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April 2015

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www.postmagazine.com 18 POST APRIL 2015 or millions of fans of The Police, the new feature-length film Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police, based on guitarist Andy Summers' 2006 memoir One Train Later, will be the next best thing to being out front and back- stage at one of the supergroup's shows. Starring Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland, the film, which is being re- leased by Cinema Libre Studio, tells the inside story of the band's meteoric rise, headline-grabbing break-up, and reunion 20 years later, through rare archival foot- age and Summers' personal collection of photos. And Summers, who's always been a multi-faceted artist — a musician, songwriter, composer, photographer and author — can now add filmmaker to his resume, as he was the driving force behind every aspect of the project. Summers describes the film as, "a musical journey that uses live footage from the '07-'08 Police reunion world tour, along with lots of archival footage, both from The Police's early days and the London punk scene. But it's not done as a chronological story. We establish the fact we're doing the reunion tour early on, and then it dips in and out of live Police concert footage, and then starts going back to the earlier days." Narrated by the guitarist, the film also incorporates rare footage dating back to the '60s and Summers' involvement with the early British rock scene and seminal artists including Zoot Money and Eric Burdon, as well as many still photos taken by the rock star along the way. "I was always interested in photography, so it was very natural for me to document everything," notes Summers, "whether it was backstage at some grungy club or on early tours with The Police. So there's a lot of intimate moments and interesting shots and archival stuff, especially in the first 25 minutes of the film, with the Sex Pistols appearing and so on." Following his book's lead, the film also documents the serendipitous nature of the formation of The Police, one of the biggest bands in rock history, when the guitarist "just happened to bump into" drummer Stewart Copeland getting off the subway in London one day in 1977. The two decided to grab a coffee and discuss forming a new band with then-un- known singer Sting, whom they'd just met. "One train later, and it all might never have happened," recalls Summers, "which is why I titled the book, One Train Later." This film also came together "some- what quickly," says Summers, who, after the book was published, was working in England on a photography book with a book designer. "We were talking about a film we both really liked, The Kid Stays In The Picture, made almost entirely of still shots with a voiceover, directed by Brett Morgen, and it sparked the idea of doing a similar thing about The Police, especially as I'd already done two books about my years with the band and I had all this photography," he explains. "And by chance, I met someone in Los Angeles who's friends with Brett and who connected us. And then around the same time, I met Norman Golightly — he was Nicolas Cage's producing partner for many years and an enormous fan of The Police. We got together to discuss a possible collaboration and the film idea suddenly became a reality." To Summers' amazement, the deal happened almost instantly. "We literally sold the film the first afternoon, and I was shocked," he admits. "I've lived in LA for a long time, and I know a lot of peo- ple in the movie business, and it usually takes years to get films made, if ever. So it was thrilling to get this far so quick- ly." And although ultimately it did take several years to complete the project, the timing "couldn't have been better," he notes, "because in that time, the band got back together and we went on this huge, very successful global tour." The live concert footage was directed by Lauren Lazin and shot by DP Tom Hurwitz, whose credits include Wild Man Blues, Valentino: The Last Emperor, The Queen of Versailles and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. The first big challenge was shooting the band live at the Anaheim Convention Center. "It's a huge venue, and ultimately it was quite a challenge to color correct the footage, as we shot with both HDV cameras — Sony Z7Us and Z1Us — and HDCAM — the Sony F900R, which is what I used on the job," he reports. "Secondly, I was the only stage camera, and it was pretty amaz- ing shooting the band at their sound check and then at the actual concert. BY IAIN BLAIR F FROM PRE- PRODUCTION TO POST, THE LEGENDARY GUITARIST AND NOW FILMMAKER WAS THE FORCE BEHIND THIS NEW DOCUMENTARY ANDY SUMMERS: CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU: SURVIVING THE POLICE DOCUMENTARY Summers at Cinema Libre Studio, where a range of post services took place.

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