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JOLENE THE INDIE FOLK STAR
Betti Hunter chats to Porthcawl film-maker Jamie Adams about the emergence , growth and ambition of his brand new indie film , Jolene The Indie Folk Star .
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There were a lot of happy accidents involved ,” laughs Jamie Adams , the brain behind your new favourite indie film . “ You haven ’ t got time to think on a shoot like this ! It ’ s an inspiring process , but there ’ s also the reality of making a low budget film when you haven ’ t got any money and you ’ re sitting in a caravan asking if there ’ s any food left .” The writer and director is no stranger to the ad-hoc world of bargain basement film production . He ’ s been producing short films for the past 10 years and has taken his first step into the world of featurelength production with his latest coming-of-age comedy offering , Jolene The Indie Folk Star . The protagonist and her hapless companion manoeuvre their way around record company bigwigs , life on the road and the pitfalls of sexy onstage dancing , but the real fun is in the will-they-won ’ t- they question of Benny and Jolene ’ s stop-start relationship . “ I always tend to write
BUZZ 14 relationship comedies ,” says Jamie . “ I ’ m intrigued by the dynamics of relationships and how each one is specific to itself . Jolene is essentially a modern love story . The guy Benny is really in love with this girl Jolene , and Jolene is in the band because she wants to show her mother that you can make money and a career from music . Neither of them are really there for the music . He wants to impress her and she wants to impress her mother !” The reluctant icon in question is played by Charlotte Ritchie , the rising star best known for her powerful vocals in classical crossover group All Angels and her breakthrough role as Oregon in the scuzzy Channel 4 student sitcom Fresh Meat . Though the film boasts an all-star cast of both established and fledgling Brit stars , it was Charlotte who first captured Jamie ’ s imagination . “ It was actually my wife who pointed out Charlotte when she was on Fresh Meat ,” he explains . “ I watched it and thought she was like a British Diane Keaton . It turned out she also liked the previous films that I ’ d done , and that ’ s how it really started . I decided to film something around Charlotte .” This Is England ’ s Rosamund Hanson and homegrown talent Craig Roberts were drafted onto the bill shortly after and the intensive five-day shoot wrapped last September . Whilst producers of low-budget films are famed for their willingness to push creative boundaries , Jamie is the first to admit that his directorial methods are more unorthodox than most . “ The film is full of unconventional techniques like naturalising , jump cuts and displaced sound . I don ’ t write the script so much . I mean , obviously I write it scene by scene , but I prefer to improvise ,” he explains . “ The actors and I get together at the starting point , I tell them who I think the character is , their personality and their mannerisms , then they add their own lines . As we act out the scenes we find the character more .” “ The best low budget movies tend to be road movies for that reason also . You can get the most out of the production value from the location that you ’ re passing through . You ’ ll be at a service station and want to add a scene and you can do that , and that also helps the structure of the story pretty efficiently .” The film ’ s low-key preview at Chapter Arts Centre was met with unequivocal praise , including kudos from Welsh music doyenne Bethan Elfyn . Jamie plans to release the film to a wider audience this September but waves off any suggestion that he might want to sit back and reap the rewards of his success just yet . “ I ’ m going to keep working . I want to make films ! It all happens organically . Alexandra Roach , who was in The Iron Lady , saw Jolene and wants to work with me . I think Craig might also be coming back . We ’ re putting something together . I ’ m not quite sure what it is yet , but it seems like we ’ re in the middle of a low budget modern love story trilogy .”
Info : www . joleneindiefolkstar . com