BangTV's Brian Williams Shoots a Visceral Film for Digital Biscuit 2015

Brian Williams is an original and innovative film-maker, well-recognised for his award winning skills and trademark blood-on-the-celluloid, visceral imagery. So it’s hardly surprising that Dublin based agency Boys & Girls turned to him to develop a unique attention-grabbing film to promote Digital Biscuit 2015.

Now in its 4th year, Digital Biscuit was established by the Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland as a filmmaking and technology forum, aimed at showcasing great creativity through collaboration. It attracts a wealth of inspirational personalities and speakers and is a prominent fixture in the calendar of the industry’s ambitious and progressive, so the film had to cut through to a lot of people who are generally none too easily impressed.

Brian rekindled his working relationship with Art Director Laurence O’Byrne, and together they have created a piece reminiscent of a classic thriller trailer, brimming over with tension and threat.

Brian’s take on the project was to eschew the shiny, slick image of digital film-making, instead celebrating the freedom that digital cameras give to get in close and dirty, to experiment and take physical risks in a way that would seem foolhardy to attempt with traditional, hugely expensive 35mm film cameras.

“Nearly everything we shot was real. We wanted to recreate that cauldron of creativity so we set up a series of mad professor experiments that pushed the cameras we were using. We shot macro a lot using Phantom cameras and Red. Each experiment illustrated a different aspect of the process and the wide range of collaborators involved in the project. Some shots went spectacularly wrong and were useless, but many worked out brilliantly.” Setting DOP Simon Walsh on fire might seem an extreme tactic, but the resulting shot made it into the final edit.

The gripping visual imagery is beautifully complimented by a powerful monologue, delivered like a piece of classical Irish literature but written especially for the film by copywriter Kris Clarkin.

The film went on to receive huge critical acclaim and has just won its first award, Bronze at the ICAD awards 2015.