On the eve of The Cuckoo Clock melodrama premiere (a project of FILM.UA studio and Ukraina TV channel) TV.UA found out how the filming went. There was a lot of fun at the set but sometimes it got dangerous!
The life of Katya, the protagonist in The Cuckoo Clock melodrama, does a U-turn in a moment! Her mom suddenly dies, and dad soon brings home a young wife Natalya. Katya quarrels first with her father, then with her fiancé and falls in love with Sergiy, her dad’s business partner. But he is not totally honest with her, and our character will have to find out the terrible truth and reveal who is who…
Katya was played by Dariya Plakhtiy; Natalya, by Vira Shpak; and Sergiy, by Vsevolod Boldin.
There is everything in this four-episode film: a beautiful wedding, passions running high, real feelings to match, and even some action.
A spontaneous wedding
Filming mostly took place in a private house in Kyiv region. It is here, on a green lawn in front of the mansion, that the wedding was filmed. The shots turned out to be so colorful and emotional as if it were a genuine ceremony with real newlyweds! According to Maksym Bernadsky, project director, the scene was written differently at first and it was planned to film it inside.
But due to production tasks the filming was transferred outside. And everything worked out perfectly! Instead of a long ceremony an emotional photoshoot of the newlyweds was filmed, accompanied by the bride’s happy laugh. Meanwhile the guests were promenading on the green lawn, so the resulting picture was fantastic.
“We emphasized even more and in a totally natural way the main drama pattern, which is the psychological opposition of the female protagonists: on the final family picture everything is literally written on their faces,” Maksym says.
By the way, Ksenia Shevalyova, project photographer, also participated in this scene. She played a role of wedding photographer who captures the beautiful moments of a wedding on her camera.
On love and sex
The plot has several sex scenes, and they had to be filmed differently. Such episodes are always a challenge to make: one has to create a certain ambience, and the actors have to feel safe, comfortable and relaxed. Besides, the picture has to be credible and aesthetically pleasing. This is what director Bernadsky told us about the process:
“I ask everyone to leave the set for the time of rehearsal. When the mise en scene is ready, I invite only the cameraman back, and we watch the rehearsal with a camera. After that only the staff needed for corrections is invited for a short time. When the time for filming comes, everybody leaves again as it is a challenge for the actors to work naked. As a result, the actors enjoyed their work, and we filmed several beautiful and sensuous scenes, very different from each other.”
The scene with Natalya’s participation is emotionally tense, passionate and somewhat harsh; she is overcome with passion and loses her mind. And the love episodes with Katya are, on the contrary, very tender.
Women’s ultimate fighting
Naturally, no filming can happen without improvisation! The script notes that the two characters fight each other, and at some point on the set they really decided to stage a fight between the girls.
Actresses Vira Shpak and Dasha Plakhtiy were enthusiastic about the proposal to have a “real” fight: everybody wanted to achieve a dynamic and thrilling peak in the action.
However, such episodes have to be carefully worked out. That is why stuntman Andriy Maslov-Lisichkin was invited to the set, and he helped to stage them. First everything was discussed and then rehearsed. There was a wealth of action: the girls pushed and bit, dragged each other by hair and even did some choking… This was very risky as the fight was happening on marble stairs!
But everything ended well. The filming of the fight lasted for over two hours; still, the result was worth it! The actresses came out of it with several small grazes and bruises as tokens of remembrance…
