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Leiden, Movies for
the Museum
Monday 4 June 2007 |
 We received an invitation
to act as experts (ahem) for the Leiden Museum of
Antiquities or RMO (Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden in Dutch). The planned
to make a short movie for the younger visitors of
museum about one of their top pieces, the Late
Roman helmet from Deurne (read more here). Since
we had a (not too bad-looking) replica of that
helmet, as well as all the other gear, we were
asked to help make this movie. The plan was to
takle the day off and go to Leiden, where the
museum had hired a crew, to begin filming as
early as possible. But with the traffic being
what it usually is on Monday moprning, that plan
hit a snag and we were almost an hour late..
Luckily, so was the director! The sky was more
worrying - although we started out with bright
sunshine, dark clouds kept moving, and a distant
rumbling was heard..
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The Hortus gardens in Leiden from the air. |
 The place where
the crew meant to recreate the burying of the helmet was
the Hortus
Botanicus in Leiden. That was a surprise,
since the peat bogs of northern Limburg south of Deurne,
a wide open landscape with open forest, was hardly the
same as these densely wooded gardens in the middle of a
large town! But apparently, the film crew managed to do
just that. We only had to stop time and again when the
ubiquitous plane flew by, when the expected motorcycle
buzzed along the streets, or when visitors got too close,
attracted by the cameras.
Justsus being dressed.. |
.. and repeating his lines. Joost was meant to
play the distant ancestor of a modern visitor. |
Getting ready for the first take. |
I'm your ancestor boy - ain't I handsome! |
Justus on top of the stairs. |
The
film crew were the crew that usually shoot for Zapp, a
well-know Dutch children's program. We had a young actor
by the name of Joost
Winterwerp, who managed to more-or-less fit
into our combined gear. No small feat, because veterans
like Andreas and myself are quite a bit bulkier that he
is! Nevertheless, the clothes did fit him (although we
had to adjust the slipping belt about 20 times!).
Preparing the sacrifice - the helmet, shoes, a
fibula and the coins in the purse. |
The crew and extra's: Andreas, Maaike (assistant),
Yolanda (RMO), Marjolein (RMO), Scet (camera),
Joost, Chantal (director) and Rik (sound). |
A shot across the 'lake' of the sacrifice - well
actully it's a pond and the leather bag has an
old pot inside.. |
The drowning of the helmet. |
The
movie was shot in three parts - part one about the Late
Roman ancestor, part two about the discovery of the
helmet, part three in the museum.
It's a wrap! |
We were
only involved in part one (and only the helmet in
part two), but even that took us about 4 hours!
Part one also had several takes: one - the stairs,
two - preparing the sacrifice, three - across the
lake, four - 'drowning' the sacrifice. After the
succesful 'drowning' of the helmet we went
packing our gear. The crew continued in a small
patch of mud - pretending it was the bog, 1500
years later. Amazing what these camera people can
do! Anyway, we had a good day with lots of nice
people and interesting stuff.
The
start of the movie can be seen here at the
RMO website!
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