upfront
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