Tag Archives: Tommy Finch

Jul2

The Gang’s All Here

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On Sunday, from just after lunch until just after midnight, almost the whole team were back together. But this time it wasn’t in a curry-house in lovely Leicester. We were holed-up in a rather swish suite at The Savoy. Slumming it again.

We were picking-up two keys scenes to develop the relationship between Shalini (Amara Karan) and Mark (Tom Mison). Both are busy actors: Amara has just started rehearsing with the RSC and Tom is on stage eight-shows-a-week in the West End hit, Posh.

So, Sunday and part of Monday was our only opportunity to get this done and everyone responded, as always, with wit, enthusiasm and focus.

And why a suite at The Savoy? Well, the staff and the view are two great reasons. Even as a sweaty film crew we were treated like treasured guests; Julia Harris, the director of Entertainment Sales really couldn’t do enough to help. And what a vista: Big Ben, The Wheel and the Thames. All from angles that we rarely see. It says, “We’re getting married” in a very short shorthand. 

It was great to be shooting again. Amit Gupta and his team fell into lockstep instantly. Roger Pratt and Tommy Finch lit the space very economically and the crew glided past each other like dancers.

Even though we were outside on a lovely day on Monday it was much more of a challenge. Tabard Gardens is a small urban green-space surrounded by redbrick blocks of flats. Perfect as a Leicester backdrop.  But, well, noisy. The locals were very accommodating; turning down their music and swerving the set. But something was up in the skies over London, with helicopters buzzing us throughout the shoot. We must have counted fifty fly-pasts.

But when you have a actors and crew who know, like and respect each other, under a director who’s clearly enjoying himself then things start to come together quickly.

We shot-out the scenes, said thank-you to our stars and headed into London for some restaurant establishers and general views of this beautiful capital on a fabulous evening, blessed with spectacular cloudscapes.

And, because Amit’s working with the best young editor in the world, Eddie Hamilton, the scenes dropped right in as if they’d always been there.

Next stop: distributor screenings.

Apr24

Transition

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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 1st 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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Mar10

35mm film

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We’re shooting Jadoo on film. To make a film-film you need people who love 35mm Eastman Kodak negative.

Roger Pratt BSC, our Oscar-nominated Cinematographer, wears a badge on his lapel that states, “Film Forever”. He truly understands film and all its extraordinary qualities having shot, in no particular order: Brazil, Mona Lisa, Tim Burton’s Batman, The Fisher King, Shadowlands, Twelve Monkeys, Chocolat, Iris, The End of the Affair…

(It’s odd writing a list of films and knowing with some certainty that, if you’re a film buff, at least one of your top-ten-best-looking-films-of-all-time is on that roster.)

But Roger is also modest enough to tell you that to capture the light that he designs with such aplomb you need a team that includes:

A Camera Operator – we have Rob Hart, a physically powerful young man who can frame a shot on a conventional head and move a Steadicam with equally sensitive ease.

A Focus Puller – a role that requires a bewildering mixture of mathematical precision, obsessive measuring and – if we’re honest – a dab of magic to make sure every actor’s nuanced look is pin-sharp. Sam Renton’s got the fingers, as they say.

An Electrical Team – whose role it is to make Roger’s lighting plans a reality: hoisting lamps, clipping on gels, flagging-off recalcitrant beams whilst making everything safe for cast, crew and Joe Public. Our team – and we are still pinching ourselves – is lead by Gaffer, Tommy Finch and his brother, Rigging Gaffer, Chuck Finch. Listing their credits would double the length of this Blog but suffice it to say, in 2006 Chuck won a BAFTA for his lifetime achievements in film industry. It really is worth typing their names into IMdb and letting your jaw fall open.

Right behind the Gaffers are Paul McDermott, Steven Wood and Ben Coldwell; constantly of the move, two-steps ahead, making this set tidy and then next ready to shoot.

Steve Weightman, our Grip, moves the camera with real grace.  Tommy Holman, our Clapper Loader, is always there with the next lens, the fresh film mag, the chalk… almost before they’re requested. The whole team ably serviced by the indefatigable Harry Gamble, our Camera Assistant and Ken Price, the Camera Car driver.

Every day Tommy Holman calmly accepts his unique, terrifying responsibility – even though he’s one of the youngest members of the unit – and unloads the negative that’s captured all Roger’s beautiful light into thin-metals cans before despatching them to Technicolor to be stuck-fast forever. Six days a week, for five weeks. No pressure.

And every night Amit Gupta, the writer/director, sits with Roger and the team watching the rushes; giggling like schoolboys at the dialogue, making mental notes about actors’ best angles and marvelling at the beauty of 35mm film.