Netflix's two Extraction films are amazing throwbacks to the action films of the past. Led by the great Chris Hemsworth and directed by one of the most experienced stunt coordinators in Hollywood, Sam Hargrave, both films have knocked it out of the park in terms of giving audiences a movie with visceral action sequences and engaging visuals.
One of the defining traits of these films has become the one-shot. Extraction featured a 12-minute long take that followed the action from an apartment complex through the streets and even transitioned between cars in one of the coolest action sequences in recent memory.
Extraction 2 levels up and includes an even longer one-take. I told Hargrave during our interview that I knew it was longer than the first one, but I was so glued in that it could've been 15-20 minutes and I wouldn't have noticed.
“Well, the second [movie's one-take] is 21 minutes and seven seconds… but who's counting?” Hargrave said as he threw his arms up and gave a smirk.
But with a longer and more ambitious sequence comes more challenges.
“The challenge of a sequence like this, truthfully, is [that] there [are] so many different points of view that you have to capture because you're not cutting, so how do you choreograph and block the scenes and the action in a way that will be truthful to the story? The camera will end up in the best location to capture the action for at least how I want the audience to see it organically. Cuz you can't be over here in a nice close-up on Hemsworth and then go, ‘Oh, the best next shot is a low wide angle from over there,' or if it is, you have to organically find a way to get the camera from that closeup back down to that low shot without having this dead space in between,” Hargrave explained.
Despite that challenge, he found it to be fun “choreographing the camera to the action to show the audience exactly what I want them to see.”
Every film student likely wants to replicate the one-takes seen in the likes of Martin Scorsese's work like Goodfellas or even something more active and eccentric like Hargrave's Extraction films — but how do you go about doing that?
“I mean, for young filmmakers, I don't know if I would start off with doing something like this. Learn the basics and try to recreate the scenes that you admire and love at some level,” he said.
For Hargrave, the scenes that he admired and loved were some of Jackie Chan's classic films.
“For example, I spent many years watching Jackie Chan films and trying to shot-for-shot and move-for-move recreate those fights. I'm not saying you have to use that exact methodology, but the point of doing that is once you understand the basics and mechanics of how the masters execute their art, you can then have a very strong foundation and then from there [you can] veer off into your own voice and point of view. And that's kind of what I did — I dutifully and just repetitiously would spend hours and hours and hours absorbing these action sequences, shooting and cutting my own version of them, and then trying things where takes would go on a little longer and I would experiment because I enjoyed theater as well.”
He continued, “So like how you choreograph to an audience, choreograph to a camera and expand that. But the foundation was strong and so that's what I would recommend is you get a strong foundation and then from there, expand and create your own style.”
While it's clear that Hargrave has a huge part in filming these sequences, you still need a handy cinematographer that knows what he's doing. Extraction's DP was Thomas Sigel, a legendary cinematographer with credits including The Usual Suspects and Da 5 Bloods, but the sequel film enlisted a new cinematographer — Greg Baldi.
To be fair, Baldi has plenty of experience, so this wasn't his first rodeo. While he only has a handful of DP credits, he has worked on a bevy of action films as a second-unit DP like John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum and most of the Russo brothers' recent works including Cherry, The Gray Man, and Citadel.
Regardless, the camera work remains just as impressive in the second Extraction film, if not more. How could that be? Even if Baldi tried to replicate Sigel's work, there should be somewhat of a notable difference. I theorized that Sam Hargrave was the connective tissue between the films, assisting in the seamless transition from cinematographers, to which he pointed at me with approval as I finished speaking my theory and said, “There you go,” like a proud father.
“Yeah, that was the through line — the spine, if you will from [Extraction] 1 to 2 was me,” said Hargrave.
He recalled, “I had a long sit down with Greg Baldi, our cinematographer for the second film, and just we kind of went over what did or maybe didn't work from the first one and how we can implement that in the second.”
Sam Hargrave then detailed the difference between the process of framing the Extraction films.
“What I loved about the first movie and working with Tom Siegel on that, he's a great cinematographer, a legendary [one], is the kind of blend of this organic, handheld, almost documentary style of filmmaking that then would move right into more studio mode — like smooth, long dollys would just using the camera to tell the story or enhance the storytelling.”
What they then did was try to improve upon the foundation that Sigel built.
“We tried to build on that in this movie but also give this film a distinct look while maintaining the style of the first movie if that makes sense. Because in the first film, we were in very warm locations. It was hot and sweaty and dirty, and we wanted people to feel that. And so the look lent itself to that. So it's an experience when you watch the movie. Now we're in Eastern Europe and it's cold and there's snow, so we wanted to lean more into the blues and grays and greens and make things cold so that when you feel it, you might be like, ‘Oof, can you turn up the heat in here?' Cause it's all about [creating] an experience,” he said.
Discussing what it takes to create an experience tied this portion of the conversation up in a neat bow.
“[Creating an experience is the] same reason I use the long takes is I want people to have an immersive experience and leave with a feeling that will carry on beyond the viewing of the film,” concluded Hargrave.
Extraction 2 will be released on June 16 on Netflix.
Follow Us
Subscribe
