Instagram livestreaming hit the big screen during the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), courtesy of actor-director Bradley Banton and his feature film More Life, which world premiered during the fest.
“Framed within the hyper-performative world of Instagram livestreaming, this is an impressive, fresh and beautifully observed debut,” notes the LFF website.
The movie, backed by Michael Fassbender’s DMC Film, stars Tuwaine Barrett (Hard Truths), Dipo Ola, and Jordan Peters. For a glimpse of what to expect, check out a clip from More Life here.
Banton and Barrett talked to THR about how More Life came to be and what audience reactions they noticed in the cinema.
“I was watching a Nicki Minaj livestream,” Banton recalled. “I was just like, ‘This is so entertaining. There’s something that needs to be done about this.’ And then we just built it from there.”
Originally, the movie was going to be set in London. “And then I was like, ‘You can live stream anywhere.’ So, let’s go to my favorite city, Copenhagen, for live streaming,” he explained.
It didn’t take weeks or months of production for this one. But the question was whether to do it in one continuous go or not. “Originally, it was going to be one long take,” Banton told THR. “But we thought that was a bit too crazy, especially because we only had four hours to do it. I’ve seen Boiling Point and Victoria. But I thought that would be a bit too crazy. So, we ended up doing glitches in order to splice together different takes.”
Given that the mobile phone is the typical livestreaming device, that also had an impact on the film and its format. “We knew it was always going to be vertical,” Banton said. But he is curious if some younger audiences will also end up watching the film on their cellphones down the line.
The cinema experience at the premiere saw some behavior that was atypical for mobile users. “When we had the premiere, there was a young lad in front of us,” Barrett told THR. “He was just so involved. He was locked in. He didn’t play with his phone once. And I think that was because he recognized on screen something that he related to.”
Concluded the star: “He’s probably always on Instagram, looking at reels, looking at live feeds. So to see that on a big screen, he was just like ‘wow’.”
Will the duo make another livestreaming feature? Banton is down for it, “if we had any excuse to go to another country.” Adds Barrett with a laugh: “We’ll need a budget. Just give us the money!”
