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SLAUGHTERHOUSETALE
SAM HOLST’S MEATHEAD IN SHORT FILM COMPETITION AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
NEW ZEALAND AT CANNES
“I LIKE FUJIFILM BECAUSE IT IS SO DISTINCTIVE; IT HAS CHARACTER IN IT WHICH IS MISSING FROM A LOT OF THE OTHER OPTIONS.”
he aim sounds simple Tenough: to fuse neo-realist
principles with cinematic expression and create something unique.
But shooting their short film
Meathead on location in Waikato, a rural region on New Zealand’s North Island, director Sam Holst and DP Andrew Commis ACS, had to work hard to realise it.
The story, inspired by the experience a friend of Holst’s had, details a 17-year-old’s fraught first day working at a local meat works. Before long Mick becomes concerned that the challenge is not just to fit in, but to survive.
Only slightly less daunting was the task facing the filmmakers, and Holst soon became convinced that the only way to get exactly what he wanted on screen was to shoot in a real abattoir.
“We needed to get in with the workers, the machines, the meat, the cold, the heat, the blood, the
noise,” Holst says, “and make the film for real. This approach would of course be the most difficult way to make it. But I felt it was also the only way.”
DP Andrew Commis came to the project with a well-received feature Beautiful Kate under his belt, but just as importantly a background in documentary that served him well on this short film.
Shooting anamorphically with 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T, and with a cast almost entirely made up of non-actors, the onus of mixing gritty realism with cinematic beauty was on him.
“Sam and I collaborated to try and make the abattoir an imposing, visually dense experience,” Commis explains. “The film is not documentary in style, it’s an internal psychological drama. The camera is quite controlled, at times observing and at other moments very much subjective.
“The non-actors were amazingly co-operative, they easily could’ve made our job hell. And there’s a
pretty funny camaraderie on the line too, not unlike a film crew, I guess.
“Shooting anamorphically really contributed to the scale of it, because by using the full 35mm negative you’re seeing every bit of texture.
I think it would almost be impossible for an art
department to create that level of detail, but we were definitely designing the film for a
cinema screen.”
While the first part of the film took inspiration from the pace and authenticity of movies like The Deer Hunter, the action in the abattoir itself had the vérité styling that rooted the story in its location and setting.
“I tested quite a few stocks to find the right balance,” Commis adds. “I was also looking for a subtlety and a richness, and I liked Fujifilm because it was so distinctive, it has character in it which is missing from a lot of the other options.
“The challenge was shooting guys on the line wielding knives with these massive carcasses everywhere and that doesn’t allow for much freedom to adjust lighting. I was able to turn some things off and supplement here and there, but generally I had to find the right look with what
I had.” ANWAR BRETT
Meathead was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573
Photo top: director Sam Holst; above: DP Andrew Commis ACS in action; right: the poster image; far right: a scene from Meathead
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