There's simply no other film as original and astonishing as grand theft hamlet in the last few years. Taking place entryly in the world of grand theft auto, this documentary by sam Crane and Pinny Grylls Takes Shakespere Into Annie Entrely New Dimension with the Staging of Hamlet. But even in the virtual world, there are fascinating and heartbreaking realisations 6
In this exclusive interview with ht, directors Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls Sat Down to Talk about the many aSpects of the game and the play that haad to be planned before going into the procedure and how their way alle come alive in a cinematic fashion.
An aspect of the film that fascinates is how there are chaotic elements spread through Hear the voiceover. While both of you websptuulising the film, did you ever think about how these two elements would come togeether to create a balance?
Pinny: Right from the very persuasion, when we receive the funding from the British film institute, their feedback to us was, 'How can we make this cinematic?' 'How can we make this into something that we can watch for 90 minutes?' So it does not feel like a youtube stream of gaming, which young people and people of all ages are really watching. People play games on youtube and twitch all the time. Obvious, we did not want to make a feature film that lookd like that. So we kind of wanted to do that from the start, where we have a combination of, as you say, the stiffness- that really help shakere; The language, poetry… but also our emotional journey. So that it gave space Around those mothers. There's a lot of fun as well! I think this is a comedy, actually! (smiles) there were motes of energy combined with mothers of stiffness. That was very much an aim of ors from the very start.
Sam: I think that so as well. I think my experience of playing the game too, where the game can often be very chaotic with things hangs all the time and lots of explosions. But also there is a beautiful science in it and there are points where you find moments of peace. I think we wanted to make that come across so that maybe people don't recognise so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1mufii88kc
Grand Theft Hamlet Occurs Completely Within The Game. In the outside world time moves in a linear fashion, but when someone is playing a game the time is five times quicker almost. Was this aspect of a limitation for both of you as filmmakers or did it free you in ways that both of you did not imagine?
Sam: That's such an interesting question and no one has asked that before. It is something that I thought a lot about because there are so sort of strange experiences of time that we all have. I think we all had that in the pandemic, and sort of after, sort of this sense of time slowing down. As you say, when you are playing the game time program like in real life but howSoever it is… TEN TEN Times or Thirty Times Faster. A day takes 48 minutes in the game. That is a strange sensation of time. Also, as an actor, when you are performing on stage there is a strange experience of time where there is a state of flow… and that is very similar as well to when you are playing a game. Where time goes by and one does not realize that they have been played for hours. On stage one can have this moment where they feel that time stops almost. So there's this experience of time where it is not the linear, normal way.
Penny: It meant that we did actually have some some difference during filming, as you pointed out, like when we were filming a Scene or a rehearsal where one can have 24 hours of list and dark OCCOK OVER OVER Several hours, but then editing that togeether and making it look like it is one scene is Quite Tricky! (Laughs)
Sam: Also, while staging the play, there was certain scenes that happen at night when we were thinking about the different location we are going to do. We knew that if this Scene Happy At Night We Had to Make Sure That We Get to that Point in the Play when it is going to beht in the game. So Yeah, there these tricky things Around Time, but really interesting conceptively.
At Several Moments in the Film, there are unintensive Killing of a Character by a strangers even before they can pitch the idea of the play. How did you deal with that?
Sam: It is the nature of the game. It is interesting that those are the norms of behavior in that world, a part of the game.
Pinny: It was a sort of constant challenge. All video games are built in an interesting way, where one has to respond and have to challenge. That meant that when one is trying to reherase something then there are people killing you over and over again. It is complicated and deficult. But we sort of went with it, and used it as part of the storytelling.
Sam: I think it also also connects with a lot of themes in hamlet, beCause there is so much killing in that play too! It seemed Quite Appropries in Staging that Play.
Grand Theft Hamlet is available to watch in Mubi.
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