James Cameron’s – Sanctum 3D
Interview; Director Alister Grierson
The invitation list to Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ film set went as follows; Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and then Alister Grierson.
If you casually refer to the almighty Saint of storytelling, James Cameron, as ‘Jim’, you have already unwrapped your golden ticket to a Hollywood success story. Though having the self proclaimed ‘king of the world’ as your mentor; Alister Grierson, you have hit the lotto twice! Director of this year’s, 3D epic, ‘Sanctum’, Grierson, in collaboration with world-renowned adventurer, Andrew Wight, jam us tightly into the majestic, inner watery worlds of the cave diver. The film is a tightly written, claustrophobic watch, and incredibly only Grierson’s second feature!
“The script wasn’t presented to me as a job offer; it was something that I happened to stumble across. It was very clear to me that the script was written by people who generally knew these worlds. The language of the film; the way that the characters spoke to each other, the way the scenes were described – it was obvious that the people who were going to make this movie knew these worlds intimately!” Grierson said.
“I ended up pursuing the project, then discovered there was a Cameron connection and they wanted to shoot it in 3D. This really blew me away as a concept, because the underwater environment is so perfect for 3D!”
Technically, ‘Sanctum’ is a filmmakers’ Everest. Seventy percent of the time shooting 3D underwater, for a low budget, and tight schedule, the picture is an extremely challenging and gallant feat by all involved.
“This film was so complex – the water, no light, and in 3D, you had to be triply prepared for your day’s work. For each diver, you’d have at least another three in the water for safety, lighting, or shooting. So, you can imagine what it’s like getting twenty people into position underwater – it takes a lot of logistics! I often find the really tricky part about filmmaking is, on the one hand you can be very prepared, but at the same time, you have to be able to throw it all away as well! A large part of your job as director is about saying ‘no’, but it is also about saying ‘yes’. It’s about being prepared to throw away all your preparation and run in the moment, with what’s in front of you.” Grierson explained.
“I cannot tell you how much I’ve learnt making the picture, especially with Jim’s guiding hand, he’s been very much an arm’s length mentor! Almost every creative decision I’d run through Jim. He was obviously very, very busy, making Avatar, but 99% of the time he’d fire feedback saying; ‘great, love it’. While other times he’d suggest, ‘have you thought about this’ or ‘this particular scene could be about the character and the landscape, let’s try and open it up a little’. He really is a master storyteller and a master at understanding audience’s needs, how they will read a film, and how they’re going to respond to things.”
Releasing simultaneously across 3,500 screens in the USA, and another 4,000 screens worldwide, Universal Studios are pulling out all stops for the film. An amazing achievement for the largely Australian cast, fingers crossed ‘Sanctum’ will inspire the Australian Film Industry for larger scale Aussie produced feature film funding.
“I hope when Australians see the film they realise the technical achievement that it is. It’s no mean feat doing what we’ve done, not to mention pulling it off on budget and on time. I think people are going to be really surprised by the film because of its scale. It’s not often you make Australian movies where your as ambitious as we were, to the scale of what you see on screen, I really think we’ve pulled it off!”
“I hope people recognise that there’s room in the market place to have a whole array of different styled films. From genre, to the stuff we do really well, like melodramas. Films like, ‘Animal Kingdom’ - I certainly don’t ever want to push those films aside, I think they’re the backbone of the industry, but I’m hoping through ‘Sanctum’, we encourage filmmakers to be more ambitious with the stories they want to tell!”
‘Sanctum’ is to be released nationally February 3rd.
