Katy Perrys Wheel of Success
- Published on 31 August 2012
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When Katy Perry invited two young filmmakers to document her life on the road during an epic, and grueling, world tourspanning a full year and playing to wildly enthusiastic sell-out crowds at 124 arenas all over the worldshe gave them access to all areas.
Nothing, she declared, was off-limits and the resulting, revealing film, Katy Perry: Part of Me, is an intimate fly-on-the-wall portrait of a natural born performer hitting the very peak of global popularity.
The film hits the highs (without glossing over the lows) of Perrys extraordinary journey, both personally and professionally.
The initial plan to document her tour, and capture the excitement of her live shows, first came up in 2010, and quickly developed into a much bigger project. The idea was to catch everything on film, says Perry.
I had a conversation with my management about the possibility of showing it as episodes on the Internet for my fan base, or maybe making it into a television program, and, maybe, in our wildest dreams, making a movie out of it. And our wildest dreams came true.
She approached filmmakers Ed Lovelace and James Hallknown as D.A.R.Y.L. to join her on the road and document her ride on a big wave.
That big wave was her California Dreams tour, which would take her all across the States, Europe, South America and into the Far East, in what would become one! of the most demanding, exciting and turbulent periods of her remarkable young life.
As well as capturing the excitement of her live shows, the film also charts the artists background, her early beginnings as a singer/songwriter (influenced by her born again Christian parents), and includes interviews with her family, including older sister Angela and younger brother David, along with her ever loyal team of aides.
It shows her development as a precociously gifted youngster struggling to make it, her setbacks with various record companies, and finallyafter, as she describes it, paying her duesthe triumphs of her hard-earned success.
She admits that before she watched the finished film for the first time, she shed a tear. Id already lived it once, so it was an abbreviated version of what I lived in a whole year, basically. And, of course, theres all that back story.
I cried a little bit by myself before I watched it, just because it was an intense moment for me . . . and Ive been through so many intense things in the past year, coming out of that tour and overcoming personal obstacles.
The millions of Katy Perry fans out there will, perhaps, already know much of her back story, but for those who only know the music, or some of it, they will discover an immensely likeable, charming, funny, loyal and hugely talented woman, living in the eye of a whirlwind and doing her very best to remain true to herself and her music.
She hopes the movie will deliver a positive message: Be true to yourself and never give up on your dreams, even when there are seemingly insurmountable hurdles to overcome.
I hope that people will be inspired and get moving, and I hope that they will be encouraged to know that they dont have to change into something that they are not in order to succeed. My message is, Live a full life and reach your goals, however big or small they may be.
Katy Perry Part of Me is now showing in cinemas and is distributed by Solar Entertainment Corp..