An Interview With Chris Smith, Director of THE POOL

Where did the idea for The Pool originate?
I had helped some friends who were shooting a film in India about four years ago and we stayed in the hotel where we actually shot The Pool.  The city had a big impact on me creatively and I always thought it would be a great place to come back and film if it ever made sense - setting or story wise.

Last year I was reading a story by Randy Russell called “The Pool”.  It was one of those things that just stood out and stayed with me as we were researching and looking at different projects.  The story was actually set in Iowa - but the more I thought about it, it seemed like it could be adapted to the world I experienced in Panjim, Goa.

After making a reputation as a documentarian, what inspired you to make a fiction feature?
I actually started in Narrative filmmaking and never had a strong desire to make documentaries.  My first feature was a narrative called American Job that premiered at the 1996 Sundance festival.  After that, I was writing a second script that went to the Sundance Writers Lab and I was going through the motions of trying to get that film made.  At the same time I was growing frustrated at the amount of time this whole process was taking.  I was used to just jumping from one film to another, so to keep active I started filming this side project about a filmmaker from Milwaukee.  As time went on I realized that the characters from my fictitious script were flat and living in this forced, contrived world - while the documentary was so genuine and full of life.  It soon became obvious that the documentary (which became American Movie) would be a better film than the narrative - so that’s where I focused my energy.  After that we kept developing and writing other projects - but again documentary projects would surface that seemed more interesting - so I would just sort of follow the best idea - be it in narrative or documentary.

How much of the film was pre-determined prior to shooting?
We went over with a draft of the script - but my goal from the beginning was to go over and let the environment help shape the story.  The idea was to spend time there - see what actors we could find - then adapt the script based on the actors, our experiences and observations.

So how much of the film changed?
The film and story were changing on a daily basis.  One of the great things about the way we were working was that it was completely fluid.  We were
editing as we went along - so that had a huge impact on the finished film as well.  We would cut scenes together - then either adapt other scenes or shoot
new scenes to compliment what we already had.  The great thing was I could think of a scene at night and we could shoot it the next morning - give the tape to the editor at lunch and see it in the cut the next night.

Did working with child actors pose any particular challenges?
The kids were great - and during the shoot they just continued to get better and better. They seemed to quickly grasp what was and wasn’t working and continued to grow throughout the shoot.

Because the kids couldn’t read - they couldn’t really prepare scenes in advance - so we would get to a location and then have to rehearse on the spot until they got it - then we would shoot.  One other added complication was the language issue.  Neither of the two main kids spoke English - so it was difficult to convey detailed direction quickly - and it could easily get translated in the wrong way.  More challenging was the fact that the film was being shot in Hindi - which wasn’t the first language of either kid.  So they were being directed in a language they didn’t understand and having to shoot complicated dialogue scenes in a language that wasn’t their first language.

Nana Patekar is a major star in India, did you know of his work prior to working with him on The Pool?  How was your experience in working with him?
We had been searching and searching for an actor to play the father character.  One morning the Goan Times newspaper came under the door at the hotel and Kate (the producer) saw this interview with Nana and said - this guy seems perfect to play the father. 

We didn’t know him or his films at the time - we just really liked the way he looked and what he talked about in his interview.

About a week later we had to go to Bombay to deal with a camera problem - and while we were there we decided to try to find Nana.  Our main actress had just stared in a film by Anurag Kashyap and she put us in touch with him.  At the time we had cut about 45 minutes of the film - so we showed it to Anurag and he was really enthusiastic about trying to help us out.  He set up a meeting with Nana.  We went to meet him and the first thing he said was that he wasn’t going to be able to do our film - but seemed sort of curious about our project.  We talked for a while - then he asked to see the 45 minutes we had cut together.  Afterwards he was quiet - then said, “This reminds me of what we used to do before we got corrupted”.  He said he would do the film.

Did you encounter any uniquely Indian challenges during the shooting process?
Working in India required an ability to just roll with anything that came your way.  We had actually cast the four lead roles for the film and had set a start day when the camera and crew were to arrive in Panjim.  In the three days leading up to the shoot we lost 3 of our four main actors.  One kid went to Bombay to buy karate uniforms and never came back.  The daughter character decided she couldn’t take off from school, and the original father got booked on a TV series.  So we started production with just one actor and then started shooting with the other characters one by one as we found them. 

How did you, a non-Hindi speaker, judge the quality of acting?
There’s more to a performance than language.  If you really focus you can instinctually just feel if a performance is or isn’t working - and if not what’s wrong.  I worked with a translator to insure the lines and crux of the scene were always what I wanted - but as far as performance, you really just face the same challenges you would if it were in English.

Did you use an Indian crew?
The crew was split about evenly between Americans and Indians.  In India they don’t have insurance - so when you rent a camera or a light - it comes with an attendant.  In most cases the attendants are also technicians - so our camera attendants were our camera department, and our light attendants were the grips and electricians.  We hired one gaffer from Bombay who was helpful in navigating many aspects of production - but by and large it was sort of catch as catch can.  On the logistical front we worked with production manager Biri Sodhi who worked miracles in getting us in and out of places to shoot - many times on moments notice.

As far as Americans we brought over myself, the producer (Kate Noble), editor (Barry Polterman), musicians/sound (Didier Leplae and Joe Wong) and creative consultant (Xavier Leplae).

How did you go about choosing music for the film?
The score was composed by Joe Wong and Didier Leplae who did the music for my last film, The Yes Men.  While we were still planning this project in the states, Joe and Didier recorded dozens of possible score pieces.  We finally hit on something we all felt captured the feeling of the film and they then flushed it out.  They then contacted an arranger from Bombay named Kersi Lord to help arrange the piece to be recorded in Bombay.

Kersi, Didier and Joe set up a recording session in Bombay’s last analog
recording studio and Kersi put together a incredible group of older musicians to recreate the feeling of the recordings from the early Bollywood soundtracks.

How long did the project last?
We shot for 65 days total over a period of five months.

You almost gave up on this project several times. What happened to make you decide to finish the project?
The production was grueling on many levels.  We were writing and editing along the way - so we’d shoot 12 hours in 100 degree heat - then get back to the edit room and work late into the night.  We worked pretty much non-stop for the five months we were there - so by the end we were all completely exhausted.

Toward the beginning we almost quit on a daily basis.  Many things fell through at the beginning of the shoot that kept taking us to a tipping point - then at the darkest moment we’d catch a break and carry on.  After a few weeks of looking we were about to give up as we didn’t think the pool house existed in Goa - but the day before we were going to call it quits we met our soon to be production manager and after describing the project and the house - he said I know the place.

Once we got a week or two into shooting we knew we couldn’t leave until we finished. 

How much of the film was scripted?  Was any dialogue improvised?
Most of the film was scripted and didn’t veer too far - but some of the scenes where actors tell personal stories of the characters were looser.  The idea of the scene was set - and the key points were locked in - but how they got from A to B was completely open.  This gave the actors the ability to experience the scene rather than focus on remembering lines.

Why did you choose to shoot the film handheld?
I felt the handheld camera added a realness and immediacy to the film.  I didn’t want to completely fictionalize the world in cinematic terms - but liked the idea of bringing the audience into this world in way that felt more intense - even if in a slow, meditative way.  We chose to shoot on 35mm to capture the detail and inherent beauty of the landscape.

Are the real-life experiences of Venkatesh and Jhangir manifested in the characters they portray in the film? 
Although they both assumed the predetermined roles of the two main kid characters of the film - the parts inevitably skewed, adapted and fused with their real personalities and life experiences.

THE POOL opens Friday, September 19th for one week at the Nuart

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