Tag Archives: Movie

Mar25

Berlin Film Festival

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Jadoo_003

Jadoo had a truly wonderful reception at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where it was one of only three UK narrative features in official selection. It was wonderful to hear the comedy working so well for a German audience reading German subtitles.

The success of the film at the Berlinale prompted invitations from over a dozen festivals worldwide. As a result we have re-assessed the release strategy to focus on these festivals and use the momentum and interest generated before the UK release later in the year.

First up on the festival circuit is New York where Jadoo will be having its North American premiere as a special screening at the New York Indian Film Festival early May.

Most of you might already know that Jadoo is represented for international sales by Resolution. Resolution is Los Angeles-based and is Jeff Berg’s new venture. Jadoo is the very first film for Resolution’s portfolio;  here is the official announcement:  http://www.screendaily.com/news/resolution-signs-uk-comedy-jadoo/5051758.article.

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Sep27

Food Stylist – Nicole Herft

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Here’s an interview we did with our wonderful food stylist Nicole Herft while she was busy preparing the food for Jadoo.

What does a food stylist do?

A food stylist is the person who organizes all the food that’s going to be shot on film and makes sure it looks beautiful. Usually you have to under cook things or not cook things to its entirety so that it looks fresher and not all limp. But you’re in charge of all the food and how it looks.

Why was it so important to have a food stylist on Jadoo?

Jadoo is completely based around food and it’s based on the merits of how they cook, so we’re trying to make our food look like traditional Indian as much as possible – as fresh, vibrant and colourful as possible.

 

How are you using food to bring director Amit Gupta’s vision to life?

We’re trying to use as much colour as possible when it comes to the food and use all the traditional favourites. Some of the food’s scripted and a lot of the food I have to make up, as far as what’s going to be shown in the film. Amit has been very clear with what he wants.

What’s involved in getting the food ready to be filmed on set?

I do all the ordering; it arrives here. We do all the prep a day before and if there’s anything last minute, we’ll do it on the day. We keep everything in the kitchen fridge and then cart it all into the car along with all the equipment, utensil and other ingredients we might need.

How do you make the food look so delicious?

Most of the time it’s quite simple because Indian food looks beautiful as long you don’t over cook it. You do things like adding tomatoes and coriander at the end so it stays nice and fresh and it doesn’t look all over cooked and soggy. I don’t really like spraying things onto the food that aren’t edible so I just spray water on top of things which give it a bit of a gloss or with things like tandoori chicken I’ll brush some oil on it so it’s still edible – a bit oily, but it gives it a nice sheen.

What does it take to be a good food stylist?

I think you need to be super organized. You have to be anal really. I would probably say that I’m difficult to work with in the sense that if I don’t like it I won’t just say it’s ok, I’ll say do it again. I think you need to have those sorts of standards because you can really see it in the end product. You’ve got to really think things through with how they’re going to look on the plate, with how you do your prep, how much you cook it, how you store it. You’ve got to be really careful with those sort of factors in order for the end product to be as good as it can be. Also not just going with something if you don’t have time. I’d rather just say no, everybody’s got to stop, we need another half an hour. I’m starting this again. That sort of thing.  You’ve got to be quite fierce about it.

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Aug20

Eddie Hamilton

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The Jadoo team have had the great privilege to work with the very passionate and very talented Eddie Hamilton. Eddie’s credits have included Kick Ass and X-Men: First Class. He’s somone who’s dedicated to his profession and creates world class results that have been seen by millions of people around the world. Eddie’s love for films and filmmaking is so contagious that anyone who comes into contact with him can not help but love movies too! While on the shoot of Jadoo we managed to sit down with Eddie to have a chat about his love for film and editing.

What is the role of an editor?

The role of an editor is take all the footage that is shot by the crew and put it together to tell the best story possible. When you’re editing, all you’re thinking about is character and story as that’s all the audience are thinking about when they watch the film. The audience cares about the characters and wants to find out what’s going to happen to them. Everything else is secondary to that. When I’m editing scenes I’m just thinking about the characters and the story. After that I’m thinking about making sure the shots look nice, that they’re in focus, that the warderobe looks great, that the lighting looks great, that the makeup looks great, the sound is great! Making sure that all the crews’ best work ends up in the movie. But the most important thing is character and story.

How did you get into editing?

I started to realise that I might want to work in the film industry when I was about seven, and I remember very clearly watching Star Wars on TV for the first time. My parents never took me to the cinema so I only watched films on television and it came on in nineteen eighty. My parents recorded it on a betamax tape and because the film started at eight pm and ran till ten pm, and my bedtime was nine pm so I missed the second half of the film. But the next morning I got up at four O’clock in the morning and I snuck downstairs, fast forwarded the tape to the right place, and I watched the second half of the film with the sound right down so I wouldn’t wake my parents up. I remember at about five thirty in the morning when the film finished seeing peoples names going up at the end and thinking, these are real people, they must work in film… I want to do this! From that day on I was a total film nut and read about film and watched as many films as I could. I initially thought I’d want to be a director, which is what everyone thinks when they’re that age but when I was about seventeen I started to think editing would be more appropriate for me.

What was it about the script that made you want to be a part of Jadoo?

The story is a very familiar story but it’s set in a very unique world of this kind of restaurant business in Leicester and it’s a unique glimpse into the Indian culture in Leicester and how the families who live in this environment relate to each other. Fundamentally, it’s a very simple and funny story that can appeal to a lot of people, and a lot of the best films are simple stories well told, and I think Jadoo is one of those.

What is it like working with director Amit Gupta?

 We have very similar tastes cinematically and I really respect him as a writer and a director. To have that healthy respect for each others opinion means that we can be very creative, try a lot of things out and not take it personally.

How have you gone about editing Jadoo?

When I watch the material that Amit has shot I try and remain very independent of the emotion from the set and I let the material speak for itself. I will gather my own opinions on what the strengths and the weaknesses are of the material that has been shot. Occasionally I’ll get a feeling that something is not going to earn its place in the finished cut of the movie but at this stage, generally I will put everything in that Amit has shot. I feel it’s respectful to the writer and director of the film, in this case same guy. It’s important to give each scene a shot at earning it’s place in the film. But I do have my own opinions on what will come out and occasionally I will do another cut of the scene and try something out by removing a couple of lines of dialogue where I feel the rhythm of the scenes around it would dictate that it would be a good idea. Obviously I could be completely wrong and a lot of times I am, but you try things out as the most important thing when editing is to leave no stone unturned in the quest for the best film!

Do you edit with music?

I try and edit with music a lot, especially later in the editing process. Generally what happens for the first half of the shoot I’ll just be putting the scenes together as they are and maybe using the occasional bit of music.  In the second half of the shoot I’ll start to build the film as a whole in the computer and I’ll start to feel where music needs to be present to act as a transition or to heighten some emotion in the film. By the end of the shoot I’ll have built the whole film with temporary music where I think it should be. I think it’s important to use music as much as possible when editing.

Can you talk through your workflow? 

Our workflow in simple terms is this: The film leaves the camera, it goes to the laboratory, it gets developed, it gets put onto high definition video tapes and it gets digitized onto hard drive that we have in the editing suite. The sound comes straight from the set into the editing suite. My Assistant using a sync clap at the top of each slate will sync the sound and the picture together and prepare a little graphical window of all the shots for a particular scene. That allows me to see what has been shot for each particular scene. I will cut the scene together very quickly, not watching all the footage but just having a look at maybe one wide shot and then starting to cut the scene. I found it very useful to have gone through the process of cutting the scene before you watch all the footage for the scene. I find it more helpful having a pass of the scene, even if it’s only five minutes just quickly throwing the scene together, then you know what your looking for. Invariably you’ll find little nuggets of gold that you’ll need to make the scene really work! I will slowly build the scene up on my own and then when the film is finished shooting, I sit down with Amit, we work through the film for a few more weeks. We then show it to the producers, they came in with their notes and then a few weeks later we start showing it to small test audiences of twelve, fifteen people. We listen to what they say, we recut and then we’ll show it to a few hundred people and every time we screen the film we are very sensitive to what the audience is telling us about the pace, the story and whether they understand it or not. Every time we screen it we want the jokes to get better and to get more laughs. Hopefully by the end of the process we have a great film!

Why is it important to have an editor present in the cutting room while filming?

It’s very important to have the editor around during the filming process and any experienced director or producer will probably agree with me. It’s important to show the investors of the film how it’s all coming along. Whether that’s a film studio or an individual it’s important that they can see how the film is starting to come together and it’s important for the production to know that the story is working. If there’s anything missing I can tell them to shoot it as they’ve still got the locations and the actors. It’s a lot cheaper and easier to fix problems during the filming process than it is, say, six months down the line when everyone is around the world working on different films.

What do you think of the ending of the film?

I challenge anyone, even someone who hasn’t been blessed with much luck in the love department, to not find the end of this film very romantic. It will melt the hardest of hearts and I think that’s really hard to do. Amit the director and the cast, I feel have really nailed it!

Why do you use Avid over other editing platforms?

There are lots of editing platform you can use to edit a film and I choose to use Avid Media Composer. It’s what I like to use, I find it completely robust in terms of the actual software. Very rarely crashes! It does a great job of keeping a track of everything, I can work collaboratively with other editors and assistant editors on the same project. It has been developed for professional purposes. Some software out there hasn’t been developed for professional usage and can be fine for a short film, but when you’re on a very big film with lots and lots of footage, you need to know the software will keep a track of that and when you press play it will play and it will be in sync and work. I can deliver on an Avid Media Composer timeline absolutely world class work to the producers of a film or a film studio.

What advice do you have for young filmmakers? 

I highly recommend, if you think you might want to work in the film industry, watching lots of films, reading any book you can about it. Go and make one short film a week for a year, on your phone and put it on YouTube so that you’ve got 50 films and believe me you will learn so much about storytelling, about what you have to shoot, how to work with actors, how to use music, how to edit, how to light, how to do visual effects and that will be like a film school. That’s all you’ll need to know. Read books on screenplay writing, write lots of scripts as it’s hard to write really good scripts. There are tons and tons of resources online, totally for free. Filmmakers being interviewed, filmmakers giving talks about what they do! I question whether film school is worth the money quite frankly!

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Jul18

Adrian Smith

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Director Amit Gupta and his team have had the privilege of working with Adrian Smith on two feature films. Adrian is an extraordinary and talented production designer who awes everyone with his understated ability to breathe life, colour and energy into the projects he works on. His attention to detail and his artistic vision are universally respected. His credits have included ‘The Warrior’, ‘Bronson’ and ‘The History of Mr Polly’ which he won a BAFTA for. Once filming on Jadoo had wrapped, we sat down with Adrian for a chat about filmmaking and the experience of working on Jadoo.

What does it take to be a good production designer?

It very much depends on the film itself. But generally I feel the production designer is responsible for filling in the backstory around the film itself…. that you’re creating the world that the actors and the script itself inhabits. So that you’re really filling in the blank spaces and joining the dots for the whole narrative structure of the film.

What was it about the script Jadoo that made you want to be a part of it?

It was a comedy and the last comedy piece that I designed was Shameless and I always really enjoy working on comedies. They allow you to exercise a bit of wit in the look, style and feel of the film. The script was lovely, very funny, warm and interesting. It was also set in Leicester which is one of those places that everybody goes through and never stops and looks at. It was just interesting seeing it because in a lot of ways it told a story of recent contemporary British social history. It was an interesting place in a very surprising way.

What was the atmosphere in Leicester like?

I designed two films in India and spent a fair bit of time painting there. I’ve watched it over the last five or ten years and it’s changed a lot. The strange thing about Leicester is that it’s almost a vision of India that has largely disappeared. It’s almost like a retro version of Mumbai or Deli.

How has the local community got involved with the making of this film?

They’ve been really fantastic! Everybody really went out of their way to help us. A lot of people were extremely generous with a lot of the locations and I found the people in Leicester very lovely, warm and generous.

What look have you gone for in Jadoo?

What we’ve tried to do is avoid any cliches for the whole look and feel of British Asian life. It meant we had to be ruthlessly honest of what we found and what we saw. The reality of what we saw was very unexpected. A lot more minimal and paired down. The overall palette that we tried to do was not going completely overboard but to build it to a climax in the Kings of Curry competition. So up to that point, with a few exceptions everything was very muted and not completely over the top.

Why did you and Amit decide to show similarities between the two feuding brothers?

The idea that Amit wanted was that two brothers had almost copied each other. That there’s a similarity all the way through. Right the way down to the ripped up recipe book. This was to show that really these two brothers in reality were very close and shared a lot of common taste.

What is it like working with director Amit Gupta?

Amit is a really interesting director and I really enjoy working with him. This is the second film I’ve done with him now and it’s always very good working on a second, third or fourth film with a director as you start to develop a shorthand. You also start to build up a degree of trust in each other in terms of the aesthetic, you bring to the look of the film. Amit has got a wonderfully visual imagination. Some directors find it very difficult to visualize anything but I’ve found with Amit you can talk through ideas and then can do sketches or models. You then develop the ideas and take them on. It was very good working on this with him as he was very clear about exactly what we wants and doesn’t want. While at the same time allowing for a lot of creative freedom.

What was it like re-creating the Holi Festival of Colour?

It was an interesting challenge because we had to create the idea that there was an absolute mass of people and that the whole anarchic quality of Holi. We had to basically re-create that with a very limited number of extras so we found a location which in fact where the real Holi festival takes place in Leicester. We then set about to create a very skeletal sense of colour by using a small marquee and put lots of coloured banners all round and just fenced off an area so that it feels like an area of the park that is given over to the Holi Festival. It all worked out fine and went really well.

Why is food such an important part of Jadoo?

I think it’s a crucial part of the film because it’s around food that the story hangs. At the very heart of the story is the cookery book that is divided by the two brothers. It was quite important in the film that the food actually stands out and is only ever swamped, colour wise, in the cooking competition at the end of the film.

How did you and your team make the recipe book look and feel so authentic?

What we wanted in a sense is that this had been a notebook or a file in India 40 or 50 years ago.  So we had this progression from Hindi in India and then slowly, as time progresses, the recipes turn into English-  and then from being handwritten to an early type writer. It was a fantastic, a really considered piece of work.

What is the most rewarding part of being a production designer?

I think one of the most rewarding things about being a production designer is that you actually get to see into worlds that normally you’d never get to see and also have the ability to re-create them. I’m always surprised on every film that I work on. It’s like coming to a sealed room and opening the door and going into another complete world you’d never imagine.

 

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Jun18

Testing Times

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There comes a moment in post-production when you have to show the film to strangers. It can be traumatic, so it’s best to have a system.

First-up, we do a small test-screening for friends-of-friends-of-friends and invite them to supper afterwards. They are all film people, Heads of Department, who don’t know us – or the film – but, because of their individual expertise, come at the film from a particular, professional and dispassionate point of view.

Their comments can be horribly blunt but they’re always useful. At least until the second bottle of wine…

Then we re-cut for a couple of weeks and play the film again to, at least, two decently-sized crowds of “real” people.

Now, if you’re a distributor or a studio you might be able to afford a kosher recruited-screening. That’s when a company like National Research Group or Ipsos Mori interviews punters on the street and finds exactly the right demographic for your movie. As you can imagine, filling a cinema with that many recruited–viewers costs a small fortune.

We can’t afford that so we approach companies managed by people we know and offer their staff a free-night-out in a west end cinema. The quid pro quo being that they have to answer some questions about the film after the end credits.

The response is invaluable. You get the unalloyed truth and lots of it. And you get consensus.

Although it’s not completely scientific the statistics tell you a lot about how your film “plays”. If that information is positive it’s invaluable in giving both the filmmakers and potential distributors confidence in the paying-audience’s eventual reaction.

We’re holding onto our hats but our numbers are really, really good.

There’s work to do but… they laughed, they cried and they felt uplifted at the end. All that without two keys scenes in place and with “temp” music and sound-effects.Not only that but in a mini-screening in Los Angeles the reaction was mirrored.

So, we’re excited. We’re locking the picture-cut in about two weeks before work starts in earnest on the sound, music and the picture-grade.

Next stop, distributors’ screenings. More news as it comes in.

Apr13

And that’s a wrap!

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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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Mar20

Holi Festival

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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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Mar6

Rituals

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The first thing that happens on Day One is that Gareth Tandy, our dapper and energetic 1st Assistant Director, makes us all introduce ourselves – standing in a circle, surrounding our cast, about to shoot the first set-up of the day. It feels slightly like the start of a group therapy session but it has the desired effect: smiles, some nervous laughter and a tangible sense of excitement.

And then Amit rehearses the set-up, the crew have a run-through, the scene is lit and within 90 minutes we’re shooting our first scene. Not too shabby for Day One. We’re off and running…

More one-to-one introductions are made, we all stare at the camera a bit (so we really are shooting on 35mm film stock) and there’s a debate about what’s going to appear on our clapper-board – we go for the “American Slating System”. Not everyone’s happy but our Editor, Eddie Hamilton, wins the day – well, he does have to live with it for the next five months or so…

Wireless networks are borrowed. Our on-camera food – delicious, fresh and hot – is made in a next-door neighbour’s kitchen. Our sit-down lunch is in the wonderful 1950’s clubroom of the local lawn-bowls association.

Making films on location is always like this: fascinated passers-by, neighbours roped-in and unique places to eat.

On set our cast  Amara Karan, Kulvinder Ghir and Harvey Virdi – are sparkling, giggly and inventive. On form and off-book.

The scenes are picked-off and then Roger Pratt, our Cinematographer and Tommy and Chuck Finch, who lead our Electrical Department scuttle up ladders and transform the kitchen from day-to-night in exactly 23 minutes.

Magic.

At 19:32 Gareth calls wrap. We sing Happy Birthday to our youthful Camera Operator Rob Hart – man-mountain yet immensely dexterous – and eat his cake for him.

Back to the hotel; a few fire-fighting meetings, a quick hello to Editor Eddie , buried beneath his mountain of gear (who said digital editing was smaller and tidier than film?) and then bed.

Day One done.

Mar2

Win a signed copy of Resistance

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Like the Jadoo Movie facebook page for your chance to win one of the first copies of director Amit Gupta’s film Resistance, staring Andrea Riseborough, Iwan Rheon, Tom Wlaschiha & Michael Sheen.

Click here to watch the trailer for the film.

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Feb9

Who’s On First?

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A film starts with the script – a story that makes everyone tingle, one you can’t stop telling our friends and neighbours about. That’s Jadoo.

When we, the producers, think that we can get the film financed then the script is scheduled – determining how long will it take us to shoot it, and in what order the elements such as seasons, talent availability and locations dictate we should shoot it in. And then the script and schedule is budgeted, with an upper figure in mind. Finally a cashflow is drawn up.

Those four key documents: script, schedule, budget and cashflow are both dry and hot documents – constantly flexing and demanding attention as they turn from desk-bound ideas to stark reality.

We’re in the stark reality phase now as our key team of experts fills the annexe of the Premier Inn off Leicester’s Narborough Road. (And Lenny Henry’s right, what a great place…)

First with their feet under the trestle tables: the Line Producer, the Production Designer, Supervising Art Director and Location Manager. They start to identify the key locations, check availability, measure up and start to draw, model and cost the sets.

Next comes the Production Account, First Assistant Director, Prop Buyer and Graphics Designer. They help lock-down the schedule and cashflow and minutely cost-out the design.

This week we welcome the Cinematographer, Chief Electrician, Costume Designer and Location Scout. All of them further distilling the creative vision into a practicable shooting plan.

Next week we start the Editor who alongside the Director, Cinematographer, Designer and the First Assistant Director will solidify that plan – under the eagle eye of the Line Producer – into the final shooting schedule that will make Jadoo a beautiful, funny, hit movie.

Running parallel to this quite formal process the director and producers are working with the Casting Director on talent (about which more next week). And the producers are finalising finance, establishing distribution plans and fire fighting. Not too much of that yet but the asbestos gloves are in the right-hand drawer…

The production roles outlined above are filled by the some of the kindest, calmest and hardest working experts I’ve met. And, saving their blushes, our Heads of Department have, between them, more than 300 years of topflight professional experience. We’re blessed.

Three and a half weeks to go. All very exciting. More soon.