Intro & Q&A from THE RAID

Didn't I tell you to get tickets to the World Premiere of the The Raid? Not only did you miss a surprise visit from Colin Geddes' Boss TIFF Co-Director Cameron Bailey but you also missed a pretty spirited Q&A. Check out the intro and Q&A videos below where you'll learn about the types of injuries sustained making The Raid, the backgound of some of the actors, and how long it takes to film some of the most jaw-droppingly badass fight scenes ever filmed.

THE RAID screening time          

Sat., Sept. 10th, 12:15PM, AMC 2

Another Shot of YOU'RE NEXT Street Art

 A day time shot of promotional street art for You're Next.  A lot easier to find now.

YOU’RE NEXT

Sat., Sept. 10th, 11:59PM, RYERSON

Mon., Sept. 12th, 6:30PM, AMC 7

Fri., Sept. 16th, 4:00PM, TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 2

BlogTO Submits Five Picks for MIDNIGHT MADNESS 2011!

Excited for Midnight Madness yet? If, for some reason, you haven't made your picks for this year's lineup yet, BlogTO has posted their five top picks to see in our little late-night fiesta of fists and phantoms!

First up is Midnight Madness opening film The Raid, which screens tomorrow night:

"I ALSO declare a thumb war!"

Sometimes the best ingredients for a film at Midnight Madness is fast-paced frenetic action film with a little bit of martial arts and perhaps some disposable criminals to punish. The opening night film Midnight Madness film, The Raid provides all of the above.

Next is, uh...You're Next. No, not you - the film! It screens this Saturday the 10th:

Brenda would stop at nothing to win Dinner Party Wars.

This year director and writer Adam Wingard returns with You're Next a locked-house horror film about a family reunion gone completely awry. Remember that feeling, which only arises at family functions, of wanting to commit matricide or patricide to get your parents to stop talking? How would you react if somebody else tried to beat you to the punch? You're Next attempts to find that out, as a dinner with the family turns deadly when a group of armed invaders attack and send the familial unit on the defense as they try to band together against their assailants.

Third up is the film I'm most looking forward to, that gruesome French fairy tale, Livid which screens this Sunday the 11th:

"Well dammit, now you owe me a new bedsheet, ya jackwagon! You are SO never sleeping over again."

The directors who presented the unapologetically gory and disturbing film Inside to horrified audiences at Midnight Madness in 2007 return this year with Livid, a dark, dream-like horror film about going where you don't truly belong...Rumoured to be the goriest film at Midnight Madness this year, Livid promises to be a terrifying fairy tale of horror that you won't soon forget.

Fourth is the dark post-apocalyptic road movie with a stellar cast and a distinctly bleak outlook, The Day, screening next Thursday the 15th:

"This commute is really starting to get to us."

The story sounds similar to other zombie-related apocalypse films, but The Day seems like it might have a more ambiguous edge to it that will propel the story further than your average survival flick. With an interesting ensemble cast with lesser known but respectable names such as Dominic Monaghan (LOTR), Shannyn Sossamon (The Rules of Attraction) and Shawn Ashmore (X-Men Franchise), there seems to be something a bit different here, while absolutely bleak at the same time.

Finally, the funniest Japanese flick you'll see at TIFF this year, Smuggler, providing you a necessary break from the high tension (see what I did there?) of the rest of the lineup next Friday the 16th:

"Dye job? WHAT DYE JOB??"

While there aren't too many laughs to be found on the programme this year, Smuggler makes up for that in spades as a ridiculous black comedy about Kinuta, a man indebted to the Yakuza and burdened with the unfortunate task of disposing of their dead. When a major Yakuza boss is murdered, Kinuta and his associates are imperiled when his minions plot revenge on anybody they believe may have had a part in his death. And let me assure you, stuff is only about to get stranger.

Don't forget that if you're still undecided, no one would fault you for foregoing sleep all week like your intrepid blog team will be doing, and coming out to all the screenings! Whoever said that sleep was integral to a healthy lifestyle (other than most health professionals)?!

The Raid screens:

Thurs., Sept. 8th, 11:59PM, RYERSON

Sat., Sept. 10th, 12:15PM, AMC 2

You're Next screens:

Saturday September 10 11:59pm RYERSON

Monday September 12 6:30pm AMC 7

Friday September 16 4:00pm TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 2

LIVID screens:

Sun., Sept. 11th, 11:59PM, RYERSON

Tues., Sept. 13th, 5:00PM, AMC 7

The Day screens:

Thur., Sept. 15th 11:59pm Ryerson

Fri., Sept. 16th 3:00pm Scotiabank Theatre 2

Sat., Sept. 17th 9:45pm Scotiabank Theatre 11

Smuggler screens:

Friday September 16 11:59 PM RYERSON

Saturday September 17 6:45 PM SCOTIABANK THEATER 4

Sunday September 18 12:00 PM SCOTIABANK THEATER 4

Interview with Gareth Evans Director of THE RAID

The Raid has the distinction of being the first Indonesian film to ever screen at Midnight Madness, it also opens the programme. The film promises to deliver on the action as well as introduce the world to a new action star, his name Iko Uwais. I recently had the opportunity to talk with The Raid's director, Gareth Evans.


You were born and studied in Wales, I'm quite curious how you went from the United Kingdom to directing films in Indonesia. Could you tell me a bit about the journey?

After coming out of University I found myself stuck doing a 9-5 job in Wales for years. Shamefully my drive to go out there and make films was limited to just a few shorts (all of which are too terrible to share online) I would never begrudge the industry for lack of opportunities, cos I don't feel I did enough to find them myself. So around 5 years into my time at the company I had the urge to make a feature, I wrote Footsteps as something I could do on a limited budget (around $10,000) after trying and failing to get a business grant for the film I decided to just take out a personal loan and self-fund it and deal with the debt later. Thankfully my boss at the time was kind enough to let me take a month off to go ahead and make it, so repaying the budget was an affordable cost. The film didn't exactly set the world alight but it was a defining moment for me and I knew I had to pursue film more aggressively than I had before.

How that ended with me in Indonesia is surprisingly straight forward. My wife (who is now also my boss) is Indonesian and she had been pushing my name and the dvd of my film to anyone she knew back home. Luckily for me one of those people was Christine Hakim a hugely talented and respected actress and producer. She was putting together a series of documentaries to be made about different elements of Indonesian culture, each directed by an outsider. Due to my interest in martial arts cinema I was brought in to direct the episode on Pencak Silat. So I left the UK went to Indonesia to work on the documentary for 6 months and by the time I was done I found a love for living in Jakarta, an obsession with a martial art discipline I had never seen before, a ton of story ideas from the research I'd gathered and just to top it off --a leading man in Iko Uwais who I'd met as a student of one of the masters I'd been following.

2) I have been hearing that your lead actor Iko Uwais is one to watch and is poised to become the next big name in action. What makes him so spectacular? What sets him apart from other action stars?

Iko is like a little brother to me, so it's hard to answer this unbiased and I really hate to kiss his ass but I'd have to say that a large part of his success will come from his genuine likeability and the fact that he's quite a skilled actor not just a screen fighter. He's got a lot of work to do to reach the heights of his superiors, but so long as he continues to focus on each project with the same commitment and dedication that he has shown so far he'll get there soon enough. One of the things that we stole wholesale from Jackie Chan is that he's not afraid to incorporate a certain sense of vulnerability to his fight scenes. When we workshop the choreography we always look to include moments where we can see that the hero is in genuine danger, isn't always in control of the fight and could potentially lose. I feel audiences relate to "broken" heros much more than they do to undefeatable killing machines. On a personal level, why I like to work with Iko so much is that he's stayed a humble person throughout all of this. We've worked together now on a documentary and two feature films and even though he's gone from being an unknown driver for a phone company to a global martial arts star his personality hasn't changed. He hasn't let the fame side of the industry get the better of him. When you spend close to a year on a project, it helps a lot if the person you spend the most time with isn't a total dick. Luckily for Iko, I'm only a dick half the time.

3) How did you and Iko meet?

We met while I was shooting the documentary. He was a student of one of the masters we were following (Pak H. Achmad Bunawar from Silat Tiga Berantai) and during a practice session in pre-production we realised immediately that he had a certain aura about him. He stood out from the 20 or so students practicing with him, so I said to Maya that we should keep in touch with him and see if we could set up a film or a tv series to showcase his skills. What followed was a really badly shot and edited test fight (my first experience to shoot a fight scene) but one that showed Iko had potential. I told him at the time that I would come back to Jakarta one day and that I'd like to make a film with him in the lead. He presumed I was full of shit, but a few months later we came back told him to quit his job once his contract was up and we went ahead and made Merantau.

4) Who was your fight choreographer on the film? What styles of martial arts can we expect to see in THE RAID?

For The Raid the martial arts choreography was by Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian (also from Merantau - he played Eric). Meanwhile I oversaw the design adding some throws, increasing some of the aggression on the knife work and handling the stunt design and gunplay. Anyone who saw Merantau will hopefully recognise a similar signature in how we shoot our fight scenes with some long takes but we've also changed things up quite a bit to increase the pace of the action. The fighting style is a lot more brutal and direct in comparison. This is largely due to the change in psychology between the two protagonists. In Merantau, Iko's character was for the most part trying to avoid the fights, a simple flurry of light hits before making an attempt to escape. In The Raid however, the whole concept and situation makes it a kill or be killed environment. We couldn't get away with light hits and a push anymore--each attacker had to be left incapable of standing up again so its a lot of bone-breaking, knee-cap separating and head smashing.

On a technical level we continue to explore using silat in a practical way, you won't find any traditional posturing here, but a real life application of moves, locks and throws. Other than silat, the casting of Joe Taslim (a national Judo champion) as the leader of the swat team, Jaka, led to us incorporating some Judo techniques to give a different flavour to the action and give him an opportunity to shine also. Joe's got a huge amount of potential to break out as a big star, he has a huge screen presence and his dedication on and off camera has made it an absolute joy to work with him. But Yayan Ruhian as Mad Dog for me owns the show, his fight scenes are savage with fast attacks, showing his ability to adapt mixing complex techniques with raw aggression. I can't wait to see how the audience reacts when his first fight plays out.

5) The Raid marks the first Indonesian film to screen at Midnight Madness, can you describe what the Indonesian film industry is like? What are some of the advantages and challenges to shooting in Indonesia?

I think it's much the same as any industry--lots of very talented filmmakers struggling to get budgets to make some really great films offset by some truly terrible films that get churned out by the studio system and flood the market. The advantages are many - we have some stunning unique locations here and a rich history that can be mined for some fascinating stories. Meanwhile I've been incredibly lucky to surround myself with a crew that absolutely will not stop until we are done with the shoot. We've had some pretty punishing hours to get this film wrapped, but they've supported me throughout and given everything. When it comes to challenges, being more specific to me in my field I'd say that when it comes to action, admittedly we're in our infancy our experiences are limited but we're growing with each film. With our films we're often designing stunts that are much larger in scope than is usually performed or practiced by local stunt teams. Much of their work comes from television with stunts limited due to budget, and then suddenly they're meeting us in pre-pro and I'm showing them crudely drawn storyboards of someone jumping out of a window, dropping two-storeys and bouncing off a concrete window ledge before landing safely into a steel balcony. Naturally it takes time to adjust and work out the logistics and how to execute the shots but we get there eventually.

6) The learning curve for directing action films is pretty steep, what films and filmmakers did you study to find your own style for shooting?

Ever since I was a kid my Dad pretty much shaped my film going experiences and introduced me to the whole spectrum of action cinema. He was the one who first showed me Seven Samurai and Ran, but then he also showed me The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Armour of God and Police Story. This is back in the days of VHS rentals and some of those films were hard to come by, especially in Wales. He really was a huge film buff, but never a film snob. If it kicked ass and was entertaining it was just as important as anything considered "critically acclaimed".

When it came time to design the action sequences for The Raid I knew we had to step up in terms of quality from Merantau, we had to show our growth from that film and prove ourselves. I've been lucky enough to build a friendship with Mike Leeder who gave me some of the most important constructive criticism that helped me find a better balance between my fondness for wide angle long takes while also maintaining the energy of both the scene and the performers. On Merantau I burnt everyone out--the shots were just too long and too frequent. For almost every shot in that final cut of the film you're seeing take number 20+ and by then everyone is wasted. So by planning those long shots a little better and not having quite so many of them this time round I was able to get a more focused performance from Iko and the fighters, with more accuracy and a higher energy. We don't undercrank in camera, we always shoot at 24fps so those hits have to come in fast and hard.

For influences I'd go back to my HKL DVD of The Young Master and see Jackie Chan's editing of Whang In-Sik's intro fight, Project A Part 2 meanwhile contains for me some of Jackie's finest work. Undisputed 3 (a criminally underrated action film) was also a major influence for it's fluid editing and camerawork. For the gunplay I borrowed heavily from John Woo and Sam Peckinpah in terms of style while looking to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, Escape From New York and Walter Hill's The Warriors and Southern Comfort to try and get that feeling of an unrelenting, claustrophobic attack. Merantau was very serious and took a while to get going, but on this one I wanted to have fun with it and cut to the chase faster while playing around with our camerawork, editing and action design. Hopefully it provides enough thrills to keep the audience on edge throughout.

7) You directed a short entitled Samurai Monogatari filmed with actors speaking Japanese and all of your features have been made in Indonesia, even with the use of translators--conveying your ideas on set has to be sometimes difficult, is there a technique you have developed to overcome the language barrier?

In pre-production I always show my entire cast and crew some films so they get a sense of the style we're going for--I try to pick films that apply for each department whether its art, lighting, camerawork or performance. It's a helpful step and one that transcends language barriers to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength going in.

For both Merantau and The Raid I've been lucky enough to have a core team and dept heads that all speak fluent English. So many commercials are shot here with Australian directors that it seems quite common-place in the industry. On Merantau I was lazy and relied heavily on my team being able to speak English, but since then I've started to learn Indonesian from the crew and while they have mostly taught me ways to insult someone they've also helped me to communicate bi-lingually with the rest of the cast and crew. Learning the language has been hugely important, not just out of respect for the fact that I live and work in their country, but because it's become much easier now for me to judge whether or not the performance is there. I can direct the drama and dialogue with more confidence and know when something is off. On Merantau I'd be clutching to my English script and hover between it and the monitor like I was reading subtitles.
THE RAID screens at 11:59pm Thursday Sept, 8th at Ryerson and 12:15pm Saturday Sept. 10th at AMC 2

The Guardian (UK) gives KILL LIST 4/5 Stars!

Lots of good press for Ben Wheatley's Kill List around the web lately, with the newest addition to the love-in being a 4-star review from The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. In the review, Bradshaw claims that "[a]s far as British horror goes right now, Kill List is pretty much top of the range". Hard to argue with that kind of praise! Personally, the Midnight Madness closing film for this year is right at the top of my most-anticipated of the lineup. Don't miss out!

Mr Bradshaw's review has also just introduced me to the unequivocally whoopass term, 'infra-retch'. Stealing it!

Kill List screening times:

Saturday September 17 11:59pm Ryerson

Sunday September 18 3:15pm Scotiabank Theatre 4

Check Out the Poster for THE DAY

Next time you are on facebook make sure to check out the page for The Day. You'll find all sorts of promotional material (like the stylin' poster above). While you're there don't forget to like the official Midnight Madness Fan Page as well where you can win cool prizes like tickets to The Raid!

THE DAY screening times
Thurs., Sept. 15th, 11:59PM, RYERSON
Fri., Sept. 16th, 3:00PM, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2
Sat., Sept. 17th, 9:45PM, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 11
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/day

THE RAID screening times
Thurs., Sept. 8th, 11:59PM, RYERSON
Sat., Sept. 10th, 12:15PM, AMC 2
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/raid

AICN Hearts KILL LIST, DRIVE, and other TIFF selections at the Melbourne International Film Festival!

A contributor named 'Tyler Turden' over at Ain't It Cool News caught Midnight Madness selection Kill List as well as TIFF 2011 selection Drive down under at the Melbourne International Film Festival and had glowing reviews of both.