- Wych Kaosayananda was born in 1974 in Thailand. He is known for One Night in Bangkok (2020), Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) and The Driver (2019).
- Made the film 'Fah' in his native Thailand which was the highest budgeted film in the country's history. It was a big hit and led to him helming Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002).
- His all-time favorite filmmakers are Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, John Woo and David Fincher.
He's also a huge fan of Peter Berg, Michael Bay, Francis Ford Coppolla, Martin Scorceces, Tony Scott and Wong Kar Wai. He will always watch films by Spike Jonze, Gareth Edwards, Sofia Coppolla, Robert Zemekis and Chris Nolan.
- "It's two separate issues. As with most films I've been doing for the past few years, I'm a hand for hire. That means I don't have any real input in the key issues that go into being a director. For example, I believe casting is a huge part of a directors job. You may have to cast to meet certain parameters (financing and such) but the director should still have the final say on 90% of a film's cast because that's your movie right there. So for every movie I've done as a director in the past six or seven years aside from Zero Tolerance, I was hired to just execute the script. Once we wrap, I work on my cut but after that's handed over, I'm done. Whether they use it, re-edit it or whatever, it is entirely up to the producers and I'm fine with it."
"On set, they do give me full control as long as I stay within the resources we have. But as an example to help answer your question, on all of these films that I directed, I was my own DP as well. But I've never been able to color grade the final product, just as I've never used my name on any of the projects. So it's never been about creative control, but creative control has never been an issue. It's a job. One I love, but still just a job."
"However, Zero Tolerance (formerly 'Angels') is an exception. That was a very personal project. I raised the money through 5 different investors, people who were my friends, and through friends of friends. I wrote the script and had full control, and once the movie was complete, it was the first time in my life I felt I accomplished exactly what I set out to do. It was a slow burn, character driven drama that had action in it, clocking in at 106 minutes. Some say it was too long, but what makes movies so special is that, it's art, and therefore subjective." (Director/producer Kaos on creative control with filmmaking and studios) - "After casting, the real challenges started. We were going to shoot everything in Bangkok while we retouched the script to fit the location. Then the notes came in, and I won't get into the details but there are only two things anyone needs to know about the changes that were made by request from the studio. One: In the original draft, Sever kidnaps Ecks' son, and the whole time, the boy is basically kept in a kid-sized glass box just big enough for him to sit in, placed on top of a kilo of C4. That was changed. Two: There was no other motivation for the characters. It was all about family. Gant "kills" Ecks and takes his wife, Vinn, and their son, with both believing each other to be dead. Meanwhile, Sever wants revenge for the death of her family at the hands of Gant and his men. So, believing it was Gant's son, she she kidnaps him and Ecks springs into action. It was all about love and family and nothing else. The nano technology included in the final draft had nothing to do with what I wanted for the story. Granted, we had a fantastic writer. Franchise Pictures brought Peter Lenkov to rewrite Alan McElroy's script and he did a great job with the instructions he was given. Yes, there were changes made that watered it down to my chagrin, but it was as satisfactory as it needed to be at the time and everybody was on board. Then, tragedy struck in September 2001 and we had to relocate from Bangkok to Vancouver for safety reasons. Those moving expenses ended up in cutting more action scenes out, but thankfully our terrific crew made things feel much easier." (Kaos on changes made to the script for Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever)
- "By nature, I'm a very collaborative filmmaker. I can see where having full creative control is essential for some filmmakers. It's a universal truth for all great filmmakers, but not all filmmakers are close to being great. For myself, I've come to learn that the biggest key to being a successful director is aligning yourself with the right producer - a partner who supports your vision but is better than you at everything else that doesn't have to do with the actual filmmaking.
So, to sum up and hopefully answer your question, I believe full creative control has to be earned, unless it's your own money. By then, you can do whatever you want, but as long as you have a fiduciary responsibility to your investors, then creative control can be a dangerous thing.
In a sense, I'm still earning full creative control for my projects, although, I certainly don't have the money to just make my own movies. But realistically, I just want partners that support me and the movie and will help me give the movie we make the best shot we can at finding an audience for it. Because in the end, the audience will always decide the final fate of every movie that's made." (Kaos on how audiences determine his creative control) - The challenge of the movie came during the development. We had a great spy vs spy script, character driven with balls-to-the-wall action. I read the script and loved it instantly - 1st thought in my head was The Killer vs The Professional / Chow Yun-Fat vs Jean Reno. Everyone involved in the pre-production process was in-sync and we were good to go. However, Franchise Pictures didn't think Chow and Reno were financially viable, so we spent months going through a whole slew of stars who were all great and I would have loved any of them in the role. And unfortunately, Ellie Samara's casting was pretty much whoever he was making a movie with at the time and got on with, and it became apparent that he would fall out with them pretty quickly with the amount of actors I met to cast Ecks and Sever. I mean, at one point it was going to be Stallone vs Diesel, which would have been just as cool as my idea.
- "It's a very difficult question [laughs]. Anything in a movie can have an influence on me; how something was shot or framed, a performance, the writing, etc. I go to movies for certain writers as well, and certain DPs, regardless of who is in it or what it is about. It's a very difficult question. I can't put it into words how much I love film. In fact, I love watching movies more than making them, and my favorite place in the world to be is on a movie set. I stay at home most of the time with my girlfriend. When I'm not working, we go out to eat or watch movies. Otherwise we're at home watching movies or playing iOS games." (Kaos on what type of films he seeks out to view and his personal hobbies)
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