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An agent is captured eight years after going rogue and through his interrogation recounts his journey toward losing humanity. This is the plot of “Luther,” a Guam film directed by\u00a0Anton Ngata,\u00a0Justin Baldovino, and\u00a0Brian Muna. We asked filmmaker Brian Muna to give us the inside scoop on the\u00a0making of the film, which won\u00a0the 2015 Guam International Film Festival Best of the Marianas. The film is back by popular demand on a one-day special screening on December 5, 2015 at Micronesia Mall Tango Theatres. Tickets are $5.50.<\/p>\n
What inspired you to make “Luther”?<\/strong><\/p>\n “Luther” was inspired first by Anton, Justin and I wanting to collaborate on a short film. We felt we all had different but matching styles in filmmaking. It was one of those things where we were meeting at a coffee shop to talk film and then we decided, \u201cWhy don’t we make a film together?\u201d The hardest part was deciding what story we wanted to tell, then we kept meeting and from there tossed many ideas into the basket. Eventually we thought, let’s do an action flick!<\/p>\n Why an action flick?<\/strong><\/p>\n Initially, when Anton Ngata, Justin Baldovino and I met we were coming from different backgrounds of industry. The one thing we wanted to do was create a film that would challenge us. We wanted to do something big\u00a0—\u00a0short film big\u00a0—\u00a0so we decided to work on a film that would stretch our creative boundaries. For the three of us, the action genre seemed like the right fit to incorporate all of our styles of filming and from there we decided that we would do an action film.<\/p>\n What was the process like? Any unique challenges to make a film on Guam?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I originally wrote a short film script entitled, \u201cThe Room,\u201d stored with all of my other potential film project hopefuls. It was a story I was very interested in telling. I presented it to the guys and we initially used the story as the backbone of the film. Anton, Justin and I began incorporating elements of action into the script; we wanted drama, martial arts, cars\u2026 and it evolved into a more internalized story of an agent with action elements.<\/p>\n We held private auditions for the two major male roles of the film. Our two main actors, Paul Sauget and Julius Santos were the obvious choices for the role. Once we secured our fight choreographer Henry Herr, we hit the ground running with pre-production. Each fight sequence was rehearsed for about three weeks before filming. We spent long nights on weekdays after wrapping up at our day jobs just to get things right. We filmed the choreography and Anton, Justin, and I would review the footage, edit it and see if we could work with Henry to either change certain aspects of the fight, or the way we would go about shooting the each scene.<\/p>\n There were many discussions during pre-production on the types of lenses we would use for each scene, everything planned as best as possible to ensure smooth filming during production. Many times, however, last minute challenges would arise and we would have to think on our feet to get the job done.<\/p>\n We were turned down by many locations because of the nature of our film being action with some violence. We had a hard time securing funding to make the film for the same reason. Guam is a family-oriented culture. This type of film appeared to be negative because of the violence associated with it. Who would fund us? We were left with no budget, locations canceling at the last minute, but that never stopped us because everyone that went into the film did it because they believed in the script,\u00a0they believed in the outcome, and they were willing to put in time and effort. We had a solid team of actors and crew and the true value comes from what is seen on the screen today.<\/p>\n It took three years to make this film reach the screen. Part of it was because of budget constraints, location changing, constant schedule changing (everyone had jobs), pre-production issues, but here it is and we are happy that it has an audience.<\/p>\n Do you consider the film to by hyper-violent?<\/strong><\/p>\n The film contains depictions of violence; however it is not violent for the sake of being violent. There is a story in there. I would describe it as tastefully violent. I was never a huge fan of gore so there is none of that. Anton, Justin, and I all reached a valuable consensus during the filming of “Luther.” We would not shoot something just to make it look cool but instead focus on the characters and do our best to make it entertaining. I have a background in counseling so we actually dedicated time for counseling sessions with our two main actors to discuss their thoughts on the character and even went as far as their childhood to help them \u201cbe\u201d as opposed to \u201cact\u201d their roles. I think if I had to classify the type of violent film this is; it would definitely be \u201ctastefully violent.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Luther](\"http:\/\/archives.theguamguide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UdOWEkn_562Z5O14o-J6Z0JV_CID-F4r2QXh0bkEgHo.jpg\")
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