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::FILM NEWS::
LE Newsletter - March 18, 2010
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This Movie Isn’t Broken. It Rocks
Source:
www.globeandmail.com - Jennie Punter, Austin, Texas
(March 17, 2010)
Veteran
Toronto director Bruce McDonald is showing his new film at the
hottest
convergence in North America, the annual
South By Southwest (SXSW)
festival.
This Movie Is Broken
is a creative collaboration that reflects the spirit of this
unique event, which presents film premieres, an interactive
conference and music showcases to tens of thousands of mostly
young attendees.
This Movie Is Broken film blends a fictional story,
written by McDonald’s old pal Don McKellar, with a memorable
outdoor concert by venerable Toronto rock ensemble Broken Social
Scene, which was held in front of a hometown crowd during last
summer’s garbage strike. McDonald, whose films include the
beloved rock ’n’ roll-fuelled Hard Core Logo and last
year’s Pontypool, says the band did much more than
deliver a stellar onstage performance.
“The core members were involved in the casting process, through
shooting the drama and offered feedback during various cuts,”
says McDonald in Austin, after finishing a Mexican lunch. “In
particular [BSS band member] Kevin Drew, who has also made some
short films, really liked the notion of doing a movie that
wasn’t just a straight concert film and contributed some great
script ideas.”
With Broken Social Scene playing two evening sets at SXSW, the
festival is undoubtedly the ideal setting for the film’s first
public screenings. But it was a race to the finish line to get
it here. Just last week, sound and picture were still being
tweaked. And with McDonald on location in Louisiana shooting a
documentary, McKellar had to take over directing for the final
post-production rush. The project, McKellar says, has been fast
and fun from beginning to end.
“Years ago I thought about incorporating a dramatic arc into a
concert film and so when Bruce called to see if I had any ideas,
he was enthusiastic,” says McKellar, who wrote the script just
two weeks before the concert. The team was able to secure a bit
of financing, including support from Rhombus Media (Alliance
Films will eventually release the film in Canada).
“Part of the fun was that it all had to be filmed that day,”
McKellar continues. “The intersection of drama and a real
concert was the chief selling point, but of course on the
practical side it presented a huge logistical challenge.”
In the film’s story, Bruno wakes up beside his long-time crush
Caroline, who is leaving for school in France the next day and
wants to see her favourite band play that night. Bruno spends
the day trying to get backstage passes with the faint hope of
securing her affection before she disappears. “When I was
writing I thought it would be great to use the garbage strike to
locate the story in time and place,” McKellar says. “The strike
worked like [Toronto’s 2003 citywide] blackout in that it
galvanized the city, so when we were shooting during the day
there was a nice community feel in the parks and on the
streets.”
At dusk, when the action moves to the concert at Harbourfront,
McDonald mobilized the troops. “Bruce’s great strength is his
ability to galvanize a team,” McKellar says. “He brought in
[documentary filmmaker] Peter Mettler to shoot concert stuff
from the front of the stage — a lot of people were called to
duty that day.” While McDonald worked with multiple camera crews
on stage, McKellar was in the crowd with the actors. “It was all
about mapping out a route and having people save spots,” he
laughs. “The music was loud so I did a lot of yelling and hand
signals.”
The end result not only captures a great performance but also
reflects the “other side” of a concert experience — the little
scenes playing out in the crowd. “I think the drama gives the
whole film a nice energy as it jumps from the stage into the
crowd,” McDonald says. “So the characters become our lens.”
This Movie is Broken screens tonight at the SXSW Festival in
Austin, Texas. The festival runs to March 21.
Special to The Globe and Mail. |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
