Balicanni! Run for your life!

Balicanni

Yes yes yes! The crazy Slovenians are alive and kicking! This time we are shooting a short film. A short horror! And yes it was and still is scary. The shoot of course. We found a perfect location for it, an abandoned old Istrian village or should I say ghost town.


Ghost town... This is where the TV crew disappeared

The village itself has a really interesting history. Perhaps the most interesting part of its history is the way it ended. Literally overnight, the village people disappeared. Explanations are vague at best... Anyways, it is in this ghost village that we shoot first half of the short. With a cast/crew of 13 people (yes yes we know what the number stands for) we gathered on the Friday the 13th (again yes yes we know what te number and the day means) in our lovely apartment in Umag. We started things off with a really bad pizza. Afterwards things began to look much much better... We rehearsed the whole thing and prepared for what proved to be one of the coolest and funnest (and yes yes funniest too) weekends of the year.


TV reporter Dani humiliating his assistant Bisa

There is one incident that is worth mentioning that happened on Friday. It was so sincere and weird that I absolutely have to mention it: Sabi who played assistant Bisa, a future doctor, came to our apartment first. We know her for quite awhile (especially Vesna) so things were cool and she was great too. However, once Dani Bavec arrived, she totally lost her coolness. She screamed from the tap of her lungs: 'He is a famous actor!' (Dani Bavec appeared in quite a few TV dramas (Pod eno Streho, Cokoladne Sanje, etc.), he hosted a few TV shows, as well as gave voice to gazillion cartoons, infomercials, corporate videos, etc.) What followed was incredible. She barely said a word for a few hours - due to her shock of meeting Dani Bavec.


Arriving to the location

Saturday, July 14th. 8.35AM. We arrive to the location. It is a beautiful day, that was about to turn into a furnace! The temperature rose to an eye popping 100 degrees (Fahrenheit to be exact not Celsius).


This heat is killing me...

Despite all day we set the base camp with an improv dressing room (meaning a sheet wrapped around a bunch of sticks and an improv holding area with lots of fruit and junk food and and and... wait for it... a drum roll please... A LOT OF COFFEE - courtesy of Vesna's father Dusan.


Coffee break! COFFEE!!!


'Let the wind be with you'

After a quick rehearsal we began shooting. Everybody stepped up to the plate and we managed to shoot one of the most difficult scenes of the script. The cast was simply marvelous.


Neno - probably the most serious person one can meet

Professional, patient, with a sense of humor - I mean why else would day choose to work with me, I mean I understand why with Vesna but with me - I mean you have to have a sense of humor to want to work with me :) . The shoot could also be called the pranksters shoot since almost everybody was at some point a victim of a senselessly funny prank or a practical joke.


Deranged Simona

So the day ended successfully - we got what we came for, there were no accidents, we had fun, and we all almost perished in the burning blaze of the sun! The next day was even more fun, even though we were without coffee on the set (yes I know I know that this is impossible since I adore it... but sometimes you have to take one for the team ;).


Always lovely Vesna - this time in the character of a seriously pissed off producer

Anyways, the shot was great, the acting superb, and hopefully the movie will be cool too. Actually I hope the movie will be scary!
Anyways we would like to mention the people who helped us create Balicanni. Without them there would be no film at all. They all rocked!

Cast/Crew:
Dani Bavec - TV reporter
Neno Muzdeka - Mayor Hjerof
Vesna Hocevar - field producer
Sabina Zadel - assistant Bisa
Miha Hocevar - Sound Guy
Nina Flandija - Make up lady
Saso Sodja - driver
Emina Bosnic - Artrikta
Simona Kern - fugitive victim
Ales Zemlja - village man Sela
Andrej Zidnik - cameraman
Dusan Hocevar - village elder
Stanka Hocevar - village woman
Oktavijan Aram - village man
Katja Bizjak - village woman
Neza Njezic - village woman

Story By:
Vesna Hocevar
Danijel Sraka
Urska Samec

Produced by:
Vesna Hocevar
Danijel Sraka

Written and Directed by:
Danijel Sraka


Producer Vesna scared to death by one of the locals

This coming weekend we are shooting the second part of the film. e will add their names as well as let you all know how it went as well. Anyways - we will leave you with the word of the famous TV reporter Dani Bavec: 'Let there be wind with all of you!'


After the shoot: the spirits were high!

Bloopers!

During the still-photos shoot we encountered couple of the 'mishaps' that we discovered later when going over the images. It looks like Saso had a spanking session going with Sabi... I wonder if she knew...



Let us start with the whole image. It appears that a woman in the middle of the image is about to be attacked. However, I would like to divert your attention to the guy in a stripped shirt at the far left...



Once we zoom in we see how much fun Saso had... Sabi declined to give any comments!

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