At a recent meeting of Cine Guild of Great Britain representatives with the British Film Commission it was revealed that many Indian units were at present coming to the UK to shoot, bringing their own crews with them. From the following item sent in by Hon Member Peter Davies it would seem that Indians are also keen on Switzerland.
Up-town Zurich. A mid-summer early lunchtime. A busy but traffic-free square infamous for its banks and its trams - a tram interchange of five busy routes. One bank has a good gimmick. Comfortable seats and splendid sun umbrellas on the forecourt. Relax, sit, and think nice things about your friendly rip-off bank. Not a free seat in the house. A small production has them all.
Someone shouts "Shoot!" - a highly dodgy playback starts followed by the ubiquitous quite unique noise of an Arriflex. There is some rather vague action then the camera and playback stop. Nothing more happens for a minute or so. Another tram is arriving. Seemingly any tram will do. Someone else shouts "Shoot!" again.
The clapper board has a lot of 'tacit' today and sits comfortably in one of those chairs; it is not used at all for any of the many takes. The playback rides in a supermarket trolley. We are in uptown Zurich with not a supermarket in sight so he has come a long way.
This delightfully relaxed unit does not seem to have a care in the world, but it too has come a long way. All the way from Bombay.
Numerous carrier bags arrive from the nearby exotic patisserie full of the most expensive goodies - all handed round (literally) to the unit. No lunch of course but does it matter as it is obviously a very happy day. The production could well be a remake of that delightful spoof of years ago, Anything Goes.
The producer is a charming young man, all in matching black. He tells me, with authority, though to be fair he really knew, that British soundmen are the finest in the world.
On being reminded of the precise name, he said "That's absolutely what I mean - Twickenham - where can you do better than that? Gerry, Dean, Robin - the best. Then think of Pinewood with Graham and John - marvellous marvellous chaps. I never consider anywhere else for all my post production."
He laughed a lot at my sentence of 19 reels of dubbing for a once very revered Indian producer. Now, he too, is in end credit-time. We had lost contact though I certainly knew him well. We did not agree on his offer to me; a 5-year contract in downtown Bombay.
Back to uptown Zurich. The unit smiled its way through the day. In all the time that I watched the action, it was impossible to be sure of who was who. Sometimes the man who may have been the director said Shoot, while on some occasions it may have been the D-o-P who said it. A man who may have been the assistant director seemed to write something occasionally, but with no sign at all of any script-clerk and the soundly sleeping clapperboard, the editor would face more than a few problems.
Hard to imagine a more relaxed production. It deserves success.
PETER T DAVIES