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IT’S A FREE WORLD
“Nothing should interfere with the story or the actors, so you have to keep any lighting situations down to
an absolute minimum.”
continued from page 22
After Angie gets the sack from the recruitment agency she works for, she decides to start up on her own work- ing out of the kitchen at home and gets a partner Rose (Juliet Ellis) find- ing jobs for Polish workers in the UK.
Says Loach: “Angie really knows the trade. In the beginning, it’s all legitimate but then she realises she can actually make more out of illegal workers. Of course, the regulation on all this is a joke. The so-called mini- mum wage is just window dressing. Angie is remorseless and eventually gets caught up in her own remorse- lessness. Rose, on the other hand, does have some scruples.”
For It’s A Free World, which was filmed on location in London, Poland and the Ukraine, Loach has gathered about him many of his usual back-of- camera cohorts. As well as Laverty, there’s producer Rebecca O’Brien, designer Fergus Clegg and editor Jonathan Morris.
However, taking on his first Loach feature as DP is Nigel Willoughby who first crossed paths with the filmmaker when he was invited to operate on a couple of sequences for, first, Hidden Agenda in 1990, and then five years later, Land And Freedom.
A DP only since 2001, the veteran Willoughby has lately also lit ITV’s
The History of Mr Polly, Nicolas Roeg’s Puffball and, most recently, The Last Enemy – with Robert Carlyle, Max Beesley and Eva Birthistle - another TV drama which, like Free World and, most- ly, Polly, was also originated on Fujifilm.
He has remarked how he got a good sense of the Loach modus operan- di as cameraman on The Magdalene Sisters, for another of the director’s protégés, actor/director Peter Mullan.
“You start at page one and work your way through the script. Personally I like working that way because the story somehow evolves as you go. A lot of the magic of film- making for me begins on the set when you all arrive to shoot for the first time.
“Okay, you’ve had meetings with the director, and spoken to the actors and other heads of department. For me, that’s when the story really begins to take shape however much ‘prep’ you do. It becomes like a life that you all have that’s unfolding in front of your eyes.”
Although the £2.5 million film will, like The Navigators in 2001 be going first to Channel 4, it’ll also receive a UK digital release in some 20 or so cine- mas. Meanwhile, it’s destined for the- atrical in other European countries - like France, Italy, Germany and Spain - which continue enthusiastically to back Loach’s films in complex multi co-pro- duction and co-financing deals carefully brokered by producer O’Brien.
Meanwhile, Loach, now 71 and in his fifth decade of filmmaking, clearly hasn’t lost any of his appetite for the job: “Alarmingly, I haven’t - although running up and down hills probably has taken its toll.
“The thing is, you’re only shooting
for a small part of the year so that’s
not so heavy, really. Also, there are so
many stories to tell.” ■ Quentin Falk ``
It’s A Free World was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250D 8563 and ETERNA 500D 8573
Photo main: DP Nigel Willoughby and Director Ken Loach on the set; above: scenes from It’s A Free World
24 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture