Spotlight: A Warrior’s Heart

  • On the Set of A Warrior’s Heart

    Q&A with director Mike Sears

    1. What part of the story most resonated with you?
    When I first read Marty Dugard’s script, I felt that he had interwoven two stories. The first was a sports film, with lots of lacrosse and tension created by where the teams are in the standings and who is going to be in the national championship. The second story line was a coming of age story. When my assistant director and I broke down the script, it was obvious we did not have the money or time to shoot both story lines in the script and moreover, we felt the one we could best execute was the coming of age story.

    The aspect of that (that most appealed to me) was this sweet, emotional story set in a very male world. I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition to have a very masculine character surrounded by traditional male role models, all of whom are trying to deal with a deep personal loss. There is not a lot of dialogue explaining the process; it really is what the characters do that walks you through the progression. I thought it was an honest look at how males relate to each other and try to support one another without an easy way to express their emotions.

    2. Why did you choose to make Brooklyn the narrator of the story?
    The decision was made for me. The practical reality of making films is that these types of decisions are going to happen and as a director you need to adjust.

    I’m not generally a fan of narration, unless it is essential to understanding the story. This was not part of Marty’s original script. I believe it was an attempt by the producers to make Ashley’s character Brooklyn a more prominent part of the story after the fact, coupled with their assertion that films narrated by women make more money.

    I wrote the narration and I thought Ashley did a nice job expressing the tone of the story in her read. I think the head and tail of the narration bookend the story well and clearly express the intent of the film. I think much of the narration in the body of film is pedantic and unnecessary and I hope it doesn’t take the viewer out of the film.

    You can’t win all the battles.

    3. You have a cast of extremely hot actors right now, what with two actors from the Twilight series. What was the casting process like?
    I was brought on the film late in order to replace a previous director. I recast many of the actors and replaced much of the crew. However, Kellan Lutz had been cast as the lead character Conor Sullivan before I came on. Kellan had just shot TWILIGHT, but it had not yet been released.

    After I was brought on the project I had a couple of meetings with Kellan to see how we would get on personally and see if we were in agreement on creative direction. I thought Kellan was a good choice and the producers were very set on keeping him as the lead, so a change was never considered.

    There had been another actor cast as Brooklyn when I came on board. This was an inexperienced actor and I was told she would not read for me and no change was possible. I felt strongly that the relationship between Conor and Brooklyn was absolutely essential to the making the film work even though it was not written for a lot of screen time. The casting directors were clear this actor was a producer choice and the previous director had tried to make a change and it was simply not possible.

    One advantage of coming on board late to a project that is having trouble is that you are given a few ‘silver bullets’ in the first weeks to get things back on track. It goes something like ‘if you didn’t want me to make changes, why did you replace the last guy?’ It doesn’t last long, but you can get a lot done in that window of opportunity.

    I spoke with Kellan and told him of my concern with the casting of Brooklyn. He was diplomatic in his assessment of the actor who had been cast, but he mentioned that Ashley Greene was a friend and he thought she might be willing to play the part of Brooklyn. I had just seen TWILIGHT and thought Ashley would be a great addition to the film.

    Kellan and I were able to convince one of the producers the change was necessary, but not the other. There followed a week or so of executive wrangling, but the net effect was that Ashley was asked to join the picture.

    These decisions are never easy, especially at the last minute when personal promises and monetary considerations come into play, but in the end they are the decisions that can make a film work or fail and in this case it was obviously the right call.

    The fact that Ashley and Kellan have continued to rise in their professional profile is a testament to their abilities and very good luck for us.

    4. Did the actors already know how to play lacrosse or was there a training period involved?
    Kellan is a natural athlete. He had played a lacrosse player on 90210 before starting A WARRIOR’S HEART, however I don’t know if he had prior experience to that show.

    We had two lacrosse coordinators, Kyle Harrison and Xander Ritz who are both professional caliber players. They worked with Kellan quite a bit. Unfortunately for Kellan, we shot a bit of lacrosse for the film before his scenes and I had mistaken which way Kellan shot (just like throwing a ball, people are either natural right handed shooters of left handed shooters in lacrosse) I can’t remember which way it went, but Kellan played the entire film off-handed. Fortunately for me, he is really coordinated and was able to pull it off.

    Ashley on the other hand had no prior lacrosse training, nor did the script really call for much. She did a good job of picking up the basics quickly, and we had a good double for certain scenes who was a top collegiate lacrosse player.

    I’m not sure the fictional Briarfield girls lacrosse team is destined to win any championships however.

    Most of the lacrosse scenes were a combination of our lead actors, professional players, collegiate players and stunt doubles.

    5. What interested you in working on this project?
    I’m not sure how most directors get the opportunity to direct their first feature. The first one is always difficult to get. For me, I was asked to join the picture by Mark Burnett. I have a long working relationship with Mark. We worked together on the Raid Gauloises in the Sultanate Of Oman, the early Eco-Challenges, the inaugural Survivor and the recent launch of Youtoo TV. Mark is also a friend of the writer of A WARRIOR’S HEART, Marty Dugard. Marty called Mark when they started to get into trouble with their first director. Mark knew I was interested in crossing over into feature directing and suggested to Marty they bring me in to take over directing the picture.

    When I first read the script I was pleased to do a sports film; I was a lacrosse goalie in prep school. I have directed a lot of sports-centered programming, from the Eco-Challenge and Raid Gauloises, to corporate videos for Marker Skis, The North Face and Converse Shoes. Ironically we focused much more on the personal side of the story, but I really enjoyed the process and greatly appreciated working with the talent.

    6. The film gets very dark in parts after the protagonist’s father dies, and he lashes out at the world. Were you concerned about being able to redeem this character?
    I always felt the story was less about redemption and much more about prevailing against the odds. I felt the character’s actions were totally understandable given the circumstances and the real question was whether he would be defeated by the events of his life or rise above them.

    There is certainly a standard theme in coming-of-age films where the protagonist must pay a price for bad behavior. In this case I felt the character paid the price upfront when his father died. The journey is whether he can stand up when he’s knocked down, whether he will live the life his father wanted for him and he deserves, or not.

    I did wrestle with whether we could bring the tone of the film back up after going to such a dark place. If the story is honest about the death of a parent, you can’t try to jump out of that emotional space too quickly. Yet we wanted the film to feel triumphant at the end, hopefully we got the balance right.

    7. The opening scene of the film shows Native Americans playing lacrosse and running across plains filled with buffalos. How did you shoot this scene that is so different from the look of the rest of the film?
    Simple explanation. I didn’t shoot that scene.

    This is the footage that was shot by the first director. Nothing wrong with the footage, but the realities of filmmaking requires a balance between style and budget. A disproportionate amount of time and money was spent on this scene for its relevance to the story.

    This is actually the footage I was shown as an example of why the original director was being replaced. Later I was told I must use the footage in the film. An odd situation, but one of the many things you deal with as a director.

    8. Were there other films that had an influence on you while making this story?
    I’m a big believer in tone. Many of the films I like the most have a very consistent tone. I tried to keep that in mind as we were filming.

    There isn’t any particular film we used as a touchstone when we were working, although I’m sure that there are many films ingrained in me somewhere that influenced every decision.

    I did give Kellan a copy of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE at the beginning of filming, as an example of what I thought was a great film that felt tone- wise, in a similar space (no idea if he ever watched it).

    9. There are three characters in the film that become a paternal influence on the protagonist: his own father, his coach, and Sgt. Wayne, the Native American man who takes Conor under his wing. Was this theme of fathers and sons something you thought about while making the film?
    I thought less about the father and son element specifically and more about the nature of male relationships in general. The three relationships mentioned above are essential, as is his relationship to Aaron Hill’s character Joe Bryant, his other teammates, his brother, and even his nemeses Dupree (played by Chord Overstreet).

    I thought Marty did a good job with the script and Kellan did a good job in honestly portraying the way men relate. There is not a lack of intent or emotional depth, just a lack of verbal communication skills. The story explores the notion that the male world is a brutal place and even though violence is often the wrong approach, it is part and parcel of the masculine experience. It is a question of learning how and when to use aggression.

    The character’s relationship to the women in the story is essential as well. Kellan and Ashley have a great chemistry on and off camera and that relationship is really the key to the film for me. Conor and Brooklyn’s relationship is the one that will have the most meaning to the target audience and the one that needs to be credible for the film to work.

    10. You’ve directed and produced a lot of documentaries in your past. How does your past work inform your work on this film?
    It was little over three weeks from when I read the script for the first time, to the start of principal photography. The things you learn producing and directing documentaries are to have a good plan, and then adjust to the realities in front of you. I think my production experience had the most impact on the outcome of this film.

    My approach to filmmaking has always been to figure out what the “animal” is first and then figure out how to approach filming it. The other major consideration is the budget. For budgeting there are two approaches, the first is to figure out what we want to accomplish (or what is scripted) and budget from that, and the other method is to set a budget and then make the creative fit into that box. The first method is preferable, but both work.

    For example THE ECO-CHALLENGE and SURVIVOR were shot in remote environments. Mark Burnett and I would scout the locations, Mark would talk about what he wanted to have happen and I would figure out the filming approach and the coverage to make that happen. Once I knew what, where and how we were shooting, I would put a budget together.

    On BRINGING HOME BABY there was a fixed budget from the network. The approach here was to address the filming to fit a fixed budget and schedule. Because we knew the budget, we set the creative and schedule to fit. With the benefit of economies of scale, we were able to make the show work for the budget and eventually shot 185 episodes over three years. Working backwards from a fixed budget still results in a successful show if you can tweak the creative.

    On A WARRIOR’S HEART I was not producing, so I didn’t have any control over the budget. They had a very ambitious script. It also had a very fixed budget. The budget bore absolutely no relationship to the script. It was a case of “this is what we want and this is what we have to shoot it, you make it work.”

    You just can’t have it both ways unless one is based on the other.

    I offered to work with Marty to re-write the script to fit the budget. That suggestion was shot down and we were told to shoot the film as written. It was a significant problem.

    Without being able to re-write the script to fit the budget and without the ability to raise the budget to fit the script, the Assistant Director, Chris Edmonds and I used the schedule as a tool to address the disconnect.

    We knew to properly shoot lacrosse would take quite a bit of time. To shoot it as a sports movie would take even longer. We decided to shoot a coming of age film and focus more time and resources on the dramatic aspects of the film. On paper every scene was addressed. However, the practical reality was that we were not allowing enough time to shoot a sports film, we were instead allowing enough time to cover the sports backdrop to the film and instead focusing resources on the coming of age story.

    The other aspect of my background that helped was having directed large-scale productions in remote environments. The lacrosse scenes, although more contained than some of my past shoots, and simplified in our approach, are still complicated by the number of players on the field and the time it takes to shoot. In the end it was simplified coverage, but it was not easy to get.

    I really did like working with the actors to tell the story. In reality television we have a distinct goal we are after before filming, and the selection of how many cameras and where to put them is dictated by these agendas. However, beyond casting we don’t have a lot of control over the performance (that is less true now, since many shows are obviously scripted and scenes re-shot with coverage so the term ‘reality’ is a bit stretched at the moment). However, dramatic structure is the same in both mediums and ultimately story telling is story telling. The big advantage in the film world is the amount of creative input the actors, DP, and even the script supervisor brings to the process. We have a much clearer road map from the script and it’s easier for more people to participate creatively than on reality shows.

    In the end it is all production and story telling to me. There is a ton of crossover and obviously some unique aspects to both. I think the industry segments itself more than is necessary, but I have crossed back and forth a number of times and probably will continue to crossover in the future.

    11) Since the theme of battle both in war and in the game is such a strong aspect of the story, did you have particular ideas about how to shoot the lacrosse scenes to make them more thematically relevant?
    Our goal was to shoot the lacrosse in such a way that we could afford it, tell the story and still demonstrate the attributes of a great game.

    It is a hard sport to shoot. There are a lot of fast moving parts and lot of participants. It is a good sport and the fastest growing one in terms of participants in the country at the moment. I hope that lacrosse fans think we represented the sport well, but in the end our goal was to focus on the character’s journey and let the sport become a backdrop to that story.

    I genuinely hope the audience thinks it works as a film. That was the goal.


    December 7th, 2011 | jwilka |

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