Sam Hargrave shoots from the hip for PUBG

PUBG has just launched a short film which perfectly encapsulates the excitement, tension and last-man-standing nature of the battle royale-style video game.

Directed by former Marvel stuntman-turned-director Sam Hargrave, and starring Jung Jae Lee from Squid Games, the eight minute film pits two tooled-up crews against one another as they lay waste to an industrial complex (and each other).

The agency behind the film is Jung Von Matt Seoul, while production was undertaken through Reset. Below, Hargrave talks to shots about the very short preparation time he and his team had between agreeing to the project and then landing in Thailand for the shoot, as well as how important that team was to making sure everything came together. 

Above: The PUBG short, Ground of Honour, directed by Sam Hargrave.

When you first saw the project, how fully formed was it?

When I first came on the onto the project Daniel Wu and Jung Jae Lee were cast, and we knew that we were doing a PUBG-related concept with one character who was focused on honour and the other on winning at all costs. Other than that, the story was pretty wide open. 

What was it about the project that piqued your interest? 

The chance to work with actors like Daniel Wu and Jung Jae Lee was very exciting for me. 

Though I am not an avid gamer, the PUBG franchise is very much the kind of action I enjoy.

Also, even though I am not an avid gamer, the PUBG franchise is very much the kind of action I enjoy and have been focused on in my film career, so it seemed like an exciting challenge and a good fit for my skill set as a director. 

Above: Sam Hargrave on location during the filming of Ground of Honour.

You didn't have a lot of time to prep for this; can you tell us about that process and how you pulled it all together? 

You’re right, there was VERY little time to prep! In that kind of scenario, it’s all about 'who', first and foremost. You get the right who, you’ll be able to figure out the how.  

First off, we needed to get a story that was exciting, character driven and worth the time and effort we were going to be putting in. So, I went to Claire Rose Kennedy, the writer who penned the BMW short film I directed, CALM, starring Pom Klementioff. Claire is a super-talented writer, extremely creative, collaborative and fast. We worked well on the BMW film so I got her back for this and we worked together to flesh out the story. I laid out the beats I wanted to hit and what I thought were important character and action moments, and then all the good stuff she wrote down. 

We set out to shoot an eight page action script in three days, with two weeks of prep. Not an easy thing to do!

Then, I hired the team that helped me on Extraction 2; Greg Baldi, our director of photography; Thayr Harris, our second unit director and stunt coordinator; Nate Perry, additional second unit director and fight coordinator; and my brother, Daniel Hargrave, who did all the action and second unit stunt work on CALM, as well as our many years together in the Marvel Universe. So, with that team, I felt invincible, and we set out to shoot an eight page action script in three days, with two weeks of prep. Not an easy thing to do! But the team is so good, and the talent we were working with so skilled and prepared, we made it happen. 

Above: Sam Hargrave's short for BMW, starring Pom Klementioff, which was second unit directed and stunt coordinated by his brother, Daniel Hargrave. 

With so little prep time, how much trust do you have to have in everyone on the team - and how much more pressure do you feel as director? 

When you have little prep time, trust is key. That's why I hired who I hired, because I know they understand what I want and how to make it happen. And they have a can-do attitude, always. And with the actors, we were so fortunate to have Daniel Wu and Jung Jae Lee. They are so talented, and have been doing action for so long, they get the process and know what it takes to achieve these challenging sequences.  

There is the usual pressure of time and money. But that's par for the course when you are making movies.

As a director, the pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself. I have a standard for action and storytelling that I don’t want to compromise just because we have less time to prep and shoot than I would on a big budget feature film. So, I try my best to convey that to the cast and crew, and then we all set out to achieve that goal as a team. And there is the usual pressure of time and money. But that's par for the course when you are making movies. You never feel like you have enough time or money, and yet we persevere and do our best each day and it usually turns out alright. 

Above: Hargrave [left] and actors Daniel Wu [centre] and Jung Jae Lee.

Why were Daniel Wu and Jung Jae Lee the perfect choice for this film and what did they bring to it? 

I can’t say enough good things about them. They not only bring years of experience and a wellspring of talent and creative ideas, they are physically gifted with action. That means we don’t have to rely as heavily on stunt doubles, which gives me, as the director, the freedom to choose my shots without having to worry about hiding the stuntman.

They not only bring years of experience and a wellspring of talent and creative ideas, they are physically gifted with action.

They were so wonderful to work with. Truly remarkable.  

Apart from the scarcity of time, what was the most challenging part of this project? 

Apart from having very little time to shoot our ambitious script, I think the hardest part was being away from my new daughter! She was nine-months-old at the time, and every moment with her is so precious. It was hard to be away from her that long.