05:42 - Director's Journal

It’s the end of April. My long time friend from film school, now living in Australia has posed the question of making a short film for his new company Erwin Films. Do I want to make a short film? Do I ever. I’ve been the world’s foremost nut on films since I was 10 years old and since then have watch at least a film a day. I love film and have so much passion boiling up inside of me for the medium I was ready to burst.

After film school I took a left turn into television directing several adventure programmes, commercials and promotions picking up a couple of international awards along the way but all the while saying, it isn’t film.
I began with a short script; I have written a dozen feature length scripts and decided to base the short film on one of them. Quill is a film I feel destined to make one day. It combines the fantasy of Lord of the Rings with the drama of Hope and Glory. It is a story I’ve been working on for almost 17 years now. The short version was a bit ambitious for a low budget short film even with the contacts in f.x that I had in the industry.

May
Kurt confirmed my over ambitious script and I moved on to more traditional no/low budget short film parameters. In church on a Sunday evening the Elder who was speaking spoke of his adventures in The D.R.C (Democratic Republic of Congo) and specifically one event that sparked my enthusiasm to see the story told on film. Three peacekeepers were captures and given half an hour to decide among themselves which one of them would be executed at the end of the allotted half hour. Wow, what a premise, I thought. What would these guys go through in that half an hour? I decided to explore the story and flesh it out into 30 pages. After researching some other stories from the region I amalgamated them into one idea and the result was 05h42.

Kurt seemed to like the idea and we set the production rolling. I was going to London and LA for an award that I was nominated for so wanted to shoot the film before I left. A shoot date was set for June 9 to June 12. I began calling in all favours and assembled a great crew willing to work for the love of the art. The big question was who would act in it. I sent the script around to the agents and was overwhelmed by the response to the material. Everyone seemed to like the script and showed interest. Some fell out because of other commitments leaving us with Ron Smerczak and Jerry Mofokeng, both great experienced actors. The two remaining roles were filled by Gregory Viljoen and Theo Voss-Price, both relative newcomers who gave 110% and more.

June
We set our first rehearsal and read through of the script. This is tough as a writer/director as each word is scrutinized and questioned. I needed to be on my toes here and know the material. We rehearsed a few scenes on camera. Jerry’s powerful presence made me take a step back at times as he let loose with his character. The producer walked in at one point when Jerry was in a fierce moment and quickly turned and left the room in fear. Being a low budget film the wife had the obligatory task of serving up a sumptuous meal.

There has always been a question in my mind around staying here to pursue my South African film ideas or to join the production line of Hollywood or London rising from no budget to some budget movies. We have good stories to tell but do we have the passion and support. I have been a little dissuaded in my hope for support from the local industry until I purposefully sought after it.

I certainly had and have the passion, having tried to follow the road to movie directing from age 12. Along the way I seemed to have taken an off ramp detour and ended up in television which has nurtured and refined a lot of my skills and provided me with the relationships I needed to pursue the ultimate goal.
As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one. My passion is definitely a shared experience. This was confirmed recently with a booming gong when I set out to make this short 40 minute drama film. Of course I had no budget, who does? What little I had was invested by a friend in Australia out of his own pocket who had enough faith in my ability to fund the project. In realistic terms, it was about a tenth of what the film would actually cost. Shooting from the hip and trying to make a champagne film on a beer budget my friend and producer Stephen Lorenzo and I began approaching the people in the industry that we knew from our years in promotions and commercial shoots.
Obviously the script is everything. I wrote the script based on a story that I heard from a missionary who had just returned from the DRC. It was a fantastic premise and I knew it would make a dramatic short film. Three human rights watch researchers crossed the border from Rwanda into the Eastern Congo and were captured. Three white men from South Africa. Their interrogator, a Hutu leader gave them thirty minutes. Within thirty minutes the three of them would have to decide which one of them would be sacrificed for execution. The story takes place in real time through the thirty minutes and the drama that unfolds as the decision is debated and ultimately made. It becomes a version of Survivor but the stakes are obviously much higher and alliances are made and broken and the psychological trauma heightens as the thirty minutes come to an end. The end being 05h42 – the title of the film.
I was blessed to secure one of South Africa’s finest director’s of photography – Trevor brown who has created some visual magic in terms of capturing the tonality and mood of the story. The entire crew, all highly experienced and talented in their respective fields came on board and gave of their time and talent for next to nothing other than good catering and the promise of creating something special.

Shot on location at the old Fort in Hillbrow, Johannesburg the grueling 4 day shooting schedule went as smoothly as one could only dream of. It is a fitting testament to the dedicated crew - we lost half of the first day due to a disagreement over the availability of the location that we finished the shoot ahead of schedule on day 4.

Now in post production I am amazed at how much support I am getting, from a free score by the genius Barry Dean and free editing facilities supplied by Rapid Blue and Red Pepper to a free surround sound mix courtesy of Jukebox Jungle. I will be indebted to these people, both cast and crew for the rest of my career for proving that sometimes art can come before commerce.

I know we have, through an immense collaborative effort created something special and entertaining. The film will now travel around the world to various film festivals in the hope of attracting enough attention to allow us to reunite under the banner of a feature film.

June – shoot day one.
After securing the perfect location we were told at 11p.m the night before the first day of shooting that we could not use the location anymore and that we should meet there at 07h00 to discuss. We arrived, they didn’t and we were told on the phone quite bluntly that we couldn’t use it and that an alternate location could be used. The alternate location was terrible. It would be like Bruce Beresford being offered downtown Bronx N.Y to shoot Driving Miss Daisy. I was defeated and depressed. There I was with a script, a cast and a crew and couldn’t start. How could I get so close only to have the rug pulled out? The crew was growing despondent. There was only one thing to do – Beg. I did and we secured the location. After losing half a day on day one we began in Earnest. The actors were great and knew their roles well. By the end of day one we were one shot behind.

From then on the shoot went as smooth as peanut butter, a little sticky in places but thick and chunky and very tasty. We were getting something great. There are always those amusing moments on any shoot. We were firing off blanks in the middle of Hillbrow, Johannesburg at night. My intention was to add gunshots in post for background effect. Hillbrow provided that for me. Throughout the night gunshots were fired in the streets around us, some pretty close. Our armourer would enjoy explaining the situation and what guns were being fired and why. It gave us an eerie context of what we were filming. By day 4 we finished 4 hours ahead of schedule with an extra 30 -40 shots in the can. I had prepared hard and tight for this shoot and knew exactly what was needed to get the story on film. My crew gave me the same compliment which was gratifying. It was a great experience with a great crew who each gave 100% for very little in return.

July
This is definitely a movie of false starts. My first day in offline. I was excited. How would this all cut together. I had to film in my mind and now it was time to see it on screen. I set the first in and out codes and hit the red record button. BANG! The damn machine blew up. I came back the next day with a new machine and started again. The first day of our non linear offline. The access card reader to the edit suite broke. We couldn’t get in. The first day of online. The avid system couldn’t interpret the motion effects created on the Discreet Edit offline. The first day in audio. The editors omitted to provide adequate handles on the audio synch. We had to reload the entire movies’ audio track. Ouch.

Otherwise post production was exciting. I’ve always wondered if film directors ever get bored with their films having to watch them again and again and again through each phase. I don’t believe so. It is such a thrilling experience. I’ve seen my film over 50 times now and can still sit down and enjoy it. I better as it’s time to start screening it now.

Cast, Credits and Stills.