The waiting is over. Tomorrow work on the movie begins in earnest. The last weeks have been a rest period for nearly everyone on the cast and crew who was working on the series. Meanwhile I have been pedalling around in increasingly small circles feeling guilty about taking a break I don’t deserve and trying to prepare for a schedule which has not yet been drawn up.
What is a director to do? Well this one goes and watches a shed load of movies to see what ideas he can steal, borrow and avoid. I’ve even been inspired to invent a few of my own! From whence cometh my inspiration? Try: Amelie, The Hit, The Italian Job, Austin Powers: Goldmember, XXX, Sex And Lucia, All About My Mother, The Commitments, The Mexican, Bandits, Spy Kids, K:19, Tadpole, A Hard Days Night.
Of course you lot have no clue as to what the story is about (and I’m not about to tell you either) but you might reasonably draw this conclusion from the above list: S Club, on a quest to find a missing vintage weapon, travel by Russian submarine to Paris where they meet up with a waitress who, deciding she no longer wants to play in a soul band, hitches a ride with them in three Minis to Prague where they meet a new kind of secret agent in a Pontiac GTO who is then knocked out by some members of the London crime scene who hand them over to another secret agent with bad teeth and a Jag who takes them through time to Madrid for a meal in a restaurant with another waitress who likes to get naked a lot. After dinner they catch a train to Barcelona with a woman who’s lost her son, and all the while they are whistling Beatles songs. That might be your conclusion but you’d be wrong!
What I can tell you is that from Amelie I learnt everything I need to know about how to make a movie. The Hit told me how I should shoot Spain if I had any sense; The Italian Job showed me how to let the essence of a wonderful old city inhabit a comedy; Austin Powers showed me that clones can be believable with over the shoulder shots; XXX let me know that it’s still hip for nasty men to hatch world dominating plots in dank caves; Sex And Lucia taught me a lot of Spanish words for naughty bits; All About My Mother showed me that we’d better shoot more of Barcelona than Pedro did; The Commitments reminded me that non-technical actors can still deliver memorable and funny performances; The Mexican and Bandits showed me that the critics can be wrong; Spy Kids taught me that there’s no shame in making a movie for kids; K-19 introduced me to the concept that accents are not always a good idea; Tadpole alerted me to Robert Iler’s promising career and A Hard Days Night let me know that I’ve got my work cut out to try and improve on what still remains one of the all time great music movies.
As I said. Tomorrow I’m back to work.