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Arts And Crafts
Acheque for $25,000 might seem like peanuts in the multi-million dollar world of film production. But to Michele Camarda in her fledgling career as a producer, it was like a small gold strike.
New York-born Camarda, who has since become one of Britain’s busiest and most successful young filmmakers with films like This Year’s Love, Wonderland and Born Romantic, was raising money for her graduation film at the National Film & TV School.
Collaborating for the third time with fellow student John Roberts – with whom she’d already made Soulful Shack (starring a then unknown Ainsley Harriott as Marvin Gaye) and the 1991 BAFTA winning drama short Say Goodbye, she had much bigger plans for This Boy’s Story.
Set in the 60s but bookended
in the 90s, it was the story of two young brothers’ sibling rivalry as they set out to hunt down their footballing hero George Best.
“We wanted,” she recalls,” to make it on the scale of a feature film so I decided to raise money outside the school. For instance, I wrote to all the major shareholders at Manchester United. Then a friend of mine in the States went through her boss’s Rolladex and gave me some home addresses, so I sent off a ‘pitch’ to sev- eral big celebrity people.
“One day, the head of the film school told me they’d received a cheque for $25,000, drawn on something called the California Community Foundation, made out to the school but to be used only for my film. The donor loved the idea, wished me the best of luck but apparent- ly wished to remain anonymous.”
A year later, after the 50-minute film has gone on to win the Student Oscar in Hollywood, Camarda made a point of contacting the Foundation only to discover that the donor already knew all about the film’s success, but still wished to remain anonymous.
“I seem to have a guardian angel... but I’d still love to meet this person
filmmaker Nick Willing soon after arriving in England and it was Willing, a previous gradu- ate of the NFS, who first intro- duced her to the school and took her on a guided tour. They’d marry some 10 years later and have a daughter shortly before embarking on their first feature together, Photographing Fairies. Kismet or what?
After Kismet’s well received debut, the couple went their separate ways creatively. Camarda to a pair of films with Scots writer-director David Kane and Michael Winterbottom’s award-win- ning Wonderland, Willing to two Hallmark TV epics, Jason & The Argonauts and Alice In Wonderland, before teaming up again this year.
Now they are putting the finishing touches to Kismet’s biggest production so far, Doctor Sleep, a chilling psycho- logical thriller starring Goran (ER)
Visnjic, Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine, Miranda Otto and Corin Redgrave. “When was the last time we made a really smart, stylish and scary movie in this coun- try?” she asks, daring you to name a recent example.
Does the producer ever have to get tough with the director? ‘Yes, all the time,” she smiles. “Because both
projects we’ve done together have meant so much to both of us, every decision he or I make, we must respect each other’s point of view.
“I know how many times Nick’s re- written a scene and how important it is to get that scene right with the actors. He knows how difficult it is to raise the finance.
“It goes right back to my film school days. If a writer/director/pro- ducer team can work together right from the start then what happens is there’s trust. Every decision is in sync with the budget, the logistics and cre- ative requirements.”
“Yes,” says Camarda, “I’ve been very lucky with the directors with whom I’ve worked.” ■
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AWARD-WINNING PRODUCER MICHELE CAMARDA TALKS TO QUENTIN FALK She’d first met fellow
some day,” she sighs. “The film gave me great confidence and openedalotofdoors. IfIcould raise £100,000 this way... so I decided to set up my own com- pany rather than going to work for another producer.”
The Boston University edu- cated daughter of an American television executive, Camarda had first rolled up in London aged 21 planning to do the usual “summer in Europe” before going home. She never left.
Falling into a job as a runner on music videos, she quickly graduated to line-producing not just promos, for the likes of 4D and Propaganda, but eventually commercials too. Thence to film school which had just set up its now world famous producers’ course.
Camarda decided to call her company Kismet: “It’s a good word meaning ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ but there was also a sentimental reason. Kismet was the name of a quiet little community on Fire Island where I’d spent many vaca- tions when I was growing up in the States.”
Did Camarda find it a massive leap between producing at the school and setting up their feature debut? “In many ways, it was easier,” she admits, “because we actually had money to pay for the film, to get the best crew and the best supplies. And with such a pos- itive response to the script, that also
meant a lot of freedom. “The thing about film
school is that though the films were ambitious, you still had constantly to beg, borrow and steal. After the produc- tion and development boot camp I went through at the NFTS, I felt completely ready to make Fairies.”
Photos from top: Michele Camarda; scenes from Doctor Sleep, Born Romantic, and below Gina McKee, Shirley Henderson and Molly Parker in Wonderland
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