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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..
 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, the
well-know children's program. We had a young actor by the
name of Joost Winterterp, 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 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.
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