Travel writer and journalist

Month: March 2014

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Kabul Calling

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A new ‘Teaser Trailer’ for Hassan Nazers film Utopia.

http://www.utopia-movie.com/
On the other side of five weeks’ filming in India and Afghanistan we have made it back safe and sound to “bonnie Scotland”, ready to commit the last part of the story to film. It’s good to be back! And don’t think we’d come home empty handed:

We have a brand new teaser trailer cut to set the mood and pique interests while the last portion of the film goes into the can. It’s been a mad whirlwind tour of that finds me back in Scotland. Try as I might I can’t keep away for long. There’s only one thing for it: lets make this movie!

Warning: the following two minutes of trailer contains spoilers. 
(But a sneak peak can’t hurt can it…?)
Enjoy!

****UPDATE 15/04/14****

I’m sorry to say the “First Look” trailer has been taken down after deciding that you had seen too much! However, a lot has happened since the last post. In the mean time, we have wrapped on the Scottish unit and already have a shiny “Utopia New Look” trailer. There is plenty to recap to you with a new post on its way, shortly. 

Until then, enjoy the trailer!

Water Babies.

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Production Photos by sambrill.500px.com


FRANK

Wedding procession wake up call, wagons rolled at 3:30. We were travelling to the small town of Bundi, travelling through the night to arrive in time to film what would be the climax of the film. Jaipur for all of its filmic and infrastructural convenience is very inconvenient for locating clean fresh-water rivers. For this we had a small film-making exodus to the parting of the waters where Janan, our heroine, makes a last ditch attempt to swim home. 

Hassan and Malalai were wading into the thick of the river maelstrom. In this beautiful part of the country a ribbon of water ran through jagged rocks, which made for a dramatic setting. 

The adventurous location for the filming made getting the equipment across the rocks a tricky procedure. No one wanted the responsibility of dropping the RED camera in the wet stuff. In the end a human chain was created to ferry the kit to even the most precarious of vantage points.

The trademark “Fish-eye”


Hidden in an unassuming tool-box was an unpleasant surprise for any unsuspecting DIY enthusiast. The 8 month foetus of Janan had been perfectly created out of hair and silicone awaiting this scene in the script. Now it was time to take it for a test swim. Hassan, again bare-chested, nursed the effigy whilst Malalai and the DP looked on, concerned. In fact, most of the village came out to have a look, as we set up on the busy bridge. It very quickly became a rather macabre live performance – staring the tiny life-like model.

Baby in a box
At last we had a good attempt at covering the final sequence in one day but there was still time enough to get the taxi scenes against an obligatory sunset. And that was it. The Indian unit was now finished with the rest of us waiting to be shipped back to the UK for the next part of Utopia.

After a two day train journey to Kochi in the vein of Darjeeling Ltd. More adventures to come!
Performed before a live audience.

PAINTED ELEPHANTS ON PARADE!

This really ought to be a separate post but I thought these photos couldn’t wait.
I managed to get out to the fort at Amer early enough to see their team of elephants pulling tourists to the citadel’s summit. It really is a spectacle to see these massive animals dwarfed by their sublime settings. Skipping the queue for a ride,  It was far more impressive to make the climb alongside the limbs of these amazing creatures.

Pink Elephants On parade!

Elephants, Iron bars and the Temple of Doom

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With photos by sambrill.500px.com

Scaling the sheer walls of Amer (via the staircase), I had made a journey few had travelled before. But the few that had made it included Harrison Ford, so I was in good company. Before me lay the Amber-Fort Palace, better known as the set for George Lucas’s epic: Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom. 
Amber Fort.

The Mountain perimeter

After reading Gunga Din, Lucas envisaged the plot of the Indiana prequel with its murderous Thuggi cult of kidnappers in this imposing medieval building. The Fort is one of the most famous sights in Jaipur. It was used as a backdrop the 1984 adventure film and was a famous attraction in Rajisthan since 1604. Its summit can be reached by elephant train most mornings. At the end of a very long queue of tourists it will cost 900 of your Indian Rupee for a piggy-back from a pachyderm. [Photos and story to follow in a future blog-post.] However, for the more impatient and adventurous tourist, the perimeter walls run around the town of Amer and out to the surrounding hill-posts.

The Citadel Palace

From one film-fort to another, we continued our filming at Narhargarh fort. Almost putting the finishing touches to the Indian section of Utopia. Having located a jail, with the required character and lighting. However the key flaw was our jail (read warehouse) had no bars and all the prisoners had long since escaped. The art department were pleased to have a project that was more of a challenge than shopping for props.
Cue the soundtrack and a day later we had cell blog 15 and 16, repleat with a visiting area. All we needed now were some willing inmates.

No one escapes cell-block 15!
Using this location to the full, we were still sure to be wrapped in plenty of time as we had photos to take for the newspaper in Tehran. Saahil, managed to arrange a spot about his involvement with the film for the Times of India, which was a surprise to see over breakfast.

The Team.
Another full day of filming round forts the only thing left to do was get an early night in before travelling to location. Taxis were set to roll at 3:30am for our 6 hour journey. However, the early night was not going to happen.
In Jaipur the custom is that there are only a certain number of days in the year on which one can marry. As it so happened that night fell on one of those marriagable dates. From around 7pm onwards the unmistakable sound of drums filled the street with processions of marriage goers.  With scant chance to sleep, a number of us ran out into the street to try and gain some photos of the event. The bridegrooms were seated on horseback, with a young boy, and had money pinned to them, by their entourage. The procession danced their way down the busy roads playing music, whilst two lines of lamps corralled the festivities in and stopped them competing with the busy traffic on the streets. Fireworks and music kept up an unrelenting carnival atmosphere. There was even a disco in the basement, which went on until 3am. That left a good half an hour for sleep before the taxis arrived to take us on to the river and the last scenes of the film.
A Rajisthani Marriage Procession

Prison Break & Punjabi Rave

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The Jailbirds of Jaipur
[Photography by Sam Brill: sambrill.500px.com]
For those of you who get my instagram feed, you will already know I was sent to an Indian prison yesterday. I had better clarify now that I was “just visiting”, to quote the monopoly board. It was in fact as part of a film set for Hassan Nazer’s film, Utopia.  
Set high above the main city, the prison was built into the Narhargarh Fort. Accompanied by 50 extras or “inmates” in prison uniform and a handful of armed guards, we began filming. Though it wasn’t long before Stockholm Syndrome set in and guards and prisoners alike seemed to mill about in the catering tents and pose for photos with prop weapons.
The acting coach might have struggled to make our hardened convicts seem more threatening, but for once the the whole set seemed to be functioning in perfect
harmony. This was until one of Jaipur’s unseasonal monsoon storms hit without warning. Exposed to the wind and the rain and the lightning on the ramparts we had fifty white uniforms to keep dry. The art department bravely manned their ladders to take down the non-waterproof parts of the set. The Europeans amongst us were ready to take this as an ‘early wrap’ to the day. Fortunately, in Rajasthan, such extremes of weather only last moments and within a couple of hours the sun was out and the yard was bone dry once again.    

The Yard
Preaching to the converted 

Flat-pack Furniture

Long arm of the law.

One of the more memorable scenes to film involved putting the prisoners through their paces with exercises in the yard. Not knowing quite how the scene would work out on camera, there were a number of test rehearsals. The extras went from line dancing to something that looked remarkably like strip the willow. Finally Kuldeep, our first AD, and Hassan lead a route-march round the courtyard. In a surreal blur of limbs and white fabric, it was like a caterpillar on maneuvers. It looked like a lot of fun if it weren’t for the fact it was all being done ‘bare foot’.

Remedial Exercises
After what was already an eventful day, we were due one more surprise. Having been issued the order to meet in the hotel basement no earlier than “a quarter past ten”. I was running late for this meeting, but I needn’t have rushed. The noise was already coming up from the basement to meet me.
To a soundtrack of Contemporary-Punjabi dance music, the Iranian, Indian and UK contingents were already hitting the D-floor – busting what could only be described as: “some very international shapes.” Though the thunderstorms caused a couple of intermissions in the DJ set, it was the start of a very successful Friday night in Jaipur.

Cross-Town Traffic

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A Ride With the Camera Cab.

Photos by Sam Brill [http://sambrill.500px.com/#/0]  

A Casual Camel

Yesterday, after fixing up a taxi with a camera rig,  we took to the streets of Jaipur to compete with some of the busiest streets and the sketchiest traffic on the planet. Strapping our state-of-the-art RED camera to the side of a moving vehicle, we tried to channel the heaviest of the traffic away from the taxi. Recently informed by our producer that we had no reserve camera. One expensive mistake would set us back a day of filming until we could find a replacement from Delhi. Armed with this information we set off into tarmac no-man’s land, where road side markers, traffic lights and careful conduct are unknown. It is a roadway ruled by the horn.
 

The Intrepid Auto…
and facing it
…

The mean streets of Jaipur.

It was a challenging free for all but the car returned from the melee, unscathed. Having spent the morning getting film of our taxi and the vibrant old town, we were ready to drive our actors to the border of Pakistan. Well… as close to Pakistan as the art department could muster. 

Taxi Film Unit

 
The Rigours of Rigging. 

Having spent most of the afternoon travelling to location we arrived at a border control point, painstakingly set up by the art department. [NOT ACTUALLY PAKISTAN]. With a storm predicted and a single evening to capture the scene at sunset, we had to rush  Here we put several of the more geriatric looking extras in position, guarding the outpost. The strategic placement of these sentries played a vital part in obscuring the fact our outpost was being manned by “Dad’s Army”.

“This is as far as we go.”

Would you let me into your country?

Spectators and a spectacle.

Passport control.

All in all we managed to survive our DIY Top Gear challenge, travel to something looking remarkably like the Pakistani border (I’m convinced) and take one or two great production snaps along the way.
So much is happening, at a rate that I am struggling to keep up to date with my blog-posts. However I can say that the next post involves attending an Iranian/Punjabi disco and me going to Indian Prison. I hasten to add the two events are entirely independent of one another.
Till then, Namnaste!