With work already underway on Gareth’s eagerly anticipated follow-up, the director made time in his busy schedule to speak to subtitledonline.com…
Gareth, could you tell us a little about your background, and how you ended up in Indonesia shooting one of the best contemporary martial arts movies?
I’m a Welsh born filmmaker. I grew up and spent almost all my life living in Wales, studied Media Technology at degree level then did an MA in Scriptwriting at the University of Glamorgan.
A few years after completing the course, I took out a personal loan to finance an ultra-low budget feature film Footsteps, which got picked up for distribution in the US by Unearthed Films. This led somehow to me being hired as a freelance director on a documentary in Indonesia about Pencak Silat. And, as a result of the six months spent researching, shooting and editing, I came to learn a lot about Indonesian culture, traditions and its martial art - more importantly learning about the tradition of Merantau in Minangkabau culture, meeting our fight choreographer Edwel Datuk Raja Gampo Alam and the film’s star Iko Uwais.
After the documentary, I moved to Indonesia where I started to work for a television company. Whilst there I met with Ario Sagantoro and Daiwanne Ralie who would later work with me as producer and line producer on Merantau. They’re very much the backbone of the production, and we’ll work together again on our next film, Berandal.
How much of a learning curve did you and your production team face in making Indonesia’s first proper action movie?
It was a huge learning curve for all of us, as we were all pretty much taking a shot at this for the first time. Both Iko and Yayan had zero experience in front of a camera, the choreography team had never worked in film or television before, likewise I’d never shot an action film. So, we really had to build from the ground up – research every aspect of what we loved in martial arts films, analysing the movement of the fighters, the rhythm of the choreography and the cinematography and editing. Every aspect we pretty much had to learn from scratch and then make it our own.
Did you have any difficulty conveying your ideas for the fight sequences to the stunt team and choreographer?
When we were working on Merantau, there was a language barrier issue, but since the project, we’ve all learnt enough of each other’s languages to be able to discuss ideas in a lot more detail. Back when we started, however, it was all purely visual in terms of our means of communication.
At times, I’d have a translator to help convey the set up of the scene, but we used a lot of visuals and sounds to convey the sense of pace, aggression and rhythm of each fight scene. Sometimes, we’d decide upon a rhythm by clapping our hands to a beat – helping to decide how many blocks, ducks or swings before a punch would connect - treating it like a dance with music.
Merantau contains a lot of lengthy one-takes, and the DVD’s extras highlight just how frustrating it must have been trying to get them just right. Was there a point where you considered shortening the shots and editing them together?
I think that was a sign of my inexperience more than anything else. I loved the idea of these long flowing takes that would allow the audience to see all of the choreography clean without fast cutting and close ups – but I loved it to the point where it created little room for improvisation. The concept of the long takes is nice in theory, and it certainly gives the film a unique look in terms of how we present the choreography, but when every shot requires copious attempts to get it right, it eventually takes its toll on the performers and you start to reach a point where you have to re-think your approach because the power, speed and precision deteriorates with each take.
The hardest part of it all is that unlike shorter takes, which are quick to get through, once you have Iko taking out four different attackers all within one shot, you only need one small error or mistake to make the entire shot worthless. And those errors can come from so many different elements - regardless of if the choreography is good, the camera has to be in the right spot at the right time to sell it, so everything comes into play. In hindsight, I would have liked to have had an option b, c and d to play with in the edit – but that’s just something we’ve learnt to work around ready for the next film.
Is sex trafficking the new drug smuggling as far as movie villains are concerned? Where did the inspiration for Ratger and Luc come from?
On Merantau, although the tradition, culture and martial arts discipline I was introducing were new to Western audiences, I knew deep down that what we were making was essentially an action film and that I would need to stick to certain rules that are prevalent within that genre. I knew I had to make our two ‘evil white guys’ immediately dislikeable, as I had (in the Indonesian cut) a lot of side-characters and side-stories to cover. Few things are as vulgar a ‘profession’ than the exploitation of human life, so it was important for me to treat it with a certain cold detachment with moments that could present a stark reality almost as a waking call from the fantasy of the action while also giving the audience an immediate target.
In terms of inspiration for Ratger and Luc, early on I chose a vague relationship between the pair that skirts between both brotherhood and infatuation. During the rehearsal period, I’d discuss with Mads Koudal and Laurent Buson their characters history, regressing as far as how they met as children, how they became involved in this businessm, right up to their arrival in Jakarta.
There was never one sole influence to either character, a lot of it came from understanding each of the performers strengths and playing up to them. For Mads, I’d worked with him before on Footsteps, and it was after working on this that while writing Ratger’s dialogue I already knew his speech patterns, his ability to inject energy into his delivery, and which parts he could just go all out OTT on. But what interested me the most about the film is that for everyone other than Johni, each of the characters have someone they care about, someone they connect with – even Ratger and Luc whose work defines them as evil personified, they too know what it is like to care for someone, and they hurt emotionally if it’s taken from them.
What would you say your major influences were?
Without a doubt in terms of choreography design we were hugely inspired by Jackie Chan, Panna Rittikrai and Sammo Hung. That combination of graceful movements, unique use of locations and props punctuated by moments of full on aggression and power was instrumental in giving us a sense of what we wanted to incorporate in Merantau. These guys are the best at what they do, so we wanted to emulate them but package it all with techniques and movements that are unique to Silat. Other influences vary from scene to scene, sometimes a visual touch will be a nod to Kitano or Miike, other moments would be more of a thematic reference, like the heroic bloodshed and brotherhood spin we gave Eric’s character. From its conception, the elevator fight was always intended as a nod to the great Sam Peckinpah and John Woo - the standoff and mutual respect the two fighters show each other, before all hell breaks loose.
You manage to invoke some wry comedy out of the characters – especially the way Johni is treated by Ratger. Was that written, or drawn out by the actors?
I’ve always been a fan of awkward comedy - not laugh out loud stuff, just cringe worthy moments of uncomfortable silences and emasculated characters. So early in the script, I knew Johni’s character would go from his initial introduction as a sleaze ball pimp intimidating Astri to becoming almost a comic foil to Ratger. I wanted this sharp sudden shift in power, and felt there could be a certain comedic element to his fall from ‘grace’. Alex Abbad, who played Johni, was great to work with ‘cos he would just bring everything to each scene - willing to take it as far as possible so I could chip away and get it to a comfortable balance. He had a lot of fun with the character breaking the already ‘broken English’ dialogue I’d given Johni into even more ridiculous sentences.
It was important to have these little moments of levity, like Eric’s job interview and the motorbike flip, to just break from the seriousness of the film - keep it entertaining and light before things started to get dark. The comedy drops the moment Yuda realises Astri has been taken, and the characters all change – there’s no room for jokes after that point.
In other moments, the comedy also served a different purpose. In a scene deleted from the international cut, when Yuda is teaching Adit a made up technique as a moral lesson we set out to reclaim silat. Silat has long been misrepresented on television in Indonesia as something shrouded in mystical beliefs, with the hero’s shape shifting into animals, flying and throwing fireballs, etc. So we purposefully ridiculed that. Our aim with the film was to show people what real silat is, how it can be applied in a real life situation - not the bullshit they pump out without care on TV.
How much oversight/control did you have on Merantau? For example, you seem to have had a lot of say over the casting. Is this something that is intrinsic with the role of director in the Far East, compared to Europe and the US?
In all honesty, my experiences working in Europe are few and far between, so it’s hard to draw a comparison. However, I feel and always do feel that it’s incredibly important for a director to have a lot to say in the casting of a film. It never really occurred to me on Merantau that I wouldn’t have a say in the casting - sure it’s an open process, and I take on board all opinions given to me, but I would never like to be stuck with an actor that absolutely does not fit the look of the character I created. There has to be a confidence going in that every actor you’ve cast fits their role perfectly. As a director, you have to have that belief in their abilities so that you can instil that belief in them also.
Anticipation of and interest in your next project, Berandal, is already high thanks to the ‘proof of concept’ teaser being published online. The proposed new Mortal Kombat movie took a big step forward by doing the same, by making a trailer for a film that has yet to exist. Do you feel that this approach is becoming the norm for independent films/projects to garner financial backing?
I think creating a promo is very important as a tool to garner investor interest in a project. The Mortal Kombat promo was exceptionally well executed and immediately caught the attention of its fan base. When we made the Berandal promo it was only initially intended as an insider piece, not for public release. We just wanted to show investors a difference in tone and atmosphere from Merantau. Berandal is a much darker piece in comparison, with Iko’s character having more shades of grey allowing for a more direct and aggressive approach to the action choreography.
We only provided a very brief glimpse in the teaser (mainly because we shot it in a day on an extremely limited budget) but what will become apparent is that this time our approach to the action is that the gloves are off. Yuda in Merantau did all he could to avoid confrontation and spent a large portion of the opening fights re-directing blows. In Berandal, however, he takes the fight to them with no hesitation and no fear of consequences. People will be surprised when they see Iko in this one; we’ve changed his persona considerably. MOW
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