Wednesday, January 15, 2020

CAHIERS DU ADRIFT IN SOHO - The Nottingham Connection.

The film will be shown at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham on July 8th at 10am in full Wide-Screen Dolby 5.1 Surround for one promotional day only as part of the Colin Wilson Conference taking place in Nottingham that weekend.

You can participate by securing your ticket ASAP to guarantee your place - tickets are very limited.

LATEST INFO
The film was test screened with audiences for objective analysis. This is the result. Well done all!

  

FORTHCOMING
SCREENING AT BROADWAY CINEMA
Nottingham
July 8, 10am.

Purchase your ticket here


or write to burningfilms@aol.com

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One of most magical results of ADRIFT IN SOHO is the blending of locations shot in Soho and London with locations shot in the Lace Market district of Nottingham.
Nottingham locations featured heavily in the film. Many actors came from local workshops and hundreds of extras turned up on a Sunday morning to participate in the re-enactment of an anti-nuclear march.

We pay homage to the city of Nottingham and their people for the help they gave ADRIFT IN SOHO.

This selection only includes Nottingham locations and only the local cast is highlighted.

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For further information on the film go to www.adriftinsoho.com
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Riste's Place, Lace Market






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With this blog we want to show our appreciation for a city that made us feel welcome. 

A city that understood our crazy requirements and was prepared to help us. 

Council officials as well as pub, cafe and restaurant owners supported the project. 

We had very little pre-production time so to count with the help of the people in the city was essential.

This is our great big thank you to the people of the Lace Market and Nottingham.



The Broadway


Emily Seale Jones (Jo) and Angus Howard (Marcus)
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High Pavement




When producing ADRIFT IN SOHO became a reality, the first thing was to find suitable locations. 

Shooting in Nottingham meant putting a lot of faith on the local pool of talent. We were not disappointed.

We list here the local cast which was vital for our success.

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Old Market Square



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Locations are the soul of a film. ADRIFT IN SOHO found soulmates in Nottingham as well as in Soho itself.

We also shot in Soho's alleyways, Bar Italia, Piccadilly Circus, Berwick St, Tyler Court, Soho Square and the size of the Thames river was something that the Trent river couldn't replace. But the body and soul of the film is in Nottingham.


Theatre Royal



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These stills from the film are just a tiny example of what you will see in the big screen.  You will be amazed.

The best of Soho's post production technicians worked for months in the colouring and the visual and sound effects to make the most of Soho and the Lace Market locations. 


We had to create a completely new visual language for the film. Soho demanded nothing less.



Jam Cafe, Heathcote Street










Owen Drake (Harry Preston) and Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street)


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Soho is dissent, counter-culture, anti-Establishment, originality, the unusual, the crazy, the unhinged.
We need to find a place that felt the same. Lace Market was that place.


Brewdog, Broad Street







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Lacehouse, Broadway


Emily Seale-Jones (Jo).


The jazz band: Mogs Morgan (Sax), Rafael Achache (Guitar), George Panero (Double Bass), Paul Quadros (Trombone), Sophie Fishwick (Drums)

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Plumtre Place



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Soho in the 1950s was a seedy place abandoned and forgotten by the rest of London. But not by artists, writers and dissidenrs of every sort.

Unless we managed to match the original visual texture and quality, the film would look fake and would be doomed to failure, just like many others who tried it before us.

Pubs and cafes in the Lace Market had the unmistakable feel of 1950s bohemia. 

The Lace Market should be proud of their individuality which is being lost in modern Soho.

Just as in the Soho case, the Lace Market is also a stone's throw away from the the city centre and the magnificent Old Market Square which gave us the grandeur of London for some exterior scenes. In the script, not everything happens in Soho.


The Newmarket, Broad Street


Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street)


William Chubb (The Count)




William Chubb (The Count) and Owen Drake (Harry Preston)

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ADRIFT IN SOHO needed several 1950s pubs, cafes, streets, a bookshop, cityscapes, street corners; also a river and a park. 

Filming in Soho was a given but not all the scenes needed to be in Soho as many were interior and some of the outdoor architecture could be found elsewhere without the hassle of London's traffic and commuters.

Many Lace Market streets were empty during the day and lacked the hideous double yellow lines that characterise modern Soho - we believe we should do away with street traffic markings and signs in Soho also. 

What's the point of having them if the whole place has restricted parking!


Lord Roberts, Broad Street


Chris Wellington (James Compton), Owen Drake (Harry Preston) and Caitlin Harris (Doreen)


Chris Wellington (James Compton) and Caitlin Harris (Doreen)


Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street)


Owen Drake (Harry Preston) and Cailtin Harris (Doreen)





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The production checked a number of possible cities for the film. 

The first alternative was of course London itself which has local areas around the West End that could be suitable. 

But away from Soho the streets began to look leafy and slightly suburban. We needed a genuine inner-city bohemian quality for any Soho replacement to be considered.

We checked South London, Brighton, Bristol, Oxford, Edinburgh, Cambridge but none produced suitable alternatives.

Colin Stanley the film's 'Life and Times of Colin Wilson' consultant who lives in Nottingham suggested the Lace Market area of the city.

The director Pablo Behrens went a few times and found a treasure trove of untouched 1950s locations full of style and quality. 

The perfect 'hard bohemian' style that characterised Soho in the past is still alive and kicking in the Lace Market.


Trent Bridge cafeteria


Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street), Owen Drake (Harry Preston)
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There were number of pubs and cafes that immediately fitted the brief with minimum of art direction. 

It was the idea of the production to create a timeless Soho devoid of easy period props found in many of today's period productions.



Pilcher Gate






St Mary's Gate


Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street), Lauren Harris (Myra)

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Above all Nottingham had five or six streets that felt Soho. They were Stoney Street, Rister's Place, Broadway and Pilcher Gate. In no time we found an empty office building to stand in as production HQ with its basement and top floor suitable for locations in the script (Editing Room and Artist's Studio).

The perfect cafe Soho cafe was Lace Market's Jam Cafe on Heathcote Street. 

But don't worry, we also filmed in Soho: Bar Italia, Berwick St, Soho Square, Tyler Court, Frith Street, Peter Street, Wardour St, St Anne's Church, Piccadilly Circus, the Thames Embankment, Southwark Bridge and Westminster Bridge.

Lace Market also has a great bohemian day and night-life which was helpful to relax after the hard production daily schedules.


Brewdog, Broad Street


Olly Warrington (Marty) and Emily Seale-Jones (Jo)



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We found accommodation for cast and crew from London with the Ibis Hotel on Fletcher Gate. 

The whole of the Lace Market felt a bit like a Hollywood Studio backlot but for real. 

We were only a five-minute walk to all locations. 



Vintage council urinals, Trent Bridge


Chris Wellington (James Compton-Street)
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High Pavement






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There are locations that cannot be replaced so at the end of the shoot in the Lace Market we returned to Soho and London to complete the filming for a number of week spread out over six months to take advantage of the changing seasons. 



Stoney Street




Broadway





Stoney Street







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The Lace Market

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200 Degrees Coffee, Cheapside
(not a location but excellent espressos)


Hartley's Coffee, Broad Street.
Not a location but excellent smoked salmon bagels.

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Broadway Cinema, Lace Market, Broad Street



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Further information on the film
can be found on the website 


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