Steven Silver
Steven Silver made his feature film debut earlier this year, after enjoying a career in documentary filmmaking, with The Bang Bang Club.
The movie was based on the auto-biographical book The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War co-written by Greg Marinovich and João Silva.
I caught up with the filmmaker to talk about how he came to work on the movie, shooting in South Africa and what lies ahead.
- The Bang Bang Club is released on DVD here in the UK so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie can you tell me a little bit about it?
It tells the true story of four young photographers who came of age taking combat photographs in South Africa and then other parts of the world.
They were just particularly good at finding the 'bang bang' and became famous and known and known as The Bang Bang Club. two of them won Pulitzer Prizes and two of them died but the two that survived wrote the book The Bang Bang Club on which the movie is based.
- It's remarkable story of these four brave photographers who documented this war so how did the movie come about?
Well I am South African and I lived through that that period in South Africa, I was quite politically active during that time so I was at a number of the events that were in the film and described in the book - so I have quite a personal connection to that time in South Africa.
I came across the story of Kevin Carter and I optioned the rights to a manuscript that would become the book and the rights to the story of the Bang Bang Club.
Then I set about a very long journey to get the film made.
- You penned the script as well as directing so how much was the book an inspiration for the script?
It sticks quite closely to the book, there are a couple of moments where we took some dramatic license, but it s mostly quite loyal to the book.
- The movie was never about the political history of that country during that time but of the lives of those four men - how much was that a deliberate choice?
It was very much a deliberate choice because I didn't want the movie to be a political treaty or a political telling of South Africa at that time I wanted to tell the story of these four young men and what happened to them.
So yes that was a very deliberate choice.
- As you say you were in South Africa at the time but what sort of research did you do into the subject? In particular meeting combat photographers?
Over the years I did over sixty interviews with journalists, newspaper editors and photo journalists, people who had worked with the Bang Bang Club, bought their photographs, commissioned their photographs, edited their photographs.
I also spoke to two experts on South Africa at the time, experts on the conflict and that last battle when the country hung in the balance and ended up with the first democratic election in South Africa's history.
- There are two surviving members of the Bang Bang Club left so how instrumental were Greg and Joao in telling this story?
They were very much involved they read drafts of the script as well as being on the set most days of the shooting and saw cuts of the film. They were very involved with the film and the success is in part due to their help - although the faults are my own.
- So how helpful was it having them on set - particularly for the actors?
It was critical! There were times when we were trying to make sure that something felt authentic, one of the big jobs in film is trying to remove false moments which feels unauthentic and not real and they were very useful in helping me do that.
And for the actors I think having access to them and having them around to make sure that they really did look like a photo-journalist; used the cameras correctly and moved like a photo-journalist do I think they were instrumental in that.
- The movie brings together a great cast so were you thinking about certain actors when you were penning the screenplay? Can you talk to me about the casting process?
I needed people who were going to come out to South Africa and on the one hand deliver really top notch performances but at the same time do so without the usual trappings and luxuries that one might have on a bigger budget.
So what I got was exactly that - great actors who came out and really showed up and were able to deal with the rough and tumble of a very fast thirty day shoot.
- Malin Akerman is one of very few main female characters in the movie so what were you looking for in the character of Robin when you cast this role?
Robin describes herself as the tough but caring kind of mother hen - these were her guys and she was the sort of den mother.
She was one the one hand there boss but in another sense cared for them enormously so I needed someone who could carry both of those things at the same time.
- I read that you shot in the exact locations where events took place - why did you make that decision?
For one I thought that it would help with the authenticity of the film and it would help recreating those moments - I had access to photographs and news footage and I was able to really create that imagery in shooting those scenes.
It meant that it was also practical so when I storyboared the film I could storyboard into the exact locations so when we arrived on set the entire production knew exactly how we were going to shoot that day.
One of the main benefits though was that the extras in the scenes came from the communities that we were working in - those extras that you see, which are a real strength of the film and who helped make those scenes compelling and visceral, are not actors they are people from those communities.
And as such they are not acting they are remembering.
- Well that touches on my next question really how keen were they to be involved and remember those events?
What we found was the people were very enthusiastic in both us shooting the film and playing a role in it - I think for many people it was a chance to participate in a telling of their stories.
And so each day we had many people who were very keen to play any role that they could on set.
- This was your first feature length movie yes, so how did you find stepping away from documentaries and TV?
I found my history as a documentary filmmaker surprisingly less useful than I thought that it would be in directing a dramatic film so it was a very steep learning curve.
But I had a lot of help as I had great producers, great DOP and a really great editor and they were able to paper over my many shortcomings.
- How have you found the reaction to the movie?
It has been predominately positive, each country has been a little bit different; the press in the U.S. was surprisingly polarised with some people loving the film and others really not liking it.
So I was quite surprised at both how widely reviewed it has been and how much attention that it has got but also how it has split down the middle with strong feelings on either. It has been surprisingly controversial and I didn't expect that.
- Finally what's next for you?
I have another film, it's a sort of drug smuggling film, with Aaron Eckhart to do and so we hope to shoot that early next year.
The Bang Bang Club is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Steven Silver made his feature film debut earlier this year, after enjoying a career in documentary filmmaking, with The Bang Bang Club.
The movie was based on the auto-biographical book The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War co-written by Greg Marinovich and João Silva.
I caught up with the filmmaker to talk about how he came to work on the movie, shooting in South Africa and what lies ahead.
- The Bang Bang Club is released on DVD here in the UK so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie can you tell me a little bit about it?
It tells the true story of four young photographers who came of age taking combat photographs in South Africa and then other parts of the world.
They were just particularly good at finding the 'bang bang' and became famous and known and known as The Bang Bang Club. two of them won Pulitzer Prizes and two of them died but the two that survived wrote the book The Bang Bang Club on which the movie is based.
- It's remarkable story of these four brave photographers who documented this war so how did the movie come about?
Well I am South African and I lived through that that period in South Africa, I was quite politically active during that time so I was at a number of the events that were in the film and described in the book - so I have quite a personal connection to that time in South Africa.
I came across the story of Kevin Carter and I optioned the rights to a manuscript that would become the book and the rights to the story of the Bang Bang Club.
Then I set about a very long journey to get the film made.
- You penned the script as well as directing so how much was the book an inspiration for the script?
It sticks quite closely to the book, there are a couple of moments where we took some dramatic license, but it s mostly quite loyal to the book.
- The movie was never about the political history of that country during that time but of the lives of those four men - how much was that a deliberate choice?
It was very much a deliberate choice because I didn't want the movie to be a political treaty or a political telling of South Africa at that time I wanted to tell the story of these four young men and what happened to them.
So yes that was a very deliberate choice.
- As you say you were in South Africa at the time but what sort of research did you do into the subject? In particular meeting combat photographers?
Over the years I did over sixty interviews with journalists, newspaper editors and photo journalists, people who had worked with the Bang Bang Club, bought their photographs, commissioned their photographs, edited their photographs.
I also spoke to two experts on South Africa at the time, experts on the conflict and that last battle when the country hung in the balance and ended up with the first democratic election in South Africa's history.
- There are two surviving members of the Bang Bang Club left so how instrumental were Greg and Joao in telling this story?
They were very much involved they read drafts of the script as well as being on the set most days of the shooting and saw cuts of the film. They were very involved with the film and the success is in part due to their help - although the faults are my own.
- So how helpful was it having them on set - particularly for the actors?
It was critical! There were times when we were trying to make sure that something felt authentic, one of the big jobs in film is trying to remove false moments which feels unauthentic and not real and they were very useful in helping me do that.
And for the actors I think having access to them and having them around to make sure that they really did look like a photo-journalist; used the cameras correctly and moved like a photo-journalist do I think they were instrumental in that.
- The movie brings together a great cast so were you thinking about certain actors when you were penning the screenplay? Can you talk to me about the casting process?
I needed people who were going to come out to South Africa and on the one hand deliver really top notch performances but at the same time do so without the usual trappings and luxuries that one might have on a bigger budget.