There are some films that seem to leap out of the screen and bite you. Such is the case of “Kolshik”, a music video for the Russian band Leningrad featuring a circus in which things go very, very wrong. The Epica Awards jury liked it so much that it led to its producer, Great Guns, being named Production Company of the Year.
It was a tale of two firsts. Not only was this the first Production Company of the Year at Epica, it was also the launch of the Music Video category. This was a source of some debate on the jury: can a music video be described as “advertising”? Or even “branded content”? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that music videos are sometimes called "promos".
One thing everyone was sure about was that “Kolshik” rocked. As well as being gory, lurid and perversely enjoyable, the story is told in reverse, so it’s only at the very end that we see the minor incident that unleashed all the carnage: a little girl blowing a soap bubble.
The film was directed by Ilya Naishuller, the founder of the rock band Biting Elbows and director of the successful Russian movie Hardcore Henry (2015). Ilya was somewhat hard to track down, but we managed to interview him via email through an intermediary at Great Guns.
Congratulations on your award-winning video for Leningrad. Can you tell us when and how you came up with the concept?
Thank you very much! As with any project, I always try to look for ways to surprise myself as a viewer and challenge myself as a director. With “Kolshik”, Leningrad wanted a circus night gone wrong, and since I have a severe dislike of circuses, I wanted to really amp up the creativity of destruction and find a visual approach that I could make my own.
I knew I wanted to start with something innocent that would kick off a series of events that would in turn achieve ridiculous levels of carnage – hence the soap bubble kid – but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got with the idea of flipping the story on its head; starting big and gradually untangling the complicated events to their humble beginnings, while making sure that every shot and sequence contained as many fresh ideas and colourful details. There have been a number of good to great reverse videos over the years, but nothing as big and complicated as I dreamt of pulling off here.
You’ve directed videos for your own band, Biting Elbows, and of course a movie. How did you get involved with Leningrad?
Leningrad is basically Sergei Shnurov's baby. He’s the frontman, makes every creative decision in the band and he’s incredibly smart and quite the colorful character. I was a fan of his irreverent approach to Russian showbusiness so I asked him to do a cameo in Hardcore Henry. He obliged and we had a fun time gripping his nose with pliers and using him as a live bullet shield. We enjoyed working with each other, he liked the finished film; and when he thought of the circus idea, he felt there wasn’t anyone else who could do it but me, which was very kind of him.
Where did you start on “Kolshik”? I imagine you had to storyboard the whole thing out in detail before you could begin shooting?
I always start with a tightly timed and very detailed script, then do very basic storyboards but cut them into a very finely edited animatic. This allows me to make sure I'm not overshooting and wasting time and money. Usually on set, I shoot from a written shot list and then insert the shot immediately onto the previs timeline.
What was the most difficult scene to achieve?
The most number of takes was probably either the head bouncing on the podium (green screen suit FX guys controlled it) or the monkey on the gas canister, because it’s a monkey. Every expensive shot like the car flipping or the VIP lounge collapsing is simply too thoroughly planned and rehearsed to require more than one take.
What are the ideal characteristics of the actors you like to work with?
Smart, talented, quick on their feet yet patient, and, of course, life is too short to work with assholes.
