Filming for ‘The Mount 2’ begins

Filming for the latest Ian Serra movie, ‘The Mount 2’, is currently taking place in the derelict historic premises that was once home to the senior officer of the Royal Navy stationed in Gibraltar.

The director, who is also one of the writers of the screenplay, has taken a largely local cast and filmed the feature length movie over three weeks.

The filming of the second instalment comes as Mr Serra awaits the outcome of talks with companies around the globe on the rights to the movie ‘The Mount’ which was filmed earlier this year.

“The Mount 2 is about a group of youngsters who decide they are going to break into the place and they bring along this straight cult kind of figure. It’s all a big joke but then things start happening,” said Mr Serra.

“The original cast start appearing. These guys are invading their territory.”

The movie genre is hard to explain, it is not your typical horror movie said Mr Serra but there are elements of gore and humour.

“It is a horror film but yet it has a very arty look to it,” he said.

“It is completely different to the norm. It is not cheesy at all. It starts off as something like a BBC sitcom and it changes into a horror with gore you can see all the different changes.”

“It’s colourful and very entertaining.”

Including the cast and crew there are about 30 people on set on any given day.

All bar one of the actors are local, including the Minister for Culture Dr John Cortes who plays a cameo role as a homeless person.

Playing the lead of Laran is Niall Evan Serra.

“I am part of this group who is going to this mysterious house with a lot of history to have some fun, some friends get married,” he said.

“I am quite a curious character I would say. Things are happening but I am the only one in my own little world sort of trying to figure out what is going on.”

He said it has been some fun playing the conservative role but it was also more restricting.

“It is almost as if I have limited capacity to show emotion,” he said.

“But, it has been fun to be on the contrary of the other characters who show emotion and play with their characters a little bit.”

“I feel more two dimensional at times.”

The young actor was part of the first movie behind the scenes and has been in a short movie previously but this will be his first major motion picture feature film.

The law student would love to pursue a career in acting.

Christina Linares is no stranger to acting having done theatre for all her life.

“Ian knew that I did a lot of acting since I was younger and he asked me if I would like to be in it and I thought it would be very exciting,” said Ms Linares on how she got the role of Hayley.

“Basically she is in a relationship with Sarah and she is fun with a sexy side to her but she is constantly wanting to be alone with Sarah.”

Not just the acting element has been appealing to Ms Linares but the expansion of her knowledge and skill set working on a movie set when compared to working in theatre.

“The camera work, the sound, the special effects, the prosthetics. These are the kind of things that I have never really experienced before,” she said.

“And, I think it is quite fun and I think it takes so many people in a film to get it all together so I think they deserve so much credit and not just actors. It’s been a really fun experience.”

Mia Sen plays the role of Tracey.

“She is involved in a bit of a love triangle with Dave and Laran. She is very much in love with Laran and Dave is in love with her but she does not replicate those feelings,” said Ms Sen.

The role was one where she was able to introduce some elements of her own personality.

“She is quite a party person but is also quite sensible about it. She is not consistently partying and she is trying to make sure that everyone is involved and is always checking in on Laran in the film because he is quite distance from everyone at the start.”

She said the role had been fun but working with the camera on a film set has been a challenge, one she enjoyed.

Presently in her last year of A levels she is looking to go to university or conservatoire for a degree in musical theatre in Bath or Leeds. But if Hollywood was to knock she would readily accept an offer.

Esther Roiz, is from the north of Spain but lives in Madrid, she plays the role of Sarah.

“My role is the most secure in the film, I am very strong, my personality is very strong like that leader,” she said.

“I am like the leader of the group always telling them ‘ok let’s go we need to party’. In my relationship I am the mature girl and in my opinion I am a super secure girl but it is only a face because in the last part of the film she is a very scared girl, very sensitive.”

“I think she does not show her emotions because in her home they were ‘oh you’re should be strong, an independent woman’ something like this. But inside she is different.”

Ms Roiz said the role was a fun one to play as the character aren’t a deep as they are in other movies.

At present her love of theatre has her recently playing on stage Gran Via in Madrid.

Yasmin Cary is the make-up artist tasked with not just making people look great, beautiful, horrific or scary on screen, but she also creates gory prosthetics such as wounds from stabbings.

The recent graduate from Arts University Bournemouth has returned to the Rock.

This job is her first one on a movie set outside of university and she had full reign when creating the looks.

“I read the script and I base the looks on what I see in the script, especially for the wounds. I try to create a realistic wound of what would happen on someone,” she said.

The Mount 2 was written by Mr Serra and his partner and fellow director Isaac Barrao in two weeks before writer Louis Calvente came onboard and added his touches.

Supervising the post production as well as editing is Aidan Serra, who also directed the special effects.

Mr Serra hopes to film a further three or four movies in Gibraltar.