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BAFTA Nominated Short Shot On Fuji
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
It takes a special skill to tell a story in just five minutes, but director Toby Macdonald and Luke Morris proved themselves equal to the challenge with Heavy Metal Drummer
O ne of this year’s BAFTA-nomi- nated shorts, lit by Argentine- born Natasha Braier and shot
on Fujicolour 500 Daylight, it’s
the engaging tale of a young Moroccan boy who eschews the bland wedding music his friends perform for pocket money, and dreams instead of emulating rock Gods like Megadeath, Motorhead and Iron Maiden.
Despite this contemporary sound- ing ambition, the look of the film was a conscious throwback to an earlier time and a different place, as Braier explains. “We tried to give an eastern look to it, we were watching a lot of films from Iran and Asia. We were try- ing to give it a similar texture, so we were really careful about the locations we chose in terms of the colours, and the time of the day that we shot in.
“We had a very limited palette, I worked closely with the art director and there were a few colours that were allowed and lots that weren’t. I used the 500 because I wanted a grainy look. Most of the film was shot in the daytime, and I was using tons of filters, putting it down to eight stops because obviously Morocco has a lot of light, and a lot of sun. We didn’t want something glossy or Hollywood looking, we wanted something that felt like a Moroccan film. I just wanted to have some grain and texture, and I think the whole de-saturation in the colour palette helped us achieve that.”
A graduate of the National Film & Television School at Beaconsfield, Braier is based these days in Barcelona but still finds herself work- ing a lot in London. And it was to the capital she returned in her quest for lenses that would complement the film stock, and make the short so visually distinctive during its four-day shoot.
“We used some old Cooke S3 lens- es,” she recalls. “They’re uncoated, and they helped to get that old fash- ioned look we were after. They were very kindly lent to me by Joe Dunton. Joe has been like a mentor to me since I started at the National Film School, and he’s always very helpful whenever I ask for weird lenses and stuff.”
Braier’s association with the Dunton family extended to working with Joe’s daughter Erica on her 2005 feature directorial debut, Red Means Go. There is certainly no stopping her busy career, which comprises features, commercials, shorts, docu- mentaries, art installations and pop promos – sign enough that Braier is fulfilling her own artistic ambitions well enough.
But given the theme of a disap- proving community looking on aghast at the unholy dreams of Heavy Metal Drummer’s delightfully unconcerned hero, it’s pleasing to report that everyone Braier and Co encountered in Morocco was happy to help tell the story.
“Everybody loved the film,” she adds cheerily. “We shot it in this little town called Essaouira on the coast, and everyone was really excited that we were making the film. In the end I think we got help from the entire com- munity.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 35
Photos from top: DP Natasha Braier; Heavy Metal Drummer on location in Essaouira, Morocco
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