Interview with ‘The Memory of Ink’ Writer-Director Mark Kamara

Mark Kamara is the writer-director of The Memory of Ink, a martial arts, thriller-action short film, which pays homage to classic Hong Kong martial arts films, which also showcases contemporary filmmaking techniques, such as cinematography to highlight action choreography. The Memory of Ink was screened at Fighting Spirit Film Festival in 2019.

Describe yourself in three films

Batman Begins – Although I’m not a billionaire orphan by day or a caped crusader who saves the city at night, I love the idea of leaving home for self-development, such as how Bruce Wayne trained in the high mountains in Asia. This motivates me to travel and leave home for at least a month, to be inspired and absorb the world around me, to become a better and stronger person. Also, being able to face your fears and standing up when falling are very key messages that I think everyone can relate to.

Images courtesy of Mark Kamara

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – Sometimes I feel like an outsider. Probably growing up with foreign parents and being mixed race. However, this film has a strong message, that even if you’re an ‘outsider’ you can still fight hard in what you believe in, and thus succeed.

They Live – I feel this film sorta reflects real life, in the sense that people can be blind or oblivious to real or true morals, and it happens to all of us, sometimes we forget what important values are or should be, and in such a capitalist and materialistic world, I think this film is a great visual representation of those dangers around all of us.

When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?

Back in 2012, when I was 14, my friends and I filmed a spoof music video of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees. This was whilst we were in year 10. Looking back, it was one of the first clear moments I worked in a team to achieve a vision, pretty much a music video. Later that year, I was approached by two rappers from our year group, who asked for a music video. Honoured that they even asked me, we made it happen; I guess from that point on, I sorta knew that this is what I wanted to do. Watching films and behind the scenes extras on DVD’s refined my thirst for working in narrative film, and since then, I’ve been working towards pushing that skill.

What is your relationship with martial arts?

Martial arts have been a great interest of mine since my teen years. I used to train in Parkour for around 5 years, in which I realised that movement can be dynamic and exciting. Every training session, my friend Amid and I would film and then later edit mini videos of these sessions. This was the first instance of us playing around with a cheap digital camera and learning how to cut as well as play around with angles, that I’m sure I even employ when shooting an action sequence today. More recently, for my dissertation, I was able to have a one on one training session with Sifu Mr. Sam Lau, a student of Yip Man (who taught Bruce Lee). This was an incredible inspiration and insight into Wing Chun and although I haven’t studied a form of martial arts directly, excluding parkour, I knew it was something I would like to pursue soon.

You majored in action cinema, what drew you to action cinema?

I guess the short answer is watching 15+ or 18+ rated action movies way before I “should have”. Luckily, I grew up in a household where my parents weren’t afraid to let us watch the films that were on TV, and to buy DVD’s for me, when I wasn’t old enough to buy them. One of the earliest films I recall watching over and over was Terminator 2, Directed by James Cameron. The action and suspense in this film was simply perfect, and although I understand this now more than ever, somehow as a kid, I was just drawn to this type of filmmaking. In my teens I binged watched Bruce Lee’s films with my cousin, which opened my eyes to the amazing world of martial arts films. My cousin Denton being a year older, was sorta an older brother figure, we watched a ton of action films together, which ultimately pushed my desire to understand how such films were constructed and made possible, fuelling my desire to be a part of the process.

What do you think makes a great martial arts film?

Firstly, the fighting of course. I feel it’s important for a fight scene to be able to transpose character’s personalities, state of mind and the overall piece’s narrative within itself. This creates a connection of the story and the action, making the film more exciting and enjoyable for the audience. Rhythm is also very important; less cuts mean more focus can be maintained on the fighting. Wide shots and steady cinematography are great for showcasing the talent’s amazing abilities. Considering these conventions and well choreographing a fight scene is something Hong Kong and now a variety of Asian cinema is great at. Hollywood has its golden gems too, but quite often hit and miss, with too fast cutting or too shaky camera movements. Sadly, frequently done to hide poor choreography or a lack of martial arts and stunt ability of the talent. Secondly, I believe a captivating story is vital for a great martial arts film; usually told through survival or revenge stories, which are very effective as the audience can feel the desire, passion and needs of the protagonists through the narrative as well as the fight scenes, creating a beautiful harmony between the two, when done well. Ultimately, I believe that, the fighting action itself, choreography, stunt men and women with strong martial arts abilities, cutting pace, cinematography, diegesis and narrative are the most important elements for a great martial arts piece.

Images courtesy of Mark Kamara

What do you see as the future of martial arts/action cinema?

Although there are not many solely focused martial arts movies being made as there were before, so many action films or action sequences utilise marital arts for fight scenes within a movie, especially the case in Hollywood cinema. Asian cinema is still releasing some fantastic martial arts films, such as The Night Comes For Us, directed by Timo Tjahjanto, an Indonesian film from 2018, and hopefully this can continue to inspire a new wave and generation of martial arts focused filmmakers. I believe that regardless of how much technology and budget can push forward a picture, a martial arts film that stays true to its original conventions of well-paced cutting and steady cinematography, but that can defy and subvert existing conventions will have a chance at being successful, and push boundaries. Another great recent example is The Villainess (Dir: Jeong Byeong-Gil), a Korean film, which mostly features its fight scenes through POV, and extended or blended cuts. This was an iconic way to make the audience even more connected with a fight scene, and using the film apparatus in ways such as these will definitely keep the future of martial arts cinema exciting.

What inspired you to write The Memory of Ink?

In 2016 I visited Hong Kong for a week, in which I stumbled upon their Avenue of Starts. I remember seeing an awesome statue of Bruce Lee, which reminded me of my early teen years, watching so many films that he starred in. This and my interest in Parkour somehow intertwined with one another, and after working on a passion project parkour film, called ETA, I wanted to push the boundaries and create a piece revolving around martial arts. Hong Kong martial arts cinema also inspired me, simply by the fact that they used whatever resources they had to make things work, and so I wanted to adapt this mind-set for The Memory of Ink – to sort of try our hardest to make all the action believable and engaging for the audience, through utilising and adapting similar conventions of martial arts films, that audiences were already familiar with, but also subverting expectations through the tone and pace of the short film.

The Memory of Ink was inspired by Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema, were there any particular movies that inspired the film?

Yep, I feel that these films, The Green Eyed Demoness (Dir Chan Lit-Bun) & Come Drink With Me (Dir King Hu), played a big part in inspiring The Memory of Ink. At the time, I didn’t remember much from these films, but I did remember that both films had a female protagonist, in which subverted audience expectations and male characters within the diegesis, which I thought could be very powerful, and pretty much knew I had to have a female fighter as the main character; who didn’t exactly know how good of a fighter she was, right until she has no choice but to fight for her life. Bruce Lee films such as Enter The Dragon was such a key inspiration for weapon use for The Memory of Ink, and thus the idea of having nunchakus in the film came about. Tarantino’s Kill Bill inspired my character Kiki, which in turn was inspired by early Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. Also, films from Indonesia, such as The Raid & The Raid 2 played a vital role in inspiring the cinematography for this short.

How was your experience directing The Memory of Ink?

This was only the second film I directed having a crew working with me. Somehow, I didn’t feel daunted or too shy. I just knew I wanted to work super hard, and create the best short film I possibly could. Most people may think that the fight scene was hardest to direct, however for some reason I found the store scene the hardest. This is where Lin rushes in to work, and Jason her colleague, tells her a strange guy was looking for her. A mob boss walks in, knocks a cup over, Lin catches it, she turns, the mob boss has already left the store. This was the very first scene we shot, and somehow even when storyboarding I found it difficult to figure out the blocking. Luckily, it turned out very well, and is one of my favourite scenes outside of the fight scene, also the most dialogue heavy, in which I felt Priscilla Fung (who plays Lin) and Brian Law (Jason) did an amazing job. The second day of shooting, we were super behind schedule, and as the clocks hit midnight, I still had the chase to film. Even though I told everyone we could wrap and somehow catch up on this another time, Priscilla emphasised that she wanted to battle through; the cast and crew stayed on until 2am to get the scene completed. This was such a powerful moment, as probably for the first time I was able to see that these amazing people were also passionate about my vision, and were willing to make it happen. Of course, we made sure to have a later call time the next day. Regardless, this was one of the most magical moments of the shoot.

Can you talk about the action choreography and the process of how it was directed in The Memory of Ink?

Even though the fight scene was challenging, the numerous pre-vis and planning sessions I did with Vitas and Nilly, (who plays Kiki, also doing her own stunts) made this process flow rather smoothly. When writing the fight scene, I made sure to be incredibly detailed, instead of just writing, ‘They Fight’, like some Hollywood films would do, I broke down every punch kick and movement, and so the pre-vis we did was the first time I saw the fight scene on screen, way before I even knew where it was going to be shot. Vitas took lead on stunt coordinating and voicing his opinions on the best camera angles to make the moves work realistically, and with his invaluable experience I was more than happy to listen and learn. Most filmmakers use storyboards for their films, although I had storyboards for all other scenes, the fight scene didn’t need one, the pre-vis was our bible. This and my shot list made sure that on the day I could voice my desired shots to my camera team and cast, whilst Vitas helped remind the cast about safety and how they should perform the required action. Before this film, Priscilla had never fought on-screen before, however her passion to learn and only move on when it looked the best it could, is what made this short as strong as it is. Without her drive, Vitas’ and Nilly’s incredible skills, I know the film wouldn’t have been anywhere as good as it is. So, I must thank these guys for believing in me and the vision for this story.

What was your favourite part of working on The Memory of Ink?

Definitely has to be production. Having confirmed the amazing cast and stunt-actors it was such an amazing feeling to have my vision achieved and exceeded with the amazing work from others such as my DoP Jake Buckley. His lighting and mood with the camera worked so well for this one. The fight scene was especially fun to shoot. Under immense time pressure, everyone somehow understood the vision and made it happen. For sure the numerous pre-vis (pre-visualisations) we shot were super effective for my cast and crew; we all knew what each shot entailed, which is very important during an action or fight sequence.

What were some of the things you learned while working on The Memory of Ink?

It is incredibly important to choreograph and shoot pre-visualisations. I must commend Vitas LeBas for teaching me the art of pre-vis, whilst still understanding my specific use of fighting written in the script; making it achievable with the highest realism and safely for the cast. A DoP usually refers to the Director’s storyboards when shooting, however with a pre-vis, you can literally show the DoP the entire fight scene and pre-decided camera angles which help sell the realism of the fight, as well as experiment with dynamic filming techniques. Over planning is incredibly important when working on any film. Working closely with my producer, Curtis, we made sure to think about contingencies and the production side of things, I think I dabbled in this quite heavily, but feel it is important to have as much attention to detail, especially when working on a low budget piece.

Will audiences be expecting more to come from The Memory of Ink?

The Memory of Ink will be released online this summer or fall at the latest, in its perfected form. The beauty of this short is that it can be developed into a feature; however, as an upcoming filmmaker, instead of rushing it, I’d like to leave it for a while, and come back to it years later perhaps, to have the best possible production value and story. The Memory of Ink was not completely finished for its festival run, but I hope audiences can give it another chance, and watch it after its online release, in its completed form. The initial trailer for the short has just been released and more information will be posted on our Facebook page and website. So please stay tuned.

Images courtesy of Mark Kamara

Do you have any upcoming projects that you can talk to us about?

I have an action comedy short in the works, filming has been completed, we just have online editing to do. It will definitely subvert expectations, and was my final major project for uni, but I don’t want to say too much yet, apart from, it will be called Whiff Whaff. Hopefully, I can start its festival run this and early next year, with online release by Fall 2021. Also, writing an action-horror set in a gritty future, which will definitely incorporate martial arts. Super excited about this one.

How has your experience been with the Fighting Spirit Film Festival?

The Fighting Spirit Film Festival is super awesome, it’s such an important organisation for U.K. cinema, as America has several action film festivals, but the U.K. barely has any, so I believe that this is a very important festival, which hopefully I can continue to submit my martial arts focused films to. I remember meeting with Leif Johnson, who won the audience choice award for his film Kowloon Killers in 2017, he showed me his epic short film, and told me about the festival, and I knew this was the main one I had to enter. Priscilla Fung, our amazing lead actress was also casted in Leif’s film, as well as Vitas LeBas, who was also cast in The Memory of Ink, and did his own stunts. Priscilla also sent me a link to the FSFF, which pretty much helped push me to work the film to as close as it could be for the festival. Unfortunately, I was aboard and couldn’t make the screening, however I would love to attend as an audience member even without entering a film, as I believe it is such an exciting opportunity to meet so many likeminded filmmakers, who all share a passion for martial arts films.

Images courtesy of Mark Kamara

Speed Round. Pick one film for each category.

What film describes your life?

Batman Begins

What’s your favourite childhood film?

Terminator 2

What’s your favourite film by your favourite filmmaker?

Super hard decision, but have to admit to: Terminator 2 by James Cameron

What’s your favourite 80s film?

Blade Runner

What is an underrated film that you think deserves more attention?

The Forest of Love by Sion Sono - A Japanese picture. Beautiful masterpiece that uses film apparatus to reflect the character’s state of mind, very well done. Less martial arts and more gore, but somehow made it in my top five ever, and I only saw it this year in 2020.

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Don’t forget to follow Mark Kamara on Instagram and to check out his website.