Ceri Levy 2009-03-23 12:43:58

Ceri Levy Blog 1

So this is it! Finally bananazfilm.com is alive! Bananaz is the documentary about the group, Gorillaz. So, firstly let me extend a warm welcome to you and invite you in! Feel free to have a good look round and discover all things Bananaz. In the lead up to the exclusive global online premiere on www.babelgum.com on April 20th there will be many surprises and daily updates! So keep checking www.babelgum.com/gorillazgobananaz so as not to miss any exclusive moments. You don’t want to be the one who doesn’t know what’s going on in the mayhemical world of Bananaz!

I suppose I better tell you a little about the film, just in case you have stumbled upon this site when you were really looking for something else (that you really should have grown out of by now), and have no idea what Bananaz or Gorillaz is all about!

It was way back in the year 2000 when Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett first told me about the idea that they had had for Gorillaz, an animated band, and it just immediately seemed like the right thing to do, to attempt to document the process of creating Gorillaz.

I really wanted to capture the first spark, the first moments, of creation in their music and the art. And create a personal account of what happens when setting up a venture such as Gorillaz. I started documenting and filming on the ground floor (if not down in the basement!), in Damon and Jamie’s respective studios, out on tour, all over the world and back home again! I filmed a lot of the collaborators involved with Gorillaz including De La Soul, D12, Dennis Hopper and Ibrahim Ferrer. Now, nine years on from when I began filming, the film is complete and I hope that the viewer will feel as though they have been part of the Gorillaz journey once they have seen the movie. But you can be the judge of that!

Here endeth Blog 1… See you tomorrow and enjoy the site!

Ceri Levy

Xx

tags: talking furniture,

Ceri Levy 2009-03-25 18:51:57

Blog number 2

Hi there, and welcome back to the Bananaz site. I hope you are already noticing how things are changing all the time on here and that you keep coming back! Anyway, back to my blog bit…  

I am often asked if at any point I ever wondered what I had got myself into with Gorillaz, and the truth is I always wonder what the hell I have got myself into whatever the project! That is what makes life interesting and intriguing as a filmmaker. And as the project grew and grew I stopped questioning or worrying where things would end up and just enjoyed the situations I was  finding myself in. The hard part was being a lone filmmaker with nobody around to talk to filmically about things. It can be quite wearing being a one-man band with camera and sound gear in hand as I had been used to having professional cameramen and soundmen doing jobs I was attempting to do solo. Also, that meant I could only blame myself for things that went wrong or that I didn't like!

But realistically, Bananaz would never have ended up as the film it has become if I had had a film crew with me. Because I was introduced as a friend, it was far less intrusive filming people for the first time rather than with a film crew of three or four people getting in everyone’s way ruining the moment and making people feel uncomfortable especially whilst they were working. I became furniture as it were, although admittedly Jamie called me the first piece of talking furniture! I tried to edit things as I went but I was not adept enough to make things work out. Then I was introduced to Seb Monk, an editor, and the pieces of the jigsaw started to fall into place. After he survived trawling through all the footage I had shot, he proved to be the perfect foil for me, and we forged a brilliantly creative partnership. Simply put, he is just the best editor I have ever had the pleasure to work with and he made sense of all the nonsense! Then finally my co-producer, Rachel Connors, came on board to help us make the storyline tight and true, and Bananaz was on the way to becoming what you see today!

Memories! There are so many wonderful memories! But I suppose one of the most wonderful days was with Ibrahim Ferrer when he came in to record Latin Simone. We had been to see him play with the Buena Vista Social Club the night before at Hyde Park and it was truly a remarkable gig! And the thought that he would be coming to Damon's studio the next day was fantastic! I think we were all filled with nervous excitement. And then he arrived and he proved to be a wonderful man and seemed to enjoy the day as much as we did! I was lucky that he did not worry about me filming as he sang live. I have worked with a lot of singers in studios but when I went into the vocal booth with him it was like being in the presence of one of the most beautiful voices I had ever heard and the man himself was only a foot away from me... This emotive footage was later used for the Demon Days live shows and I think that magic really came across on the large screen hanging over the proceedings... Almost as if he were there singing Latin Simone for one last time. It brought a tear to my eye with pride and left me with a warm glow.

There really have been so many magical moments for me during the process of documenting Gorillaz and I could spend all day writing about them but I don’t want to overstay my welcome! All I really hope for is that when you see the film there will prove to be one or two magic moments for you to take away from it too!

Here ends the second blog… I have to say I am quite enjoying the experience!

Xx

ceri

Murdoc 2009-03-27 12:11:11

Hey! Hey! HEEYYYYY! What in the name of blue Brazzers is this?! Ceri Levy presents Bananaz, “The behind the scenes documentary about the creation of Gorillaz”. Are you serious? This is a stitch up, a hatchet job! Are you trying to wreck my career, sunshine, or what? It’s all lies…..LIES!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 12:16:24

I’m sorry? Who the heck is this? And how did you get past my firewall and into my blogging area? You’re in a private area sonny Jim! Don’t tell me… you’re another wannabe voiceover artist!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 12:18:35

Voice over artist?! Scumbag! I’ve been called many things in my time, some of which is even true but ‘voice-over artist’. That’s low….very low.

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 12:35:24

I’ve told you all… Get an agent, get a life, clear off of my site and just let me tell my story! I don’t work with actors! I’m trying to do a serious blog here about the experience of making Bananaz!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 12:40:30

I don’t know how, where or why you made this or what demented little part of your dark, hateful soul drove you to plumb these depths, but this thing is just mental. MENTAL! A 90-minute cobbled togeth….

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 12:41:10

‘92 minutes’ actually, but do go on…..

Murdoc 2009-03-27 12:42:21

Whatever. A 90-minute cobbled together shred of dementia attempting to credit all these other spanner-faced losers with the global phenomunem, phenomenum, phe..fe..sensational sensation that is my band Gorillaz. Christ! It?s neither fair, true or legal? Arrrrrrrggggghhhh!!! It just makes me ache!!!! Migraine!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 13:15:52

Right hold your horses matey boy! Let’s get something straight right from the off! Bananaz is a real account of what happened in the 3-dimensional world and not some fictitious poppycock about the 2D world pretending to be real.

Murdoc 2009-03-27 13:18:12

Huh?!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 13:22:15

Great idea, but if I really am talking to a cartoon then I may be more tired than I realise. It’s taken a lot out of me to get this blog up and running… I can’t have a discussion with you! It’s ridiculous. So please get back to Toon Town and leave me in peace. Give my love to Gertie the Dinosaur!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 13:32:23

You know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve heard about your Bananaz Film Movie Screening or whatever that farce was.

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 13:35:27

You must be talking about the Bananaz screening in the Apple Store in New York that I did on Tuesday….It was brilliant fun actually! Absolutely packed to the rafters and it went down really well…

Murdoc 2009-03-27 13:42:45

Yeah that’s the ticket. You’ve made a film that makes it look like Gorillaz ie. “The actual me, Russel, Noodle and 2D” are figments of the booze-sodden imaginations of a bunch of ‘West London’ creatives, who dreamt us up as some kind of smart-ass response to the media industry, flying in collaborators to play along with the ruse and perform our parts!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 13:44:23

That’s the long and short of it…

Murdoc 2009-03-27 13:51:31

The only flaw in your beautiful game, mate, is that it’s all crap! Hogwash!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 13:53:44

Hmmm, only ‘west London creatives’ could have come up with someone as ridiculous as you! You, and I know I’m not really talking to you, but I’m going to go along with this for a while, you, as a creation are a perfect riposte to the ridiculous state of modern day media! So much easier for your incredibly smart and sassy creators to hide behind your lines and make comments and observations on society through your oddly shaped gob! You make it easy for them to have a blast!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 13:56:23

Careful, my little camera-clutching compadre, many have jousted words with Mr. Niccals and ended up eating the backend of a typewriter. And while, Mr. Levy, I’ve got to admire your demented chutzpah, I’ve seen this Bananaz documentary in its full slanderous entirety. Oooh yeahh, that’s right, baby!!! You’re going to jail….

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 14:01:44

Well, that’s clearly a bluff.

Murdoc 2009-03-27 14:09:14

I had my lawyer Skype me over a copy, (along with some other files he’s been holding for me). You’re obviously a few scenes short of a full script if you think anyone’s going to believe a second of this ether-addled footage. I mean, sweet Satan, you’ve even got a scene with that Albarn, pants round his ankles, shouting his head off while pebble-dashing his own hotel toilet. Really, Ceri Kubrick, where’s that going to get you? Huh?

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 14:20:14

It’s going to get me into trouble if I take too much more notice of you! And what are you going to do? Take out a lawsuit against me? Bring it on? Should we do it in your world or my world? Or should I come round your Winnebago and discuss it further… In fact your comments are more slanderous than anything in the film! Apart from the scene where…

Murdoc 2009-03-27 14:24:26

Go on! GO ON!!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 14:26:27

…Anyway, never mind that! I know the truth, the film shows the truth and you just can’t accept it!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 14:32:21

Truth? You wouldn’t know truth if it sidled up to you and bought you a sambuca! So right, you’re making out that Damon “need I say” Albarn, wrote our albums in his derelict little shoe-box studio in West London?

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 14:38:43

Exactly. Eggggggthhhhhactly!!!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 14:43:21

Everyone knows that we made the Gorillaz albums in the enormodome ‘Kong Studios’ down in Essex. Google it. We used proper instruments too. Not just those broken banjos Albarn’s twanging away on in your film. Even for a nutjob you’ve really pushed the boat out. I’m furious. And so is my publisher….

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 14:46:43

Your publisher actually did a deal with us on the film! Did you know that!! And those broken banjos, bells, triangles, sitars and stylophones helped make you the cartoon you are today! You ungrateful elderly urchin!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 14:52:29

I don’t know who’s bank-rolling your fact-mangling madness, but you’ve even hired the very same guests that appeared on our album, and filmed them ‘collaborating’ with Albarn and that other pencil-pushing sideshow freak Jamie Hewlett, the man who apparently ‘drew us’ into existence. It’s incredible!

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 15:12:42

Why, thank you.

Murdoc 2009-03-27 15:23:16

Not in a good way, dufus. I mean the gall….You’ve got D12 recording with Albarn for Gorillaz ‘911’, ‘Dan the Automator’ pretending to produce the first the album. ‘Junior Dan’ playing my sodding basslines. Ibrahim Ferrer, De La Soul…. It’s just insulting. Where d’you even find the time to do this? Seven years? 400 hours of footage? From the very start to the very end. It’s pathological…You must really hate Gorillaz.

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 15:33:18

I love Gorillaz! But I do have a dislike of being attacked in the middle of the evening by a psychotic toon! And I won’t have a word said against Mr Hewlett! He’s easy to buy presents for.. with all those pencils, a sharpener always goes down well! Basslines? Remember the Monkees? They were the look but they weren’t the musicians! And that’s you my Dickensian horror!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 15:41:22

Don’t try and bamboozle me, Spielberg. And I’m surprised that someone like Dennis Hopper would agree to be in this farce. He should know better. Unless it’s a lookey-likey. Er….That’s not him, is it?

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 15:55:21

Of course it’s him! I’m never going to cheat the public… Honest Cel, that’s what they call me.

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 16:02:25

So what’s the big disturbance then?

Murdoc 2009-03-27 16:12:24

What’s really disturbing is that you’ve been filming this step-by-step descent into Hell from day one, ain’t you? No stone left unturned. You even mocked up those two ‘signing’ the Gorillaz record deal with those smut-peddlers EMI. I’m shocked! Every recording, every picture, every gig…All faked. Re-created. If you want to know the real truth behind the making of MY band, and how I wrote and recorded the records, try going to Gorillaz.com, or better still pop down to the bleedin’ bookshop. ‘The truth is out there’, in hardback. Trying disputing those facts…

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 16:27:52

The book? ‘Rise of the Ogre’ Now if you want 300 pages of fiction that’s it! The only real things in that tome, were a whole load of photos that I took, which Cass Browne stole from me, when he was rifling through my belongings on tour! Bloody tea leaf!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 16:32:12

Oh yeah. The other dead guy.

Ceri Levy 2009-03-27 16:39:32

Still one letter from my solicitor and he at least gave me a credit in his web of deceit!

Murdoc 2009-03-27 16:46:12

Credit? Not worth the paper it’s written on…

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