In 2007 I was commissioned to deliver the opening of The IIFA awards – the Bollywood Oscars, which in that year, was taking place at Sheffield Arena.
I pulled the team together for the event and the video was created by Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler (with whom I went on to make the movie ‘The Knife That Killed Me’ for Universal Pictures) We shot hundreds of people from Yorkshire on Green Screen and put them against images from Yorkshire.
The music was created by Sandy Nuttgens who put together Johnny Kalsi from The Dhol Foundation with the Kaiser Chiefs to create the Ruby remix
The live opening of the show was directed by Marcus Romer with Kully Thiarai, with choreography by Darshan Singh Bhuller, costumes by Ali Allen.
The video was the backdrop to Aerial Artists, dancers and performers, who rehearsed with the video so the action and timings were integrated.
We had aerial artists on silks who came down from the rig as part of the narrative of the three ribbons heading towards the arena across the landscape of Yorkshire.
Here is the video that was used as the backdrop for the stage set that included all the images of Yorkshire and the people we shot on Green Screen.
The dancers and performers appeared also with 30 children from a local primary school in Sheffield. Here are the main performers post the show.
Here is the TV interview pre-show and the full Arena Show on video too. It was broadcast on Star TV in India to an audience of over 500 million.
The experience of making this on Green Screen with Kit Monkman started our working relationship which led to the making of The Knife That Killed Me in 2012 for Universal Pictures.
Photos – Marcus Romer and screen grabs from the video edit.
