Writer and director Mark Middlewick’s Security, sponsored by international
production company Focus Features through its Africa First programme, won
Best Short Film at the 2014 Jozi Film Festival.
In the movie, Middlewick’s nameless lead, a lonely security guard, inhabits a
world of contrasts. By day he listlessly rests in his modestly furnished room,
isolating himself from the realities and hurts of everyday life and, at night, when
the rest of the world sleeps, he works, solitary, in a brightly illuminated
shopping centre.
His loneliness is emphasised in a film with little dialogue but which is laden with
atmosphere, silently illustrating the measures to which he goes to ward off his
emotions as he strikes up a friendship with a mannequin in a high-end boutique
store. In a world of stark neon lights his existence in the shadows is
heightened.
After graduating with Honours in Dramatic Art at the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Middlewick lectured Film Appreciation at City
Varsity, concentrating on works by directors of the French New Wave.
Inspired by these masters’ techniques, which included “fragmented,
discontinuous editing and long takes’, Security also touches on the group’s
“combination of objective realism, subjective realism and authorial commentary
that creates a narrative ambiguity as questions arise in the film that are not
answered in the end’.
“I am a minimalist at heart and sidestep into all genres of art when creating
work. In a modern world where everything has become so hyper realistic, I want
to boil things down and minimise everything,’ Middlewick comments.
The team had to shoot at unusual hours at Sandton City Shopping Mall in
Johannesburg, filming in what Middlewick refers to “as a tribute to capitalism’
which took five days from 18h00 until 06h00 on the Arri Alexa.
He says, “The environment was so sterile, I felt like I had walked into a sci-fi
movie. We took out any advertising as the movie has an anti-capitalist tone to
it. I took countless photos, which were used to storyboard the entire film so we
concentrated purely on performance.’
Each shot had to earn its way, the director says. “I wanted to use the economy
of shots to its full potential to convey emotion,’ he adds.
“I am fascinated with spaces that carry history, but which are not inhabited by
people. I am inspired by the late cinematographer Harris Savides – especially his
work on Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere and Gus van Sant’s Elephant – who said
that he never lit a character, but that he lit a room instead,’ Middlewick
continues. “The characters just happen to inhabit a room and that’s the bigger
picture ideal that we tried to create.’
The filmmaker concludes: “I went in with the intention to create something that
aspires to transcend the confines of commercial cinema, andwhich is layered and
carries multiple messages.’
Security has screened at several international film festivals and has been
selected to show at several others this year. With the support of the National
Film and Video Foundation, Middlewick is currently developing a feature
screenplay.
