A Prayer Before Dawn | Behind the scenes with Tony Stokes

We were called to arrive on set at 5:00 am sharp. As the sun began to peer over the imposing barred-wire that sat triumphantly on top of the prison wall, I had to remind myself that I was also on a film set. We were located in a secret location just on the outskirts of Bangkok and we were inside the walls of what the Thais lovingly refer to as the Big Tiger.

Arriving early has its advantages in one of the most congested cities on earth. For once, it’s quiet and peaceful with little traffic a rare commodity in the big mango. As I unearthed the camera equipment from my canvas bag, I heard a syncopated drum-roll of hurried footsteps behind me. I turned to witness an army of approaching bodies swarming into the prison gates, I had to remind myself that we’re making a film here, but I’m also inside the walls of a real prison.  Their upper bodies were a tapestry of dramatic body art depicting horned angry demons, crazed flying dragons, and hidden prison code. “These are some of the many extras for the movie,” one of the DP assistants told me, “They look scary don’t they,” she said, followed by a cheeky wink.

This assortment of walking canvases was indeed spectacular as they were not just merely ‘extras’ that could be found at any film agent in Bangkok, these were real-life ex-gangsters, ex-cons, drug dealers and prison Muay Thai fighters that Jean-Stephane had hand-picked. This brought another energy and one that Belgium born Director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire (Johnny Mad Dog) knew only too well as his ultra-real method of film making is now bringing new life to Billy Moore’s’ story behind bars in a Thai prison whilst becoming a Muay Thai champion. The mid-day sun was now touching 35 degrees and it was nice to get inside the main preparation room for some much-needed shade. Whilst talking with some of the other members of the cast and crew I noticed the British Actor Joe Cole (Green Room, Peaky blinders) who is playing the lead of Billy Moore.
As I approached Joe he was in filming mid-warm up. He was casually hanging from what appeared to be a make-shift pull up bar. Joe was preparing himself for the coming big fight against one of his strongest opponents in the story, so I guess, wanted to get a little ‘pump’, before going on set for the climactic fight of the day. He was performing wide-grip lateral pull ups. As he did this exercise a heavy tattooed Thai man playfully punched Joe in the stomach on his descent, whilst laughing to himself.

As Joe pounced from the heavily textured makeshift pull up-bar, looked at me and then smiled a cheeky grin of recognition. I am sure Joe was also secretly smirking at the unfamiliar practices of the Thai extras on set activities, which can seem unorthodox compared to the more formal British actor’s routines whilst on a film set back home. “I think Stephen wishes to keep this story as authentic and as real as possible, which is why I wanted to be involved with this movie!” Joe told me, between bouts of shadow boxing Muay Thai movements in the uncompromisingly humid air.

Real and authentic would be the key-words of the day and have indeed set the narrative for this edgy biographical film. As I began documenting the movie in progress, I was drawn to the final scene of the days shoot. This involved Billy Moore’s character to fight the current inmate champion.
The director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire was filming with the Red 8k digital camera and mounted on a hand-held rig for full interactive control. Framing the camera up-close with face-to-face shots whilst rotating around the actors several times to create the impression of being inside the ring as the fight unfolds.
This gave me reminiscent flashbacks of the infamous fight scenes in the classic ‘Raging Bull’, as Jean-Stephen did at one stage tell me that he was a big fan of that movie. As the days shoot progressed Jean-Stephen changed to a first person styled shooting perspective with the opponent punching directly into the lens of the ever moving steady cam.

This continued with the occasional interruption from French-born fight co- coordinator David Ismalone. Ismalone who’s notable for playing the fearsome opponent in Tony Jaa’s epic “Ong Bak” as the maniac street fighter ‘Mad Dog’. As Ismalone directs the main fight with the occasional technical boxing adjustment from ex-Muay Thai and boxing legend Somluck Kamsing. Somluck who noticeably boxed his way to a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics and is the only Thai to ever active this acclaim. 

As a side-note, Somluck was also supposed to have a 5 round exhibition styled Muay Thai fight with Belgium born Hollywood martial Arts movie icon Jean Claude Van Damme, which never came into fruition. Rumor has it, that Vanne Damme perpetually kept evading the aging Somluck who was seen to be just too dangerous for the ‘film-fighter’, especially if full Thai rules were going to be implemented.

It is now believed that this fight was merely a fictitious promotional tactic to shine light on Van Damme’s directional debut ‘Full Love’ which also went under several other titles and to this day have not been commercially released along with the ‘fly-on-the-wall’ show, which appears to be the best received release he’s been involved with for many years called ‘Behind Closed Doors’. When I tentatively asked Mr. (Kune) Somluck about this event, he slowly lent over my shoulder and said in his broken Thai-English, “I think Van Damme scare, he know, he not win!”, followed by a little chuckle.

As the main fight continues filming, Ismalone relentlessly unleashes a furry of punching drills with actor Joe Cole. Somluck occasionally steps into access with the over-technical fighting elemental in between takes. The workmanship between Ismalone (who speaks English, French, and fluent Thai), Somluck and Joe Cole is seamless, direct and appears to flow smoothly without confusion. With this many non-English speaking extras (over 200) one would think that there would be total chaos, but Jean-Shephen seems to glided around the set like an Olympic ice-skater taking every step in perfect time with calm and direct instructions.
The extras were guided by a Thai speaking member of the crew and given basic actions to follow, which seemed to go smoothly throughout the days shoot. A memorable and highly charged scene was indeed the final fight of the day. At one stage Billy’s character played by Joe Cole, almost throws the his co-actor, who incidentally, is also real ex-con Thai boxing champion out of the ring. Joe Cole who trained Muay Thai intensivelyfor the role at local gyms in the UK before traveling to Thailand, looked familiar with the basic movements of Muay Thai, so it will be interesting to how the transfers to the big screen. On the commandant of action, Joe throws the Thai across the ring towards my camera narrowly missing my lens and almost tumbling out of the ring.

A Prayer before Dawn is an interesting proposal, maybe because it’s not only a very realistic interpretation of Billy Moore’s biography book, but also a martial arts movie with a progressive narrative of redemption and ultimately self-empowerment and recovery.


Story and Photo Credits: Tony Stokes
Check out and follow his pages “No Words Necessary” on Youtube Podcast Channel and Twitter

About the Author:
“Lone traveller, writer, photographer, martial artist, film maker and fourth dimensional digital dream-weaver. I dwell of the fringes of an alternative reality, why? Because that where the good stuff is. A wondering knight who enjoys finding out what makes people tick. Weather I’m asking someone personal questions in a pod-cast or asking them even more personal questions in real life, its all about getting to the root of it all. In the end its, about the process not the product and the process, is in the here and now.” – Tony Stokes ; )

 

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