clean the hall, the cleaning company was called. Of course, initially, no one imagined that the smoke machine could turn the set of the “Eriztina’s Life” film into an ice rink.

No sugarcoating but standing for realism

In the short film “Eriztina’s Life”, coffee, cocktails, and other drinks in the shot were always very real – they are prepared specially for the shooting at the café of the “Wall Street” hotel. Meanwhile, the drugs emerging in the movie script were of course replaced by harmless substances. For instance, sugar powder was initially supposed to serve as cocaine. However, having investigated the topic deeper, the film creators opted for baking soda. The film crew had to tinker over the lines of the baking soda, as nobody on the set of “Eriztina’s Life” had had this kind of life experience. Luckily!

The moment when Eriztina snorted cocaine was not unproblematic for the actress. It turned out that even usual baking soda might be dangerous. According to the idea of the “Eriztina’s Life” authors, the film only shows hands and arms, while the face is out of the picture. So Milena Kompaniets was extremely comfortable with “snorting” a baking soda line with her mouth. During one take, the powder didn’t rest under her tongue, as it was expected, but accidentally went down her throat. Milena had to fight a serious cough fit. Yet, she coped with it quite quickly and got back to work.

The ecstasy’s “stunt double” was regular paracetamol. The scene where one should just raise a hand to the mouth and take the “party drug” may seem like not a big deal. But this is a reminder that the focal point of “Eriztina’s Life” is hands and arms. So what was difficult there was that to shoot from a necessary perspective, the actress had to hold a hand with a pill at a certain angle, in quite an unnatural posture. Milena was struggling with holding the pill, would keep dropping it, and once even swallowed it. It took about 8 or 9 takes to go through. The colleagues would tease the actress, saying. “We are getting short of drugs for you”.

The “Eriztina’s Life” script implied that the leading character gets a drug at the club from a waitress. The young actress who played that role did not even realize at once what the scene she was involved in was about. She wasn’t aware of what ecstasy was (yes, dear viewer, it happens). After the director’s detailed explanation, a young newcomer was very embarrassed. However, after coming over her initial constraint, she got the feel of her part so well that she coped with the acting task as a true drug dealer.