From Being Bullied to Making Action Movies: An Interview with Scheanel Ness King, the Director of The Rise

How’d you get into filmmaking, and where does this project sit in your filmography? What got me into filmmaking is watching shows and moving growing up as I watched loads of tv and movies growing up and watched behind the scenes of films and thought it was cool. But what got me into it was doing media in school and my teachers Mr Rushworth, Mr Bailey and Miss Bukhari, Miss Appiah car and other teachers forgot but they taught me about the industry and the basics. After that did some work experience with Jax doing documentaries and music videos and later podcasts and learnt a lot and got experience in university learning about everything and even going on set to work on slow horses and game show and pilot episode.Previous films and projects helped me improve especially directing as havent done much and got good feedback from actors which was nice and recently worked on 3 projects in row this week YouTube series, short film and product video as camera operator and also have youtube channel with 9k subs where I post my films which is esskayvisuals. Rise was an ambitious project and I wanted to make this one alot as I wanna be known for action even if I don't have a lot but using this will help my next film which will have way more action which I will need funding as a lot goes to dojo so if anyone interested would be helpful.

What first sparked the idea for this film, and when did you realize, “Okay, this absolutely needs to be a short film”? The inspiration for this film was Karate kid last year and series like Kickin it which was a comedy and action series on disney xd, also I was bullied so wanna tell a story about it. I wanted to explore the theme of resilience and grief and I enjoyed doing it and the next one planning to make about grief. Short film was better to do rather than series or feature as a short story and don't have a budget and wanted to do it in a short time frame and win festivals and nominees.

Walk us through your writing process for this project. So finished it in few hours but also did some drafts after and shared to some of my friends and they gave advice and what to do and all my scripts have written have got feedback from teachers or friends.I started with the main emotional idea and built main character around his first heart and courage and shyness in the beginning. I wrote outline and 3 act structure before I started writing and described characters.

Things always shift from script to screen. Were there any major scenes or subplots from the original draft that you had to change or completely cut during production? Couldn't get any shops so changed to walking towards the park. I was meant to film in a shop.

The Rise walks a fine line between heavy emotional drama and raw street action. What made you want to connect the trauma of loss with someone learning how to fight? I didnt think too much about it just wanted to do but maybe because I lost my grandma few years ago maybe inspired me I dont know..Wanted to show confidence coming from passion and hardships and wanting to learn to show you don't have to be violent or bully to increase your confidence or bring people down.

How would you describe the look of the film? How did you and your Director of Photography collaborate to bring that visual style to life? So I DOP, produced and directed so did a lot and didn't do shot list but I planned in my head what I wanted to do and knew the shots I wanted to do and allowed actors to give input what they wanted and allowed open collaboration as wanted everyone to be part of it and I was the main person for story and shots etc.

The opening scene with the brother’s loss is incredibly heavy, and then we jump forward in time. Did that time-jump force you to cut or change any scenes you originally wanted to include? No, as short films don't have enough time to tell a story so I wanted to tell in a quick way whilst bringing emotion and heart to the story and wanted the audience to be hooked from the beginning.

Doing action on an indie budget is notoriously tough. How did you pull off the choreography, especially for the training montages and that final showdown? As I didn't have a budget all the money went to travel and food and logistics so I luckily used the main character Rishi who does kick boxing and trains and fights and always wanted to do action but didn't have opportunity so he was passionate and helpful and was thankful for his support.

What was the hardest scene to shoot in The Rise? Tell us about some of the challenges you faced during production. The fight scenes didn't have enough people so I was in it with red coat and mask so my production assistant filmed and only scene didn't film and also my batteries died towards the end so filming on phone wasn't the best but luckily was fine and you guys enjoyed it so I was happy.

The pacing and music really drive this film—especially the shift into that high-energy montage. How did you approach the edit and sound design to keep the audience hooked? That was all the editor. I was happy with her work and she did well and I told her what I would like but the editor did well and was proud of her Basaak.

The film tackles bullying, fear, and street crime. What were you ultimately trying to say about modern youth culture? Trying to say bullying is important and not good in today's world and we need to be better and stand up to bullies and show what you shouldn't do and what you should do.I wanted to show support and resilience matter.

Looking back at the whole journey from concept to final cut, what did this specific project teach you about yourself as a director? That I’m a good director and that I still need to improve and direct the crew and make sure they know what they are doing and have a plan and make sure the film is coming across how I want it to come across. Collaboration makes the film better and trusting the crew and cast which I did as I allowed them to have creative input give suggestions but not all was listened to in certain ways. Also being willing to adapt depending on circumstances.

What can you tell us about what’s next? Are there any genres or themes you would want to tackle in the future? So I have a film called Last Sensei which is an ambitious film again but may need funding and started crowdfund and have another film bench friend which is a mental health film and maybe another film which is a thriller about dinner going wrong and also planning to do 2 day challenge with RD Studios, LAMDA and a film school which us being judged by Doctor Strange actor so looking forward. Also wanna do docu series about musics, entrepreneur, filmmakers, creative, writer and photographers focusing on identity struggles and hardship being creative but will need funding for most so if you would like to help would mean a lot…