A famous singer’s personal assistant wants to become a music producer in Director Nisha Ganatra’s comedy, The High Note.
Set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene, Ganatra’s film tells the story of Maggie (Dakota Johnson) the overworked personal assistant to superstar singer Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), whose talent and ego have reached unbelievable heights. When Grace's manager (Ice Cube) presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change both of their lives forever.
On March 4, Ganatra discussed the making of The High Note in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by Director Laura Terruso (Work It).
During the conversation, Ganatra spoke about making the conscious directorial choice to shoot parts of Los Angeles that are rarely seen on film. “When we went there [Ford Amphitheater] we had this amazing LA-based crew and everybody was like, ‘I’ve shot so many movies and commercials and TV here and I’ve never even seen this theater or shot here.’ So, I thought let me just find the parts of LA that I love so much that never get shown. We’re the city with a mountain running through it and yet rarely are there hiking scenes…. I just thought, how do I get these beautiful vistas of Los Angeles? We have this large format; we have this beautiful aspect ratio. Let’s just show as much of the city that I love as possible.”
Ganatra’s other directorial credits include the feature films Late Night, Fast Food High, Cake and Chutney Popcorn; the movie for television Pete’s Christmas; and episodes of Transparent, Code Academy, Better Things, You Me Her, Futurestates, Girls, Dear White People, Future Man, Mr. Robot, Shameless, Married, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Last Man on Earth, Love and Black Monday. Ganatra has been a DGA member since 2007.
You can listen to Ganatra's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.