PRODUCTION. NEON TANK
MANY HANDS Neon Tank’s script repeatedly impressed at film networking events, with enough people offering to help with production that the project took off. Shooting was completed in just six weeks, with two separate blocks of photography
“That noir feeling allowed us to use what we had to hand. We could film on the decaying urban street”
And so Neon Tank gradually took shape, albeit without the outlandish budgets. Still, it paid to dream big. “I really thought I could push the crime movie,” continues Bharj. “I took the scripts to film networking events and thought people would be seduced by it. Instead, people were asking about Neon Tank . They thought that sounded cool and offered their services. I used that to bring the team together.” Neon Tank certainly has attractive qualities, and sci-fi noir is an ideal vehicle for an aspiring filmmaker. It allows plenty of leeway in plotting, palette and performance, while the use of narration from the primary character is both a welcome trope and a useful tool.
an older sister who loved horror movies. “We’d talk passionately about film, and had all these cool posters,” he remembers. “When I got into sci-fi, I loved The Fifth Element and Waterworld .” Bharj’s interest in film took him to Middlesex University, where he studied film and creative writing. “Although my main passion was always acting,” he says. “I had always wanted to be an actor – an actor who wrote their own parts.” UNLIMITED BUDGETS This is, of course, a proven (if perilous) path to success, and it inspired Bharj to focus on his scriptwriting. “I needed to make a film,” he says. “I was trying to be a better writer, and knew I should have more scripts under my belt – a rom com, a sci-fi, all these different genres. “I had to finish something and landed on a gritty crime film, which I thought could be made for £100k. But then I realised, ‘What if I had an unlimited budget?’ I thought back to Waterworld and The Fifth Element, and began having ideas about spirits, souls and reincarnation.” Did you know? In 2008, Bharj landed his first big role in The Bill , playing a young man who falls victim to racial profiling. In 2019, he was cast as ICE Medic in Terminator: Dark Fate , opposite Mackenzie Davis.
TRUE GRIT Shot on location around Harrow and Soho, Bharj and his crew brought a dystopian London to life
56. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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