Peter Jackson: A Film-maker’s Journey. Brian Sibley
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Название: Peter Jackson: A Film-maker’s Journey
Автор: Brian Sibley
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Биографии и Мемуары
isbn: 9780007364312
isbn:
The item gave details of those involved – billing Peter as producer, writer and director – and went on: ‘Although the team are all newcomers and part-timers working without pay, Jackson stresses it is not “some sort of Mickey Mouse home movie”, as it has already cost $10,000 (of their own money), and he estimates final budget at $30,000.’ This was the piece that had caught Costa Botes’ eye: ‘I remember laughing and thinking, “What is all that about?”’ Anyway, I got chatting with this guy who showed up on the Worzel Gummidge set – because when you talk to someone who is really into movies you almost always hit it off – and when he mentioned the fact that he was making a film at the weekends, I put two and two together and figured out that he was one of those loonies I’d been reading about!’
The film had continued to go through various ups and downs: there were precious film days lost due to bad weather and, for Peter, the frustration of having to compete with rival obligations on the part of some members of the team…
There was a social soccer club at the Evening Post and Terry Potter and Mike Minett, who were sporting guys, were members of the team. It was often the case that I couldn’t do any filming on a Sunday until the afternoon, because they’d be playing a match in the morning. That bloody soccer club was the bane of my life! I still remember one day, spent at Gear House, waiting for any of the guys to show up. I had the film gear, props and costumes. My parents dropped me off at 9.00am, and came back at 5.00pm to collect me. I was still sitting in the same spot. None of the guys had made it, and in the days before mobile phones I had no idea. I just sat there all day, waiting for anybody to show up, and no one did. I was almost in tears in the car driving home.
Various comings and goings, over the years, continued to ensure that the scenario for Bad Taste remained somewhat flexible. Terry Potter spent some time in Australia, but later returned to New Zealand and rejoined the project as, sometime during mid-1986, did the film’s original leading actor, Craig Smith, whose marriage had come to an end and who was now free of his dependency on alcohol, prescription drugs and religious convictions.
At the same time that Stephen Sinclair called me, we were welcoming Craig back into the Bad Taste team. His role as Giles had stayed in the film, although in an altered form, but he was game for anything. Here Cameron Chittock is strapping him into an alien costume.
‘When I decided to leave the team,’ says Craig, ‘the plan had been for Giles to die during the escape from Gear House and we filmed me being impaled on a tree branch. When, a year later, “the prodigal son” returned to the fold, the death scene was ditched – Peter cut away just before my impaling and Giles survived until the end of the film. I went back to doing all the jobs I had been doing previously, plus donning alien costumes from time to time – the only real change was that Giles was no longer the central character. I fitted back into the team as though I had never left and it’s a tribute to the boys that, even today, they don’t tease me about it and have made a point of never talking about it to anyone outside the group: it’s always been strictly between us – which shows what a very close-knit group we were and, in many ways, still are.’
In July 1986, following his chance encounter with Peter, Costa Botes arranged to view the Bad Taste footage on a Steenbeck film editor at the National Film Unit. Also present was the producer of Worzel Gummidge, Graham McLean, a former TV director whose credits included The Ray Bradbury Theatre, which had featured numerous moments of terror and suspense; he had also worked as an Assistant Director on a creditable New Zealand horror film, entitled The Scarecrow. Peter has never forgotten that day:
It was a little nerve-wracking…It was the very first time that anyone had seen anything from Bad Taste: I’d never screened it for the guys who were making it – I’d never even shown my parents – it wasn’t finished and it didn’t have an ending…
‘Peter arrived at the Film Unit,’ recalls Costa, ‘and produced a big roll of untidy looking film. We threw the reel onto the Steenbeck and sat and watched this extraordinary mishmash – at times quite brilliant, at times quite odd, but always kind of funny…I remember Graham’s response was a sort of astonished, “What the hell…?” The thing that struck me, however, was that, even though Peter was obviously struggling from a lack of resources, this guy was a very, very good film-maker with an amazing facility for putting together action sequences.’
Costa’s recollections of seeing this footage are significant, and a reminder to those who find it hard to make the link between Bad Taste and The Lord of the Rings, that film-making is, as Costa observes, as much about sensibility as it is about subject: ‘You often see amateur films that
My newly revised plot needed the addition of one new character, so Derek was born. I cast myself, having literally run out of friends who could help, and I licking my wounds after Craig left: I figured that at least I would always show up for filming each Sunday!
look amateur, play amateur and don’t go beyond the obvious. But Bad Taste is not like that and I could tell, even from the very early rough-cut, that it was clearly the work of a well-developed talent.
‘Above all, Peter’s sense of humour is what shines through. I only found out later that he was a great fan of silent comedy and of Buster Keaton in particular, and when you view Bad Taste with that in mind you can begin to join up the dots and see that you have a person who is very good with a camera creating comedy out of responsive materials. Peter will take a few bodies and a couple of props, set up a little bit of conflict, and come up with some really good jokes.’
At the end of the screening Costa and Graham McLean wanted to know what Peter was planning to do next: ‘Was he looking to finish it, we asked? Peter said that he was and then stammered out that he had tried to talk to the Film Commission, but they weren’t very interested. I just remember saying to him: “Then you’ve got to go back, you’ve got to actually show them this footage.”’
Fired by their advice, Peter decided to write another letter to the Commission’s Executive Director. Sue Rogers, partner of the late Jim Booth, remembers him talking about his continuing correspondence with the young Peter Jackson: ‘Jim always said that much of the credit for the fact that he finally backed Bad Taste was down to his assistant, Cindy Treadwell, who, whenever she brought a new Jackson missive into Jim’s office, would ask: “When are you going to do something to help this young man?” The fact that Cindy kept on at him encouraged him to encourage Peter.’
Ever since Peter’s riveting account of losing his central character and having to restructure the film previously known as Giles’ Big Day, Jim had tried to suggest (without making any absolute commitments) that the Film Commission door remained open to him: ‘I am very pleased to hear that you are still pushing on with the project,’ he wrote in one letter. ‘I hope you continue to do so and I look forward to seeing the film on the bench when you have an assembly.’ Another letter concluded: ‘I would like to say how much I admire your enthusiasm and dedication to the project and wish you all the best with its future development.’
It was now time for Peter to knock on that door one more time:
‘We have finally got all the early scenes of Bad Taste filmed and edited,’ he now wrote to Jim. ‘In a couple of months we will start shooting the climax…I’m fairly happy with the results we’ve got. I think the seventy-five minutes could be tightened up a bit…and there are a few changes I want to make, but I won’t go into it now. I’ll wait until you’ve seen it СКАЧАТЬ