Musicals—26

The last musical I want to talk about from the first decade of the 21^st century is Once [2007] by John Carney. It’s a film that spawned an award-winning Broadway musical and won the Academy Award for Best Song.

This musical is like a fairy tale—you can hardly believe it’s true. The film’s story is simple—a busker in Dublin strikes up a friendship [or more???] with a young immigrant woman. She’s into music too and sings his songs… their disparate lives coming together through the music.

Let me be clear—it’s not a ‘true story’ at all—the story is fictional. But the story of the making of the film is the fairy tale.

This film was made for about $150,000—most of which came from the Irish Film Board and the rest from the writer/director’s pocket. And it grossed over $20 million.

Wow.

How’d they do that??? Take a look at the trailer, it has some of the simple charm of the film itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726SFblz9Lk.

Carney wrote a little story, inspired by a former bandmate of his, and filmed it on the streets of Dublin—without permits. He also used a long lens, allowing him to stand far away from the scene being filled and thus captured real people on the streets who became his extras. He used two friends of his who were a singing duo as the main actors in the film. Both were reluctant because they didn’t see themselves as actors, but Carney eventually persuaded them. He also used some of the music they had composed and then composed some new music for the film—among that music the song Falling Slowly that won the Academy Award for Best Song.

I can still remember watching the two stunned singers walk up to the podium to accept the award—it’s worth looking at again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8yLvb0gZM. Be sure to watch the clip to the end and you’ll see something that happened that never happens at the Academy Awards—someone who was cut off in giving her speech is given time on stage to say what she wanted to say—and is so inspiring.

Once shows that it can happen. You can create something—even an original musical—on a shoestring and it can be a true work of art… and it can also change your life and give you the chance to create even more art.

The best part of the story, of course, is that writer/director/composers who went into making the film did it for the sheer love of what they were doing. They never expected it to be the phenomenal success that it was—they created a project from the heart. And look what happened.

How about you? Could you be inspired to follow their lead?

Copyright © Diane Lake

19Jan20

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com