SECOND to people telling director Gavin Hood he simply has to tell their story, the comment the film-maker gets directed at him most, is: “introduce me to someone who can make me a director”.
Well, guess what, that’s not going to happen. Gavin Hood doesn’t know anyone who will simply bankroll a wannabe film director.
An Oscar-winning director he may be, but even this 53-year-old struggled to get his first film made. And that is the only way to get stuck into the business. Make that first film.
“The only thing harder is to get the second film made if your first one bombs,” Hood said in a recent interview in Cape Town.
Though he wrote the script for his debut feature, A Reasonable Man (1999), while still studying directing and scriptwriting at the University of California in the ’90s, it wasn’t until he made the short The Storekeeper (1998) that he persuaded any bean-counters that he could actually make a film.
“Those days film was film,” he only had experience shooting on betacam for television, and he needed a calling card to show he could work on 35mm.
He reworked The Storekeeper script from a feature into a short and ditching dialogue helped the budget because there was no sound department needed: “The minute the storekeeper had no wife to speak to it became cinematic. How do I tell a story with no dialogue? All of a sudden I had a useful script.”
Based on a case he studied at law school at Wits in the ’80s, The Storekeeper explores your rights in terms of defence of property, and specifically what happens when things go horribly wrong.
The short film picked up multiple awards at international film festivals and gave him the clout to co-produce and direct the award-winning A Reasonable Man.
Fast forward through ever bigger projects like In Desert and Wilderness (2001), the Oscar-winner Tsotsi (2006) into Hollywood with Rendition (2007) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).
Theme is a more important motivator to Hood than a specific story, especially exploring a moral dillemma that needs resolution. Challenging sacred cows really gets him excited.
“I don’t know how to become passionate about your story. Good films are about themes,” he says.
What he really wants to do with his work is spark a conversation.
Hood came very close to persuading the producers of Ender’s Game (2013) to shoot in South Africa, but we lost out because shooting in Louisiana, US, studios made more financial sense, another reminder that South Africa competes with the rest of the world when it comes to attracting potential film shoots.
He had better luck on his current project Eye in the Sky which wrapped up filming this week and now moves into post-production.
Hood was attracted to the thriller specifically because it is an examination of the way we live now. It is set in the world of remote drone warfare: “We are all connected electronically, but we’re more disconnected now than ever before.
“We can pinpoint whom we attack now. When a missile is fired the crew is asked to go back and inspect the bodies. It’s shocking and troubling, but it’s making us more aware of the consequences of our actions. It generates a conversation.
“This script (by Guy Hibbert) really had me thinking.
“We can see what people are doing from thousands of metres up in the sky. I really wanted to make it and it’s perfect for shooting here.”
In the film a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in a safe house in Nairobi, Kenya, becomes complicated when a child is seen entering the kill zone of the target area. The South African Civil Aviation Authority does not grant film-makers permission to fly drones in our airspace, so they will use visual effects to duplicate the drones.
They have also been able to duplicate various settings while in Cape Town: “We found Surrey for Helen Mirren and clubs that could be in Las Vegas.”
Beaufort West stood in for the Nevada Desert and Hood raved about the local crew’s professionalism: “The crews are world class because they are shooting constantly.”
He points out that digital cameras mean young film-makers make films so much easier than when he started out, and a recent stint on the Shnitt Short Film Festival jury showed him just how many people across the world are making short films.
The director is also optimistic about the South African film industry because it is so much more active than it was when he got started.
Working in various countries, he has noticed how film crews can become jaded about their work, so he’s happy about this South African crew’s level of passion on the job: “Our crews, certainly this one, have an enthusiasm to do great work. They know the script and they have a tremendous pride in their work.
“What we also are is very kind and respectful towards each other. It can be very brutal and ego-driven, there can be a lot of yelling and fear on a set. And it’s wonderful to come home and be with people who treat others with respect.”