Jamie Adams – Love Spreads

By starrymag | August 6, 2021

By: MJ Asuncion

 

 

Q) Congratulations on the recent world premiere of Love Spreads at Tribeca! I feel as if I’ve waited at least two years to see this film, and it did not disappoint. Tell us your thoughts on finally being able to share this story, and on reading some of the initial audience reactions.

A) Thank you so much for watching and enjoying our movie. It’s been a dream of mine to premiere a movie at Tribeca [Film Festival] and, although we couldn’t be there, I’ve read some great initial responses. I feel like most people really appreciated the central performances from Eiza [González] and Alia [Shawkat]. That’s always the key thing for me, capturing the magic that great actors create.

 

Q) Though there have been other films with similar themes, Love Spreads shows a different perspective in its storytelling. It brings a closer, more personal look at how the pressure of the industry affects the creative process and relationships. What was the inspiration behind the story?

A) The inspiration comes from experience of seeing so many musicians and bands I’ve been in, or know of, who, after releasing great debut albums, found the second album much more difficult to write. Now that you have the freedom to write, to create – knowing you no longer need to be hungry and desperate to write, to express – having the freedom of financial backing, and the pressure of an expectant audience, tends to lead to stifled sophomore creations. I mean, the title comes from The Stone Roses who, after releasing one of the biggest albums in the history of British music, took years to follow up with the Second Coming, with “Love Spreads” being the key track from that album. They recorded at Rockfield Studios. They were there falling apart as a band for eighteen months or so…That second album, the creating of that, killed the band. So, it’s as much about the pressure from within, the pressure to replicate the success of the debut album, that’s as stifling as the time pressures of schedules and timetables from Labels and your own fanbase wanting more music asap. I could empathize with that feeling. Once I made Black Mountain Poets and so many people responded so well to that movie I experienced my first bout of writers block. I put so much pressure on myself to try and replicate that success, that formula… Which led to many months of writing and re-writing an idea that I eventually gave up on, but that experience opened up other avenues of thought that led to Songbird and Wild Honey Pie!

 

Q) The interaction amongst the band feels very authentic. Did filming in such a remote location help the chemistry we saw onscreen?

A) Well, it’s the genuine experience of recording an album. To take up residency at a remote recording studio, and Rockfields has such a legendary music heritage (being the place “Bohemian Rhapsody” was created, Coldplay recorded “Yellow” there, Oasis nearly killed one another while recording their epic second album there – “Wonderwall” being one of the tracks [literally because Noel Gallagher was sat on this wall just outside the studio]) it’s full of myths and legends. As a group of filmmakers, we certainly bought into the experience. It felt like we were there to record Glass Heart’s new record…It certainly helped the authenticity of everyone’s incredible performances.

 

Q) The portrayal of Kelly’s writers block in the film had me laughing with how relatable it was. Many of us focus on anything that will help rationalize our creative block, often subconsciously finding ways to delay the process. What were some memorable moments from shooting these scenes that you can share?

A) For me, one of the initial shot ideas I had was one of a drummer hitting the snare drum over and over and over for the technician to get the right snare sound figured out. I’ve seen it happen before. I’ve been that drummer – it’s that monotony of what it is to be a musician actually that inspired this film. I find it amusing, the idea of something – of being a creative – and the reality of that are often very different. So, seeing Alia as Kelly meander around the recording studio and then take to the drums and spend a lot of time moving them around, making it feel as though she’s developing a beat, a sequence – when really she’s just killing time – and she starts hitting the snare drum over and over and over… That was great. She naturally discovered the moment that had inspired the energy that led to me make the film.

 

Q) Both Alia Shawkat and Eiza González are also known for their music and singing ability, with Eiza having had a successful career as a singer. Were they able to take part in the creative process of their character’s development or was their background utilized for the film?

A) We were very lucky with the casting of this movie. I started with Alia and we had several discussions about the character and how she saw Kelly. Naturally, her music experience fed into these discussions and then I take what feels right for Kelly and add that to the scriptment (the script without dialogue from which we shoot the film). Same thing with Eiza, though that happened more on set as Patricia was a character that emerged late on into the process, and I will always be forever grateful that Eiza Gonzalez was available and interested in Patricia and the story and jump aboard. She really gave it everything and her performance is a testament to her talent, and her commitment to character.

 

Q) Describe the dynamic of Kelly and Patricia and its importance in the story.

A) Well, for a while there Kelly was going to go through this ordeal and not owning up to it and things would fall apart. In the end, Kelly would be left alone in the studio, and everyone had left, and this new band comes in. And after saying they admire her work they throw her out. That was the original idea I had. And then it dawned on me that it would be cool to explore introducing a replacement for Alice. Someone who would lift spirits, that would exude positivity and wonder – someone who Kelly could confide in/ open up to and together they could find a new way of creating – of meeting as equals and making new music. What developed from there is that whereas Kelly keeps her emotions close to the surface someone like Patricia buries them. And so they’re both quite similar, both creative artists who live for the music but who deal with the pressure of that very differently and on meeting one another they find a way of helping one another express themselves more clearly and definitively – leading to what feels like a brighter future.

 

Q) Were any adaptations made to the script once filming began or was any of the dialogue improvised?

A) The film is fully improvised from a scriptment. A forty-page scene by scene document from which we jump off, and guide through, until we feel like we have the moment we were looking for, and then we move on to the next scene. Sometimes we go off scriptment, depending on where the improvisation takes us. It’s a very organic process. All the dialogue is improvised.

 

Q) The film has some pretty great music. Will any of the original songs be released? Can we anticipate a soundtrack?

A) My brother Ashley Adams has been really pleased with the response to the soundtrack. He wrote many of the songs with Alia and Eiza in mind. I co-wrote I think one of the songs that made it into the final cut, and we hope that maybe one day it’ll see a release. I think that the songs were always intended to exist within the film, so I’m not sure how they’d translate to a standalone record. For now, they belong within the narrative of the film.

 

Q) Love Spreads has the feel of a documentary, instead of a narrative, which works very well for the story. Many times it felt as if we were right there in the studio with the band. This is a testament of the exceptional work by you and your team, including Mike Hopkins, with his precise editing, and Ryan Eddleston, who helped create this layered laid-back vibe. What made you decide the style and structure for how it was filmed?

A) We’ve been developing this way of working for over a decade now. It’s very much indebted to the ‘mumblecore’ movement, French new wave, the Free Cinema British cinema of the 60’s and 70’s. It’s a motivated handheld camera whose main purpose is to explore and capture the characters as they maneuver within the constructed relationships and situations. Lighting comes second. Story and character expiration come first. Our camera always has the right to change it’s focus, change it’s position – to act like a documentary camera capturing real people in their actual environments. And in terms of the edit we assemble edit side by side and then we bring the over long assembles together and we return to the original story and structure and try and follow that and that hardly ever works at this point so we spend much time rethinking and restructuring the narrative always keeping our characters and their arcs in mind – again this feels very much more like how a documentary comes together.

 

Q) There are many themes in the film, some more subtly addressed than others, but all still very prominent. Which do you feel will resonate most with the audience?

A) I have given up trying to second guess an audience. I’ve watched the same film of mine play to several audiences and each audience has reacted differently. Each audience, of course, is made of many different types of people – people who have had very different types of day leading up to the screening. I hope that the theme of love shines through, the varying types of love – friendship, band mates, comrades, a marriage, creation and the love of music. There are several kinds of love explored in our film and each one is nuanced and has its own way of unravelling and revealing itself and, ultimately, some of these paths lead to positivity for the character(s) involved and other times the love feels like a struggle and is unrequited or exposing in some way. I think this comes back to the title of the film Love Spreads… Love is infectious which, in itself, has complicated connotations! It spreads, it’s infectious, it’s contagious… Love in all its forms is complicated and unknowing and fraught but most of the time it feels like the only thing that’s worthwhile, that’ll ultimately see us through.

 

Q) With a number of writing projects under your belt and years of experience, what is your best advice on overcoming writer’s block?

A) Keep writing. Even when you don’t feel like you have anything to write about, write about that! You may end up with a story about someone with writers block who daren’t own up to that… But seriously keep writing, it’ll help you work through the block and get to the really exciting idea that wanted to come out and ultimately blocked you in the first place!

 

Q) What do you hope viewers will take away from watching Love Spreads?

A) That, as the great Thom Yorke from Radiohead once said, heartfelt communication with other people is the meaning of life. It’s why we’re here.