The Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria. 16th September 2013

In the endless to-ing and fro-ing of our busy lives, it’s easy sometimes to miss the special moments. If I have to rush out of my house one more time with my laces undone because ‘I don’t have time’ to do them up, I think I might just curl up in a ball in a quiet corner somewhere and hide. Things now are SO busy that I work in 15 minute blocks. It’s presumably how a politician feels…endlessly trying to clear their in-tray and ministerial boxes. Therefore (get to the point Grabsky!) I made sure that I noticed and appreciated the fact that right now, as I write, my IN SEARCH OF HAYDN is playing in so-called Haydn Hall in the very palace in Eisenstadt, Austria where Haydn himself lived, composed and performed for so many years (on and off for 40). Indeed, we’ve made history tonight: this is the first film ever shown in this famous and revered hall. The Director Dr Walter Reicher of the Haydn Festival should be rightly proud of pulling this all together. It looks and sounds fabulous – and a real honour. Indeed, it was a thrill to see our film being sold as the key biographical film in the Haydn House and here in the Palace shop too. That’s true also in the houses of Beethoven and Mozart in Vienna and Salzburg – and for me that’s worth more than any great review or chunky award. If I can manage that for the Chopin film, I will be so pleased. On the other hand…I am also sad that the hall tonight is not busy. In fact, it’s a poor turn-out as the photo shows. Maybe 100 people. I’d really expected a sell-out. Monday nights in the drizzle are not ideal for films perhaps, especially as the festival lasts three weeks and the weekends are very busy but still…Now I’m beating myself up thinking why didn’t we send more flyers, hustle more radio, do more social media, etc, etc. I had a screening last night in Lewes (near Brighton) of Manet and again it was a small showing. I admit there was a big storm outside but still! I’ve had full and I’ve had not-so-full and I know which I prefer….I also screened The Boy Mir last week…so a lot of cinema showings going on and more coming up. All this while finishing VERMEER (October 10^th release) and editing IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN…and signing up lots of major galleries for next year’s EXHIBITION ON SCREEN. There really are not enough hours in the day.

 

25 August 2013

Hello - now, I don't want to make you all jealous but I'll take that risk: what’s your favourite phrase? One of mine is without doubt this one (which I had a few days ago at Heathrow Airport): ‘Due to overselling of seats on your flight, you have been upgraded to business class’. Yes, how sweet is that! My other two favourites are: ‘…and here at Old Trafford it's 6-1 to City’ and ‘we’ve put on more encore shows as they’ve been selling out’. What are yours? New York went well: I particularly enjoyed a visit to the Avery Fisher Hall to hear the wonderful Louis Langree with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Isabelle Faust playing violin. It’s funny how these things work out – I have (almost by chance) been listening and re-listening to Mozart’s 5 violin concerti and, in New York for a screening, I was offered a ticket to this concert and lo and behold it’s the Violin Concerto no 5. It’s not my favourite of the five but it’s lovely of course. The programme notes make a fair point that ‘Mozart’s fifth and last violin concerto, composed just eight months after the first, caps what must be the most remarkable process of artistic growth ever recorded in a set of contemporaneously composed works.’ After the interval, Louis Langree and the orchestra played a fine rendition of Beethoven’s 5^th. The only thing I found strange is that he – like so many other conductors – walked straight out and crashed straight into those famous chords without a pause of a beat – or even letting the audience prepare themselves and stop coughing. It’s almost as if conductors want to get those chords out of the way as fast as possible. Maybe it’s me but I’d hold my hands aloft until there was total silence in the hall. The screening had been earlier in the day – IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN – and it was completely sold out (part of the Mostly Mozart programme). The film – screened off digibeta – looked absolutely gorgeous and sounded super. To any film-makers out there, what ever you do, don’t finish and relese your film until you’re confident you can sit and watch it five years later and still love it (or feel you couldn’t have done any better). The audience were very enthusiastic and the Q&A and DVD signing afterwards went on for a good hour. Hopefully next year they’ll show Haydn which deserves much more distribution than it’s had. It was nice at the screening to have people coming up to say they’d seen and enjoyed the Manet and Munch film – and were looking forward to Vermeer on October 10th. Not so nice were the reports of half-empty cinemas…I really need to double our efforts to get folk to fill those empty seats. I mean, who could not be thrilled to see Vermeer’s paintings in HD on the big screen? When you look around and see the multi-million dollar Hollywood films filled with gunshot and gore....Sure does make you wonder…. Then travelled to Toronto for a Q&A of Manet hosted at the excellent Cineplex cinema chain. Very enjoyable and the film, screened off blu-ray this time, looked stunning. I've been working on Vermeer and know that it going to look really great too. He really has to be one of the greats. I've been reading a fantastic book I'd like to recommend - KANDAK by Patrick Hennessey. It's among the best books I've read about Afghanistan - and there is a rapidly expanding genre of Afghan-lit to choose from. Every so often, when I can tear myself away from the emails and paintings, I day-dream about going back to Mir's village and sharing one of those delicious Kebabs with him ....

Monday 19th March - Whistle-stop tour of New Zealand

Phew, well that was a whistle-stop…New Zealand done and dusted.


At least on this trip (unlike my previous two) I got to see a little bit more than Auckland and Wellington. Straight from the plane to the first screening of Haydn and then pretty much non-stop for the next 3 days. I drove about two hours out of Auckland for a couple of small-town screenings. They have a lot of hundred-year-old cinemas that have to work hard to survive and often choose the option of dividing the cinema from one screen to 5 or 6. It’s obviously not as attractive but makes much more sense and offer far more choice to the local community. They obviously have a great love of movies – often the cinemas have dozens and dozens of old posters up – and they have to hope they continue to get good ones to drag people in from the street or away from their TVs.

I was lucky to have a lot of sun and both the towns and countryside were lovely but that didnt lend itself to getting massive crowds. Mind you, I can see why families get in their camper vans and take off. I’d always thought NZ was supposed to be very English – old-style England – but I didn’t really sense that. It seemed to have a sense of itself – not a pastiche of the UK or Australia. As for the screenings, well I conclude that neither I nor my distributor had done enough to publicise them. I’ve been endlessly hustling and emailing for six months but it still wasn’t enough. One or two key press interviewers weren’t contacted, no social media really happened to music groups, etc and there were one or two NZ acquaintances that I simply didn’t get time to contact. I did at least manage a short walk talking to a Kiwi telling me about local history and the Maori. Notably too, everyone half-jokes and half-worries that they are sitting on big volcanoes…..

Back to work, and half-full cinemas again…though the reaction was very strong and positive. Lots of people saying they are going to tell their friends – let’s see. You really can’t be half-hearted about putting a film in the cinema – it’s full on. The last night in Auckland we had a double-feature of The Boy who Plays and The Boy Mir. That was very well attended and the cinema decided on the spot to keep the Boy Mir film on for at least a week. We’ll actually open it across the country though in mid-May. That’s when we’ll target the press for.

Anyway, time flew…I have no idea what’s happening in the world although I did manage (via Skype and my wife’s iPad) to have dinner with my family and parents (on Mother’s day in the UK). I’m not sure my 90-year-old ma has ever talked to anyone over Skype before – my, the world has moved on.

And talking of moving on…I’m now on a plane for a 13-hour flight to Los Angeles.

In Search of Haydn - the Endellion String Quartet - St. George's Bristol

These are the days I like best: today I filmed the Endellion String Quartet playing Haydn extracts / complete movements for IN SEARCH OF HAYDN. We decided that the best location for acoustic reasons was St George’s in Bristol. Chris (the sound recordist) and I travelled up late the night before to make sure we were bright & breezy for the day ahead… The day actually started with a fascinating and very useful interview with David Wyn Jones – an acknowledged expert on Haydn’s life. These are the guys that make me look good! Really all I have to do is point the camera in his direction and ask sensible, interested questions. He was an articulate, treasure trove of information and, while I need to guard against too many British historians dotted throughout the film, I know I’ll use him. It’s always more exciting to do the interviews late in the process too as (1) your questions are more focussed but (2) you can immediately see where parts of answers will slot straight into the film. Phil Reynolds (the genius editor) and I have been editing the film for three weeks, mainly working on the musical moments, but now we can start laying in the narrative moments. All very exciting. My only concerns are that I’ll run out of time before examining every avenue but that’s always the case with any film. It’s also the downside of the struggle to raise funds – I can’t afford a full-time researcher for instance (which we always used to have on projects).
Anyway, after the interview, we set up for the recording of the music. The Endellion had wisely suggested we use a company called Classic Sound to help on this one – as the sound of a quartet has to be very carefully recorded. I have to say that Classic Sound were fantastic and we let them sort out the mics (only 4 are used, hanging above the quartet). By 1pm we were ready to start filming and for five hours I had the absolute pleasure of filming 10 different pieces – all of them gorgeous to listen to and gorgeous (I think anyway) to look at. The Endellion are not only at the top of the field musically but are great to film too – expressive, active, emotive. For those of you interested, the pieces (in extracts of maybe three minutes) we chose to film were Opus 20/4 (3rd movement), Opus 20/6 (2nd and 4th), Opus 33 /2 (finale), Opus 54/2 (slow movement), Opus 64/5 (1st movement), Opus 74/3 (finale), Opus 76/1 (first – all for the DVD extras !), Opus 76/3 (slow – the German National Anthem tune), Opus 77/2 (3rd). We finished bang on 7pm and went for a well-deserved meal…and I clung tight to my rushes knowing I had struck gold. More good news: the Endellion will ‘open’ for the world premiere of IN SEARCH OF HAYDN at the Barbican in January. They will play 76/1 and then the film will run. That’s brilliant – what a night it could be. See you there….

The Boy Mir film hosted by the UN in New York and Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in Boston..

The Boy Mir film hosted by the UN in New York and Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in Boston..

Another Best Western…this time in some industrial estate in Boston. Hmmm.. Can I go home now? The Wi-Fi is useless, the TV appalling, and my work pile gets bigger not smaller…this must be some cosmic joke. For every email or phone call, two are created. I know it’s my own fault but still… Anyway, after that little moan I should say that Boston is a super city (or so it says in the hotel guide). I do know that the Museum of Fine Arts is extraordinary and it’s great that we’re screening Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn (preview) there later today as it will give me a chance to look round. I know I moan but my word, what good fortune I have really: filming in art museums after they’re closed to the public, talking to the world’s best musicians, filming backstage at the National theatre, ENO, etc, travelling the stunning landscapes of Afghanistan and so on.

So…no more moaning. If I have learnt anything from being with Mir in Afghanistan it is to appreciate every single thing I own and experience. Yesterday in New York I showed The Boy Mir at a fabulous event hosted by Envision which is a partnership between the UN and the IFP. It started on Friday with an introduction by Harry Belafonte followed by a super film ('The Sound of Mumbai') and then Saturday they showed my film followed by a discussion on documentaries and their potential impact, etc. Actually the discussion was broader than that but no less interesting. The film screening was downtown just off Times Square and the audience received the film very enthusiastically – I hope some more comes of it.

I need donations for the charities, more screening invitations, etc. It’s not enough at this stage that folk watch, applaud but then go away and think no more of it. But that involves me running around a lot, handing out business cards, selling DVDs, asking for email addresses, and so on… I had to run to Penn Station to catch my 2pm train and got there just in time…with suitcases in tow. Still, the 4 hour train journey allowed me to catch my breath as we travelled through the gorgeous landscapes between these two key US cities. One sees an enormous amount of wealth on the way up – huge houses in the woods, yachts, endless 4x4s…but it’s strange when, on arrival, you pop into the nearest McDonalds (to connect to the Wi-Fi they offer) and the place is full (I mean at least 15 or 20 folk) of crack addicts and drunks and down-on-their-luck souls.. It really can be a country of extremes. There’s so much for documentary film-makers to make films about….