Hood loves filming with local crews

Rebecca Jackman

SOUTH African film director Gavin Hood says he is “completely biased” towards filming locally – “with good reason” – not only are South African crews “phenomenal”, but the variety of filming locations are ”perfect”.

Hood told a press briefing on the set of his latest film yesterday that local crews work hard, know their stuff, are enthusiastic, respectful and treat each other with dignity, which is rare in a sometimes “brutal” and “ego-driven” industry internationally.

Currently filming Eye in the Sky– about remote military drone warfare – locally, Hood said he was keen to make the contemporary thriller and really wanted to make it in South Africa.

With our “phenomenal crews” and a variety of settings, from “Surrey, for Helen Mirren” to clubs such as Las Vegas and the Nevada-like desert in Beaufort West, Hood said South Africa was the perfect filming location.

“It’s been an absolute joy to come home and work on a film that I feel passionately about.”

Hood added that the script by Guy Hibbert carried dilemmas that he really wanted to explore. “It’s about how we live now, how we wage war now and how we interact now as human beings in different parts of the world.

“We are all connected electronically, yet we are almost disconnected than ever before. We have instant communication. We can see exactly who we’re targeting when we attack.”

Hood said bombs were dropped blindly in the past, but now, when a missile is fired, the crew was made to go back to examine the bodies.

“On one hand, it’s shockingly terrible for us as a society to see this. On the other hand, it’s making us more aware of what it does and generates a conversation.”

And it’s the generating of conversations that draws him to stories. “What’s exciting is when a film provokes empathy for our fellow human beings.”

All of his films, Hood explained, had been made to provoke conversation, including Eye in the Sky, Academy Award-winning local film Tsotsi and his most recent film Ender’s Game.

“I tried really hard to shoot Ender’s Game here. We missed it by a fraction of the budget – Louisiana was cheaper,” Hood explained, adding that the state had a subsidy for film in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Asked about upcoming works, Hood wasn’t giving anything away, but did explain where his inspiration for great stories came from.

“I think good films explore strong themes. It’s not the story you want to tell, it’s the idea you want to explore through the story you tell that interests me,” he said.

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