Full immersion filmmaking
The new filmHardcore Henryputs you inside the head of an action hero literally.
Its an expansion of a style that director Ilya Naishuller developed in music videos.
We spoke to the director about the tricky art of first-person action filmmaking.
BeforeHardcore Henry
I bought a GoPro for snowboarding.
As soon as you put the camera on the mouth, it feels like POV.
Once we did that, the aesthetic made a lot of sense.
Then Timur Bekmambetov Facebooked me.
He suggested that I produce a feature [in the same style].
I was aiming for a very different kind of movie, a Cold War-set, slow-burn psychological thriller.
I didnt think it could work in a long format.
I had the same hesitancy as some people now: Thats not gonna work for 90 minutes!
Its been tried before.
There was a POV film in 1947 calledLady in the Lake.
It did not work.
Having the character not speak, I was pretty adamant about that early on.
You want the audience to be Henry.
You cant go to another location, no switching from characters.
You dont want to go crazy in terms of story.
Theres a girl, youre a guy, you gotta save the girl.
There was 30 hours worth of tests, that we printed and put on the biggest screen in Moscow.
The whole thing was trial and error.
ShootingHenry
It took 120 shooting days, split into three shooting blocks, which was ridiculous.
Ill never do it again the most stressful thing ever.
The first week of shooting, about 25 percent of that went straight to the bin.
It didnt look anything like we needed it no.
The more we shot, the better we got at utilizing our time.
In terms of action: Sometimes we cut every time Henry turns his head.
Most of the action stuff was shot in a minute-long take.
The finale, the 1 vs. 100 fight, that took two and a half weeks to shoot.
It was the most psychologically difficult.
A lot of fire, a lot of blood, a lot of darkness that surrounds you.
Every time Henry turns his head in the final cut, thats a cut.
We cut the whole thing as we went.
I would not say the shot is complete until it matched to the previous shot.
It was never written with a sequel in mind.
It can still be part of a duology or a trilogy.
Theres a lot more stuff that we could do better.
