April 14, 2006 | 11:10 PM
Golden Age Diary
Given the level of interest in the Golden Age Diary, I am setting up a sub blog for that. If your scroll up to the top of the page, please click on where it says "Golden Age Diary' next to 'Press Articles'. Thanks everyone.
Showing posts with label Golden Age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golden Age. Show all posts
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Golden Age Diary
April 12, 2006 | 03:55 PM
Golden Age Diary
today is the first day of the shoots with Cate Blanchette who plays Elizabeth of course, and Abbie Cornish, who plays Bess, Elizabeth's lady in waiting, who has an affair with Walter Raleigh.
Of course Elizabeth is also in love with Walter Raleigh, but she is unwilling to explore this, her mosrtal side of her being. This is quite a triangle and I have not really see in it anohter film. In this film, Elizabeth subconciously encourages the affair, so as to protect her own sens eof Mortality.
Have to rush, the actors are on the set - easy day though, we are just doing make up and 'look' tests,
Shekhar
Golden Age Diary
today is the first day of the shoots with Cate Blanchette who plays Elizabeth of course, and Abbie Cornish, who plays Bess, Elizabeth's lady in waiting, who has an affair with Walter Raleigh.
Of course Elizabeth is also in love with Walter Raleigh, but she is unwilling to explore this, her mosrtal side of her being. This is quite a triangle and I have not really see in it anohter film. In this film, Elizabeth subconciously encourages the affair, so as to protect her own sens eof Mortality.
Have to rush, the actors are on the set - easy day though, we are just doing make up and 'look' tests,
Shekhar
Trying to listen to myself
April 08, 2006 | 11:35 PM
Trying to listen to myself
Film making is so much now about fitting a square peg (a script) into a round hole (a schedule and a budget), that so much of my time on Golden Age gets taken up with production meetings, budget meetings, schedule meetings etc etc. Time now to shut my ears to the organizational noise and listen to myslelf. Get back in touch with myself.
It alsmost makes me feel that the bussiness and organization of the film takes precedence over the creative. But I also know how absolutely neccesary it is. For the last few months we have been planning, budgetting and writing, and then re writing, re budgetting and re planning. I am now two weeks away from the shoot and we are still re-writing,re- budgetting and re-planning !
But something strange has happened to me. A scalm has descended on me. I have switched off from the planning and given into the unknown. At the last production meeting I found myself laughing and smiling, while in all the previous ones I was fretting and exasperated.
Why ? Because I have pushed myslef over the cliff now. I am in the middle of the stormy choppy seas. will I survive ? Will I sink ? Who knows, but now I have to swim like hell !
And therefore the calm. Now what will be will be.
Now is the time not to listen to the financial or the production noise, but to the voice in my own heart. I need to try and listen to myself.
Ofcourse a large part of this has been caused by the arrival in London of Cate Blanchette and Abbie Cornish. The film comes alive when u meet actors. I always have seen actors, especially of the calibre of Cate and Abbie (even though she is new) as collaborators in our joureny to self discovery.
I will write later about Abbie, but Cate also has such a searching soul, matched by a razor sharp intellect and a facility over her physicality that lends her to be such an amazing actress. We have had such great conversations on the meaning of the film, the ideas behind the lines and plots. I think we have both grown through parenthood, and both are searching for life in deeper more meaningful ways. How wonderful if we could bring all that subtext to the screen,
we shall see
Shekhar
Trying to listen to myself
Film making is so much now about fitting a square peg (a script) into a round hole (a schedule and a budget), that so much of my time on Golden Age gets taken up with production meetings, budget meetings, schedule meetings etc etc. Time now to shut my ears to the organizational noise and listen to myslelf. Get back in touch with myself.
It alsmost makes me feel that the bussiness and organization of the film takes precedence over the creative. But I also know how absolutely neccesary it is. For the last few months we have been planning, budgetting and writing, and then re writing, re budgetting and re planning. I am now two weeks away from the shoot and we are still re-writing,re- budgetting and re-planning !
But something strange has happened to me. A scalm has descended on me. I have switched off from the planning and given into the unknown. At the last production meeting I found myself laughing and smiling, while in all the previous ones I was fretting and exasperated.
Why ? Because I have pushed myslef over the cliff now. I am in the middle of the stormy choppy seas. will I survive ? Will I sink ? Who knows, but now I have to swim like hell !
And therefore the calm. Now what will be will be.
Now is the time not to listen to the financial or the production noise, but to the voice in my own heart. I need to try and listen to myself.
Ofcourse a large part of this has been caused by the arrival in London of Cate Blanchette and Abbie Cornish. The film comes alive when u meet actors. I always have seen actors, especially of the calibre of Cate and Abbie (even though she is new) as collaborators in our joureny to self discovery.
I will write later about Abbie, but Cate also has such a searching soul, matched by a razor sharp intellect and a facility over her physicality that lends her to be such an amazing actress. We have had such great conversations on the meaning of the film, the ideas behind the lines and plots. I think we have both grown through parenthood, and both are searching for life in deeper more meaningful ways. How wonderful if we could bring all that subtext to the screen,
we shall see
Shekhar
Buddha
April 07, 2006 | 06:06 AM
Buddha
A lot of people, including pim, ask me when Buddha is going to be made,
Buddha is one of those films that has it's own Destiny, and I found I could not push it along. I just need to let it happen. Just let it go, for it to form itself organically. I tried very hard to make it happen, but then found that in trying hard, in pushing it, I was becoming the biggest obstacle.
I had started developing Buddha not as a script, but as a visual treatment, with music. I wanted to see if I could tell the story of Buddha without words. After all words cannot explain the concept of the infinite, can they ?
But yesterday I was showoing the DVD to Cate Blanchette, and she remarked that the story I was trying to tell in Buddha was so similar to the story I was trying to tell in Golden Age ! So it is true that all directors have only one story to tell. But why not ? The most relevant story I have right now is that which reveberates in my spirit at the moment. Why deny it ? Why not embrace it and keep searching your search in whatever you do, even in your own films ?
Shekhar
Buddha
A lot of people, including pim, ask me when Buddha is going to be made,
Buddha is one of those films that has it's own Destiny, and I found I could not push it along. I just need to let it happen. Just let it go, for it to form itself organically. I tried very hard to make it happen, but then found that in trying hard, in pushing it, I was becoming the biggest obstacle.
I had started developing Buddha not as a script, but as a visual treatment, with music. I wanted to see if I could tell the story of Buddha without words. After all words cannot explain the concept of the infinite, can they ?
But yesterday I was showoing the DVD to Cate Blanchette, and she remarked that the story I was trying to tell in Buddha was so similar to the story I was trying to tell in Golden Age ! So it is true that all directors have only one story to tell. But why not ? The most relevant story I have right now is that which reveberates in my spirit at the moment. Why deny it ? Why not embrace it and keep searching your search in whatever you do, even in your own films ?
Shekhar
Golden Age Diary
April 02, 2006 | 05:18 AM
Golden Age Diary
The Golden Age Diary will be an open thread, in which I will post a diary as comments rather than posts. Viewers are welcome to post comments, and I look forward to haing your feedback.
I met Cate Blanchette today, and after a very long time, we chatted in a relaxed informal atmosphere. She is such an instinctual and probing actress, that it reminded me of why I like to make movies. Till I started to explore the script with her, the lines were just typed words on paper that I fretted about. Suddenly as we discussed the meaning behind the words, the sentences and our attitude to them, the words jumped out at me and became life.
I have a concern though. All my actors are working so much that i am not going to get much rehearsal time. Especially Clive Owen who joins us 4 weeks into the shoot. I have never worked with him before and though he is a terrific actor, he and I need to get to know each other more. For the creation of a film depends much on the trust that is created between the actor and the director. Where the lines between the actor and the director blur.
Raleigh is complicated role. On the surface he is an adventurer. Audacious, charming and fearless. But underneath that, underneath the lines and the fearlessness who is he really ? What is his subtext ? I need to sit down and work that out with Clive.
Shekhar
Golden Age Diary
The Golden Age Diary will be an open thread, in which I will post a diary as comments rather than posts. Viewers are welcome to post comments, and I look forward to haing your feedback.
I met Cate Blanchette today, and after a very long time, we chatted in a relaxed informal atmosphere. She is such an instinctual and probing actress, that it reminded me of why I like to make movies. Till I started to explore the script with her, the lines were just typed words on paper that I fretted about. Suddenly as we discussed the meaning behind the words, the sentences and our attitude to them, the words jumped out at me and became life.
I have a concern though. All my actors are working so much that i am not going to get much rehearsal time. Especially Clive Owen who joins us 4 weeks into the shoot. I have never worked with him before and though he is a terrific actor, he and I need to get to know each other more. For the creation of a film depends much on the trust that is created between the actor and the director. Where the lines between the actor and the director blur.
Raleigh is complicated role. On the surface he is an adventurer. Audacious, charming and fearless. But underneath that, underneath the lines and the fearlessness who is he really ? What is his subtext ? I need to sit down and work that out with Clive.
Shekhar
Golden Age research
March 16, 2006 | 08:23 PM
Golden Age research
Sir Walter Raleigh is commonly known as the man that put the cloak down for Elizabeth and that sparked off a long affair. However Walter Raleigh was also famous for introducing Tobaco and Potatoes to Europe. Guess the origins of the word Potato ?
Batata !
Yes - The earliest reference I have is 1565, from Sp. patata, from the Haitian batata "sweet potato." Ordinary potatoes were known as 'bastard potatoes' or 'Virginia Potatoes' (even though they came from Peru). They were not simply referred to as potatoes until 1597. William Harrison (1534-1593) in his Description Of Elizabethan England of 1577 refers to potatoes (although he may be referring to sweet potatoes. The word is clearly in use by then anyway.
How come the Marathi word and the Haitian word are exactly the same ? From as far back as before 1560, ? What kind of contact did we have then. The Portugese may have brough the Potato to India.
shekhar
Golden Age research
Sir Walter Raleigh is commonly known as the man that put the cloak down for Elizabeth and that sparked off a long affair. However Walter Raleigh was also famous for introducing Tobaco and Potatoes to Europe. Guess the origins of the word Potato ?
Batata !
Yes - The earliest reference I have is 1565, from Sp. patata, from the Haitian batata "sweet potato." Ordinary potatoes were known as 'bastard potatoes' or 'Virginia Potatoes' (even though they came from Peru). They were not simply referred to as potatoes until 1597. William Harrison (1534-1593) in his Description Of Elizabethan England of 1577 refers to potatoes (although he may be referring to sweet potatoes. The word is clearly in use by then anyway.
How come the Marathi word and the Haitian word are exactly the same ? From as far back as before 1560, ? What kind of contact did we have then. The Portugese may have brough the Potato to India.
shekhar
Masturbating in the Tower of London
December 14, 2005 | 03:39 AM
Masturbating in the Tower of London
I apologize for my absence. I am on the road location hunting for Golden Age, the sequel to Elizabeth. Have a lot of my old team back so we share jokes about the previous film. One of the most famous one being that I almost got fired before we even got to shoot the film ..
Well, my fault. The producer and I both agreed that we have to turn the genre' of the British Period Drama on it's head. atleast that's what I wanted to do.
So I was walking with the writer in Hyde Park one day. We spoke about the young Princess Elizabeth's life in the Tower. Terribly in love with Dudley (who was to betray her later), she would spend hours thinking and dreaming about him. Or so we imagined.
Now in a typically period drama, she would have written long love letters that she would try and smuggle out to him. But this was different, was'nt it ? What would she do ?
So I just said jokingly. She would masturbate. And forgot about it.
Now for those of you that have not met me, I have to tell u that I have a pretty silly grin, that is half lopsided, on my face most of the time. So people have a tough time knowing whether I am joking or I am serious. Well, the writer took me seriously.
So, to my horror, the scene went into the film. The script was sent for reading to the producer and to the studio. And there it was in bold type. In the Tower of London, the greatest icon of English history, described simply as .. well. . masturbating.
As you can imagine, I had to beg my way back into the film.
And so to the current film. Golden Age. This is more about an internal struggle. The Queen, older, wiser and far more in control, falls seriously in love with a sea faring, dashing, handsome free spirited privateer called Walter Raliegh (being played by Clive owen).
And she struggles with her passions. Not wanting to give herself to man, and yet every cell in her body desiring him. The battle raging between a great Immortal Monarch and passionate woman.
And there then is the scene. Elizabeth alone at night, looks at her body in the mirror. Wondering how to handle her passions. Someone asked me, but what is she doing ? How do we know her passions are about to explode ?
Well, I thought .. why not play a joke ? I .. used the M word !
I think I have just been fired off this film. Will some one pleeeease write to Universal Studios and say it was just a joke ?
Shekhar
Masturbating in the Tower of London
I apologize for my absence. I am on the road location hunting for Golden Age, the sequel to Elizabeth. Have a lot of my old team back so we share jokes about the previous film. One of the most famous one being that I almost got fired before we even got to shoot the film ..
Well, my fault. The producer and I both agreed that we have to turn the genre' of the British Period Drama on it's head. atleast that's what I wanted to do.
So I was walking with the writer in Hyde Park one day. We spoke about the young Princess Elizabeth's life in the Tower. Terribly in love with Dudley (who was to betray her later), she would spend hours thinking and dreaming about him. Or so we imagined.
Now in a typically period drama, she would have written long love letters that she would try and smuggle out to him. But this was different, was'nt it ? What would she do ?
So I just said jokingly. She would masturbate. And forgot about it.
Now for those of you that have not met me, I have to tell u that I have a pretty silly grin, that is half lopsided, on my face most of the time. So people have a tough time knowing whether I am joking or I am serious. Well, the writer took me seriously.
So, to my horror, the scene went into the film. The script was sent for reading to the producer and to the studio. And there it was in bold type. In the Tower of London, the greatest icon of English history, described simply as .. well. . masturbating.
As you can imagine, I had to beg my way back into the film.
And so to the current film. Golden Age. This is more about an internal struggle. The Queen, older, wiser and far more in control, falls seriously in love with a sea faring, dashing, handsome free spirited privateer called Walter Raliegh (being played by Clive owen).
And she struggles with her passions. Not wanting to give herself to man, and yet every cell in her body desiring him. The battle raging between a great Immortal Monarch and passionate woman.
And there then is the scene. Elizabeth alone at night, looks at her body in the mirror. Wondering how to handle her passions. Someone asked me, but what is she doing ? How do we know her passions are about to explode ?
Well, I thought .. why not play a joke ? I .. used the M word !
I think I have just been fired off this film. Will some one pleeeease write to Universal Studios and say it was just a joke ?
Shekhar
The Golden Age
November 25, 2005 | 12:08 AM
The Golden Age
It seems most likely that my next film is going to be Golden Age, not quite a sequel, but second in the trilogy that I always thought 'Elizabeth' would be. It will star Cate Blanchette once again as Elizabeth.
The film will also star Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Samantha Morton and Micheal Sheen, amongst others.
'Elizabeth' was about Power. It was about survival, innocence, love betrayal and ruthlessness, all in the context of Power.
This second film is about Immortality. It is what happens to people when they are in positions of absolute power. They then aspire to 'Divinity' and feel they are set apart from 'other mortals'. The third, when it is made much later, will be about Mortality. What happens when people have considered themselves Immortal or Divine, face their own mortality.
We are still finishing the Script. This film starts about 10 years after the last one left off. On the larger political level, the film is about Elizabeth's conflict with Phillip the 2nd of Spain, who was the most powerful man in the world then. And who had sworn to turn the world Catholic, whatever the cost.
On a personal level the film deals with one of Elizabeth's greatest romantic involvements in her life, with Sir Walter Raliegh.
Shekhar
The Golden Age
It seems most likely that my next film is going to be Golden Age, not quite a sequel, but second in the trilogy that I always thought 'Elizabeth' would be. It will star Cate Blanchette once again as Elizabeth.
The film will also star Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Samantha Morton and Micheal Sheen, amongst others.
'Elizabeth' was about Power. It was about survival, innocence, love betrayal and ruthlessness, all in the context of Power.
This second film is about Immortality. It is what happens to people when they are in positions of absolute power. They then aspire to 'Divinity' and feel they are set apart from 'other mortals'. The third, when it is made much later, will be about Mortality. What happens when people have considered themselves Immortal or Divine, face their own mortality.
We are still finishing the Script. This film starts about 10 years after the last one left off. On the larger political level, the film is about Elizabeth's conflict with Phillip the 2nd of Spain, who was the most powerful man in the world then. And who had sworn to turn the world Catholic, whatever the cost.
On a personal level the film deals with one of Elizabeth's greatest romantic involvements in her life, with Sir Walter Raliegh.
Shekhar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
