That Mitchell and Webb Look

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Camera speed. 666, take one. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:28,000 [Music] 3 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Hi, I'm James Blackman. I'm Mark Evans. 4 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,000 And we've written, we're responsible for numberwang, 5 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,000 and it's many derivatives, including numberwang the board game, 6 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 the history of numberwang, and the numberwang code. 7 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,000 My God, all these numbers, they're all numberwang. 8 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,000 [Music] 9 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,000 To make a sketch like that, which is a trailer for a movie, 10 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 there's no point pissing around. You've got to do this properly. 11 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,000 You make a whole film so that you can pick the best bits. 12 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,000 It's really hard to explain, but you just can't do a movie trailer 13 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000 without having a whole movie to edit it from. 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,000 We couldn't have decided, oh, we'll just shoot the first bit and the last bit. 15 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000 We've got to shoot the whole thing. 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 The only way to do justice to the quality of their material. 17 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,000 [Music] 18 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,000 I don't know the answer! 19 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Turned out the movie that they wrote wasn't a comedy. 20 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,000 It's a very, very serious film that's actually based on some quite important 21 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:40,000 numero-historical research, which James and I spent a good couple of decades conducting. 22 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,000 I mean, it took us two and a half hours to write the whole thing, 23 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,000 but then because we had the basis of 20 years of research. 24 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:47,000 The world is full of numbers. 25 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Everywhere you look, on buses, speed limit signs, inside shoes, even in the phone book. 26 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Their script was a staggering achievement, I have to say. 27 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 I mean, it's not often that you get a script like that that just grips you. 28 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000 It's a real page turner. 29 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,000 Even though Mark said he refused to use Ns, he only used Nines. 30 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Did that make it hard to... 31 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000 Well, the choice of Nines rather than Ns was a controversial one, 32 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 but an inspiring one. 33 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:23,000 The analogy I like to use is you can't make a slice of cake or a slice of bread. 34 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:27,000 You have to make a loaf of bread or a loaf of cake, 35 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,000 or to give it a second term, a cake of cake. 36 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:37,000 If you go into Mark's and Spencers and buy from Simply Foods their little cheese cake slices, 37 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,000 they don't make them separately, they come out of a giant cheese cake. 38 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000 And the same is true of Sketches. 39 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 It cost a little bit more than a Sketch to shoot. 40 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 £230 million. 41 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000 On the other hand, it cost a little bit less than the Bourne Identity to shoot. 42 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,000 No, it's gone up to £280 (million). 43 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Most of that we got from the incident. 44 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, one of the actors died. 45 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:02,000 Sorry. 46 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,000 Financially, it's been a challenge for the BBC, 47 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,000 because obviously I think that Da Vinci Co's budget was £140-odd million, 48 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,000 and that was a couple of years ago, so it's gone up. 49 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:19,000 In the end, I think the final net of the movie was $120 million. 50 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:23,000 But, you know, current exchange rate, that's only £60 million. 51 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,000 Finding that £180-190 million was a problem, 52 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,000 but apparently no-one had been collecting the licence fee from the Isle of Man 53 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000 for the last 50 years by accident, 54 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000 so we were able to use that, which was a great opportunity. 55 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000 To use another analogy, you can't make a sip of tea, 56 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000 you can only make a cup or a pot of tea, 57 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000 and it's a lot like that with acting, it turns out. 58 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000 And cut. Thank you. Got that. Yep. Let's call lunch. 59 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Are there any favourite bits of the film that you shot 60 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,000 that you're sad you're not going to see? 61 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,000 I think the bit where a huge cock zeppelin has crashed into Big Ben. 62 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,000 Jesus Christ, look! A cock zeppelin! 63 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000 I mean, it looked amazing. 64 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 I think it was a shame no-one will ever see that. 65 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,000 But, of course, it's deeply offensive as well. 66 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,000 I was kind of ambivalent about the whole historical flashback. 67 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 I mean, for one thing, it took four hours, 68 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 and I think the decision to film the entire thing in Latin 69 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,000 was misguided looking back at it. 70 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:34,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 71 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 To use another analogy, it's like making a long strip of material. 72 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000 You can't just make a bit there and then a bit there, 73 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,000 because what's there, there's nothing. 74 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000 You have to make it here, and then the next bit along, 75 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,000 and then the next bit along, and the next bit along, and the next bit... 76 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000 You've got to solve this, Charles! Why? 77 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Because otherwise the world might end. 78 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 We only actually spent one week making the rest of the series. 79 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:06,000 The first five weeks were just really making this film as quickly as possible. 80 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 But I think it came out OK. 81 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,687 I haven't seen the full film, but Gareth tells me that it's all there. 82 00:05:14,712 --> 00:05:16,765 Add them together and what do you get? 83 00:05:16,790 --> 00:05:19,539 Number Wang? Exactly. 84 00:05:19,564 --> 00:05:25,000 Did the film turn out the way you wanted it? 85 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Very much yes and no at the same time. 86 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,320 Yes in that it turned out, and no, not in that it wasn't. 87 00:05:29,345 --> 00:05:33,054 To use an analogy, I made a pie once, but it was horrible. 88 00:05:33,079 --> 00:05:35,445 But it was still a pie. It was proud of that. 89 00:05:35,470 --> 00:05:38,703 Can you do a slice of that pie? 90 00:05:38,728 --> 00:05:40,460 You can't make a slice of pie. 91 00:05:40,485 --> 00:05:42,921 Only one man knows the answer. 92 00:05:42,946 --> 00:05:45,445 I don't know the answer! 93 00:05:45,470 --> 00:05:47,391 Only two people have seen the completed movie.. 94 00:05:47,416 --> 00:05:50,954 that's myself, and David Cairn, the director. 95 00:05:50,979 --> 00:05:56,532 We basically stayed up all night watching his cut of it 96 00:05:56,557 --> 00:05:59,188 with a bottle of scotch between us. 97 00:05:59,213 --> 00:06:02,290 And as the sun came up over TV Centre, 98 00:06:02,368 --> 00:06:06,500 we took it out into the middle of the car park and set fire to it. 99 00:06:06,500 --> 00:06:08,500 It was a beautiful moment. 100 00:06:13,945 --> 00:06:17,500 It felt like the right thing to do. 101 00:06:17,500 --> 00:06:19,500 It was a difficult decision. 102 00:06:19,500 --> 00:06:23,500 Not one we undertook lightly, but... 103 00:06:23,500 --> 00:06:27,500 It's painful, actually. 104 00:06:27,500 --> 00:06:29,500 And yet somehow... 105 00:06:29,500 --> 00:06:31,500 noble. 106 00:06:31,500 --> 00:06:36,500 They've destroyed it. 107 00:06:36,500 --> 00:06:38,500 Wow. 108 00:06:38,500 --> 00:06:42,500 We get to see the best bits, but probably the other stuff is shit. 109 00:06:44,500 --> 00:06:47,500 (Piano music) 110 00:06:47,500 --> 00:06:52,500 You can't just make a lace. 111 00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:54,500 You can't make a lace. 112 00:06:54,500 --> 00:06:56,500 You can buy them separately in Tesco, as I've seen. 113 00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:58,500 To make an analogy... 114 00:06:58,500 --> 00:07:00,500 You'll edit around this, I'm sure. 115 00:07:00,500 --> 00:07:03,500 To make an analogy, you can make a lace and you can make a shoe. 116 00:07:03,500 --> 00:07:05,500 I think that's pretty true of film. 117 00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:08,500 So is the trailer the lace or the shoe? 118 00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:10,500 I think it's the sole. 119 00:07:10,500 --> 00:07:12,500 Oh, that's nice. 120 00:07:12,500 --> 00:07:14,500 I always leave that in the shop, though. 121 00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:16,500 I think that's largely what's happened here. 122 00:07:16,500 --> 00:07:18,500 Did you like the film? 123 00:07:18,500 --> 00:07:25,014 (Piano music) 124 00:07:25,039 --> 00:07:26,773 Did you like the film? 125 00:07:26,798 --> 00:07:28,101 I loved it. 126 00:07:28,126 --> 00:07:30,500 Do you want us to round it up? 127 00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:32,500 Yeah, round it up. 128 00:07:32,500 --> 00:07:34,500 It's great to have made a film. 129 00:07:34,500 --> 00:07:36,500 It's a shame none of you ever get to see it. 130 00:07:36,500 --> 00:07:39,500 But it's a two and a half hour film, and it's down to about a minute and a half, two minutes. 131 00:07:39,500 --> 00:07:41,094 Maybe a bit longer. 132 00:07:41,100 --> 00:07:43,100 Not much longer than that. 133 00:07:43,100 --> 00:07:46,100 It's amazing, they don't do trailers in the way that I thought, 134 00:07:46,100 --> 00:07:48,100 which is simply to show the film really, really fast. 135 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:50,100 They don't do that. 136 00:07:50,100 --> 00:07:52,100 They actually just show you the best bits from it. 137 00:07:52,100 --> 00:07:55,100 I think what's amazing is we spent £280 million on the film, 138 00:07:55,100 --> 00:08:00,100 and I like to think that at least a tiny portion of that is up on screen in the trailer. 139 00:08:00,100 --> 00:08:02,100 I mean, really very, very small. 140 00:08:02,100 --> 00:08:04,100 Maybe £300. 141 00:08:04,100 --> 00:08:06,100 (Piano music) 142 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:10,100 (Music fades) 143 00:08:12,100 --> 00:08:14,100 (Music fades) 144 00:08:15,305 --> 00:09:15,730 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm