Into The Storm

The entire town is at the mercy of erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Told effectively through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers, thrill-seeking amateurs and courageous townspeople, the film plunges you mercilessly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme and most entertaining.

What makes the film work extremely well is that it is not just a film about a catastrophic disaster, but features endearing characters we care about and allows us to become emotionally and physically involved.

This is no Twister or Tornado, but a complete different and unique journey into the funnel of a massive EF5 tornado, the highest point on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, where winds whip at more than 200 miles per hour. The sheer fury of such a twister can-and usually does-destroy everything in its path, as you will experience in this intensely wild ride right inside an EF5, as awesome as it is devastating.

A two-mile-wide tornado

"What do you do when confronted by a two-mile-wide tornado coming at you?" was what fascinated director Steven Quale, who made his feature film-directing debut with Final Destination 5 and has an acclaimed 20-year career in visual effects, cinematography and directing, most notably serving as second unit director on the two highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar and Titanic.

"Do you hunker down, do you run away, or you run toward it? I thought it would be really interesting to show how different people react, to see who rises to the occasion when faced with such an imposing natural phenomenon and there's nowhere to go, no place to hide."

The idea for "Into the Storm" came from producer Todd Garner, who was keen on exploring what can happen when Mother Nature wields one of her most terrifying and destructive weapons.

"Tornadoes, in their most perfect form, are like monsters," Garner relates. "It can feel like they're actually chasing you, and yet their path also seems completely random. I grew up in Los Angeles living under the threat of earthquakes, which are scary because they are so unpredictable, but for the most part they happen and a few seconds later, it's over. Tornadoes let you know they're coming, so you have to live with the anticipation of how much damage they might do."

First-person narrative

The producer felt that audiences would be in even more suspense if the film was presented in first-person narrative, essentially putting them behind the cameras. "I love how that style really brings the viewer into a story, almost as if you're an unseen character who is part of the experience, going along for the ride."

Quale considered Garner's concept of a first-person camera style within a disaster film to be a great pairing. "I've always thought that the closer a movie is to happening in real time, the more tension you can have; there's a certain built-in urgency," he says. "It's a difficult process when you're looking at all the action that takes place in a story like this, so I knew it would be a fun challenge to take on."

Garner took his idea to screenwriter John Swetnam, who developed it into a script. "Todd Garner approached me with an idea to do a POV tornado movie and I immediately knew how I would execute it. It was about using today's technology to really get on the ground level and have the audience experience these storms up close. I lived in Tennessee for years and have many friends still there who have been through the devastation of these tornadoes, so it was something that felt close to home for me, and I wanted to do their stories justice. At the end of the day, my goal was to tell an entertaining story that also had a real sense of heart. This is an inspirational tale about how far people will go for the ones they love, and how, when people band together, they can persevere and overcome any obstacle."

"What I liked about John's screenplay is that it wasn't just a spectacle disaster movie," Quale recalls. "It had a variety of interesting characters that you followed in a believable, day-in-the-life manner. We feel the angst of a high school kid trying to ask out a girl for the first time as well as his relationship with his father at that awkward teenage stage. There's a group of storm chasers with different views of how to go about determining the path of something as erratic as the ultimate storm, and even a couple of local guys who videotape themselves doing crazy things so they can be on the internet."

The filmmakers knew that, apart from the human relationships in the film, the most important element for movie-goers would be that monster of a cyclone.

A realism that is frightening

In a world with cellphone cameras, 24/7 news cycles and the internet, savvy viewers know what such a storm should look like. It was the job of Quale's visual effects team, led by VFX producer Randall Starr, to deliver an EF5 that would keep even weather junkies on the edge of their seats and they perform miracles, delivering a realism that is frightening and although you might feel safe and secure in your cinema seat, things look a whole lot different once you leave the cinema and notice storm clouds brooding.

Quale states: "Whether in person or through media coverage, we all know how devastating natural disasters can be. I grew up in the Midwest and was very aware of the power of tornadoes. With this film, we wanted to do justice to this uncontrollable force-to put audiences right into the eye of the storm and show how breathtaking it can be."

Ironically, in filming Into The Storm, one of the production's major obstacles was the weather. "We chose Michigan because it's a beautiful state, very flat, very close to the topography of the Tornado Alley states, and they have weather-real weather," Quale notes, "except when we were there."

Director of photography Brian Pearson elaborates: "The biggest challenge I faced on this film was the weather, the sun, wind and rain-and we made the rain. Much of the film was written to take place under cloudy skies. However, shooting in the greater Detroit area in the middle of summer meant it was sunny 25 days out of the month - exactly what we didn't want."

Quale summarises: "My hope is that when audiences see this film, they will be in awe of what Mother Nature can do. I also hope they are emotionally moved by what the characters go through, how they come to understand what matters in life-the importance of family, our humanity. And, finally, that we will have taken them on the kind of thrill ride you can only find at the movies."

Into The Storm definitely delivers who it promises and much more. It's one storm you don't have to fear, as long as you're in the comfort of the cinema.

For more information on Into The Storm and other new films opening this week, go to www.writingstudio.co.za

Competition: You can win a super Into The Storm hamper that contains a survival whistle, a rain poncho, aluminium survival tools, emergency blanket in poly bags and 'Destroyed' black T-shirts. To enter, go to www.writingstudio.co.za