24th June 2006 - Casino Royale on-set report and pictures from Venice - reports
an
Italian film fansite.
Three days as an extra on the 007 set. What can I say? It was great fun.
Day One: I arrive at Mondadori (behind San Marco) at 5.15. We are met by
the costume designers to check everything is okay (nothing red is
allowed on set, the colour red doesn't render well on film). We get to
San Marco by 6; there's four hundred of us and we take up half the
square. We start walking, back and forth along the same 6 ft. path, and
then "CUT! Everybody in position!", and back you go to your starting
point. Our dear 007 (Daniel Craig, the only major cast member on set
that day) dashes across half of San Marco - half of Venice actually -
chasing the red skirt of the current Bond Girl (Eva Green: hers was the
only red dress allowed). Then the infamous bank scene was shot: in a
corner of the square, right under the "Procuratie Nuove" (Houses of the
Procurators), a fake bank had been built - complete with cashpoints. It
was hilarious to watch unsuspecting tourists trying to get money out of
them! I couldn't quite figure out what happens in this scene; people who
were inside the "bank" possibly understood the goings-on a little better
than I did. All I was able to see was the mad rush and the hot pursuit
under the arcades. We were kept there until 7.30 pm, filming mass scenes
and, at the end, the moment when Daniel Craig meets Eva Green, in a "calle"
[= narrow street] that leads onto the square, where gondolas are docked.
Day Two: We spent the whole day in Campo San Barnaba (remember the place
where Indiana Jones came out of the catacombs under Venice in "The Last
Crusade"? Yep, just there). Eva Green was there as well; she walked from
the bridge to the Campo [small square], sporting the same red dress as
the day before and holding a briefcase made of metal; then she walked
along a Calle, down to the "Toletta" bookstore. That was all.
Day Three: Nothing more, nothing less. Another Calle, Eva Green (plus
red dress, plus briefcase) strutting down the street again. We had to
reshoot the Green/Craig meeting in San Marco. I know they also filmed a
scene where extras had to look in astonishment at a building collapsing,
and the water in the canal boiling. Then a gun battle featuring the Bad
Guy's minions: this was filmed at the Conservatorio [= academy of music]
Benedetto Marcello. Another couple of scenes were shot - but without any
principal cast members - in the Mercato/Rialto area.
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