the thing is I don't think I'm gonna be
a total fighters
I'm not a girl trying to be a star
just go to things I was looking for a
project to do after Sena I've been
offered lots of sports films they want
to do another sport film quite happy
with the one we made and in the producer
James James gay Reese who produced
cinema as well called me up and said
look I've just had his call from someone
at Universal Music asking me if I'd be
interested in producing a film by Amy he
immediately thought it was a project
then and he called me up and said what
you think we had to quit and what think
about it and did a bit of research and
it just seemed like everyone talked
about her voice and you know how sad it
was the wait turned out the way it did I
guess I had lots of questions about why
things turned out the way they did big
cheating you're going to be I don't it's
all because you know my music is not on
that scale the music is not on that
scale sometimes I wish it was but I
don't think I'm gonna be
I told famous
I don't think I could handle it I
probably go mad you know I mean I would
go mad you need to have lots of layers
to a story there's got to be a lot of
layers for it to feel like a movie if
it's one simple thing then it doesn't
quite feel like enough and with Amy
there was always drama I remember
looking at material she was either
brilliant or was really bad there's very
little there's no mediocre there's
nothing in the middle and you need that
you need something to kind of take a
story onto quite early on I started
looking at the lyrics and I couldn't
believe I didn't notice them before but
her lyrics seem to have all of the
answers that you want already there
she'd put them down on a page from the
age of 17 18 right away to 21 22 in she
went back to black and so it just became
an idea of using the songs as a spine
and to unravel each one to understand
what they're actually about and who they
were about we'd recorded quite a few
demo recordings and I started to talk
about whether she'd ever consider
writing she said she's not sure about
writing songs but she's written a lot of
poems she knew full well she'd been
writing songs but they were very
personal songs the issue of Amy is that
she was very down to earth go next door
ordinary and actually from Back to Black
onwards she hardly gave an interview so
there was very little material and I
didn't know it at the beginning but I
realize when we did our research she
gave a lot of interviews was very mouthy
June Frank the first album first period
and then shut down didn't speak against
it was always gonna be tricky to get her
voice across and her point of view which
is why the songs became even more
important there was nobody that had been
around the whole time lots of different
groups of people different compartments
Amy had people in different compartments
of her life and they were all separate
most of them didn't talk or didn't get
along with blamed one another so the
idea was that we had to investigate and
figure out who connects what connected
him what was the situation what did go
on and with Amy the whole film really
started with the audio I one by one
would meet people and interview them put
their interviews down on on tape no
cameras no visuals just just talk to
them and let them talk about whatever
they felt comfortable talking about it
get very emotional to be a lot of Tears
and only after
they trusted me and they was a
relationship between the two of us did
they feel willing to then hand over any
personal photos home videos of footage
and what would happen is one person
would open up and they would then open a
door to two other people who had open
the door to other people and somehow
behind our backs they all started to
talk and said well actually maybe she
just meet him that was really the big
job from for me was to one by one earn
the trust of these people who have never
spoken never given an interview were in
a lot of pain angry with you know the
media angry with everyone really thought
for what had happened and they could see
where this was going and no one else
seemed to care and let it happen and
kind of enjoyed the ride but often the
interviews would be one hour to start
with and inside you know just booked an
extra hour in case
so we'd have two hours and then three
four or five hours later we're still
talking and that would happen quite a
lot once they started to talk they
needed to talk and get it all out and
they felt better you could see visually
they looked better
after the interview than before the more
people see of me the more they'll
realize that around before is making
music what really affected us was seeing
the young Amy material have fun is she
worth and help bright and full of life
and cheerful and witty really
intelligent I didn't know all of that
you know and then you see that and it
affects everything that comes after it
because you've seen her she really worth
and that was a big part of what the
friends would say again and again was I
hope you're gonna show the real Lanie
the real Amy for them that was a real
Amy the girl who wasn't famous who just
enjoyed picking up a guitar and singing
and had fun and doing silly voices and
just hanging out and flirting with
everyone and um once you see that Amy
then then the change in the the way she
ends up has a different resonance I
guess because you can see how quickly
it's happened and there's still little
signs to a humor in her in her eyes you
can just see the old Amy there but it's
all getting slightly clouded I think
that helped a lot every now and again
something funny coming along helps to
light in a mood and then which picks up
a guitar and she sings and her voice
comes out they are really the highpoint
sit there like the races in Senna the
action scenes in in Amy this is always
gonna be a musical it's always gonna be
built around the performances and a
performance is wherever brilliant or
sometimes not so great but even then
they're full of emotion really they were
always going to be what the structure
was gonna have to kind of build itself
office and the Grammy goes to Amy
Winehouse she was one of the truest
artists there in terms of the technical
side of it I normally to start off the
film by having my own avid to start with
I work with an assistant editor and we
just get all of the material and start
chopping away and structuring it
there isn't enough material yet to
actually hire an editor said the editor
doesn't start until her you know six
months or eight months down the line but
we have a team of researchers who were
just going through everything sending in
my wife saying what do you think of this
this interesting is this interesting
I've heard an interview this sounds
great and then it would be a matter of
finding a little nugget of information
and then figuring out where the original
source sources contacting that person to
see if they have the original tape and
that's the process that's continually
going on so it was a bit like detective
work it really is because you know the
ending but you don't know anything else
really and you're trying to piece it
together and and we're not adapting
anyone's book we're not we're not going
with one person's point of view so
really everything that we hear you take
of a pinch of salt and you have to
cross-reference it with two or three
other people and the heavier it got in
the darker it got the more you had to
double check your facts because you
can't say anything unless you know you
can back it up I don't think I knew what
a person was I know so funny sometimes
and I was influenced
I think it's a musician thing that's why
it doesn't have outlets did I mean the
bigger arc of the story is really Amy
starts off has a series of experiences
writes about it makes the first album
Frank then everything changes in between
and then she meets Blake she falls in
love with him
they have an affair he dumps her goes
back to his first girlfriend she has a
breakdown she changes management her
grandmother dies all these big events
happen in her life which then lead her
to get really hit rock bottom and then
out of that start to create again and
write the second album it becomes huge
but that period there in the middle
everything changed in her life that's
the key moment she moves to Camden
starts hanging around with another group
of people gets into the libertines meets
Daugherty and gababa I didn't
necessarily understand why did Amy get
so heavily into the drugs with Blake why
why does she have to go so heavily into
it why did she have to go from zero to a
hundred in no time at all but one of
Blake's friends who actually shot all of
the footage in Miami the wedding footage
summed it up by just saying you know she
had to feel what he felt if he was here
and she was here it wasn't right she had
to be equal to so whatever he did she
would do she had to show how much she
was in love of him by somehow being
willing to do whatever he would do and
it just sort of made sense when someone
says it and you go okay I see that now
because that's what she did she just
fell for him so big she would go any way
he wanted her to go
I'm saying at the end isn't it the
interesting thing is when the audience
see the real people start seeing the
film and how they connect I mean what it
says to them so I'm now kind of gone too
far
in the journey and I now just am really
interesting to see how ordinary real
people who were fans or not fans I just
came from an interview with somebody who
really couldn't care less about Amy and
sort of film and fell in love with her
and I think that that would be the
ultimate is people almost had an opinion
because of all of the sound and noise
and pepper Etsy and all that loud stuff
going on and didn't really care for her
and then they see the real girl when you
can actually she was quite sweet she was
the writer quite funny you would have
liked to have met her she'd have been
the right to hang around with and she
happened to be amazingly talented and it
makes all the more sad the way things
turned out