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Gareth Evans directed his first feature, Footsteps, in 2006. Achieving success at a number of festivals and receiving critical acclaim, Gareth went on to make a documentary on martial arts in Indonesia. While shooting this, he was inspired to make his very own martial arts film, Merantau, and we spoke to him while he was knee-deep in pre-production.
Film Shed: How did you go from Footsteps to this film?
Gareth Evans: Footsteps opened no doors at all for me in the UK, trying to secure distribution was a nightmare as the market is flooded with indie films. However, Footsteps did lead to me working on a documentary about Pencak Silat with Christine Hakim Films in Jakarta so at the least it was a significant part in getting me introduced to Silat and production in Indonesia.
Footsteps was and is a film I'm still very proud of, despite its budgetary limitations. And while Merantau is a complete departure both in terms of storyline and tone I still feel strongly that Footsteps is a part of who I am as a filmmaker. My taste in films is fairly eclectic, whether it be sci-fi, horror, action, comedy, art house or musical I'd never rule out a genre to eventually tackle. Because of this I hope that in my career I am going to be able to establish a body of work that hops between all of the genres I love and never to be pigeonholed. So just as Footsteps was my arthouse low fi debut, Merantau will be my first foray into the martial arts genre.
Iko Uwais squares up to Laurent Buson In terms of a different approach, I feel maybe I've matured quite a bit since Footsteps, my life has changed a lot in the past few years so now I'd find it almost impossible to relate to someone like Andrew [the lead character in Footsteps]. It's a strange feeling to disconnect from your own film, I mean I can remember those feelings I put into Footsteps when I was writing it, but now those feelings are just that, memories. Merantau is filled with a lot more hope and faith in the good of people, whether that makes me more mature or more naïve is debatable.
But to compare the two in terms of a technical approach is difficult, on Footsteps a dolly track birds eye view shot was viewed as this incredibly complex thing cos we built the dolly and T-bar ourselves and had that naïvety of it being our first feature film production. On Merantau we're doing high falls, motorcycle stunts, and some incredibly complex setups including a two-minute steadicam shot that weaves in and out of a fight sequence all captured in one take. But that's not a slight on Footsteps, it's just because we have the budget to do so. Money can buy you an awful lot more time and toys to play with ideas and expand the visual pallette of a film. It's a weird feeling at first cos I'm just freely suggesting this shot, that shot, this stunt, that stunt and my production team say "yeah we can do that" - and I sit there and say "cool" but in the back of my mind I keep thinking when is someone going to come and say "what the fuck do you think you're doing?"
FS: Where did the story originate?
GE: Since I was around 5 years old when I first saw Enter The Dragon on VHS I've had a great love for martial arts cinema. Back then it was a little more difficult to find the titles than it is now. My friends and I would scour the video shop for anything that looked vaguely like a martial arts film. If it had a ninja, a samurai or a hero doing a flying kick on the cover we'd rent it immediately. Back then as kids we'd talk of remaking all our favourites: Fist of Fury, Big Trouble In Little China, Police Story (very difficult to do in your back garden) and we'd practice the moves as we'd seen on the films - the best we could. Thankfully none of us had a video camera at the time so there's no cringeworthy footage as a reminder, but since then I've always had an urge to make a film that incorporated martial arts in some way. It took the best part of 20 years to get round to it, but it was worth the wait as 20 years later I would be introduced to Pencak Silat.
I was hired to direct a documentary to give an outsiders view on Pencak Silat, Indonesia's ancient martial art form. The more I researched Silat the more I fell in love with it, this was something unique that I hadn't seen before. Sure all martial arts tend to share a similar code of ethics and all borrow heavily from one another in their self-defence techniques but each comes in a different packaging some of which naturally look great on film, and after shooting for 6 weeks with 5 different masters and styles of Silat I became convinced that it not only deserves to be seen on the big screen but that it's a travesty that it hasn't, until now.
By working on the documentary I was exposed to and experienced first hand a lot of the elements that now feature in Merantau, I was able to observe traditions and a culture in practice that just screamed out for a cinematic treatment. The basic concept of Merantau as a journey into adulthood in itself just seemed to be such an intrinsically filmic story that I was shocked that it hadn't been used before.
The climactic fight scene was filmed at a container yard FS: Are there any difficulties or differences in writing a martial arts flick as opposed to a drama? For example, are the fights motivated by the characters or the necessity of a fight appearing at certain points during the film?
GE: Even though I'm a huge fan of the martial arts genre, I felt it was incredibly important to make each fight sequence ingrained within the story of the film. It was important for every display of Silat to be as a result of the story's natural progression and not just crowbarred in simply because we've been 5 or 10 pages without a fight. The structure of the film leant itself to a build up of consequences and reactions which allowed for a fairly action heavy final act however, it never overwhelms the drama and I'd hope audiences would see Merantau to work just as successfully as a drama as it does as an action movie.
FS: How do you go about writing a fight scene? Is it “They fight!” or do you break it down to each move?
GE: It's a thankless task to write every single move in a script; it's also counter-productive because if you do that then you're pretty much dictating to your choreography team exactly what should be done, a team who know a lot more about martial arts than you as a writer do. I simply wrote enough information to set up the scene to give an idea of location, space, props and the number of opponents and then a quick paragraph just to give the scene its conclusion and sense of rhythm. Sure I'd have a bunch of ideas for hits, kicks and stunts but I'd keep those noted down separately or in my head and would present those ideas while we workshopped the choreography. A script with each move written down in specifics is an arduous read, and more often than not is only understandable by the person who wrote it.
FS: When did you start choreographing the fights? Did you have a final script in place? Since starting the choreography has the script evolved?
GE: I had a first draft in place before starting the choreography, the script went through a number of drafts following that but never as a result of the choreography. Any changes in the script were more structural and dialogue-based. I spent a long time deciding how and when to include the fight sequences so that they felt organic to the plot so we treated both creative processes as separate elements. Just as I would work on tidying up characterisation and adding more detail to the drama, we would also work on ways to make the choreography more involved, more exciting and unique.
We began choreographing the fight sequences in June and worked on designing them for 2 months in total. We kept the design an open working environment, I'm in no way skilled in Silat but thankfully the team were more than happy for me to throw in suggestions each day and we worked together to produce the best result possible. My taste has always been influenced by Jackie Chan's serious works such as the Police Story series and whilst hardly a serious film, I find the fight sequence from Armour of God where Jackie faces off against a banquet room full of monks to be one of the most exciting, perfectly-staged fight sequences ever made. So, during the choreography I'd push for more use of props and locations, mass attacks from multiple fighters, more desperation to ramp up the tension while our team would bring in their skills and knowledge to "fight" their way out of the situations we created.
Both the script and the choreography have evolved over time for sure, but if anything, I'd say meetings with Art Departments have had an influence on the script as more creative images and ideas have been brought to the table whilst location hunts have in turn had an influence on the choreography, sometimes acting as a hinderance (preventing us from performing a particular stunt) or as a blessing (restructuring a once-clunky sequence into something far more accomplished and fluid).
FS: Have you storyboarded yet? Are you looking at fight scenes in terms of angles or are you working out the action first and then deciding where to place the camera?
GE: For a martial arts sequence I found it incredibly difficult to storyboard in a conventional sense: shot lists and still drawings just wouldn't convey the fluidity and complexity of the choreography nor the camerawork so, using a basic handycam I shot reference footage first (no cuts just a pure observation of all the choreography for a scene) then from that I'd devise a shot list and again with the handycam re-shoot the choreography taking the shot list into account and then edit the rough footage. That way we were able to see where specific areas of the choreography or camera work didn't work and we could go back and shoot small sequences to tidy it all up way before we actually start shooting for real.
This also works to serve us later during the shoot as we will have a field editor on location to log and rough edit the dailies. Those rough cuts of choreography act as an essential guide for him as an editor to be able to piece together the action sequences. We are shooting the film in HD using Panasonic's P2 system allowing us to edit immediately on location. There are many benefits to this, not least being able to see whether our footage flows together seamlessly during the action sequences but also allows us to be as certain as possible that we have all coverage needed before we so much as pack a single piece of equipment before leaving each location.
FS: Was it necessary for your actors to have experience in martial arts?
Merantau star Iko Uwais faces off against his opponents
GE: This isn't intended as a slight upon actors, but I've always felt that you can tell when you're seeing a genuine martial artist on screen and someone who has just been trained for 3 months prior to filming. And while I am aiming for a dramatic impact in terms of the films story and performances I'm under no illusion that the film we are making is still rooted to the martial arts genre. So it was a no-brainer really, our lead had to be a martial artist along with other key roles that required them to perform action heavy sequences. I agonised over some roles especially when the dramatic and the physical elements of their roles seemed to be a 50/50 split in terms of importance but in those cases an audition from a martial artist sometimes would reveal a natural ability to perform and I feel especially for this project we have landed on our feet with the amount of cast members who have a natural, raw talent for dramatic performance. Yayan Ruhian in particular as Eric is going to be someone to watch out for, he effortlessly adapts to a character so different from himself and has researched his background so well that I find myself in shock that he has no acting experience whatsoever.
For our lead role, played by Iko Uwais, I was lucky enough to meet him while researching for the documentary in 2007. At the time he appeared to be a very shy, quiet young man but then as soon as he put on his silat uniform and began to practice he completely transformed and suddenly I became aware of this incredible screen presence he had. It didn't matter how many people were also practicing at the time, the camera just seemed to always be drawn to him. I said immediately to the wife/boss/producer that he had the potential to be a big star in the martial arts genre and so I began collecting everything I'd learnt about Indonesian culture and pencak silat to write a script that could serve as a vehicle to not only launch him as Indonesia's next big star but also to promote Silat and create a new trend for the production of Silat films in its home country.
Indonesia doesn't have an action star of its own yet, but soon they will. The time is ripe for the world to be introduced to Pencak Silat and to greet the next martial arts superstar, Iko Uwais.
Thanks to Gareth to finding the time to share with us his methods. For more information on Merantau, check out the official site at http://www.merantau-movie.com/
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