May23

The Cannes-can

Posted on 23/05/2012 by bigrichfilms

Every May, in Cannes, there’s an odd event.

An enormous Film Festival runs alongside an equally enormous Film Market – and they only rarely deign to form the slimmest of Venn-diagrams; when a film represented by one of the select bunch of favoured sales agents is screened in (or out of) Competition.

And the audiences for the Festival and Market are completely different too, of course. You can’t get anywhere – physically – in the Market without a Market Pass and you can’t get into a Festival Premiere without a dicky-bow. Both rules are policed vigorously by the Cerberuses at the gates.

We took down a gorgeous booklet of photos from our Stills man Jules Heath and a truly funny three-minute reel created by trailer-cutter Toby James and our own Eddie Hamilton. When coupled with a decent set of headphones from the laptop computer it really did make them laugh.

‘Them’ being the international Sales Agents. These are the companies that oil the process of selling independent filmmakers’ rights to the worldwide independent film community.

It’s a relentless job for these Sales Agents – notoriously booking four twenty-minute meetings every hour, ten-hours a day for 10-days. And the very last person they want to see in the world is a producer with a new promo-reel, let alone with a script. It’s just too early for them.

However, that’s our job: to charm, cajole and occasionally barge our way into these offices. It can make you feel a bit like Ol’ Gil from The Simpsons, if you can just catch the eye of the buyer… and then when they see the quality of the material all is forgiven.

We’re not trying to sell the film yet – it’s not complete – just position it in the minds of the right executives so that when we come to screen the finished article we’ve got the buyer in the room.

And ,the film is now tee’d up sweetly for that next stage.

Inevitably we suffered Cannes Foot/Face Ache, the well-documented condition of walking and smiling too much in one day. It would be nice to say that at least we got a Cannes-tan but, alas, it was one of the wettest Cannes on record.

Still, the South of France in May. Can’t be all bad.

Apr24

Transition

Posted on 24/04/2012 by Jadoo Movie

Transition

The end comes quietly.

The shoot ended on the Saturday after Good Friday. And within hours almost everyone had gone.

It was a great last week – including three days in the Peepul Centre in Leicester, shooting the Kings of Curry competition with our fabulous cast and crew joined by the incomparable Madhur Jaffrey and the life-saving Hardeep Singh Koli.

It would have been nice to imagine that we finished the very last shot of the very last day with our 1^st Assistant Director, Gareth Tandy, bellowing “Thank you, Boys & Girls. That’s a wrap …!” but it wasn’t like that…

In fact the very last day – as it is on most films, I imagine – was an intense session of two camera crews picking up wide shots of Leicester and micro-shots of food, and the Recipe Book and photo inserts. Lots and lots of precise, fiddly and vital moments.

Lastly Amit Gupta, writer/director, worked with Jules Heath, our over-achieving Unit Stills photographer, directing the cast in a set of amazing stills for the end credits of the film.

And that meant the cast and crew sort of peeled away… cast as they finished their stills and crew as the unit shrank away naturally.

Lastly, it was just Jules and Gaffer, Tommy Finch, shooting a plate shot of a beautiful wedding tuk-tuk.

Then the lights went out.

We’d had a mini-wrap party the night before so almost everyone headed back to the hotel, packed up, hugged colleagues and went to their homes to have an Easter Sunday with friends and family…

But Tuesday after the Bank Holiday it all cranked up again, seamlessly. The Art Department started their wrap process – breaking up sets, returning props and packing tools. The Production and Accounts Team started to put the show to bed and box up the vital documents.

On Wednesday the final rushes arrived and were ingested into the hard-drives and then the mountain of equipment was boxed-up.

CUT TO: Thursday, an office near Leicester Square tube. (We just can’t get away from Leicester.)

Eddie Hamilton, Editor; Riccardo Bacigalupo, Assistant Editor; and Farhana Bhula, Assistant Producer hauled up about eighty boxes up three, narrow flights of stairs to the neat and tidy edit room.

Eddie and Riccardo worked long into the night to set up the gear and on Friday we watched the last rushes with Roger Pratt BSC, Cinematographer and Tim Phillips, Associate Producer.

Elegantly done.

And now we’re approaching the end of assembly. Amit and Eddie start cutting in earnest next week… and then we start setting up the test screenings.

Getting there.

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Apr13

And that’s a wrap!

Posted on 13/04/2012 by Jadoo Movie

And that’s a wrap!

After a busy five weeks of filming in Leicester we’ve now finished shooting and have begun post-production for the film in London.

After so many ‘magic’ moments on set it was really hard to say goodbye to the cast and crew. There were lots of hugs and shaking of hands as everyone left the set of Jadoo for the last time.

A few of the crew members were snapping away on their phones while making Jadoo. Here are a few of their photos that sum up the shoot:

Thanks to Natasha Phelan, Farhana Bhula & Ravi Lakhani for the photos.

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Apr6

You Look Amazing

Posted on 06/04/2012 by bigrichfilms

You Look Amazing

We know they make the actors look perfect for the lens, take after take after take. But that, in a way, is the easy part – the end of a long line of creative, strategic and pragmatic decisions.

Costume and Make-up’s work starts from the moment the script is read – at that point the heads of those departments are making fundamental decisions about the characters, their story arcs and the timeline of the story. So they have to have a natural empathy with the actors’ process – and the ability to turn on a dime if their assumptions butt up against the actor’s own perceptions.

We have two of the experts in their fields: Nigel Egerton, our Costume Designer and Meinir Jones-Lewis, Hair & Make-up Designer.

Nigel and Meinir are in constant touch with the Writer/Director, Amit Gupta and the Art Dept – absorbing Amit’s ideas, coordinating with Production Designer Adrian Smith’s colour-palette, testing concepts and getting sign-offs for their final designs.

But Nigel, Meinir and their teams also provide two other essential services to the film (and its producers): a warm, comfortable and cosseting environment for the cast first thing in the morning and last thing at night; and an early-warning system for any other concerns the actors might have but aren’t expressing. They are the production’s Canaries.

They also offer to the director – and the film – those delicious moments of detail that make a good film a really satisfying experience: just the right wristwatch, bag, coat; or a parting in the hair that echoes perfectly a Bollywood star of yesteryear.

On Tuesday last they faced one of their semi-regular pinch-points: many of the main characters appearing in multiple costumes, wigs and ‘taches. And ageing-up and -down twenty years. Add to that kids, split locations and limited transport resources. A tough day.

Nigel and Meinir’s teams delivered with aplomb. Feeding actors onto set and in front of the camera from dawn ’til dusk.

Nigel and his cohort: Kathryn Blight, Costume Supervisor; Ellen Crawshaw, Costume Stand-by; and Rebecca Tredget, Costume Trainee always have an early start: prepping early-up costumes and preparing for later changes – jumping between scenes means minutely tracking timelines and continuity.

Meinir are her colleagues, Laura Stevens, Make-up Artist and their trainee Sophie Finch have an equally early start: washing hair, vanishing blemishes, making the actors relaxed. Setting them up for the day.

And it works best, of course, when the actors love “going in Costume & Make-up” – safe in the knowledge that our easygoing, warm, witty yet focused teams are intent on just one thing: getting them to set feeling a million dollars.

As you can see, they’re doing an outstanding job.

Mar28

A, B, C?

Posted on 28/03/2012 by sebastiansolberg

A, B, C?

What’s your favorite photo? A, B or C? The photo in our facebook album with the most ‘likes’ will be put on our homepage. Click on the photo that you like the most below to be redirected to our facebook page so you can vote.

A

B

C

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Mar24

The Engine Room

Posted on 24/03/2012 by bigrichfilms

The Engine Room

Last Saturday we recreated Holi – the Hindu Festival associated with brightly coloured paints being thrown in the air (and over everyone in sight…).

Leaving aside the challenges for Art Department and Camera team it also showed the Production Team at its smoothest.

Some statistics:

250 Supporting Artistes
A one-day-only crane, with two operators and Steadicam
Leicester’s Cossington Park sectioned-off and made secure
Shelter organised for catering and a refuge, in case of rain
Parking permits for the unit and the caravan of utility-vehicles
Health & Safety and Risk Assessment checks to all the above
Enhanced Assistant Director and Location teams briefed, radioed-up and hi-vizzed

Planning started early and all under the eagle-eye of Line Producer, Thea Harvey. She is ultimately responsible for the whole shebang. She is the lynchpin. Everything is approved by her. Nothing ruffles her.

She sits in the room with Rachel Donkor, our Production Accountant, who with Carla Gale, Assistant Accountant sitting opposite her, tracks the costs against the budget and tweaks the levers if we’re drifting. Even a little bit.

They are supported, across the corridor, by Nicola Morrow, Production Coordinator, whose job it is to know everything: every name, number, location, birth-date, preference. She in turn delegates out key tasks to Alex Carrodus-Cook, Production Secretary. They also sit opposite each other – matching Apple Macs perched on stands – serene, perky or intensely focused depending on the time of day.

Out-and-about is Graeme MacKensie, Location Manager and his team, Robbie Tarrant, Unit Manager and Locations Assistant, Patrick Waggett. Graeme has appeared on these blogs before because he works across on all departments: production, camera, art…

Locations is an ice-berg department. All we see are the pretty places on the screen but to get those shots Graeme and his colleagues have an enormous amount to get done to an immovable deadline: scouting; early, spontaneous and formal recces; negotiating fees and access; managing neighbours’ expectations; and assessing parking requirements, health & safety issues, traffic management. All the above is done in a calm, reasonable and empathetic manner, keenly aware that our unit will be invading someone’s home, business or frontage. And, of course, it all goes unnoticed. We got in, filmed, no drama, we wrapped and left … but only then can locations start breathing again.

Lastly, the AD’s, the Assistant Directors who feed actors to the set and in front of the camera ready to shoot.

They are led by the indefatigable 1^st AD, Gareth Tandy – resplendent in Hawiian shirt and jester’s trainers – who controls the floor, monitors our well-being and maintains the shooting momentum. Giggles a lot.

Off-set there’s Nicole Chapman, 2^nd AD responsible for getting the actors in front of the camera and anticipating their every need: make-up and costume call, early breakfasts, transport.

And they are met out of the car and led to set by Floor Runner, Ravi Lakhani and brought to 3rd AD, the ever-smiling Natasha Phelan. There the actors hover, just off-set, with Natasha making sure they are happy, watered and poised to move in front of the lens. All ably assisted by Nick Crane, our Trainee.

Key to Saturday’s success was the work of Rashi Lakhani (yes, the Lakhani’s have quite a big impact on this film, in one way or another) our Crowd AD who recruited, filtered, auditioned, briefed, booked and motivated our amazing Holi crowd. Not just Joe Public but our dancers and drummers too. A flawless job for an intensely exciting result.

Judging from the public’s Facebook feedback, The Engine Room did its job. The people of Leicester pitched up, danced and shouted, threw (water-soluble, non-toxic, hypo-allergenic) paint and then had a spot of lunch… and smiled from dawn ‘til dusk.

A really great day.

Mar20

Holi Festival

Posted on 20/03/2012 by Jadoo Movie

Holi Festival

Week 2 of production on Jadoo has gone by so quickly. It’s been a brilliant week with the cast and crew filming all over Leicester. The local community here have been amazing with all their support and enthusiasms towards the making of this film and it’s made us at the Jadoo HQ extremely excited about the next three weeks of filming. The highlights from this week have included filming on the Golden Mile in central Leicester and shooting the Holi Festival scene with over 200 extras. Here are a few photos from week 2 on Jadoo:

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Mar19

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Jadoo’s Production Sound Mixer, Malcolm Davies, A.m.p.s

Posted on 19/03/2012 by farhanabhula

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Jadoo’s Production Sound Mixer, Malcolm Davies, A.m.p.s

At Jadoo HQ we’re absolutely thrilled to have Malcolm Davies on board as our Production Sound Mixer. His sound credentials include BAFTA-winning TV dramas and over 90 feature films, counting among them Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate and Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa, for which he was part of the Oscar-winning team for best Sound. Jadoo will be his 91^st film to date. To celebrate such astonishing success in the TV and film industry we’ve asked Malcolm to take a look back at his career and pick out some of his highlights and most cherished memories.

FB: So Malcolm, congratulations on your 91^st film. Perhaps you could tell us how you started off?

MD: I didn’t start off in sound, I started working as an electrician having studied lighting at Salford. I began my career at the infamous Oldham Rep and from there moved to BBC and then Granada when I moved into Sound. I haven’t looked back since.

FB: And what has been your career highlight so far?

MD: Out of Africa was without a doubt my favourite film. It won the Oscar for best sound and I’m delighted to have been part of the winning team.

FB: Any particular moments that stand out for you?

MD: We were staying at one of the biggest safari companies in Kenya, Kerns and Downey and they had set up a tented village for the crew. Each crewmember had a tent, and a lavatory tent. One evening I got back from location and, having showered, was leaving for dinner. I sprayed the inside of the tent with insecticide to keep the mosquitoes away; I then zipped the tent up so nothing could get in or out of the tent and I went for dinner. I’d just finished when our British helicopter pilot came to me and said that he was supposed to go and pick Robert Redford up in Nairobi but the Jet Ranger had a flat battery and could I help him? I got a couple of truck batteries and with a bit of a cable bodge, I started the aircraft and Colin flew off. My hands were covered in grime so I went back to my tent, unzipped it and walked in. By the side of the bed looking at me was a huge spitting cobra. I ran out immediately to find the camp staff who wouldn’t believe me. They eventually came to my tent looked in and just said “Oh Shit”. Fortunately we had a company with us called Animal Actors from Hollywood who had brought seven lions with them for some of the animal sequences and part of this entourage was Jules who was a very good snake man. He went into the tent with a stick and a pillowcase and caught the snake. Just as he came out of the tent with it Bob Redford arrived, took one look at the snake and ordered Colin to fly him back to the hotel! Apparently his hatred of reptiles is greater than mine and for the rest of the shoot he was flown to and from the location. We found out later that the venom from that particular cobra is lethal.

FB: An almost near-death experience then? Richard Holmes, one of the producers of Jadoo, says you are the man to record sound to perfection in absolutely any circumstance. What do you think are the three qualities needed in a Production Sound Mixer?

MD: Patience, ability to compromise & experience.

FB: Biggest myth about sound:

MD: Producers think we have the ability to flick a switch that will turn off all background noise. Failing that, they think a radio mic will solve all background sound problems. They don’t.

FB: So, what has been your biggest challenge to date?

MD: Shooting Heavens Gate – It was because of Heavens Gate, whose director Michael Cimino pushed the budget massively over, that led to greater studio control of films– The scale of the production meant the council wouldn’t allow the band of grenadier guards, who we were using as an American marching band, to play as they marched down a narrow street in Oxford. So we had to lay half a mile of induction around and we then squirted music down it so that each bandsman had an earpiece so they could hear music. The reason they did this was because the director, Michael Cimino, was such a perfectionist that he wanted them to be playing the right notes even if they weren’t playing. The fingering had to be absolutely correct.

FB: You really have seen it all Malcolm. What do you think your long-time Boom Op, Ed Brookes, and Sound Assistant Jodie Campbell say about you?

MD: Probably that I’m a grumpy old bugger! You’ll often hear people on set saying “screw sound”. We are the poor relation to the camera team.

FB: Biggest lesson in filmmaking so far?

MD: You have to work hard to get to where you want to be. And stay as far away from the Special FX people as you can. On a TV series I was working on the special FX folk all wore T-shirts bearing the message: “I’m the guy that sets the explosives so if you see me running you need to try and keep up with me!”

One day they set an explosion, which was designed to take the roof off a thatched cottage. I checked with the supervisor that my trusted sound cart and me were in a safe position, which he confirmed as ok. When the charges went off there was a giant fireball coming towards me just above head height. I’ve never moved so quickly in my life and my boom swinger, Ed, said that he looked round to see if I was OK but there was no sign of me, just a pair of headphones hanging mid air.

FB: How would you like readers of Jadoo Movie blog to think of your sound team?

MD: Our nickname is the bidet: No one quite knows what it’s for, but we always bring a bit of class to the team

(Above: Malcolm and his trusted sound cart on the set of Treasure Island)

Mar15

Design Ninjas

Posted on 15/03/2012 by Jadoo Movie

Design Ninjas

Adrian Smith is the Designer’s Designer: energetic, witty, relentless, delicate. He can draw, paint and model. He’s designed everything-twice in an award-winning career and is therefore unfazeable. He’s the full-ticket.

Everything physical thing you’ll see in Jadoo is Adrian Smith’s: every hand-prop, morsel of food, shade of paint or type of wallpaper; every street banner, newspaper; every sofa-covering, napkin, salt-shaker. It’s all been conceived, overseen or delegated by Adrian then put into a seamless delivery system, managed by his flawless team, until it arrives safe, sound and just-so on set, ready for the camera.

And that team, assembled by Adrian, is the key.

Yesterday almost the whole department was focused on one task as our two enormous restaurant signs and light-boxes went up above existing establishments on the Belgrave Road.

These two curry-house signs are vital visual story-markers, neatly encapsulating both the comedic brotherly dispute and the geography of the film: overlooking each other, proudly displaying the same name in different lettering, both displaying the same “Established 2002” and both claiming to be the “original Chandana’s” restaurant.

The successful, unfussy and swift-fastening of these signs utilizes almost the whole Art Department process:

Firstly, Adrian conceives the visual ideas and paints it.

Then Supervising Art Director, Sam Stokes, measures, plans, does technical drawings and budgets; establishing exactly how big, small, tight, uneven, quirky this sign and its exact location is going to be.

Rosie Westwood, our Graphics Designer, garners all the information, makes (very beautiful) roughs for Amit Gupta, the writer/director to approve, and then designs the final sign.

Antoine Robin, Construction Manager, and his team makes these paper-plans real and the signs are cut, assembled, painted and partially-disassembled into manageable sections, off-site.

Graeme MacKenzie, Location Manager, and his team devises the pedestrian and traffic management plan for the day in question.

John Law, the Rigger, and his team spring into action and the massive towers are up, the signs fitted and the whole thing repeated on two sides of a very busy road in just over seven hours.

Next, the rest of the Art Department will make the magic happen inside the restaurants.

Shonagh Smith, Production Buyer, plans, orders, rents and purchases the wallpaper, paint, fabric, utensils and, of course, food design that makes the sets feel real.

Mike Malik, Prop Masters, our logistics expert, ensures that every physical prop the location demands arrives in time, is logged, delivered to set and, once used, returned or sold-on in a timely, cost-efficient way.

Dressing and Stand-by Props team – Phil Jones, Owen Mann and Mark Runchman – make it look real to camera, take-after-take, ensuring continuity.

Lastly, Stand-by Art Director, Catriona McKail, makes sure that what’s actually filmed is exactly what Adrian conceived right at the top of the chain.

This is all done like the proverbial swan: gliding elegantly along, apparently without effort, but paddling madly underneath.

And that’s why the Art Department lights burn from 07-30 to 21-30, every single night. With Adrian, standing at the drawing table, smoothing down his salt-and-pepper beard, often giggling and delighting Amit with the plans for the next few sets.

Mar11

Out and About

Posted on 11/03/2012 by sebastiansolberg

Out and About

The first week of production on Jadoo has been full of laughs and hard work. The cast and crew are excited about getting this movie made and it’s showing in the results. The people of Leicester have been very supportive and everyone who sees us filming on location is thrilled to hear that we’re making a movie based in their hometown. We have some big filming days next week including the very colorful paint festival (Holi) scene.

Here is a selection of photos from our first week: