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“We were especially lucky to be championed by Jim Reeve and his Web Film Finance because it meant we were not at the behest of a distributor who’d probably be calling the shots all the time.”
P roving that three into one can go is first- time feature director Joe Tucker who also
happens to be the writer and co-star of his debut feature LAVA. The expression often used for such versatile industry is “multi- hyphenate” or “triple threat”. But in this case it seems to be not so much a case of
threat as genuine promise, judging by the optimistic buzz already attending tireless Tucker’s new action- packed British black comedy.
Set in and around the annual Notting Hill Carnival, LAVA – “about idiots with guns” - features old hands like Tom Bell and Leslie Grantham alongside young stand- up comic James Holmes, ex-Eastender Nicola Stapleton, Dennis Titus and Grahame Fox. Not to mention, of course, Tucker himself as, in his own words, an “inept, ex-Army show-off” called Smiggy.
So how did a self-confessed “unbankable unknown” manage to get this £1 million project into production and still retain the kind of control usually only dreamt about by such a novice film-maker?
Stemming originally from an autobiographical “inci- dent” in 1993, LAVA had been touted about for a while by Tucker and his long-time pal, fellow actor Gregor Truter, who was also now adding debutant producer to his CV.
Tucker recalls: “We banged on doors for a long time. I never seemed to find a problem being accepted as director; in fact it was regarded as quite sexy having a first-time director who’d written the script too. What people seemed to be most nervous about was my demand that I should have total choice over casting – and also be in it. But after lots of rejections we got lucky. Our sheer persistence paid off.”
The luck arrived specifically in the form of a very supportive co-producer, Jim Reeve of Web Film Finance, who eventually brokered a deal through Ernst & Young. To compound this good fortune, the inexperienced Tucker and Truter also acquired a proven line producer in the shape of Michael Riley.
Like Reeve, Riley - who has worked on films such as Boston Kickout, Out Of Depth and Hard Men as well as the forthcoming BBC drama series In The Land Of Plenty – championed LAVA from the start. “I came on it in late ’97, about the same time as Jim, and we explored various avenues of finance. A lot of people were frightened by the content of the film; it is quite controversial.”
Tucker had long been interested in using the colourful annual two-day Carnival in West London as the setting for his story: “Ours is a fairly extreme story with various dysfunctional characters amid often vicious incidents, so the Carnival seemed to be a per- fect backdrop for this sort of dark revenge comedy.
“We were especially lucky to be championed by Jim and his Web Film Finance because it meant we were not at the behest of a distributor who’d probably be calling the shots all the time in terms of having X, Y or Z in the film. We were instead left to our own devices – and I believe we delivered.”
Tucker claims he was able to secure exactly the people he wanted for LAVA – “I mean, it didn’t bother someone like Tom Bell that he’d never heard of me. He came on board on the strength of the script. He just loved the gig and especially its humour.”
In fact the only casting compromise was the key role of Smiggy. Admits Tucker: “The reason I ended up playing him was because, in the end, I simply couldn’t trust another actor to portray him with the right sort of irony. I didn’t want Smiggy to be just another post- Tarantino cod violent shoot-em-up type. He needed to be played with just the right comic touch. I had consid- ered other people.
“Believe me when I say it wasn’t some kind of ego thing, but it just seemed to be the most plausible way of getting the film’s tone correct. What we’re trying to do here is move the genre on from cool-guys-in-shirts-
in production
with-guns to idiots-with-guns. People who can’t rather than who can.” Says Riley: “Did I have nerves about Joe. Yes, of course. Not that I questioned his ability to play the role but rather his ability to be able to juggle three things at once. As for playing the heavy, I did have to sometimes... but not particularly with Joe.”
In terms of preparation, Tucker agrees that his background working on and off with Mike Leigh was a distinct plus. He’d appeared in Leigh’s last stage play and, more recently, in Career Girls. He’d also spent more than five months on Secrets & Lies – only to end up as a face on the cutting room floor.
“There was,” says Tucker, “ a thoroughness and steadfastness to the way I wrote every character as well as a heightened naturalism to the whole thing. Working for so long with
Mike Leigh, seeing how he worked on character and narrative, must have had a definite influence.
“Here, I had very inten- sive rehearsal with my co- lead James Holmes. As I’d known Gregor since drama school 12 years ago and worked ever since with him on and off he also knew what I was trying to achieve and provided psy- chological back-up and could always monitor what I was doing.”
For a first-time director
it was, suggests Riley, quite
a trial by fire. The first two
days of the subsequent six-
week shoot were the actual two August Bank Holiday days of the ’99 Carnival. With all the necessary permis- sions in place, the production had two units running simultaneously as they captured not just mood footage but also crucial elements of the dramatic narrative.
LAVA also adds another important first to British film-making as it’s the first indigenous Super16mm movie to go through complete digital post-production. Blown to 35mm via the Digital Film Lab, it’s a process developed in Copenhagen and offered to UK film-mak- ers through Soho Images.
According to Riley: “Having been extremely disap- pointed with the standard of S16mm-35mm blow-ups on previous projects I was particularly attracted to the idea of going the ‘digital route’ and outputting directly on to 35mm. When I saw the showreel of the Danish features that had been processed digitally, I immediately saw both the difference in quality and the potential for simplifying and improving effects and opticals.”
Tucker is equally enthusiastic: “It actually means you by-pass losing a generation because you do your grading on a computer. There’s no loss of resolution, and it looks really great.”
But as for tripling up again on film-making duties, Tucker is less keen: “Not for a while, anyway. Next time I’d like to direct someone else’s script and also I’m not sure whether I would want to act again in my own thing.” Meanwhile, he remains suitably bubbly about LAVA: “It’s exciting, racy, offensive and very non-PC. It’s, as they say, out there.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative, LAVA was photographed by Ian Liggett and Roger Eaton. Boston Kickout, Out Of Depth and In the Land Of Plenty were also originated on Fujicolor.
Photosfromtop:JamesHolmesasPhilipinLava; Onlocationwithdirector/actorJoeTucker(centre)atthe NottingHillCarnival
The LAVA camera team, standing from left: Phil Humphries, Jonathan Head and Aidan Spencer, seated from left: Jennie Paddon, Ole Birkeland and DP Ian Liggett