Fried Barry hits cult status.
By Fred Felton
17 Mar. 2021
Fried Barry is the debut feature
film by director Ryan Kruger. It follows the story of Barry, an abusive man,
drug-addled he goes on yet another bender, gets abducted by aliens and takes a
backseat as the extra-terrestrial visitor assumes control of his body and takes
it for a joyride through Cape Town.
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| Ryan Kruger, the director of Fried Barry | Image: Supplied |
I
sat down with Ryan Kruger and asked him some questions about the film and his
life:
You have shot many
music videos. What has this experience taught you?
I think experience is everything in the film
industry and actualy being on set is where you going to learn the most. Having
done over a 100 music vids it’s a lot of years in experience and with my style
of stuff am not always doing performance videos. I’m always doing short
narrative films within a music video or something very visual. Which is where I
think I got more of my style from, it’s almost like commercials as you only
have a certain amount of time to get the idea or story across in a short amount
of time.
How did you get the
idea for ‘’Fried Barry’’?
Fried Barry was born out of total frustration
where I was in my career. I am known in South Africa as a music video director
for doing narrative storytelling within music videos and sharp visuals. Although
I always came up with my concepts and bands trusted me and let me do anything I
wanted, I was still in a box as I had to think about their audience and their
music and being able to get it on major music video channels. So I
couldn’t really do my style. Originally Fried Barry was just a three minute
long experimental film that did really well. We had 59 official selections
around the world at festivals and picked up 13 awards. But what came from that
was all of these amazing pieces of fan art from all over the globe, which was a
surprise because people just seemed to really love the main character. I never
planned to make it into a feature film at all. I just looked at it as that
short was a success and that’s it. But where I was at the time I was in a
bad place. I had an operation on my kidney and got sepsis and nearly died,
went through a break up and my cat got cancer and I went into depression. It
was all too much for me at the same time. So while I was in this dark hole I
just said to myself what is the number one thing I’ve always wanted to do with
my life, and it was to make a film. I just got the idea one night and I knew
that this was the film to make.
How big was your crew
for ‘’Fried Barry’’?
We had a big cast and crew on this film but
we used multiple different people for certain crew members as we shot the film
over a year and a half but only shot 28 days in total. Some days we had a small
crew depending on what we where shooting on that day. Other days for big set
ups we had a large number. When we shot the hospital riot scene on that day we
had over 90 people on set including cast which was crazy but a lot of fun.
Did you get any big
financial backing for this film?
Fried Barry is definitely the first of its
kind for SA cinema! It’s a cult-style film with mashing up genres like horror
and comedy and the height of indie-dark cinema. In SA we normally make dramas
or comedies or films about the history of our country, So its not the type of
film that gets made here and the content is really out there and not for the
faint hearted so I new nobody would back this type of film, so me and my
producer set out to make it ourselves. But things are starting to change in SA
cinema which is great. There are so many amazing films coming out. But it’s
good to show that this type of film can make money and there is an audience
especially overseas. At the end of the day the film business is a business you
need to be able to sell your film so you can make another one. And if we
keep making the same type of films here the industry will never change or grow.
What camera models did
you use to shoot ‘’Fried Barry’’?
We used a Red Dragon for all of the film and
a Phantom camera for high-speed slow motion scenes.
For a first time
director what budget-friendly camera would you advise them to use to shoot a
film?
I think making content is the most important
thing. Getting out there and creating stuff so if you haven’t got budget for a
nice camera its ok. You can use a 5d or a black magic and maybe get good lenses
which will make all difference.
For a film shoot what
is the minimum crew you should have on set?
Well I love indie cinema and I’ve done a lot
of stuff super low budget with minimal crew, and there’s so much you can do
with less than 5 people. I guess it all depends on what you are making. One of
the last experimental films I made was just me my camera guy and my producer
and we all helped in different areas and it looks amazing. I think it’s more
about getting the right people that know what there doing.
What advice do you have
for first time directors looking to make their break in the film industry?
Get out there and make movies! It’s a cliché,
but it’s true! Worrying about whether your gear or your movie will be good
enough only leads to praxis paralysis. A bad movie is better than no movie. It’s
all about creating content to share.
You can watch the trailer here:
Fried Barry is set for international release in May
2021.
