One More Shot director on trying to get an action movie through TSA

In 2021, One Shot blasted into motion followers’ hearts, making full use of Scott Adkins’ different talent set. It’s a high-octane tactical motion film with a enjoyable gimmick: The entire film is designed to appear like one steady take.

The newly launched sequel, One Extra Shot, now accessible all over the place you hire or buy films digitally, is a extra assured, polished effort than the unique, including a compelling and acquainted action-movie setting (an airport), extra motion legends (Tom Berenger and Michael Jai White), and a string of thrilling struggle sequences that profit from the placement, the self-esteem, and the expertise.

One Extra Shot additionally reunites director James Nunn with Adkins and struggle choreographer Tim Man, who’ve every labored with Nunn 4 occasions. However this film is Nunn and Adkins’ most achieved collaboration but. Polygon spoke with Nunn in regards to the difficulties of capturing an motion film in a single take, following within the wake of Sam Mendes’ Oscar winner 1917, hiding the cuts, what he discovered from the primary film, and his hopes for the way forward for the sequence.

This interview has been calmly edited for size and readability.

Picture: Sony Photos Leisure

Polygon: As somebody who’s filmed extra standard motion films, like Eliminators, what do you suppose is completely different for the viewers when a film is portrayed as one steady take?

James Nunn: Effectively, it’s humorous, as a result of it began as an train in How can I push one thing? How can I be completely different? How can I be distinctive? How can I take advantage of Scott’s uncooked, wonderful capability to the most effective? And the way can I take advantage of my technical knowhow? So it really began as extra of an experiment in simply proving to folks, I’m actually good technically, he’s actually good bodily and on digicam — merge them expertise, make a film. That was the place the preliminary pitch got here from. However as time went on, and as we began filming it, actually, I’ve sort of fallen in love with doing it this manner. You notice that you simply’re pushing this immersion in your viewers.

All films have a ticking clock. That’s the premise of numerous tales: You’re going from A to B, or A to Z, nevertheless it’s not in regards to the letters, it’s in regards to the journey between. There’s all the time a ticking-clock narrative, particularly in motion films. Whether or not it’s a bomb going off or saving your beloved as a result of she’s about to fall into acid, there’s all the time a timer. And I believe what occurs once you don’t manipulate time with cuts is, you’re really forcing folks to, nearly on a unconscious degree, simply really feel that timer a bit extra, really feel the urgency, and be a bit extra current in it.

Now look, numerous issues include the type, as a result of you possibly can’t movie Scott as the most effective martial artist on the planet, essentially, as a result of you possibly can’t do the angles that basically showcase what he can do. Equally, he can’t be like, spinning round doing wonderful butterfly pirouette kicks, as a result of it will simply be of a unique world. So the format comes with restrictions. And we all know what we’re doing. We attempt to maintain again on the flashiness and go for, like, this grounded CQC [close-quarters combat] navy vibe, which inserts very well. I believe the elongated take of it, whether or not you prefer it or not, you’re simply being sucked in.

Sure actors will actually rise to the event and be the most effective you’ve ever seen, as a result of they’re like, I don’t need to be the one on this 10-minute take who messes it up. So that they swap on to this degree of authenticity and focus, and you’ll really feel that as nicely. However then equally, in the event you’ve bought a barely weaker efficiency, it’s tougher to cover away from that.

I’ve fallen in love with it. I gained’t do it perpetually. I’ll return to regular, standard moviemaking quickly, I’m certain. However I’m having numerous enjoyable. And I’m so happy with the reception that we’ve had.

Picture: Sony Photos Leisure

What did you study from One Shot that you simply utilized to One Extra Shot? The film feels extra assured — did it really feel that solution to you whereas capturing?

For certain, we did. And I say “we” as a result of I’ve bought a really stable core workforce who I like working with, they usually’re all on the identical prepare with me. I believe the primary film, though I used to be assured… Look, I attempted to maintain it a little bit of a secret within the first one, however everyone knows there’s hidden cuts within the film. Don’t get me incorrect, I’ll run a take so long as I can. There’s three causes to interrupt: security, geography, or actor availability, if you must shoot out of sequence. These are actually the explanations I reduce. If not, I’ll go for so long as I can inside that timeframe. So that you’re actually taking a look at, like, eight- to 10-minute takes.

On the primary film, I knew we may do it, however we hadn’t executed it, in that we hadn’t really hidden cuts earlier than. So I put numerous the main focus within the first film on ensuring that we may conceal the cuts. The distinction with the second film was that weight had been lifted. We’d executed it. I knew we may do it. I knew easy methods to do it. I knew easy methods to get myself out of a bind, even when one thing wasn’t engaged on the day and I wanted to get out of it. As a result of we’d tried and examined it earlier than.

In order that weight had been lifted off my shoulders. So it’s like, OK, nicely, now I’ve really bought the time to suppose a bit extra about being extra elaborate with the digicam. And likewise, we had a tiny bit extra money on this one. So we may do stuff like hand the digicam out of the automobile and throw the digicam down a stairwell on a rig and know it will be OK. We have been in a position to be just a little bit extra tricksy.

How did you handle filming at London Stansted Airport?

That was probably the most tough a part of this entire course of, filming within the working surroundings of a world airport. We knew we wished to go greater. The fan response to the primary one was overwhelmingly constructive, and rather more than we’d anticipated. Clearly once you set out on these ventures you imagine within the film — you must, in any other case you wouldn’t do it. However I actually wished it to land. And it didn’t essentially get the large push I hoped for, due to COVID on the time, nevertheless it did sufficient to essentially discover an viewers.

We listened to the suggestions of the followers. Not essentially the large paper critiques, however the followers. And we tried to reply to that on this film and provides them extra fights, give them extra hand-to-hand, give them extra plot, but in addition make it not really feel as low-budget of a location, which was one thing we ran into quite a bit within the feedback.

So as soon as we came upon we got the fortunate alternative to go down the street for quantity two, we launched into what we’re going to do, and we have been like, We’re by no means gonna get an airport. We’re simply imagining we’re gonna get, like, some non-public little runway. It’s gonna be rubber, it’s gonna really feel low-budget anyway. So the producer, Ben Jacques, was tasked with Are you able to get an airport? And as if by some kind of miracle, the fourth-largest airport in England, Stansted Airport, confirmed an curiosity. They have been like, Oh, we love the sound of this. Yeah, come on down. And so we did.

Picture: Sony Photos Leisure

So we went down and we regarded, and we thought it’d be good. After which we wrote the script round it. However that is the place it grew to become tough. The primary film, we had a derelict location, which we may movie for 11 hours a day, no questions requested, easy-peasy. However going to Stansted got here with an enormous quantity of restrictions, the identical restrictions you face as a traveler flying internationally. You’re going by means of the metallic detector, you’re going by means of the screening factor. Getting 100 crew in with weapons, with knives, with faux explosives takes an hour off your day simply.

Equally, you’ve bought vacationers operating round ready to catch their flights and stuff. Within the U.Okay., you possibly can’t fly between midnight and 4 a.m. They mainly shut it down so that folks can sleep. And that was once we shot the film. So we’d get within the airport at like 7 or 8 at evening, do some rehearsals, have a little bit of meals. After which we actually began kicking off between midnight and 4. It was a tough cease at 4, as a result of the planes have been coming in, or folks getting on planes.

One explicit evening, we have been within the baggage declare space, and we had an extended take and an hour to go. And we’ve had months and months of conferences about this. However you realize, there’s all the time one man who’s by no means on the conferences who reveals up and is like, Oh, you’ve bought to wrap in 20 minutes. We managed to get two takes that have been 9 minutes every. The second’s within the film.

Everybody is aware of the structure of an airport, so it turns into quite a bit simpler for the viewers to floor themselves in the place issues are, what access-restricted places appear like, that sort of stuff. Nevertheless it allows you to work together extra with the surroundings when it comes to the motion. What else did the airport location add to the movie?

It’s sort of like how I really feel about 1917. One factor we confronted popping out after 1917, although [One Shot] had initially been written earlier than 1917, was that folks struggled just a little bit with the backstory. There wasn’t an enormous quantity of backstory being instructed. And the issue with doing issues in actual time as a one-shot factor is, you possibly can’t cease in the course of a struggle and begin calling your mother or your spouse, as a result of the viewers is aware of what you’re doing. You’re crowbarring in a backstory, nevertheless it simply begins to really feel hokey and never actual.

And the benefit that 1917 had over us is that the nation and the world’s collective understanding of a soldier in World Conflict I — all people’s studied it in class. You instantly have some thought or backstory data of that soldier. So it’s not essentially that 1917 even has extra backstory than we do. However what makes a distinction is that there’s this unwritten understanding of World Conflict I that you simply simply perceive. It’s in your unconscious, usually talking, as a Western viewers.

And that’s the identical, most likely, with the airport. Not all people’s seen a Guantanamo-style base [the setting of One Shot] exterior of a film. Whereas all people is aware of an airport. And I believe that’s the place [One More Shot] heightens as nicely, is that we’ve gone to someplace that you simply all sort of perceive: Oh, there’s gonna be an escalator, there’s gonna be this, there’s gonna be that. So I believe to harp in your level, I agree with you completely. And then you definately simply begin having fun with the fruits of what you could find, you’re strolling round and also you design the [fall] going over the rails, or combating on the metro.

Picture: Sony Photos Leisure

By the best way, that’s my favourite struggle within the film.

Me too. We don’t reduce throughout the fights. That’s a part of the explanation that Scott loves doing it as nicely, is that we actually make him do it for 2, three minutes. And what I like in regards to the metro struggle is due to all the foreground, poles, beams, and glass, it’s really unattainable to have even put a reduce in there. So that’s simply two bodily wonderful on-screen fighters [Adkins and Aaron Toney] actually going for it. And I’m privileged that they did that for us on a transferring prepare at about 30 miles per hour.

What strikes me as one of many hardest storytelling challenges of the format are the transition sequences. How did you strategy getting from scene to scene inside this construction?

[That’s where] the benefit of going to the placement [came in]. Having a 10-page define, discovering the placement, then writing the script across the location, after which doing set visits . And likewise it being a [real] location, not being one thing we have been constructing that folks needed to attempt to perceive.

As a result of there’s numerous One Shot that’s really a set. Like, we use the outside terrain, however really all of the interiors are usually fudged collectively in a fitness center on the placement. And that was a lot simpler for [screenwriter] Jamie [Russell] to jot down these passages of time. After which I had a few actor mates come down about three months earlier than we shot the film, and on a GoPro, we walked each scene only for script timings.

You need to do one other certainly one of these? One Final Shot, maybe?

Yeah, I do need to do one other one. I’ve bought no spoilers for you. There’s no inexperienced mild but. I’m gonna attempt my finest and knock on each door to hopefully get us there. However there’s no information, apart from the title. And it looks as if the web has discovered the title itself.

I imply, you set us up for it.

[Laughs] Me and the producers have talked about it previously, nevertheless it’s kind of organically been like this little little bit of a curler coaster on-line, which is enjoyable and thrilling. So I desperately would love to try this film, however we’re not there but. Let’s see.

One Extra Shot is out there for digital rental or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, and Vudu.