Global Co-Productions' Impact On Cultural Exchange: The Cases Of The Raid And Snowpiercer

The Raid

A global co-production can be defined as such a production, in which there are more than one production companies, who work together and the leading example of these are the film productions of the present age. In global co-productions, the production companies are from different nations, which are again, more than two in number, who work together (Selznick, 2008). By opting for the route of global co-productions, the filmmakers can boast the local outfits, which are contact by the location managers and the travelling producers, so as to facilitate the production. By forming a global co-production, or indulging in one, the local laws, permissions, equipment rentals, incentives, transportation, hotels, facilities and crews can be attained from the local production house, which forms the part of such global production and the expertise of the other nations, can be garnered from the other partners (Variety, 2013).

In the following parts, the impact of the global co-productions on the global cultural exchange and the role played by them in this regards has been elucidated, with the help of taking two films as an example of this. The two films include the Indonesian martial arts action film, The Raid, and the English-language South Korean-Czech science fiction thriller film, Snowpiercer.

The Raid was a movie released in 2011 and is martial arts based action survival Indonesian movie. Gareth Huw Evans, the director of the movie, is of Welsh background and got the idea to produce this movie, when he moved to Indonesia for filming a documentary movie. The rationale behind this stemmed from the suggestion of his wife, who is of Indonesian Japanese descent. This movie was an example of the future in which the co-productions of Europe and Asia can produce significant movies. This movie was only a glimpse to the achievements which could result from the European-Asian co-production (Olsberg SPI, 2014).

The Raid was a movie set in the slums of Jakarta, and starred Iko Uwais in the role of a rookie cop, named Rama, who was drafted to participate in the police raid over a derelict housing block, which was being used as a headquarter of Tama, played by Ray Sahetapy, who was a local drug baron. In return for protection, Tama gave the lowlifes and the scumbags, cheap rent and due to these reasons, the place became a no entry zone. The plan was very simple, in which the SWAT team had to enter, take Tama out and close down the operations. However, the team found that the hired guns of Tama were ready for them, and as a result of having no back-up to save them, the resulting bloodbath was imminent. The carnage which ensued was super-violent, extraordinarily balletic and non-stop. This was not just a result of the warped oriental imagination, by the director of the movie, who belonged to a mining town in Mid Glamorgan, and till few years back, resided in Swansea and had a desk job. The Raid was a violet movie and yet, it was a blockbuster hit. The film was critically approved and resulted in the second movie being made due to this (Wise, 2012).

Snowpiercer

This movie showed that Rama was joined by an elite police squad of twenty men, so that the raid on the slums of Jakarta could be made. The movie highlighted the drug lord and the turmoil created by the corrupt police officials, which led to the team of Rama being attached. The movie continues with high action and a lot of killing, which reflects the current trend of the US, based action movies. The story line was aligned with the US based movies like the Expendables and the A-Team, which are action based movies, in which the fight is against the corrupt and the mafias. And the movie ends with the standard set by US based movies, where the hero of the movie ends with an uncertain future, thus leaving the scope of sequels open.

The director of Welsh background moved to Indonesia to produce a movie and hired Indonesian actors as the protagonists. This is the prime example of global cultural exchange. Before producing The Raid, Evans produced Merantau, and on the suggestion of his wife, Uwais was hired for both of the movies (Moma, 2012). The pre-production of this movie took a time period of four months, during which the script of the movie was finalized and in this very stage, the script which was originally in the English language was translated in Indonesian. This was done to make the script easily understandable to the local crew of Indonesia and to cater to the audience of the nation. In order to make the crew fit the job of police squad for the movie, they were sent to KOPASKA, which is a branch of the Indonesian Navy, for boot camp military training (Daman, 2012). The final stages in the post-production stage of the movie took place in Bangkok, Thailand for the audio mixing and the color grading processes (Moma, 2012).

Even when the movie was still in production, the distribution rights were acquired by the USA based Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions for US market. And the music was created by musicians like Joseph Trapanese and Linkin Park; both of these belonged to USA (Weintraub, 2012). The film was premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, which took place in Canada, and there, the original score created for the Indonesian version was played. Internationally, the film was marketed by Celluloid Nightmares, which was a partnership between Celluloid Dreams of France and XYZ Films of US (Levine, 2014). Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions had the distribution rights for Spain, US and Latin America, and for the release in USA, the title of the movie was changed from The Raid to The Raid: Redemption. For Japan, Kadokawa Pictures got the distribution rights; for Germany, it was Koch Media; for Canada, it was Alliance Films; for Turnkey, it was Calinos Films; for China, it was SND HGC; for Australia, it was Madman Entertainment; and for UK, it was Momentum Pictures. During the screening of the film, the distribution deals were made with distributors from India, Iceland, South Korea, Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia and Russia (Brown, 2011).

These features of The Raid highlight the true sense in which the movie is a global co-production. Not only the director of the movie from out of the nation, who came in Indonesia, to produce movies, the cast of the movie was Indonesian, when the script was English based. The distribution rights of the movies was given to different entities across the world, and the music of the movie was also given by both Indonesian and American artists, thus proving the alignment of two cultures, and the highlighted the features of global cultural exchange. The scenes of the movie which included different locations, and where the SWAT team showed skills resulting from the training received from Indonesian army also shows the prominent role of the nation, in this global production. The movie was critically acclaimed and was launched in Canada, which is third nation for this movie, and again contributed to the global features.

Snowpiercer is an English language based South Korean-Czech science fiction thriller which was released in 2013 (IMDB, 2013). And the movie is based on the French Graphic Novel Le Transperceneige, which was written by Jean-Marc Rochette, Jacques Lob, and Benjamin Legrand (Olsen, 2014). The movie was directed by South Korean film director, Bong Joon Ho, and was written by American screenwriters Kelly Masterson and Bong. More than 80% of the movie was shot in English language. This movie was a truly global movie, due to the cast of the movie, which included the American superstars like Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer and Ed Harris, the English superstars like Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, and John Hurt, and the South Korean superstars like Song Kang-ho and Go Ah-sung (IMDB, 2013).

The movie is set outside the Snowpiercer train which spans across the globe and these people are the last remnants of the humanity, after the climate engineering was attempted to deal with the issue of global warming, which ultimately led to the creation of a new ice age (McNeice, 2017). The role of Curtis Everett is played by Evans who is the main protagonist of this movie. Evans is shows as the member of the lower class tail section passengers who lead the revolution against the front of the train, in which the elite live (Burr, 2014). The filming of this movie has been done in Prague, at its Barrandov Studios and the sets were mounted on gimbals, so that the motion of the train could be stimulated (Chul, 2011).

This movie was received well by the critics and even topped a number of critics chart of the top ten films for the year of 2014, after the same was released internationally. Not only the vision and the direction of movie were praised by the work of both Evans and Swinton was praised. This movie was the most expensive Korean production ever with the budget of over $40 million (Dale, 2016). Initially, the same was planned to be released in limited screens across US, but owing to the critical acclaim received by the movie, The Weinstein Company decided to expand the show of the movie to more theaters, along with opting for the digital streaming services. The cast of the movie included the passengers who were Korean, Romanian, American, Croatian, Icelandic, English and Scottish on the train. The crew was Czech and Korean but the assistant director conversed in English (Franich, 2014).

The movie revolved around the global issue of global warming and the experiments which are being carried on with climate engineering. The movie showed how the same had backfired in a catastrophic manner and extinguished all life forms due to the ice age, apart from those who were on the train created by Wilford. The movie also showed the division of rich and poor, where the rich were segmented in the front part of the train and the back part of the train was a scum area. Due to the lack of food and amenities and the slum children being taken away by the rich class, the gang led by Evans decided to attack the front. The children on board were taught by teachers and the engine was shown as sacred to them. After a lot of action scenes and the loss of team mates, Curtis reaches the engine and meets Wilford, the villain of the movie. At the end of the movie, only two characters survive, and when these two characters go outside of the train, they see a polar beer, which shows that there is the existence of life out of the train.

The movie is a prominent example of the global cultural exchange due to the range of factors. The cast of the movie chosen by the co-production company belonged to US, UK and South Korea. Apart from this, the director of the movie was South Korean and the scriptwriter was American. The movie was based on a French novel, which further shows the global exchange. The impact of these cultural exchanges can be noticed in the manner in which these characters held themselves and where the cultures united in order for the greater good of the humanity. The film also highlights the unity of cultures by being based on an issue which deals with the global issue and the attempts of the different nations, in curbing the issue, i.e., of global warming. Even though the movie was based on Le Transperceneige, the director of the movie felt that the movie needed and original take, and so, the novel was just used as an inspiration and a new story line and new characters were chalked out, in order to make the movie cinematically exhilarating.

Initially, the movie was decided to be produced in Canada. Though, later this decision was changed. Hence, the production team arranged travel for Europe where the studio was scouted and the two locations finalized included the Barrandov Studios located in Czech Republic and the Korda Studio located in Hungary. After a lot of negotiations, Barrandov Studios was finalized and the production of the movie began. The film was earlier to be shot in Korea only, but a studio which could accommodate such huge set could not be found. Once the official photography of the movie was wrapped up after the 72 day shooting, in Barrandov Studios, the post production of the movie was carried on in South Korea and the editing of the movie, for the release was initiated by Bong (Alchetron, 2017).

The designs of the costume of the movie also had a global touch; this was because the design was taken by the Ondrej Nekvasil, who is Czech production designer, from the Museum of Natural History as being the source of inspiration. Further, the home in Scotland, of Swinton was visited to scramble around ideas. There was a hint off the industrial period, as well as, the vintage French railway jackets were taken as an inspiration for the train engineers dresses (Laverty, 2014).

The movie premiered at the Times Square located in Seoul, which is a town located in South Korea, before the same was later on screened at the Deauville American Film Festival and later on at the Berlin International Film Festival, as an opening at the Los Angeles Film Festival and subsequently at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Washington, 2014; Korean Film, 2017). The soundtrack of the music had a song titled Yona Lights released over the official website of the movie in South Korea. Initially the soundtrack was released in South Korea only and later on got the international release (Young, 2013).

Conclusion

Global co-productions are growingly becoming a norm in the film production business. And this trend is also shifting towards the other fields of productions. The reason for this stems from the various advantages which can be garnered by combining the arsenal of two different global productions. Further, the global co-productions not only represent their national identities, but also help in created a global cultural exchange. For instance, the movie The Raid is an Indonesian movie and is shot there only, but the director of the movie was from a Welsh background and highlighted the common issues which are raised in every Hollywood movie. The other movie highlighted here, i.e., Snowpiercer showed the global issue and had a mix of the people from different cultural backgrounds and was made by Korean director in Czech Republic. The diversified cast of the movie became its unique selling proportion and the production house had to increase its screening. The first movie highlights the representation of the nation identity of Indonesia, and even the cast was trained from the Indonesian military; and the second movie highlighted the cultural mix. The locations opted by the production house and the mix in the music and distribution channels further highlighted that through global co-productions, there is a scope of global cultural exchange in the manner of narrative and even with regards to the presentation of the  national identities.

References

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