Thursday, September 5, 2013

VA Graphic Novel Writer Emma Vieceli Talks About Her Set Visit to Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters


My Vampire Academy Set Visit ^_^
"Oh, I’m sorry! Do you mind me touching your leg?"
Zoey Deutch is laughing and cheerful despite already needing to source strong coffee after an early-morning start, location shooting on Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters. I’m perched on a tall director’s chair while cast and crew take a well-earned break, flanked by Zoey and an equally smiling Lucy Fry, unable to possibly raise objection to the afore-mentioned touching of my leg; largely because these girls make it easy to feel in minutes that you’ve known them for years.
I suppose, in a way, I have.
After all, I’ve been drawing the characters they’re now playing for over three years. Rose and Lissa are incredibly alive to me and, though I don’t know Zoey and Lucy well, they’re so perfect for their roles that it’s hard to feel like a stranger.
I’d had a pretty early start myself, having stayed with friends in London (thanks Si and Emma!) so that I could get a crack-of-dawn taxi to the hotel where producer Don Murphy was staying. From there we drove to the location of the day’s shoot, somewhere outside of Oxford; the journey spent largely raving about Richelle’s (Mead, of course) amazing world and Don’s and the team’s visions for it. I’d been given the option of a visit to pinewood studios or a trip to the location shoot, which was a really tough choice. The scene I was about to watch being filmed didn’t feature all of the characters I desperately wanted to meet in the flesh (Alas, Christian’s Dominic Sherwood for one), but it did feature the core trio of Rose, Lissa and Dimitri (yes, Dimitri), and was in a fascinating location…as well as being Gabriel Byrne’s first day on set as Victor Dashkov. I’d hardly slept at all on my cocktail of excitement and nerves.
And so it was that when, on grabbing a break from a hectic day of shooting, Zoey and Lucy were kind enough to come and say ‘hi’, how could I possibly mind a little leg-touching? They, like everyone on set, had made an effort on a busy day to make me feel part of the family, and I was massively grateful.
The break was a short one, enough time for me to enthuse about how very much Rose and Lissa the girls were (and seriously, they just are! Zoey is pure energy and Lucy oozes grace), before they were summoned back on set. However, from that point on, I felt less of an outsider and more a part of the team, albeit one sat with a gaping mouth as she watched her drawings walking around and talking. How could I help it? Especially when I got my first glimpse of an in-character Danila Koslovsky as Dimitri.
You’ll have heard it through Richelle’s reports and Zoey’s tweets, but I’ll just add it again here, folks: Swoon. Off-screen, Danila was, like all of the cast, relaxed and funny, asking me about castles and historical sights he could visit on his trip in an adorable Russian accent…on screen he was pure Belikov. The transition was pretty incredible.
Read the rest of her set visit HERE

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