As many in the gaming community already know, Uwe Boll has been working on a movie about the immensly popular PC Game ‘Far Cry’, which pits an ex-marine against an entire army of baddies and genetic experiments. I was fortunate enough to speak with one of the actors in the upcoming film, Gareth Von Kallenbach. Gareth offers a unique perspective as he is an established film critic, and gave me a behind-the-scenes look at the set, and also describes what it is like to work with Uwe Boll.
You can also read our Q&A with Uwe Boll here, or read about his take on the US election here.
What was your involvement in the ‘Far Cry’ film?
I went to the set to cover the filming and get a look around the sets. I ended up suited up in body armor and decked out with some nice firepower as a Mercenary in a couple scenes as well.
Did you have any prior acting experience? How did you land a gig in a film with an established director?
“Far Cry” is my fourth film and I just wrapped my Fifth film “Travelling” a few months ago. I have also done some plays and have done radio for several years. Years ago I was introduced to Vince Desi of Running With Scissors when I e-mailed him and requested an interview for Postal 2. The interview was picked up by several sites and Vince and I stayed in touch over the years. When it came time to make the movie “Postal” Vince let me break the news about the film and Director, and introduced me to Uwe Boll. From there I was introduced to Uwe’s Publicist Bill Wanstrom and over the course of covering Uwe’s upcoming films, and news, I was asked to come up on the set and do a small walk on as well as speak at his Sci Fi convention Timeless Destinations. Over the last couple of years Bill has arranged many interviews with Uwe for me as well as passed along lots of news about the Director and his films. As such, when opportunities arise I was asked if I wanted to come up and be in “Far Cry” and visit the set. I have also done some Star Wars fan films as well, as I like having some fun with Directing and setting up scenes as well as writing the lines and acting in the projects.
What kind of props did you use? Were the guns real? Where the costumes custom-made for the movie or were they pulled from a surplus store?
What we had was 100% authentic. I had a black t-shirt and fatigues, but I also had a weapons harness, helmet, headset, as well as a sidearm and an HK assault rifle. They looked great but it was a very hot day to be wearing black and hauling around 20 lbs of gear and it was even harder with the set lighting.
What type of special effects appear in the movie? What did you get to work with? Did you have to do any stunts?
We used pyrotechnics to simulate some explosions, and glass shattering. There was a lot of weapons fire, and we used blanks for the scenes. I am in a shootout and had to do a lot of running and covering during the scene. It was very fast paced. There is also a scene where I am in a control room monitoring events as the screens we are watching go nuts.
How did you interface with an ‘invisible’ creatures during shooting?
That was always fun. We were walked through the scene and given general directions about being under attack and where the attacks were coming from. We had to go over everything from pace to run, when to duck, fire, raise the gun, and so on. Once you started moving or firing, it was easy to really believe you were in a firefight. I had to be creative as do to Canadian Union rules, only members could fire a weapon on set, so we had to be creative about what I did in the scene, so I did a lot of running, and covering. I had to run behind and cover Emmanuelle Vaugier while she is giving orders.
Walk us through a typical day on the set.
I would arrive and check in, get wardrobe and makeup done, get something to eat, and mainly hang out and wait for the scenes I was in to be ready to shoot. Since I am press, I was allowed to be on set with the crew, and they took time before and after shots to show me how things were done, let me wander the sets they were not using, look at monitors and such. Making a movie is a lot of waiting around, but after we broke for dinner, we were before the camera and shot our scenes and wrapped. I spent some time later in the day with my fellow Mercenaries and talked about their careers and the scenes they have been in. You can have some really interesting conversations on set and meet a lot of interesting people. I had one of the crew tell me about some of the people who had been in the films he worked on as well as some interesting stories from past movies he had worked on. We also took a few pictures during the day as well. After wrapping, it is back into your regular clothes and off home.
Where did the shooting take place? How much of the set is green-screen vs. real location?
We filmed outside Vancouver B.C. and a few scenes had Green Screens. There was a scene with a vehicle and a simulated helicopter as well as the big shoot out I was in. There are a lot of sets and from what I saw Green Screens enhance the sets rather than become the sets. The set was next to where the Stargate series is filmed, and they had guards around the dumpsters as I was told that people had been stealing props from the Stargate shows from the garbage.
POSTAL was different from Uwe’s prior movies in that it satirically touched on social issues. Does Far Cry have any political message or social commentary? There is a good message about tampering with genetics and of course the classic struggle between good and evil. The main focus on the film from what I saw is mixing action and horror with good characters and an entertaining story.
Being an established movie critic, were you able to collaborate with the director on certain creative items?
No, Uwe was called away to speak at Comic Con so I was not able to work with him on this project. A lot of people put a lot of work into the picture and I was also taught from my earliest acting work that you do not offer suggestions unless asked to. I did go over some of my movements for the action scene and was able to offer a few ideas for them to pick which they wanted to use.
How is it to work with Uwe Boll? Is he really a great guy in person or a puppy-kicking slimeball?
I have met Uwe in person a few times, and he was always a great guy. He is a real lover of animals and portions of his upcoming film “SEED” will go to various animal charities. He had his dog on set both times, and has a very good report with his cast and crew.
He is a very well-spoken and funny person and he works very hard. He treats everyone on his sets well and that includes the extras. I have been on sets where the stars eat one thing and the extras get another. That does not happen on his sets as the food was very good and the same for everyone. I do not like how much venom the guy gets as he is a very dedicated person who really works hard to make his films and has a lot of passion for what he does.
Why do you think Uwe has the reputation he has?
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he works outside the studio system and does things differently. He has made a name doing Video Games and in doing so has drawn the wrath of fans. There have been many bad video game movies such as “Mario Brothers”, “Double Dragon”, “Doom”, and “Wing Commander” to name a few. Nobody said they were the worst Directed films in history, and that the Director should be banned from making films again. Uwe is a very upfront and open person who is not afraid to speak his mind, and because he has such pride in his works, he is not one to mince words to defend his films and speak out about what he sees as the issues in the industry.
While his films may not do well at the U.S. Box Office, they do well in Europe and do well on DVD. As it was explained to me, his first three films, “House of the Dead”, “Alone in the Dark” and “Bloodrayne” cost roughly 60 million to make, but combined grossed over 120 Million once all revenues were factored in, so somebody is watching them.
I learned that when the rights to a game are purchased, certain changes have to be made as there are restrictions on storylines, characters, and so on. In the case of “Far Cry” for example, the locale had to be changed from a tropical locale to an island in the Northwest and while they could have mutants, they could not use the same look and names from the game.
Gamers are so passionate about their games, they want a live action version of their favorite game, which is not possible to do in 90 minutes and with the restrictions that are often put on game related films. As such, when the films differ from the games, Uwe gets trashed. It is also to be noted that Uwe does not shoot films in the Hollywood style as being European he has a different style to his films which to certain viewers seems different from what they are used to. Uwe does not do the same paint by numbers films that are far to common these days.
Nobody who is creative likes to be criticized but it tends to come with the public nature of filmmaking, and Uwe is not one to back down and will defend his work to the end, which often paints a bullseye on himself.
What do you have to say to the critics of Uwe Boll’s movies?
My attitude has always been this. Are his films cinematical masterpieces? No, but they provide entertainment and can be fun to watch, especially on a lazy day or when watching a DVD with friends.
Each one of his films has been better than previous films and he has some original non-video game films coming which have had some positive reviews when shown at festivals.
I asked my wife after watching “In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale” if that was one of the worst films she had ever seen or badly directed. Although the genre is not her favorite, she said for what it was, it had some good action and fun moments and was a great film to watch on a rainy Sunday.
I look at some of the big budget studio films that come out every year and I can always find films that are far worse than anything Uwe has ever done, yet nobody calls their creators names, or wants to ban them from making films. We are supposed to be a society that encourages people to express themselves and allows people to voice their opinions. Yet many who take this freedom to openly be critical of the man and his work, fail to allow him the same freedoms of expression and want him banned from making films. If you do not like what he does, then do not watch it and let him do what he wants and focus your venom on someone else for a change. If his films do not measure up, then by all means be critical, just be fair and not bashing the work on reputation alone.
You can also read our Q&A with Uwe Boll here, or read about his take on the 2008 US election here.