''Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning', Line Producer, Britt Ballantyne

0:00Britt BallantyneWorking was the Mission crew, they've, they've been doing this for so many years.

0:05Jawad MirYeah.

0:05Britt BallantyneYou know? It's the same crew on every movie, and they're so... It's such a well-oiled machine. There's some crazy stunts there and they're all real, you know? And that really is Tom. It's not a stunt double. If one little screw is out of place on that camera that's in that plane and it starts doing a nosedive, that can come apart and that can hurt someone. Tom's philosophy is, you know, to practice to perfection on things. I've never seen someone with so much dedication. He rocks up, he shows up, he's on time. He does everything he's supposed to do. He does it with a smile on his face. He's not difficult. He's quiet. He's, he's respectful of everyone. You know, everyone who walks into a room, he'll greet you, he'll say hello to you. I mean, on weekends, we're in the middle of nowhere, you know, what are we supposed to do? And he'd, he'd organize events for us. He'd send us on safari. I mean, the one weekend we all got to go on, you know, a five-star Big Five safari to.

1:08Jawad MirWelcome back, everyone, to another episode of Kingdom of Dreams Podcast, The Making of Stories. I'm your host Jawad Mir. Today my guest is Britt Ballantyne. She is a line producer based out of South Africa. She's been working on a lot of major Hollywood productions, including Mad Max: Fury and Mission Impossible 8, the final reckoning. The actual final scene of the plane was all produced in South Africa, as you know, and she was part of that crew. We talked about some great things about the complexities of that entire scene, that was the last act of Mission Impossible final reckoning. Talked about Tom Cruise. We talked about, a bit of Fury Road and some other projects that she's working on. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Britt. How did your career start in-line producing, and what was the reason? W… was there a certain moment in your life that made you realize…

2:00Jawad Mir... This is what you wanna do, being in films?

2:03Britt BallantyneYeah. So essentially, I was in art school, fine art. I wasn't really enjoying it and, I got offered a job as a in-house researcher for directors-based research, with a local film company. And that really appealed to me. I've, you know, always had a passion for the arts and for film and drama and, you know, all that kind of stuff. I was always in all the plays at school. And, yeah, I started off in directors-based researching, which is in the commercial sense. I worked with, you know, a lot of the top local South African directors, helping them create their presentations, their audio and visual presentations that they present to advertising agencies in order to win a job or not. And then I did that for about the first 10 years of my career. And then I just wanted more, you know? I think there's, there's kind of a ceiling that you can reach in that, where once you've reached the top and, you know, every presentation you do, the directors have 90% chance of winning and, you know, there's not, there's not much more once you've achieved that.

3:18Britt BallantyneYou know, there's kind of... It's, it's limiting for you as a human being. So I got into production. I fell into production sort of by accident in a sense. I was working for a company called 2.0 Media, and I started to conceptualize shows for branded content, you know. So, shows like, you know, those f… home fixer upper shows where, you know…

3:47Jawad MirOh, okay

3:47Britt Ballantyne... Cameron Kruger's in. You know, that kind of stuff. I started writing that kind of content and then producing that. And then I landed up in, a role on Death Race 3, as the location coordinator, and that's where my jump off into feature films kind of came into from that. And I, you know, moved from that straight from Death Race onto Mad Max and on, kept going.

4:20Jawad MirRight. So was Mad Max your first major Hollywood film, or...?

4:27Britt BallantyneI would say my first major one, yes. I think Death Race was a sort of release to DVD. But yeah…

4:35Jawad MirW… what was it called? Sorry.

4:36Britt BallantyneMad Max

4:36Jawad MirDeath what, sorry?

4:37Britt BallantyneDeath Race. Death Race.

4:38Jawad MirDeath…

4:40Britt BallantyneYeah.

4:40Jawad MirOkay.

4:41Britt BallantyneDeath Race 1 was with Jason Statham.

4:44Jawad MirOkay.

4:44Britt BallantyneAnd then two and three were not Jason anymore, but kind of just, you know, the franchise kept on going.

4:52Jawad MirOkay. So, you know, you... I mean, Death Race, which came out in 2007 or '08, I believe… ... Obviously that's been, you know, it's been good 15 years probably since you started working on it in terms of pre-production and all that.

5:08Britt BallantyneYeah.

5:08Jawad MirAnd at that time, that moment that you... What was the bigger moment, for you to get a call on to work on that, Mad Max: Fury or Mission Impossible 8? 'Cause they all kinda come after every eight, nine years.

5:26Britt BallantyneI would say, you know, I was one of the first people, offered a role on Mad Max. I was on Death Race and the company that was, doing both was Moonlighting Films and, they were very impressed with what I'd done on Death Race and then they said to me, "Listen, we're shooting Mad Max. It's in Namibia. Will you go to Namibia for a year? Will you uproot your life?" And I said, "Sure, as long as I can take my horse." So, yeah, myself and my horse moved to Namibia for a year. And I think, you know, it… Mad Max was a great experience for me. I really... You know, it was my very first really big budg… I mean, we don't even know what the budget was, you know? We went topped. Something that's really big, that you're really part of, you know, there's thousands of people working on it. It's, it's a massive project, and a massive machine.

6:26Britt BallantyneAnd, I really enjoyed that. I think, I think Mission being slightly a smaller thing, as we were only shooting a portion of it here in South Africa, so… ... You know, and as we were shooting an aerial unit, not the whole, you know, not the whole Mission team, not, you know, the entire machine of Mission didn't all come and land in South Africa. It was just…

6:51Jawad MirRight

6:52Britt Ballantyne... You know, so smaller part of it.

6:58Jawad MirOkay. In terms of, you know, y… when you look at a film like,.. Actually, before I do that, you talked about your horse. What's your horse's name?

7:12Britt BallantyneI actually have four now.

7:15Jawad MirOkay.

7:15Britt BallantyneMy horse's name is Stetson, like the cowboy hat.

7:19Jawad MirStetson. And let's go something little bit where else with this. How did you get into horses?

7:26Britt BallantyneOh, this is a funny story. I'm gonna embarrass myself now. So when I was a kid, my grandfather told me that he used to ride horses to school, and my little imagination was so taken by that, when it ta… came time to being taught how to ride a bicycle, I refused to learn how to ride a bicycle, and I told my parents, "I wanna ride a horse instead." So they got me horse riding lessons, and to this day, I can't ride a bicycle.

7:53Jawad MirWow, so you actually rode a horse to your school too?

7:57Britt BallantyneNo, I didn't ride it to school, but…... But, you know, I insisted on learning how to ride horses instead of bicycles. So to this day, I can't ride bikes. I can only ride horses.

8:06Jawad MirThat's interesting, but I'm sure there's a, I shouldn't say I'm sure, I know there are more people who can't ride horses as opposed to riding bikes, so…

8:13Britt BallantyneOh, yeah. Yeah

8:14Jawad Mir... You've got, you've got something unique going. And when you moved to N… Namibia for a year, talk to me about that, not necessarily about the film, but that experience of being in that world with your horse and away from home for a full year. I mean, I know in the world of production, sometimes we have to be away for a few months.

8:32Britt BallantyneYeah.

8:32Jawad MirObviously, you know, on a longer project, like documentaries, maybe a year.

8:37Britt BallantyneCould be longer, yeah.

8:37Jawad MirBut that whole, yeah, but that whole scope that you had to deal with, was it difficult to adjust? Can you run through that ex…

8:44Britt BallantyneI loved every minute of it.

8:48Jawad MirOkay.

8:48Britt BallantyneI took to the country. I just, you know, I mean, it's, it's our neighboring country, so it's, it's very similar to South Africa. Through the, actually through the equine community, I made a lot of local friends, you know? So it, I didn't only just have the rest of the film crew to hang out with. I had a group, a support system of people outside of film who, you know, I'd made through horse riding, through the stables and all of that, having my horse there. And I love the country. I think, I think it's really beautiful, very interesting, very stark country, you know? You've literally got these massive dunes that just meet the ocean, you know? It's, it's quite, it's quite surreal. And I had a lovely house that I really liked, you know, 'cause obviously we, you know, you're not staying in hotels or anything like that…

9:41Jawad MirYeah

9:41Britt Ballantyne... For that period of time. You're living in a house. I had a lovely house. I wasn't sharing with anyone, so yeah, I was, I was very happy. I really enjoyed it.

9:52Jawad MirIt's good to hear.

9:52Britt BallantyneI went back. I've gone right back since, and, I got quite tearful, 'cause I've, it was such a special time in my life, and I re… I really did. I enjoyed so much. I enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed the crew. You know, working with so many, such a broad spectrum of so many different internationals, you know? There were people f… there were Americans, there were Australians, there were English people, there were... You know, there were just so many people. So yeah, it was a very unique and very interesting experience.

10:26Jawad MirGot it. Sounds like it for sure as you, as you're talking about it and the way…... You're expressing yourself about it. What in... Can we talk about Mission Impossible 8?

10:37Britt BallantyneWe can. I mean, obviously I c… you know, under NDAs and stuff like that.

10:41Jawad MirSure.

10:41Britt BallantyneI know it has been released now, so this, it's a little bit more relaxed. But yeah, I can talk to my experience.

10:47Jawad MirSo I, you can... I would love for you to talk about your experience, but I may have a question here or two, and if it's something that kinda crosses the NDA, then just feel free to say so.

10:56Britt BallantyneYeah. Sure.

10:57Jawad MirAnd we won't go there. But just talk about your overall experience on Mission Impossible 8, and obviously the sequence that you were, involved in, which I'm assuming obviously is the finale.

11:11Britt BallantyneI actually haven't watched it yet, so I'm not really sure which part it is.

11:15Jawad MirOh, I'm talking about y… I'm talking about the plane sequence, at the end.

11:19Britt BallantyneYes, the plane sequence. Yeah.

11:20Jawad MirYeah.

11:21Britt BallantyneYeah.

11:21Jawad MirYeah.

11:22Britt BallantyneSo yeah. Again, away shoot. Th… that was shot in Hoodsprays, which is an area of South Africa, in the beautiful Blyde Canyon. Oh. What's just happened there? It's a absolutely stunning part of South Africa. I'd never been there before, so, you know, it was a first for me going there, and it's, it's real quintessential Africa, you know? The Big Five. You know, e… everywhere, even when you s… wherever you stare... Sorry, my music for some reason has just turned on.

12:03Jawad MirIt's okay.

12:04Britt BallantyneSo, You know, everywhere you stay, even on, you know, I was staying at a place called the Wildlife Estate. There's giraffes that are suddenly, like, walking past your house or, you know, zebra eating your lawn or warthog that's trying to get into your house. Monkeys everywhere. So really just you're so close to nature and you're so close to all of that. So s… for me, I mean, I'm a huge animal person, so that was just like, I was like, "Oh." I also got, amazingly got to get involved in a, in a, with a project called Rhino Revolution that does, you know, conservation and protection of rhinos, and I actually got to go and do some rhino dehorning, to help, save them. And I also used to ride horse… I used to do horse patrols for them, in the mornings before work, just checking the fence perimeters of these farms to make sure that no poachers had come in overnight.

13:06Britt BallantyneSo from that aspect of it was really incredible for me. From the production side of things, really fascinating. Really fascinating 'cause, you know, you, we're used to being set is on the ground, you know? It's a very different concept when set is in the air. I think we shot one sequence on the ground. That was it. The rest was all shot in the planes. So it's, it's, set becomes almost this, it's almost intangible, you know? Where is set? Oh, it's up there somewhere. So lots of helicopters. Lots and lots and lots of helicopters. We had a lot of helicopters. You know, you know how usually you'll travel around set in a, in a van? You know, you wanna get…

13:56Britt Ballantyne... From one place to the next. On this you went in a helicopter. So if you needed to get to forwarding base one or forwarding base two, 'cause we had our main headquarters on the ground, and, then different aerial bases that, you know, if you needed to, if the planes needed to refuel or whatever, they were up on mountain tops. So i… in order to get there, you'd have to get in a helicopter and fly up there to go and talk to someone up there and then fly back down again. And just the logistics of that, I mean, just building those forwarding bases up on the tops of these mountains, I mean, you know, we've got some great photographs of helicopters, you know, carrying Portaloos, like, through the air to get to these forwarding bases. But yeah, I mean, the scope of it as well, the planes, so obviously the planes weren't locally sourced or anything like that. We had an Antonov, a massive Antonov plane that came in that contained all of our gear, you know, 'cause it was very specialized gear as well, 'cause it's up in the sky.

15:01Britt BallantyneAll the planes, everything like that, all arrived on a massive Antonov, and then we had a team of, you know, 'cause all the planes were disassembled. So they're not all perfectly in, you know, in flying order inside the plane. They've all been disassembled and packed up neatly so that they can all fit. We had a team of engineers who came in and, you know, the Antonov landed, and one by one they put these planes back together and then fly them on out from Joburg to Hoedspruit. So massive logistical shoot, you know? A lot of, lot of moving parts, a lot of logistics, a lot of things going on. And as I said, very strange concept to think that your entire shoot is in the sky.

15:48Jawad MirYou know, you used a word which I never thought of, and I don't think it's ever been mentioned to my knowledge, the set was in the air. Like, that's a really... It just changes the whole thing in terms of how you look at that whole sequence. I mean, yes, as you see it looks completely disastrously difficult and tough to pull off.

16:08Britt BallantyneYeah.

16:08Jawad MirBut to fi… hear those words, our set was in the air, and the only, you know, your, objects or your set dec pieces were literally two planes, and that's it.

16:20Britt BallantyneYeah.

16:21Jawad MirAnd

16:22Britt BallantyneYeah

16:22Jawad Mir... That's crazy to hear it from that point of view.

16:26Britt BallantyneYeah, I mean, it is. It's, it's a, it's such a wild concept, you know? Especially... And, you know, everything has to be so precise because you're doing such crazy stuff, you know? There's some crazy stunts there, and they're all real, you know? And that really is Tom. It's not a stunt double. All your equipment has to be so perfectly... If one little screw is out of place on that camera that's in that plane and it starts doing a nosedive, that can come apart and that can hurt someone, you know? Every little piece of equipment has to be checked so perfectly and put together so perfectly that, you know, that if a plane suddenly flips or barrel rolls or does, you know, goes upside down, nothing's gonna move. You know? Like, those cameras are all gonna stay in place and nothing's gonna move. So it's, it's very, you know, incredible camera team, incredible group of guys and girls working on that job.

17:31Britt BallantyneYou know, we, the South African contingent, we were really just, like, fixers almost in a sense. There were very f… few of us. We were basically in charge of all the logistics and the ground logistics and making sure that everyone could come in and film. But 90% of the technical crew were existing Mission crew or specialist aerial crew, you know, that they'd, they'd brought on for the project. And just such amazing, wonderful people, you know? Th… I think in terms of, you know, nice, just genuinely nice people and no assholes, you know? And which is, can be quite rare on film sets sometimes.

18:12Jawad MirYeah. Yeah. And what was your role that, whatever you're able to disclose, on working on that sequence?

18:21Britt BallantyneSo I was the production supervisor. So yeah, I mean, I was just in charge of day-to-day running of everything, making sure that everything was happening…

18:33Jawad MirOkay

18:33Britt Ballantyne... Making sure that, you know, th… all the movie parts were going the way they were supposed to be doing, all that kind of stuff, just real production stuff.

18:40Jawad MirAnd how long was the production for that sequence, the entire bit? Like, what w… what was the duration that you were sort of booked for on the set or, you know?

18:49Britt BallantyneI think it was around about three months.

18:54Jawad MirI was gonna guess one and a month…

18:55Britt BallantyneThree months

18:56Jawad Mir... I was gonna guess one and a half month, but three, four months makes more sense. And…

19:00Britt BallantyneSo we didn't only shoot in Hoodsprays. We then, we then shot, we shot Hoodspray, then we shot Drakensberg. So not only did... So just to explain as well, you know, in order to house these planes and these helicopters and all that kind of stuff, you need an a… you need an air hangar. And we didn't have an air hangar, so we built our own air hangars.

19:22Jawad MirOf course.

19:23Britt BallantyneYeah.

19:23Jawad MirIt's a Tom Cruise movie.

19:26Britt BallantyneBut, you know, they like, the... We had this specialist group, and what they do is they put together, it… it's almost like they do a lot of events and stuff like that, like, you know, would do, like, the Olympics or whatever. I don't know. But it's not a tent, but it's like a modular system that you build up. So we, of course we'd throw the screed, you know, a concrete slab, and then they'd build this modular hangar as well as modular offices next to the hangar. So we had that set up in Hoodspray, and then we moved from Hoodspray to Drakensberg, which is about a, I think about a two and a half, maybe three-hour drive, you know, further up towards co… you know, you're going towards the coast. So then you know, the... I think there's a sequence there where you see where the planes come out from the Blyde Canyon to the ocean.

20:15Jawad MirYeah.

20:16Britt BallantyneThat's, that's the Drakensberg.

20:18Jawad MirOkay

20:18Britt Ballantyne... And then we were potentially going to still go and do another sequence in KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, but they had just had massive flooding in the area, and I actually went up there ahead of the company just to check what things were like, and we decided not to go 'cause it was just, you know, the infrastructure and everything was just so damaged that, we decided just to leave it at, just doing Drakensberg and Hoodspray.

20:48Jawad MirSo was that sequence, was that part, the part that was canceled, was that an additional sequence that never got shot to the film, or was it…

20:56Britt BallantyneIt was, it was... I mean, I'm not, I'm not 100% sure 'cause I never actually read

21:03Jawad MirThe script

21:04Britt Ballantyne... You know, the script or what it was supposed to be. But that's also, I think it was just kind of more of the plane going out, you know… ... Towards the ocean. Similar thing to Drakensberg. But, yeah, I can't remember or not if they did...

21:26Jawad MirThat's fine.

21:26Britt BallantyneI can't remember or not if they did, if they did come back or they did it. I'm not 100% sure…

21:33Jawad MirSure

21:33Britt Ballantyne... As to how that all ended up. But I know that on the time that I was on it, we just decided not to go to Durban at that point. And, yeah, we finished off in Drakensberg.

21:44Jawad MirWere you know, when the planes obviously... There's so many... The great thing about Mission Impossible films, which they recently started doing more, I think especially in the last three, four films, is the behind-the-scenes stuff. They really show a lot of stuff…

21:57Britt BallantyneYes

21:57Jawad Mir... That we probably will think is, like, a, you know, a green screen.

22:02Britt BallantyneIt's not

22:02Jawad Mir... And lot... Of course it's not. And then a lot of stuff that you'll see is, Director MQ, you know, you get to see his reactions from a safety standpoint, not necessarily…

22:12Britt BallantyneYes

22:12Jawad Mir... You know, you're obviously you're looking at a craft of the shot and everything, but you're also figuring out in your head, what if, what if.

22:19Britt BallantyneYeah.

22:19Jawad MirWere you v… physically, were you physically present in those kind of settings where things were happening up there and there's, like, complete, you know, fear of things possibly going wrong or, you know, just having that thing?

22:33Britt BallantyneNo, never.

22:35Jawad MirSo you never saw any of the actual planes going up or was it…

22:42Britt BallantyneNo…

22:42Jawad Mir... I'm just…

22:42Britt Ballantyne... 'cause you see, where our offices were, like I said, we had, like, phase one.

22:49Jawad MirYeah

22:49Britt Ballantyne... The planes take off from there. So that's…

22:53Jawad MirAnd that's it

22:53Britt Ballantyne... That's Hoodspray. Then they fly, you know, probably the drive would be about 20 minutes. They fly a distance to get to the Blyde Canyon, which is the canyon you see that they go through. So then they, you know, they'll stop at 40 base one or two or whatever, but they, once they go, they're up in the air, they fly those sequences, and then they come back. So I mean, the most we kind of ever saw from the ground were them flying in and out and maybe occasionally doing, you know, like, a little bit of a barrel roll or a, you know, loop-de-loop or something like that. But we weren't... You can't from... Again, like I said, the set is in the air. It's so difficult…

23:34Jawad MirYeah

23:34Britt Ballantyne... To describe. You know…

23:36Jawad MirSure

23:37Britt Ballantyne... You're not actually physically present there. I think, they had the helicopter that had the shot… I think it was the shot of a system on it. You know, that was always there filming, and I think MQ a lot of the time was in that. So yeah, but, you know, they had their own communication stuff in the air and it's far away from, you know, from where we are…

24:00Jawad MirRight

24:00Britt Ballantyne... So you can't really see it.

24:02Jawad MirFair enough. Any particular story that you can share that things were not going the way they were supposed to go? Not necessarily with the air sequence, just in terms of…

24:13Britt BallantyneYeah

24:13Jawad Mir... Being on the ground, that you c… one or two stories that you're willing to share

24:19Britt BallantyneI really... I know this sounds strange to say, but I don't, I don't think there was anything. You know, working on…

24:26Jawad MirThat is strange to hear.

24:28Britt BallantyneNo, but you know, you know what I have to say is that working with the Mission crew, they've, they've been doing this for so many years, you know?

24:36Jawad MirYeah.

24:36Britt BallantyneIt's the same crew on every movie, and they're so... It's such a well-oiled machine, you know? That it just runs smoothly. Everyone knows their job, everyone knows what they're doing, you know, everything just, it goes. And I mean, I think a lot of Tom's philosophy is, you know, to practice to perfection on things. And that's just what you see. You know, I think... I've, I can't think of one particular thing where anything didn't go according to plan. I think, I think there was one funny story about a local…

25:11Jawad MirSure

25:11Britt Ballantyne... Para… parachute guy who, I think he,.. So one of the guys told me a story, was he kind of, you know, turned around and said something about like, the parachutes that we were using, and he said that, "Oh, they're, they're rubbish parachutes," or something like that. And I mean, that's like the only thing, and we just like laughed because we were like, "What an idiot. He's probably even never seen these parachutes in his life before because they're so high-tech," you know? But I think that was pretty much it that I ever heard, you know. But yeah, I mean, and I must say on a personal front, I was always,.. I'd never really been a huge Tom Cruise fan. Like, you know, I mean, he's great. He's, you know, big A-list Hollywood star. He wasn't someone that I'd ever gone, "Oh, I'd really love to meet this guy." but I have the most amount of respect for him, after working with him.

26:14Britt BallantyneI've, I've never seen someone with so much dedication to his craft and just such an incredible work ethic, you know? He rocks up, he shows up, he's on time. He does everything he's supposed to do. He does it with a smile on his face. He's not difficult. He's quiet. He's, he's respectful of everyone. You know, everyone who walks into a room, he'll greet you, he'll say hello to you. I mean, some days he'd come and he'd hover his... 'Cause, you know, he flies to work, so he doesn't drive.

26:43Jawad MirOf course.

26:44Britt BallantyneSo his helicopter, he flies in his helicopter to work. So some mornings he would come and, you know, where our production office was, it was a little bit away from the base. So as he'd fly over, he'd come and hover his helicopter, you know, like in front of our production office, and we'd all wave, and then he'd wave at us and, you know, he'd, he'd fly off to the base. So, and he'd do fantastic things for his crew, you know? On weekends, we're in the middle of nowhere, you know, what are we supposed to do? And he'd, he'd organize events for us. He'd send us on safari. I mean, the one weekend we all got to go on a, you know, five-star Big Five safari tour. I mean, I saw the Big Five, all of them, you know? And a hyena, 'cause that's what I asked. You know, the guide said to you, "What do you really want to see?" And I said, "I want to see a hyena." And so we saw the whole Big Five, plus I saw a hyena. He organized a braai for us, which is like a barbecue. Massive braai at one of the, lodges. So just, I mean, I just found, I found them to all be really amazing.

27:45Britt BallantyneMcQ's such a lovely guy as well. Yeah, they… it was just a really pleasant experience. There wasn't any one thing that I can say was a disaster or something that went wrong. I think about the only thing that went wrong was that Durban had flooding, and, you know, at the time it wasn't a great idea for us to go there, 'cause I drove down there and I mean, this is the one, the one freeway, there was a container yard next to the freeway, and it looked like God had just picked up containers and thrown them like Lego onto the floor. You know, they were just containers like lying all over the middle of the freeway and broken and stuff, and I just said, "No, guys, let's, you know, it's, it's not a good idea to come down here for now." 'Cause they were still busy, you know, cleaning up, disaster management, and all of that kind of thing. So we just didn't do the Durban leg. But yeah.

28:38Jawad MirThanks for sharing that. Let's, let's go back to your... As we wrap up, let's go back to your horse.

28:45Britt BallantyneHorses.

28:46Jawad MirHorses. Horses. Let's go back to…

28:47Britt BallantyneI now, I now have, I now have three of them.

28:50Jawad MirThat's even better. Maybe you already have, on Not So Hollywood Productions, but if not, would you like to do something that involves horses? And not necessarily

29:06Britt BallantyneI have actually ridden. I have, I have ridden as a rode rider on movies before.

29:11Jawad MirWhich ones?

29:13Britt BallantyneIt was a, it was a series, I think it was for BBC or one of those things, called Northmen. It was a Viking saga.

29:23Jawad MirOkay.

29:23Britt BallantyneAnd, I got it... It… they,.. It… they'd been filming it for like weeks and weeks, and they only really had male riders on, 'cause it w… it was so grueling. They wanted it to be so realistic that, the armor was real, the chain mail was real, all of that stuff was real. You were riding in 20 kilograms, 20 to 30 kilograms worth of armor. So they decided that, you know, only boys because it's so rough and so difficult, and a lot of the boys just went, "I'm not doing this anymore." So, the lady who was in charge of all the horses, she called me and she said, you know, "Do you want to come?" And I said, "Sure." And I went and did it for one night, and said, "Never again." yeah, 30 kilograms, 20 to 30 kilograms worth of armor, so it's, you know, you come in your own normal riding clothes, then they put another set of… You know, kind of cotton stuff over you so that none of your, you know, your modern fabrics can ever be seen.

30:29Britt BallantyneAnd then, and then on top of that they put all these boiled leather, you know, braces like on your arms and on your legs and the boots that you would be wearing, and then they put another layer of pants on top of you and then they put a layer of felt, a tunic on you, then felt, then body ar… well, then chain mail, full chain mail, real chain mail. Then body armor, again boiled leather with the metal sheeting and stuff like that and a helmet. And once that helmet…

30:59Jawad MirOh, wow

30:59Britt Ballantyne... Goes on your head, if you turn your head, the helmet doesn't bloody well turn. So you're riding and you're riding at 2:00 AM in the morning, in the middle of the night, galloping up a hill with 20 other riders towards a line of pikes, and once you hit the pikes, the pikes set on fire and you've gotta jump off, pull your sword and run. You know, as if you're going to charge. And do that over and over and over again, and it was the middle of winter and it was like minus two. And yeah, I mean, and my costume as well, they also gave me a full wolf pelt that I had to wear over my stuff as well. So it w… it was, it was a lot. Just by the end of the night I was like, "I don't ever wanna do that again."

31:45Jawad MirWas it, was it your own horse that you had to use or was it production?

31:48Britt BallantyneNo. That was a production horse. Yeah, it was a Friesian, one of those black horses with the long feathery legs.

31:58Jawad MirNice. What's next for you that you're able to talk about, or are you taking a break? Anything around the horizon?

32:06Britt BallantyneCurrently,... Oh, well I'm quoting a lot of things. You know, a lot of... We do get a lot of, a lot of amazing projects coming to South Africa, 'cause I just... I've just got to say a little blurb about my country. We have the most amazing locations here. We, you know, we have such diverse locations. You c… you can, you can have desert, you can have jungle, you can have... Whatever you can dream of, you know, we'll find it in South Africa location-wise. And, we have great studio facilities here as well, real world-class…

32:42Britt Ballantyne... Studio facilities. And our crew, our crew, the level of our crew is really high. I mean, we're currently shooting projects like, The Witcher comes to shoot here occasionally. We have Wheel of Time coming here occasionally. The whole of One Piece, the show on Netflix, One Piece, that's filmed here in South Africa. We shot Raised by Wolves. We shot Warrior. I mean the list goes on and on and on. You know, it's a, it's a fantastic film location and you really do get world-class services here. Me currently, I am currently pitching on a couple of projects. I'm attached to a couple of projects. You know, they're not 100% green-lit yet, I'm just waiting to see what falls or what lands. And I'm also trying to... I've, I've kind of put out a challenge to my local crew and, you know, and said if someone can find me a really good script that they really think is worthwhile, then, you know, I'll, I'll put all my effort behind trying to get it made.

33:45Britt BallantyneIf it doesn't have financing, whatever, you know, then I can try and, you know, get people to work pro bono, see what… how we can do, yes, i… if it's a really great script. You know? Like, I wanna find something that just shocks me and I go, "Oh, word. Like, this has to be made." You know? So that's kind of where I'm at the moment. That's like kind of my little sideline thing. And then again, as I said, I'm doing a lot of budgeting at the moment and, I think I'm t… attached to about three or four projects that haven't quite yet landed or been green-lit that they're going ahead, or we don't know when they're going ahead shall I say.

34:18Jawad MirThat's really cool. And that project that you're talking about, that script that really blows you away

34:23Britt BallantyneYeah

34:23Jawad Mir... Is it, is it something that you seek financing from producers or is it just you get people involved on a pro bono basis or?

34:30Britt BallantynePro bono. Pro bono as far as I can. I've... The only thing that I'm gonna try and get finance for will be the insurance, the catering, and the fuel.

34:39Jawad MirYeah.

34:40Britt BallantyneYou know, I wanna find something really good that's, that people go, "Hell yeah, I wanna be part of that." You know? And obviously if it, if it does well and if it sells well, we'll get paid off the back end. But, you know, I just wanna find something that I think…

34:54Britt Ballantyne... Is really worthwhile.

34:56Jawad MirSince the audience is listening to this, I mean you don't know who's listening, right? So what exactly is a gr… I mean, I know what a great script is, but is it a specific genre that you're looking for or anything and wide open?

35:09Britt BallantyneSo wide open. I mean, the one kind of thing that I've, I've said which will, which will work in its favor will be that it needs to be very cleverly written in terms of not having a lot of locations. Okay? So if it's one or two locations, that's perfect. You know, shouldn't have a massive cast. But something that's really just like grips you from the word go, you know? And I just wanna try find a project that maybe someone's been trying, you know, they've, they've had the story that they've written and they've been trying so hard to get it off the ground for so many years and they, you know, they've just never found that avenue or that way to get it off the ground. And I mean, for me personally, I've never gone into the side of trying to get financing or anything like that for movies. You know? It's... It would be a first for me as well. But it's something that's, you know, that I'd really just wanna do. I wanna see what's out there and, you know, see if there's something that's... Where's the Oscar, the next Oscar movie coming from that's...

36:10Britt BallantyneYou know? That we never... It could be, it could just be sitting in someone's outbox. So…

36:14Jawad Mir100%.

36:16Britt BallantyneYeah.

36:17Jawad MirYou should listen to, I mean as we wrap it up there, since you mentioned this could be an Oscar movie sitting on someone's lap, have you ever seen that story of Kevin Costner and this, friend of his…... Who wrote a script. He talked about, I think, on the Graham Norton Show. Did you ever see that?

36:32Britt BallantyneNo, I didn't. No.

36:33Jawad MirSo obviously he told it in a very proper way…... And I'll just try to summarize it. It kind of goes to what you were saying. So he had a friend,.. You know, he makes friends, obviously, it's just like in the people industry.

36:46Britt BallantyneYeah.

36:46Jawad MirSo he made this friend and he was, writing a script and he wanted Tom to... Not Tom, sorry, Kevin Costner to see it, and Kevin Costner being busy…

36:57Britt BallantyneYeah

36:57Jawad Mir... And everything and so on and so forth and, you know, he said, "I don't have any money. Can I stay in your house?" And Kevin Costner…

37:04Britt BallantyneYeah

37:04Jawad Mir... Let him stay in his house. And just things weren't working out right and he did something, this guy did something to somebody and Kevin Costner really called him out and he pushed him against the wall. He's like, "You cannot do that in this industry." I don't remember the details.

37:17Britt BallantyneYeah.

37:17Jawad MirAnd then this guy went and started doing, you know, dishwashing and all that stuff on his own.

37:23Britt BallantyneYeah.

37:23Jawad MirHe left Kevin's house. Years later, he came back to Kevin again. He's like, "Can you just please read my script?"

37:30Britt BallantyneYeah.

37:31Jawad MirAnd Kevin did, and it was Dances With The Wolves.

37:35Britt BallantyneAmazing.

37:36Jawad MirRight? So…

37:37Britt BallantyneYou see? You see?

37:38Jawad MirYeah.

37:38Britt BallantyneYou just don't know.

37:40Jawad MirYeah.

37:41Britt BallantyneYou just don't know. I mean, s… you know, I've, I've, I've, I've put a post, you know, to the effect of it on my Facebook, you know, just j… calling out my local South African film family because I think there are so many incredible stories in this country. Hey, wow. And so many talented people in this country and, you know, I've kind of sort of gone calling all, "Who's got a script? Who's got one?" I think there's one so far that I've... That is kind of my top contender that I've read so far that I think could be really good. But yeah, as I said, I'm just, I'm just still reading until I know that like, "Okay, this is the one." You know? "This is the one. This is the story that needs to be made." You know?

38:25Jawad MirThat's amazing. And I hope that does happen for you sooner than later because there are some great stories that never get made…... Because of financial reasons.

38:34Britt BallantyneYeah.

38:35Jawad MirAnd we need them more than ever now, I feel…... And I think a lot of pe… other people do.

38:41Britt BallantyneAbsolutely.

38:41Jawad MirBecause the original stuff has gone out the window. Everything is about IP and…

38:45Britt BallantyneIt has

38:45Jawad Mir... Right?

38:47Britt BallantyneWell, exactly, and I think that, I think that we're seeing like a global depression at the moment in film. You know? With the streamers and the way people also... The way people nowadays are consuming content. It's TikTok, it's YouTube. You know? It... They will go and rather watch... They'll scroll through TikTok for two hours instead of watching a movie because the content is just not gripping people anymore. You know? So because s… the streamers came along, we just had to churn out so much content just to... For there to be content. You know, a lot of, a lot of stuff got made that just really isn't, you know, worthwhile or it's not, it's not, it's not gripping. It's not, you know, like, "Oh my gosh, that's gonna win an Oscar. That's gonna win an Emmy." You know? It's, it's, it's just very bland, mundane kind of conce… content and I... With what I'm doing now I'm just, I'm just trying to see, like, there's... I know that stuff's out there. I know that it's out there. I know that there's still amazing stories to be told. You know, it's not over.

39:47Britt BallantyneFilm is not over.

39:48Jawad MirNo.

39:48Britt BallantyneIt's…

39:49Jawad MirIt's not and it… ... It never will be because stories are what make us who we are.

39:54Britt BallantyneWho we are. Exactly. And, you know, that's why I got into it and I, and I have such passion for it and I mean, even with it being, you know, a bit slow at the moment, I think with the indry… industry, you know, globally at the moment is a bit slow, I'm not giving up. You know? I love this, I love this industry. I love it. I always say to people, "If you wanted to know how to class us, we were the carnival folk. The film crew, we were carnival folk. Back in the day, that's what we were. We ran the circus." You know?

40:28Britt Ballantyne"We were the performers. We were the people who didn't quite fit in, the people who ran away from home and, you know, were taken in as a, as a, in, into the f… the carnival family. That's who we are. And, we've got stories to tell."

40:43Jawad MirI couldn't agree more and I've, I was talking to somebody else yesterday and I literally told them this, that we are the most misunderstood people, in the world in terms of as far as industry is concerned.

40:58Britt BallantyneYeah.

40:58Jawad MirYet people love watching what we make.

41:01Britt BallantyneExactly.

41:02Jawad MirYeah. The irony of that. Right? So...

41:04Britt BallantyneYeah. Well, that's why I always say to people, you know, I always say to crew, a… and, 'cause every crew member is just such a unique individual, you know? And you ask pe… I always ask people stories. I'm, I'm forever asking everyone's story. "How did you get into the industry? How did you get into this?"

41:23Jawad MirYeah.

41:24Britt Ballantyne"Oh, I didn't work out at this and I couldn't do that," or, "I hated being in an office," or... You know? There's always... You know? Or, whatever it is. It's, it's always like a, "I was just different. I was always different and I wanted to do something different and somehow I landed up in this world and I loved it." And I'm like, "Welcome to the carnival. Let's go."

41:50Jawad MirYeah. Yeah, no, it's, it's true and it's also true that I... A… and I am a testament to that, and I'm sure a lot of m… other millions of people in this industry, is that sometimes you don't... I would say most of the times, the path that you take to get to where you want is a path…

42:05Britt BallantyneYeah

42:05Jawad Mir... That you had never imagined that would even come up out of nowhere.

42:08Britt BallantyneYeah.

42:08Jawad MirLike, it's just totally unexpected, something that didn't exist before but you figured it out and you just leveraged…

42:15Britt BallantyneYeah

42:15Jawad Mir... Your way to that.

42:17Britt BallantyneYeah. Very much so.

42:18Jawad MirAmazing. Well, thank you so much, Brit, for your time. A fascinating conversation. I loved every second of it. Thank you so much for your time and appreciate all the work…

42:26Britt BallantyneAwesome

42:26Jawad Mir... That you've been doing.

42:27Britt BallantyneLovely work. Lovely chatting to you, Jawad. It was really great.

42:31Jawad MirThank you so much.

42:31Britt BallantyneThanks so much for having me.

42:33Jawad MirFair enough.

42:34Britt BallantyneAll right.

42:34Jawad MirAll right. Take care.

42:35Britt BallantyneBye.

42:45Jawad MirBye.