Kelly designs ‘The Film Team’

World renowned art director, Errol Kelly has enhanced his creativity to take up filmmaking with his latest project film production company, ‘The Film Team’.

The creative art director who contributed his inborn talent beginning with Lester James Peries' ‘Madol Doowa’ to Steven Spielberg's 'Indiana Jones' is now ready to take up any role in making visual productions from half a minute commercials to hours long feature films for any audience local and international.

Having started less than year ‘The Film Team’ (private) Limited has already started massive productions for the international market. The latest assignment a commercial on a newly introduced computer package for a German company. Kelly with his team comprising veteran actor Ravindra Randeniya, Gopi Dharmaratnam and Aensley de Silva is now ready to take up even more daunting challenges in the field of cinema and television.

‘The company is not a financial institution which runs with the sole intention of making money, but has become a training school for many youngsters’ Kelly said describing his new setting. ‘Anyway, right now our first priority is to develop this company with richly creative productions,’ explained the experienced art director.

Digging into his past, art direction was never a dream for this Kandyan who was born to an Irish father, a planter and Burgher mother. ‘My childhood dream was to join the Navy and I even applied and was called for the interview’ he explained. But with opposition by parents, destiny had a different plan for Kelly's life.

‘Art direction became a better dream for me’ says Kelly reminiscing his career which spans several decades. The first step of his long standing career was course in architecture he did after his Ordinary Level examination which he described as the one which helped him in his designing.

For Kelly, entrance to the cinema was almost an accident. "At the age of 19 I was invited by one of my relatives, the well known cameraman, Willie Blake who asked me to help him in 'The Elephant Boy' if I was at that moment not doing anything else. This opening continued for over thirty five years during which he contributed to some of the all time hits in the local and the world cinema.

Assisting Dharmasena Hemapala, his guru in Lester James Peries' 'The God King', Kelly later handled 'Madol Doowa' and 'Kaliyugaya' of Lester and Sumithra's 'Gehenu Lamai' and over seventy five films done by almost all the leading directors in the country today.

Kelly was adjudged the Best Art Director at Sarasaviya Award for his role in Sumithra Peries' 'Maya', Gamini Fonseka's 'Sagarayak Meda' and Presidential Award for Dharmasena Wickremasinghe's 'Hima Kathara'.

Moving to the international scene in the late 1970s Kelly took up art direction in 'River of Great Kayman' directed by an Italian director. This was just the beginning for a large number of TV serials and foreign films some of which won Oscars and Hollywood box office records. John Boorman's 'Beyond Rangoon', Steven Spielberg's 'Indiana Jones', Kevin Conner's 'Mother Theresa', Deepa Mehta's 'Water' and the last being 'The Full Monty' famed director Ubertho Passilini's 'Handball' were some of the world renowned directions for which Kelly designed the location proving the beauty and multiple choices of locations available in tiny Sri Lanka for films.

‘Sri Lanka with its rich vegetation is a paradise for filmmakers. We can reach any kind of weather and location in a few hours journey,’ says Kelly who says that if properly handled it would be a bigger boost for the country's tourism,".
Citing an example, Kelly says, ‘The audience gathered for the premier of Deepa Mehta's 'Water' at Toronto, Canada, were surprised to see Sri Lankan locations. Everybody thought it was India until the titles appeared,’ says Kelly who reproduced the ghats by the Ganges in India by the Bolgoda lake for 'Water'.

‘Anyway the most challenging job for me was creating a 110 foot high 'Pagoda' in Malaysia for 'Beyond Rangoon'. "It was to be built within a limited space between a bus stand and the sea where there were rough winds. We had to think of a way to prevent the set being blown away by the wind until we wisely erected a windbreaker using the same structure’ explained Kelly.

Among the directors he had worked with, world's renowned Spielberg marked an unforgettable memory for Kelly.

‘He is one of the easiest directors to work with because he is very well planned. He has a copy of the storyboard for everybody with each shot with its every single angle. This helps the people who make the set as they do not want waste money and time,’ explained the art director.

Referring to the local scene and the future of art direction in Sri Lanka the country's leading art director says there are a large number of aspiring youngsters who are very keen to take up the art. "If you are very keen and honest with your job you can go a long way in this field" says Kelly adding that Sri Lanka could make better art directors in future.

Kelly designs ‘The Film Team’

By Susitha R. Fernando