Exclusive: On the Set of Dario Argento’s Dracula Part 3

Sights and sounds from the mausoleum

Part one: Click Here



Part two: Click Here

It’s another balmy evening at the forest mausoleum location and the shooting tonight is all about Jonathan Harker riding past the evil burial site.

Harker is played by Spanish actor Unax Ugalde (pictured) who has just told me he wants to focus on his grave discovery scenes and would prefer to talk to me tomorrow. Fine by me as I can see how complicated this scene is – the 3D Steadicam operator is being supported by 4 people as he glides through trees to settle precisely on Unax between two foreground trunks. Meanwhile the five wolves on set are howling in impatience ready to work later in a major transformation sequence.

Without giving too much away what will set this Dracula apart from all the others is the many guises the Count will appear in, another reason why Thomas Kretschmann was so intrigued by the script. I arrived on set early to be interviewed by the EPK crew because they can’t believe how much time I’m spending making notes and interviewing everybody. Dario has just sat next to me at the 3D monitor and said, “Beautiful, yes?” and I can only agree with him.

Fiore Argento has turned up on location. Dario’s eldest daughter isn’t in the movie, she’s just here to lend support ahead of Asia’s return tomorrow. As I wait for Rutger Hauer to see me I’ve been watching Marshall Harvey edit the movie. Dario worked with Marshall on his first Masters of Horror episode “Jenifer” and asked him to supervise the editing as result, especially as he worked on Joe Dante’s The Hole 3D, too. Already I can tell what one of the main Dracula set pieces will be – the barrack room slaughter when the town elders take on the Count.

I’ve also spent time with Dario’s 3D technical crew DBW Communications who have been giving me all the info on ghosting alerts and how the day-to-day support works. It is so surreal to be watching a massive 3D screen in the middle of the woods like this filled with Asia Argento in full dimensional glory.

Source: Alan Jones

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