Que sera sera...Super Furry Animals shoot Doris Day in

							                                                                                                                       JULY 2001 INCAMERA             33




Que sera sera...Super Furry




                                                                                                                                                      Music Video Super Furry Animals
Animals shoot Doris Day in India
            hen gaffer James Chaisty        established Moon on Fire Productions

W           received a call on his
            cellphone from director
Peter Gray, offering him a day’s
                                            in India to serve foreign directors
                                            wishing to shoot films on the sub-
                                            continent. “What I found was that
work in east London, he was, to say         everybody had a tale to tell about
the least, disinclined to accept the        working in India,” Chaisty recalls. “So
assignment. “I was standing on the          Faroukh and I decided to act as a
balcony of my hotel room in                 bridge between Indian companies
Bombay,” says Chaisty. “Then I said         and productions from abroad and
to the director, ‘Why not come to           with the Internet so prevalent in
India? I’ll be Bombay producer and          India, we can expedite
we can shoot here instead.’ And so          almost any request for
we did.”                                    film production from
   “Executive producer David Burgess        abroad in the same
of The Business gave his blessings to       day. And you can
the project whilst supporting us fully      buy Kodak stock                                                   Peter Gray (left) and Faroukh Mistry.
from his home base in London.”              over the counter                                                and DP Faroukh Fali Mistry –
   The song, Shoot Doris Day, deals         seven days a                                                    whose father was one of the great
with the changing states of human           week in Bombay                                                  Indian DPs – wanted to experiment
nature. There could be few better           with the same                                                   with different film types. So we
places to illustrate this than India, yet   reassurance and                                                 called in a lot of favours and got
the original brief was very different.      quality control as                                              something of everything! The
One day’s planned filming on 16mm           you would in London                                             greatest compliment I can pay
in an East End studio became a six-         or LA,” he added.                                               Kodak and Faroukh is that the
day 35mm shoot on the streets of               Shoot Doris Day is the                                       viewer would never realise there
Bombay, Poona and on the road in            first ever music video to go                                    had been many different film types
India.                                      directly to DVD. In fact, the Super          Producer James
                                                                                       Chaisty.
                                                                                                            used.”
   Chaisty’s strong network of              Furry Animals are the first group to                               “It is obvious to me,” Chaisty says,
contacts in India, which he has taken       avoid CD and cut their album directly                           “that if you shoot in India the bonus
years to cultivate, helped get the          to DVD. “The thought that our                                   is that you work with some of the
shoot to some places that they              widescreen 35mm film would be                                   finest film technicians in the world
would not otherwise have been               shrunk straight down to DVD was a                               and with natural light that we here
able to visit, “although the tenacity       fascinating one,” says Chaisty. “It                             in the UK only dream of.” ic
of the director went a long way in          certainly dictated the nature of some
making this happen,” adds Chaisty.          of the shots we were seeking. That’s        Data File
   James Chaisty has worked in the          not to say there’s a lack of subtlety or    Director                    Peter Gray
film industry for 25 years, initially as    detail. The viewer will notice              Director of Photography     Faroukh Fali Mistry
a spark at Sam Goldwyn Studios in           something different every time they         Exec Producer               David Burgess
Hollywood, then graduated to                watch. However, that’s more to do           Indian Producer             James Chaisty
lighting and gaffer work. His résumé        with India and Peter Gray’s energy          Focus-Puller                Uncle Rakesh
includes work on the features               than the film, I think.”                    Clapper-Loader              Giriesh Dalavi, Anil Pardeshi
Raging Bull, 1941, The Jazz Singer,                                                     Camera Operator             Faroukh Fali Mistry
                                               Almost every kind of Kodak 35mm
                                                                                        Editor                      Paul Ferdenzi
and The Dukes of Hazard. Chaisty            film stock was used during the              Telecine Op                 Mark Gethin
and DP Faroukh Fali Mistry                  shooting. “The director, Peter Gray,

Filming rush hour trains with audience