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#Post#: 137--------------------------------------------------
Super City (2011) - general discussion
DIR By: Sylwia
Date: January 21, 2018, 10:14 am
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/fvXWjRJ.jpg
A six part comedy show written by Madeleine Sami and Thomas
Sainsbury, directed by Taika Waititi.
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eyoZDCho5E
--- Quote ---
> Sami hilariously transforms into five acutely observed and
very different characters all living in our country’s
super city. There’s Pasha, an aging cheerleader clinging
to her partying lifestyle; Azeem, an immigrant taxi driver
embracing Maori culture; Jo, a closeted gym instructor in love
with her best friend; Linda, the runt of her “old
girls” clique fostering impoverished artists and Georgie,
a homeless girl whose freedom is unexpectedly interrupted.
--- End Quote ---
---------------------------------------------------------
Taika Tweeting about the show in June-July 2010:
--- Quote ---
> Directing NZ's Newest Bestest TV show: SUPER CITY starring
Madeleine Sami... Day #1 - relaxed. Slightly TOO relaxed.
Something is wrong.
> ---
> WEEK #1 of SUPERCITY done. 4 to go. So funny, so dark, so wet,
so $$$, so-so, so loose, so tight, so new, so fresh, so very
very, so YES.
--- End Quote ---
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.facebook.com/supercitytv/
[spoiler=Gallery]Super City was shot from July to September 2010
in Auckland.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/vRpMzSf.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/WvhS6nN.jpg
Some photos from their facebook page
HTML https://i.imgur.com/yf05kBg.jpg
Shooting a scene in Dennys. Yes that is Taika holding a boom. It
was a small multitasking crew but we did have a soundie.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/E62yVZw.jpg
Shooting with Georgie in the park
HTML https://i.imgur.com/OsxZ2S0.jpg
Shooting opening scene of series with cheerleaders.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/QfMPZJV.jpg
Taika's sketch of the publicity image.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/WNTMaHi.jpg[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Articles]www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-news/news/4168417/Super-job-for-Boy-director
--- Quote ---
> Super job for Boy director
> By NICOLA RUSSELL - Sunday News
> Last updated 05:00 26/09/2010
>
> HAVING scooped seven awards at the Qantas Film and Television
Awards last week with Boy, Taika Waititi is now taking a shot at
the super city.
>
> But not as Auckland Super City Mayor. The celebrated
film-maker is currently directing a new TV3 comedy called Super
City.
>
> The show is to feature Madeleine Sami, well known for her
performances in No. 2 and Sione's Wedding.
>
> Producer Carthew Neal, who last produced Wa$ted said Sami
plays multiple characters in the new series.
>
> Waititi described the show to Sunday News as "a fly on the
wall observational comedy."
>
> The Boy director, who worked with Sami on TV3's RadiRadiRah,
has been busy editing the programme this week in the Fumes
studio on Auckland's's Ponsonby Rd.
>
> Next week, he heads to the US for some writing and development
work but will return in time for summer which he says he will
spend in the far north in the "heat and ocean".
>
> Waititi is no stranger to comedy. With Flight of the Conchords
star Jemaine Clement, he won the 1999 Billy T comedy award for
their Humourbeasts duo.
>
> He grew up in Wellington making theatre and comedy with a team
of friends he still works with 15 years later.
>
> "I grew up in the theatre world doing comedy with my mates,
mainly writing comedy in the old days because no one would hire
us or put us in their plays," he said.
>
> "So we were forced to make our own stuff up. You just want to
hang out with people who are like you and find the same things
funny."
>
> Waititi says his humour is influenced by British comedy.
>
> "I grew up watching, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones,
Blackadder, British comedy mainly. I wouldn't say I got my
humour from Charles in Charge or Benson."
>
> Super City is still in production and an air time is yet to be
announced.
--- End Quote ---
About Super City from its TV3.co.nz page, which is gone now,
--- Quote ---
> ABOUT THE SHOW
>
> SUPER CITY is a six-part comedy series starring Madeleine Sami
(Jaquie Brown Diaries & Sione’s Wedding) and directed by
Taika Waititi (Boy & Eagle vs. Shark).
>
> Sami hilariously transforms into five acutely observed and
very different characters all living in our country’s
super city. There’s Pasha, an aging cheerleader clinging
to her partying lifestyle; Azeem, an immigrant taxi driver
embracing Maori culture; Jo, a closeted gym instructor in love
with her best friend; Linda, the runt of her “old
girls” clique fostering impoverished artists and Georgie,
a homeless girl whose freedom is unexpectedly interrupted.
>
> Super City is an edgy yet heartfelt satire. Sami’s
delusional characters shock through the ludicrously awkward
scenarios they find themselves in.
>
>
> ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
>
> Writers Madeleine Sami & Thomas Sainsbury researched potential
microcosms within Auckland over six months. They spent a lot of
time at the city mission, in gyms, in taxi depots, with
cheerleaders and around art galleries. Through this process they
created the five characters and storylines in Super City. This
research also provided Madeleine with mannerisms to work into
her performances.
>
> The research period also exposed the development team to
several potential performers. It was decided early in the
process that ‘real people’ would perform opposite
Madeleine to provide a “straight” reality to play
the comedy against. Super City stars ‘Wilf’ who
really works at the City Mission, ‘Lipton’ who is a
real rough sleeper, ‘Paddy’ who is a real gym
instructor, the cheerleaders are also real cheerleaders and
Azeem’s taxi mates both drive taxis in real life.
--- End Quote ---
[/spoiler]
#Post#: 147--------------------------------------------------
Re: Super City (2011) - general discussion
DIR By: Sylwia
Date: January 22, 2018, 8:29 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[spoiler=Interviews with Madeleine Sami]
INTERVIEWS WITH MADELEINE SAMI. It's interesting to learn about
her more, since they're friends and I've highlighted the parts
where she mentions Taika.
From NZ Herald, link broken.
--- Quote ---
> Madeleine Sami - the chameleon
> January 2, 2011
>
> Nicky Watson is a muse. New Zealand's favourite calendar girl
was the inspiration for one of Madeleine Sami's alter-egos on
the new show Super City, which will be screening on TV3 this
year.
>
> As the show's creator, co-writer and star, playing five
characters, one of this country's greatest acting talents has
been handed her perfect vehicle to shine.
>
> Sami has already proven her dexterity for multiple roles,
winning plaudits for her breakthrough theatre performance in Toa
Fraser's hit play No 2. In Super City she plays an ageing promo
girl, competitive gym instructor Iranian cabby, wealthy divorcee
and homeless girl.
>
> "Making up lots of characters is what comes most naturally to
me," says Sami.
>
> She had been working on the idea for some time before Chris
Lilley's hilarious Australian mockumentary Summer Heights High
hit our screens.
>
> "I was gutted that someone beat me to it and did it so well,"
she says.
>
> Despite being along similar lines, Sami says her show has more
drama mixed in with the comedy. She has had expert help from
director and good mate, Taika Waititi, on striking that balance.
>
> Sami says she is hugely patriotic about her hometown, but the
show's name is a dig at the newly united city's grandiose title.
>
> "The name 'Supercity', I find it ridiculous for Auckland. It's
such a huge name and Super City, the show, is about the little
lives that go on inside the 'Supercity'."
--- End Quote ---
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-news/entertainment/4566240/Sami-but-different
--- Quote ---
> Sami but different
> NICOLA RUSSELL, Jan 29 2011
>
> Talented Madeleine Sami has spent the past eight months as
five people, writes Nicola Russell.
>
> SHE'S one of New Zealand's hottest things in acting,
improvisation and comedy, has her own new show coming out soon
on TV3 and, if that wasn't enough, has just recorded an album
with her band.
>
> Her best friends include Boy director Taika Waititi,
Outrageous Fortune's Antonia Prebble and Bro' Town creator Oscar
Kightley.
>
> She's Madeleine Sami and she is sitting opposite me in an
Auckland cafe, crosslegged like a schoolgirl, casually dressed
without a speck of make-up. She's naturally gorgeous but
unnaturally tired.
>
> Tired because she has spent the past eight months as five
people – Pasha, Jo, Georgie, Linda and Azeem – for
her new TV3 comedy/drama Supercity.
>
> When she wasn't playing multiple personalities, Sami was holed
up in a room with playwright Thomas Sainsbury and director
Waititi.
>
> "It was a really full-on experience – probably the most
full-on role I've ever done. When I was writing it I didn't
think about how long it was going to take and the fact I was
going to be playing five leads in a show. Pretty much, I didn't
have any days off and there wasn't a scene I wasn't in. In fact,
there wasn't a shot I wasn't in.
>
> "I went to Fiji last year, at the end of shooting. It was a
bit hard to unwind after doing 16-hour days for six weeks
– a slow process of getting back to myself. Having to be
five different people for six weeks does things to your brain a
little bit, but I'm normal now," she jokes in an abnormal voice.
>
> Supercity's intensity has left little room for socialising.
Sami even wrote Prebble a cameo on Supercity so she could spend
time with her.
>
> "A couple of years before this we just were party girls all
the time.
>
> "I was practically the third person at her flat. I had a
toothbrush there. I haven't seen anything of her all year. We
have basically been text buddies and now she is down in
Christchurch doing this play and I miss her," she says in an
exaggerated sad voice.
>
> When Waititi is in town, he, Sami and Kightley catch up. "We
just joke around, have a bit of a drink and talk about ideas.
Oscar's got a really similar sense of humour to Taika and I.
He's very smart and very dry. Cool guy. I try to hang out with
those guys whenever I can."
>
> It's in these moments with family and friends that Sami's
characters are often born. "I often break into characters with
my friends and with my family. It's kind of like a testing
ground to see if a character works. Georgie, she's the homeless
girl in the show, came out when I was actually rehearsing for a
play.
>
> "Maybe I was a bit bored of rehearsal and I started playing
this character and the other actors started responding to her."
>
> Sami relaxes by playing music, "having a bit of a dance and a
drink", going to the gym and walking. Her favourite place is
where she grew up: Onehunga.
>
> While at Onehunga High, she did theatre sports and acted with
what is now known as the Massive Theatre company. "The first
year out of school I went, `Okay I'm going to try acting'. I did
a show called Bare and started touring it in festivals around
the world."
>
> With Bare and then the hit play, No2, Sami spent years touring
her craft internationally. Roles in Shortland Street, Jaquie
Brown Diaries and Sione's Wedding followed. It's a long list of
achievements for a young actor but she downplays it.
>
> "I just don't think there is anything else I can do. I'm
pretty useless at most other things, except for acting –
like making up silly voices and doing characters."
>
> I point out her modesty. "Well, you don't want to say you are
good at stuff all the time," she laughs. "That's why I find it
so hard doing interviews. Give me a character and I'm fine. I
just hate talking about myself, it's scary."
>
> It transpires Sami was head girl at Onehunga High School and
dux at sports. "That means I was brainiest at sports," she mocks
with a cheeky smile. She also had a band with best high school
friend, Outrageous Fortune's Wesley Dowdell.
>
> "He's a drummer, and we had a band called The Unripe Melons.
We won the 1997 talent quest with a song about a stalker."
>
> She now sings and plays guitar in a band with her two sisters,
aptly called The Sami Sisters, and they have just mastered their
new album.
>
> "We all sing and we all write songs. It's basically three
singer-songwriters for the price of one. The style of our music
is quite mixed. There's a bit of '80s, country, '50s – a
bit of everything."
>
> At 30, she is the oldest of her two sisters, 23 and 28. "I'm
the oldest on paper but my sisters rule the roost. They are far
more dominant than me. I'm kind of like the fence sitter...
Sometimes I'm, like, `I wish Daniel was here'."
>
> Daniel is Sami's "shy" older brother with a great karaoke
voice. He lives in Australia with her two nephews and a niece.
>
> If he lived here Sami says he would also be in the band.
>
> Born to a Fijian father and a New Zealand/Irish mother Sami
describes herself as a "curried potato". Her sense of humour,
she says, undoubtedly comes from her mother's side.
>
> "My mum's family are all Irish Catholic – hilarious
people. I would say I got my start in acting by doing Kylie Mole
impressions at family parties when I was, like, eight. My
cousins are funnier than me."
>
> Her mum is a regular supporter at The Sami Sisters
performances. "If mum's in the audience we've got the banter. My
mum's got proper white hair and we heckle her."
>
> I ask what her father, who recently died from a liver ailment,
gave her. "My good looks," she quips. "Nah, my dad actually was
the one who had a guitar at home, so probably the music side of
things. Dad had his own wacky sense of humour, too."
>
> Fitting all her achievements into the 12 years since leaving
school is no mean feat, helped perhaps by the fact she doesn't
sleep a lot.
>
> "I'm not much of a sleeper. I'm one of those people who wakes
up really early even if I've gone out all night and I'm
hungover. I'll still wake up early and go to the gym to try and
sweat out the toxins."
>
> At 30 Sami says she has stopped putting so much pressure on
herself to achieve. She is more comfortable in her own skin.
>
> "I like being 30. I feel more settled in myself. There are
certain things I don't give a shit about now: body issues or
being cool. I never cared about being cool because I've always
been a dork. I've always just been that crazy actor girl."
>
> Supercity premieres soon on TV3.
--- End Quote ---
---------------------------------------------------------
www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/4630264/The-many-faces-of-Madeleine-Sami
(I think it's broken as well)
--- Quote ---
> The many faces of Madeleine Sami
> Last updated 12:26 08/02/2011
> KIMBERLEY ROTHWELL
>
> Madeleine Sami; the girl who graced the cover of Metro
magazine with a tiny, gorilla-suited Peter Jackson as she swung
from the Sky Tower, the headline reading "Auckland Rules Ok! How
Wellington is losing the culture wars", is sitting at Ernesto
wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. It's the last day of the
sound mix she's doing at Park Road Post, one of the film
companies Sir Peter has his fingers in, for her new show Super
City. It's surprising, one might think, that such a proud
Aucklander would venture down to Sir Peter's stomping ground to
put the final touches on a show that celebrates Auckland.
Surprising they let her through the door.
>
> "I totally forgot about that [Metro cover]!" she laughs. "I'm
sure he would have had a sense of humour about it. It was quite
a sensational article, deliberating stirring up some sort of
argument. I think that article is more about Auckland finally
having the confidence to say, 'hey we've actually got a bit of
an arts thing going on here'."
>
> That "arts thing" is one of the areas Sami touches on in Super
City, a show in which she plays five characters from different
points of the Auckland spectrum. There's Georgie, a homeless
woman, who sleeps in the public library and dines at the city
mission; Azeem, an Iranian immigrant with an out of control
monobrow and a passion for all things Maori; Pasha, a promo girl
and party animal who might be getting too old for her hot pants;
Jo, a closeted gym instructor who's had highlights done on her
pubic hair; and Linda, a well-meaning, wealthy ex-private school
girl who's decided to become an arts patron.
>
> Not only is Sami in practically every shot, she's also
co-written the show. "I love, I embrace all that is wonderful
about Auckland and everything that is gross. Within each
character there is something that is gross and endearing about
Auckland. A lot of the characters are deluded about who they
are. Who they are clashes with what they want, and what they
expect of themselves. They have this idea they are this one
thing, but when we see them, it's so obvious to us they're
another."
>
> The production's been two years in the pipeline, with hours of
research hanging around taxi drivers, cheerleaders, rough
sleepers, art galleries and gyms. Some of the people they met
have ended up in the show, including Paddy, Jo's fiance, who is
really Sami's personal trainer. Even co-writer Tom Sainsbury
made a cameo.
>
> The tight budget - the show got just over a $1 million from
New Zealand On Air - and the desire to take their time shooting,
meant that many of the crew ended up with multiple roles. The
shoot was kept as simple as possible, with Boy's Taika Waititi
directing.
>
> "Every crew member had about three jobs," says Sami. "Our unit
[catering] girl Trish set up her table, but we didn't have a
continuity person, so she'd be doing that while we were
shooting, and then she'd go back and be making sure there were
enough bananas, and cutting up carrots to hand around to
everybody. I was doing casting and directing at one point, and
writing music. We'd turn up to set and go 'oh shit! We forgot to
cast that part'. It was really fun. We didn't want it to feel
like a TV show, where people get really precious about their
departments. This was like making it as easy as we could to just
push record on the camera and shoot."
>
> Sami wanted the script to act as a foundation for the story,
as a launching point for any improvisation.
>
> "Taika's really good with that as well, he loves
guerilla-style film making. We would point and shoot and see
what would come out. I always find that the most exciting stuff,
when random stuff happens."
>
> To create these characters, Sami's had to undergo some, shall
we say, physical transformation. To become Azeem, she's donned
not only a full beard but a monobrow that could have its own
show.
>
> "I'm obviously quite a delicate little woman, so we struggled
with Azeem . . . we needed something that changed me quite a
bit, a squarer jaw. If you're going to give me a moustache and a
beard, we thought we'd go the whole hog, to balance out the face
or something, I don't know. A lot of Iranian men were very clean
shaven and very neat and tidy, so Azeem is quite scruffy."
>
> There's also Pasha, who's bleach blonde, blue-eyed, and
spray-tanned. "You know what, it's so funny how people change
around you when you're blonde, blue-eyed and dress like a slut.
Because people get crushes on you. I would get people flirting
and hitting on me when I was dressed up like her. It was kind of
disheartening, it's so cheap."
>
> It's got to be a lot of pressure on the actress to have the
show finally make it to the screen? "Am I going to poo? Is that
what you're asking me? Yes. I will probably have a good, stiff
drink in the morning."
>
> The Details
>
> What: Super City
> When: Friday, 10pm
> Where: TV3
>
> - The Dominion Post
--- End Quote ---
Her style of creativity, relying on improvisation is similar to
Taika's. I'd be very stressed out on the set like this!
---------------------------------------------------------
Appeared on NZ Life Style Yahoo website in March 2011, link
broken.
--- Quote ---
> Madeline Sami: Putting super in the city
>
> This Kiwi star put in the hard yards playing five roles in the
TV series she helped write
>
> Eager to lure hot-shot director Taika Waititi to work on her
new show, Madeleine Sami had to pull out all the stops.
>
> The Kiwi actress knew she'd have to offer a lucrative deal to
sign on the Boy director to her new show, Super City.
>
> But after being assured he would be treated like a king and
surrounded by a bevy of beauties, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker
agreed to join his good friend on her quest for small-screen
glory.
>
> 'I lured him with promises I could never fulfil,' Madeleine
says. 'I told him we'd get him a deckchair on set, that he would
be pampered, he'd have his own masseuse, everyone would call him
"sir" and no one would look him in the eye.'
>
> But Taika was prepared to take the job for their friendship
– and the drawcard of directing a show filled with
attractive talent.
>
> 'We decided early on that "babenessness" [good looks] should
be compulsory for our crew,' Madeleine says, laughing. 'Just for
when spirits are down and everyone's a bit tired, we could look
at each other and go, "Hey, it's cool. We're all still babes."'
>
> After years of playing second fiddle to the Bro'Town boys and
Jaquie Brown, the raven-haired beauty takes all the leading
roles in the new TV3 comedy-drama.
>
> Take five
>
> It follows the lives of five Auckland residents – Jo, a
personal trainer, Azeem, an Iranian immigrant taxi driver,
Linda, an art critic from the chic suburb of Parnell, Pasha, an
ageing blonde Indian cheerleader, and Georgie, a homeless chick.
>
> 'I love Auckland so much,' Madeleine explains. 'Every aspect
of it, the rich, the poor, the ethnic, the tacky, and the
slutty. I wanted to combine all these bits into a show. And of
course give myself all the main parts.'
>
> However, taking on all five roles was a challenge for the
actress of Indian and Irish heritage.
>
> 'It was confusing trying to remember who I was at the end of
the shoot,' she says. 'It was exhausting. I was pretty much in
every single scene, so it was definitely a test of my stamina.'
>
> The project has consumed Madeleine's life since she wrote the
script two years ago, with playwright Thomas Sainsbury. But
while filming kept her from family and friends, it didn't come
between her and her music.
>
> Band of sisters
>
> As she was shooting the series, Madeleine also found time to
record an album with The Sami Sisters. The band features her and
her two younger sisters, Anji, 28, and Priya, 23, who she
managed to weave into the show.
>
> 'My sisters have a cameo as a band [on Super City]. But it's
sort of blink-and-you-miss-it,' she says, adding they're going
to be spending quality time together in the coming months.
>
> 'We're rehearsing a lot at the moment. We are practising for
an album release, which should be in the next couple of months.'
>
> Now with her show about to debut on TV3, the multi-talented
star is focusing on reconnecting with those closest to her.
>
> 'I've had no life for the last two years. I'm starting to
reconnect with my friends and family now,' Madeleine says.
'Ahh… it's nice to have a life back.'
>
> By Tammy Buckley
> • Super City screens on Fridays, 10pm, TV3
--- End Quote ---
[/spoiler]
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