Russia Sepcial: Ilya Naishuller; Bad Motherfucker!

Great Guns director Ilya Naishuller takes a break from editing Hardcore, a no-holds-barred action POV film that’s guaranteed to kick serious ass. Simon Wakelin sat down with the director and Biting Elbows frontman to discover the Moscow native is one magnificently Bad Motherfucker

It’s not every day you witness a badass clip of carnage so gloriously inventive that you’re itching to see more. But such was the case as shots watched footage of new feature Hardcore in an editing suite off Sunset Boulevard. 

The man behind this brutal, action-packed film that moves with such breathtaking velocity that it’s sure to give the viewer whiplash is Ilya Naishuller. Hardcore takes off where Naishuller’s music video Bad Motherfucker ended – in the midst of a mass of blood, carnage and mayhem as seen through the first-person perspective of a nimble, kick-ass protagonist. Currently in post, the film is due to be released in cinemas worldwide over the next 12 months.  

In case you’ve been stranded on a comet (or been trying to land something on one) Bad Motherfucker is a first-person-shooter-style music video, directed by Naishuller for his own band, Biting Elbows. The explosive video went viral on release, getting over 40 million views before winning a multitude of awards, including making the cut for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Director’s Showcase at Cannes Lions 2013. 

Naishuller’s keen to make the most of the attention. “As soon as Hardcore wraps I’m eager to dive into commercials. There’s been so much interest, but I’ve been too busy on the film to reap any of the benefits.”

World’s first, motherfucker

The idea of making a feature version of Bad Motherfucker can be traced back to Russian-Kazakh fantasy-horror film director Timur Bekmambetov. He proposed producing, with Naishuller at the helm. Naishuller initially turned down the offer, believing the idea far too gimmicky – but then he realised that if anyone could make it work, it was him, and so the world’s first FPS action adventure film was born. 

“It was an enormous challenge to go from a five-minute video on YouTube to a 100-minute feature on the big screen,” Naishuller says. “Bad Motherfucker never had a story or a conclusion so we really needed to evolve the concept to make it work. It was a huge undertaking to get the right scope to engage audiences. I knew that you had to be one with the main character throughout the film.”

Pressed on whether he was inspired by any other films with similar perspectives in storytelling, Naishuller recalls the 1947 film noir Lady In The Lake, shot in first person perspective with old, heavy studio cameras and sub par production values. “The detective’s voiceover also breaks the willing suspension,” he reflects. “That didn’t work, so I knew my main character in the film couldn’t speak.”  

Unashamedly violent

Naishuller says Hardcore is a modern action sci-fi story. It follows a newly resurrected cyborg who must fight his way through an endless stream of bad guys to save its creator from the evil clutches of a psychotic tyrant with telekinetic powers and an army of mercenaries.

It may be unashamedly violent, but then this is nothing new, especially in the FPS video game genre and its various incarnations over the years, from titles such as Doom, which offered players an arsenal of weaponry to fight demons and zombies to old-school Duke Nukem, which had ample violence and plenty of cursing, plus the ability to enter strip clubs and give dancers cash to remove their bras. The whole genre is far from PG-13.  

Fighting alongside the cyborg is South African actor Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team, Elysium). He’s the borg’s only hope of survival. “We needed a strong actor to play against the protagonist,” explains Naishuller. “I couldn’t see anyone else in that role – I wrote the part for him. Sharlto received the script just three days before arriving on set. The experience became a great collaboration, he’s an amazing actor.”

Constantly reinventing

The story takes place in Moscow over the course of one day. It’s the first feature film shot almost entirely on GoPro using a custom designed camera rig to capture a very natural and intensely personal experience. The equipment needed to keep the GoPro in FPP as it was being worn by stuntmen in lengthy, arduous fight scenes was continuously updated throughout the shoot.

“We created helmet and camera stabilisation using a magnetic system that allowed us to run and gun,” Naishuller explains. “We had a shitty prototype to begin with that looked like a deadly medieval device and weighed a ton. The shoot was essentially baptism by fire for all of us.”

One of the biggest challenges was maintaining a convincing flow of explosive action throughout the shoot. And no day was more challenging than the final day’s shoot, capturing the film’s climax on a bloody rooftop crowded by 100 villains.

“We sat down for a month hashing out ideas of how to end the film,” says Naishuller. “We came up with the most inventive kills, but on the day of the shoot we improvised 50 per cent of the final battle. Improvisation was the only way forward on the film much of the time. It’s impossible to be so intricate and on point with so many stunts going on, plus set design was very specific because we shot in all directions on 360-degree sets. That was very tricky but necessary to successfully break that barrier with the audience.”  

Editing was done on set in Premiere, with first assembly ready to view on the last day of the shoot. “We wrapped Hardcore at 5am on the final day on a rooftop totally drenched in blood,” Naishuller recalls. “The sun was rising and the crew gathered to watch rough sequences we’d cut. I just watched it there thinking, ‘Yeah, this is worth the price of admission alone.’” 

He approached veteran editor Steve Mirkovich (The Passion Of The Christ, Con Air) to tighten the film’s flow. Familiar with energetic and high-octane material, Mirkovich was an astute choice. “All of his suggestions were fantastic,” Naishuller says. “I knew his credits very well, plus I needed someone who would cut the film and tell me it’s the best I’m gonna get.”   

Guy Ritchie changed my mind

The film was shot at 48fps in 920x1440 format before being cropped in cinematic friendly 1:85 frame. Naishuller says the high quality images garnered from the GoPros blew him away.

“Digital is great and I’m glad it’s here. To be honest, Guy Ritchie changed my mind about digital with RockNRolla. Colour correction finally got to a point where I stopped caring about what the material was shot on. Before that, though, digital was annoying.” 

I was a teenage studio slave

Hardcore was shot entirely in Russia, where Naishuller is intimately familiar with its production scene. He began in the business when he was just a teenager, plying his trade in the studio system, working his way up to assist directors such as Roland Joffé.  

“When I started I was a slave who brought coffee to people and drove the stars around,” Naishuller quips. “I was there because I wanted to understand the dynamics of what happened on set, plus I got to work with some incredibly talented people. The production scene is really good in Moscow. All my friends in advertising are happy. Russia offers diverse locations and sees a lot of production here.”     

Speaking of advertising, Naishuller reveals that he was recently a juror at this year’s Clio Awards. “I was blown away by some of the work,” he admits. “I went through 400 videos for the shortlist and I was very selective with my choices. Thankfully, most of them made it through and got gold or silver. It was also nice to see Bad Motherfucker get a nod!” 

But which part of Bad Motherfucker is more important to him? The music or the video? His career as a self-taught musician and frontman of Biting Elbows, or as a director itching to move into the ad scene?

“Film is forever,” he says, pointing his finger and lining me up in his sights. “Music? It’s a fling really. It’s just that it’s still going on but, hey, I have no complaints.”