Last night I went to the Roxy 'Theatre in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand, to see the new mockumentary film by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement, in which they star, direct, produce. What we do in the Shadows. A vampire story with old-fashioned vampires, but set in modern Wellington. There was a Question and Answer session afterwards.
The film was done on a shoestring with the producers having to find make-do props and, as they said, they even used their own teacups in a scene.
Jermaine started off pre-movie by reading a letter from the New Zealand Documentary Board (!).
Both he and Taika kept getting muddled up with the word 'documentary' ... documentarian ... documentarying ... documentarialisation ... All completely deadpan.
The letter said that the Board would like to see a documentary on vampires and enclosed for reference were the vampire movies "Blade 1" and "Blade 3". The DVD of Blade 2 was out on loan.
The movie was good. I loved seeing all the Wellington landmarks. I've always thought I would probably end up in The Rita Angus Rest Home (nicknamed 'Colditz' by its inhabitants) in Kilbirnie when I grow even older but now after seeing a vampire perv into the windows at night, I'm not too sure about any future plans to end up there.
So many vampire myths were delived into. Our vampire flatmates tried to go clubbing at night and couldn't get into any of the clubs because they were never invited into them by the doormen. The yearly big event, the supernatural masquerade ,was held in the Mt Victoria Bowling Club (it was so hilarious to see the bowling club leader board on the wall).
Even werewolves weren't forgotten. Rhys Darby and his scruffy scratching uncouth pals were marvellous. And I loved the vampire minion, a married mum who desperately wanted to be 'turned', but instead had ended up mowing the flatmates' lawn, cleaning their house, and ironing their shirts. She complained that they couldn't wear shirts like ordinary guys, oh no, they had to wear blouses, and with frills no less.
The Q and A session: the interviewer asked Taika and Jermaine what they had done at Park Road Post Production. The answer was a short crisp, "Post-production."
Taika told the audience that the editing was exhausting. He and Jermaine had taken turns, month by month. He would go away after his month, come back, look at the work and declare it really bad, then discover it was his own work and not Jermaine's.
A question from the audience asked about the film becoming a tv series. The reply from the producers was that Australia were interested and also a couple of American companies.
Last night was a fund-raiser for Taika's daughter's kohanga reo (pre-school). The little girl was there and she was such a cutie and so quiet and polite. She ran up to Daddy and he cuddled her lovingly on his lap. Ahhhhhhhhh......
No comments:
Post a Comment