Malbatt: Misi Bakara | Featurette: Behind-The-Scenes - Paul Biddiss (Military Advisor)
In 1993, 19 top-ranked Malaysian soldiers are sent on a dangerous mission to save 70 US Rangers trapped in the Bakara Market in Somalia.
Transcript
00:00 (gunshots)
00:02 - My name's Paul Biddis,
00:16 I'm the military technical advisor for Bat Croft.
00:19 So my job starts very early, during the pre-production.
00:23 I help with terminology or tactics within the script.
00:27 I'll help the costume, the makeup, the effects, the props,
00:31 to help get the film or the production
00:33 as realistic as possible before we start filming.
00:36 I was approached by Jessie,
00:40 she was looking for a military advisor.
00:42 Then I had Zoom meeting with Jessie and Adrian.
00:45 They talked about what they wanted to do, their plans,
00:47 and the reason behind the film.
00:50 And I liked that, I wanted to get involved.
00:52 And I'm very keen to help show this story
00:55 to Malaysian people.
00:56 - You still put the cup up on the towel?
00:58 - Adrian is a very good director,
01:00 very easy and chilled out to work with.
01:03 And actually I've enjoyed this film
01:05 more than what I enjoy some of the very big budget movies
01:09 I've worked on in the past.
01:10 With every movie that I work,
01:12 there's always gonna be language barriers.
01:14 And that's always gonna be a challenge,
01:16 especially if you're training extras and actors.
01:19 Sometimes I only need to do a hand gesture
01:21 or literally just grab and move them into one place.
01:24 But soon enough, after a while,
01:26 they understand what I'm saying.
01:28 With the Malaysian actors, they were a lot easier to train.
01:33 Obviously most of them know English as well,
01:35 which is always a big bonus.
01:36 So they feel it's important for them
01:38 to make sure that they're portraying
01:40 the soldiers of that period correctly.
01:43 So there has been times,
01:44 some of them have been trained on various movies before.
01:47 One movie that Adrian was involved in,
01:50 which was about special forces,
01:51 though some of them were using techniques.
01:53 So I've had to claw them back a bit
01:55 'cause we don't wanna make sure
01:56 that we're looking like special forces
01:58 when we're actually regular Malaysian army.
02:00 But they've adapted it and they've done that very well.
02:04 - Building to the front.
02:05 - My name's Paul Biddis.
02:06 I'm the military technical advisor for Baccarat.
02:08 This film is very important to Malaysian people
02:10 because it tells the true story of what really happened.
02:15 I have a certain set of skills.
02:17 And if you don't come and watch this film, I will find you.
02:20 (dramatic music)
02:23 (explosions)
02:25 (dramatic music)
02:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]