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:
That screening eventually took place on the afternoon of 7 August 1986:
I had my first appointment with Jim Booth in the screening-room. I’d had a two-year, somewhat antagonistic, relationship with him but we’d never actually met. When we did, of course, I found he was a really nice guy! I screened the footage and he said: ‘Ah, now I get it! Now, I see what you’re doing! Okay…Let me have a think about it…’
Jim Booth reported his views on Bad Taste to several of his colleagues at the Film Commission. Deputy Chairman (later Chairman) of the Commission, David Gascoigne recalls Jim’s enthusiasm for finding a way to help Peter, if only because, unlike most aspiring film-makers who applied to the Film Commission for a grant, he had already demonstrated his initiative by starting to make the movie on his own. ‘Jim described what he had seen of the film,’ says David, ‘as being raw and rough, but also energetic, vibrant and, in an anarchic way, very funny. He knew, however, that several members of the board were conservatively inclined and unlikely to resonate with some of the images in the film.’
Another introduction via Costa was Stephen Sinclair. After meeting him and enlisting his help in painting sets for Bad Taste, Stephen called me out of the blue and pitched the idea of Braindead. He had developed it as a play but was keen to collaborate with me on a film. My world was suddenly becoming more interesting and exciting: it was a time I’d been dreaming about for fifteen years.
Indeed, Lindsay Shelton, the Commission’s then marketing director, remembers a general response from those to whom Jim described the plot of Bad Taste as being along the lines of ‘You must be joking! Are you seriously suggesting the Film Commission gets involved with this film?’ Another six weeks or so passed and Jim requested a further screening in order to get a report on whether the film could be technically released: ‘Our criterion for providing you with funds would be that we have some realistic chance of recouping that finance from sales.’ Jim also decided to get a second opinion, asking television producer and director, Tony Hiles, to assess Bad Taste’s commercial prospects.
Meanwhile, Costa Botes asked Peter if he could screen the film for a couple of friends who were scriptwriters. The screening was at a production office in Wellington where Costa was editing a short film of his own. When Peter arrived with his reel of Bad Taste under his arm, he was introduced to Costa’s friends: one was playwright, Stephen Sinclair, whose co-authored Ladies Night – about a bunch of unemployed guys who become strippers – had opened to considerable acclaim in 1987. Costa’s other friend was, at that time, Stephen’s partner. ‘I recognised her immediately,’ says Peter. ‘She was the girl with the long dark hair who I’d seen on the Worzel set.’
Fran remembers the impression Peter made on her when they finally met at the screening: ‘At first I thought he was Greek! Or perhaps Italian! He had sallow skin and dark hair. But his name was Jackson so he couldn’t be Greek or Italian! Frankly, I didn’t quite know what to make of him although I immediately took a liking to him: he was just a nice guy, a really nice, funny person; there wasn’t any pretence of any kind, no duplicity and no agendas.’
And what did Fran make of the film? ‘My first impression of Bad Taste was of its being completely uninhibited and unrestrained. True, it didn’t have any really usable sound – you could hardly hear what people were saying – but because it was such a visual piece it didn’t really matter! What was so extraordinary was that, despite having hardly any money, the guys hadn’t allowed that fact to stop them from doing what they wanted to do. That was really impressive and I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t getting supported by the industry.’
Recalling the screening, Costa says: ‘Fran and Stephen shared my own reaction to Bad Taste and to this lunatic fan-boy who had made
Through Costa, I met a great group of local film-makers and writers. I wasted no time in getting them to help me build and paint sets. That’s Fran Walsh in the middle, standing on the chair and wielding a paint brush.
Tony Hiles was wonderful at not only steering me through film-making politics but in rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck in. Here, he and Bryce Campbell ready a smokebelching miniature of Gear Homestead for take-off.
it. I think we all looked on him as a kind of lovely fool, a brilliant idiot, a uniquely talented savant who was capable of coming up with amazing ideas and images. But I have to be honest and say that I really had no inkling, at that point, that he would go on to create cinema with real maturity and depth. Not really. That only became obvious a little later…’
Bad Taste came a step closer to getting Film Commission support when, in September 1986, Tony Hiles submitted his assessment of Bad Taste to Jim Booth. Tony had met with Peter at an editing suite at a company called, appropriately, ‘Mr Chopper’, run by Jamie Selkirk who had worked on Worzel Gummidge and, years later, would pick up an Oscar for editing The Return of the King.
Tony’s first reaction to the film and the film-maker is interesting: ‘Something which impressed me was that whilst the film needed a lot of work, Peter understood that I required specific details and information and, unlike most new film-makers who usually talk too much over their film, he told me exactly – and only – what I needed to know.’
At the end of the screening Tony had decided that he was going to recommend Bad Taste and that he would offer to help produce the film. ‘I had to think carefully about whether to get involved in somebody else’s film, but Jim and I were good pals, and I was always interested in shaking the tree! Besides, how could you not choose to get involved with this crazy little film? I thought “The Boys” were great – I’d never seen such a loose pack of hopeless heroes in my life, but I really wanted to watch them on screen! Bad Taste was new, it was renegade…’
Tony would subsequently write, in defence of the project: ‘The rough-cut that I viewed and assessed was a fair reflection of a film-maker growing through the production process. Despite the shortcomings of the film itself, the story was there and, most important, there was a feeling of inventiveness and cinematographic understanding in Peter Jackson’s work. There were other reasons for my support for the film – it is a product of determination, humour and individualism – no formula stuff here, a thoroughly New Zealand film with strong appeal made by, potentially, a new feature director with a pleasantly nasty sense of humour.’
At the time of filing his assessment, Tony described Bad Taste in the following terms: ‘Potentially, this film could be the Ultimate Low-Budget A+ Splatter and Squelch Movie. So far it has been shot and cut with such an OTT sense of humour and style that it could become a steady earning cult movie – but work needs to be done and it will soon be time for a little professional supervision to move the product economically to completion.’
The ‘school report’ assessment of Peter that followed was particularly revealing СКАЧАТЬ