Ryan "Ach3" Macquet, and his new film The Unforgiving

Rarely do we see any connections between two of the biggest industries in the world, Gaming and Film. We can however be proud of our very own local Counter-Strike: Source player, Ryan "ACh3" Macquet, who is starring in the latest South African Horror blockbuster, The Unforgiving.

Described as "Two survivors, who appear unwilling to answer questions, are the only links authorities have to a spate of attacks that have hit rural South Africa," the film takes on a dark and subversive imagery from the get go, similar to the recently released District 9, the most highly praised film to come out of our country.

Besides being a rising star in the local film world, Macquet can be praised for his hard work in the gaming genre. Forming the first purely CSS lineup in the form of heAd, ACh3 and his teammates managed to placed 4th at rAge 2005, the first ever major CSS competition, with them being the highest placing "CSS-only" squad to place at the event.

This set the tone for years to come, with teams eventually breaking the mold, and being able to take down the purely 1.6 teams of the past. Macquet has continued to game, now in the form of Avatar, with his latest creation which sees top players such as Sharon "ShazzChkcL" Waison included.

We have managed to get hold of Ryan to discuss his past, present and future, and what it is like to be part of two industries, infant in nature, but are growing at a rapid rate.

To become a fan of The Unforgiving on Facebook, head over to here. The trailer of the film can be found at the end of the Interview.

Ryan "Ach3" Macquet aint your regular gamer

Hi Ryan, could you please introduce yourself to us, and let us know how you got into both the gaming and film industries?

My gaming career started way back in 1998 playing games here and there, nothing too competitive, just did what I could against the computers AI. I was then introduced to Quake, and things sky rocketed from there. I started familiarizing myself with people who had the same passion I did. I ended up Lanning every weekend I could, spent an entire sleepless weekend playing games like Delta Force, Quake 2 then Quake 3, Medal of Honor (MOHAA) and many more. Quake 3 really got the who competitive side to show and it became the norm to discuss the weekends “pooning” at school and the plans for our next all weekender!

I then stumbled onto a game we all know as Counter-Strike and every other game took a back seat from then on. I had an undying affinity for the game. I loved everything about it! I got a mate involved in the game, and before I knew it, I had a whole entourage ready to lan away an entire weekend with this game. Then came CS 1.6 and Source – The ability for easy online access made the game very desirable, as it was something I could play whenever I wanted, and found a few people I can call my friends today.

From there, I started my own team, and struggled in the beginning as most new teams do – but slowly but surely started to win games more often. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, and I’m not afraid to admit it. You tell me how many hardcore gamers there are in the Entertainment Industry in terms of what I do, there are?

Macquet enjoying the finer things in life

Which brings me to your second point – How I got involved in the film industry?

Well, ever since I was in primary school, I had always tried to take part in the school plays, never really anything big, but I loved being on stage, and entertaining people. Even though, back then, I was just a guy in the back row of the show, I managed to keep at it, and landed my first “big” role in the schools major production.

I continued this passion throughout high school and won various awards. It was only at the end of Matric I decided to do what I thought I would be happiest doing. My best friend had enrolled at a Film university and I thought never thought I would have the faith to follow through, as people only usually dream of making it big as an actor. After varsity, it was time to take what I had and make something of myself. I partnered up with Alastair Orr, who at the time of AFDA was my editor for most of the student films I did. We realized then that there was nothing more powerful than an Actor/Editor relationship – and we continued to keep that as our drive slogan! We formed a production company where we did menial corporate videos, just something to keep us busy. During this time, around 2006 and 2007, I was going for auditions for adverts and TV series – landed a few Series, but never any adverts. Which kinda grated my balls, but in the end I knew that people that do that are sell outs and desperate to be seen. And yes, I am saying that I was desperate. Most full time actors are. If one is not acting, they are unemployed. Another statistic on the countries unemploment record. Haha. A year went by in 2006, and we decided to shoot our own TV series. We had R40,000 and shot a 22 minute pilot series called Dante – If anyone wants to see what it was like they can find the link here to Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82lULlCmlRY

From that we managed to get funding from a private investor from the UK – and this became our initial drive to shoot this low-budget film: The Unforgiving.

“The Unforgiving” is the latest production you have featured in. Could you describe to us how this film came about, what your involvement has been and what can we expect where it finally airs at cinema’s?

Alastiar got stuck into his writing shoes and took 6 months of development. It’s a long time – but one must constantly write with the budget in mind.

Once we had the script, the selection process started – We needed the cast, and crew, all of which had to work for free, in between day jobs. Meetings, rehearsals, organizing all took place after hours. For another 6 months the grueling process of pre-production took place. Once we had the shoot date locked down, it took 10 weeks of shooting – only shooting on weekends, Saturday and Sunday, from 5am to 5pm.

My involvement in all of this was obviously the Lead Role, as well as Executive Producer.

The film has been compared to Saw and Hostel – but that’s just what the trailer reveals. The problem we had that we had to be very careful what we reveal about the film in the trailer, as it could give away the unexpected twist. And believe you me, it’s rather unexpected. I would put this film in the Psychological Thriller/Hack Slash genre. I can’t reveal too much about it now, I really want people to see it first – which reminds me, we will have a test screening sometime in January 2010.

The film should showcase across 40-50 cinemas around the country, on both Sterkinekor and Numetro.

Macquet in the Horror/Thriller of The Unforgiving

Can you draw for us any parallels between both the gaming and film industries? Where in your opinion does each of them currently stand in this developing market of ours?

Both the film and gaming industry are developing markets. In terms of the entertainment industry, specifically film and television, they are run by OLD school directors producers, and are rather incestious in terms of who they cast, hire, etc. The films and stories are always about rascism, hi-jackings, rugby, aids, rape, struggle, apartheid, pretty much any common generic South African theme only a 50 year old can think of.

We are new school – Alastair and I want to make those “Hollywood” films! We want superheros! We want to give South Africa, Spiderman, Transformers, and The Matrix! We want to make commercially entertaining films, but right now, the god dam people in charge at the moment are stuck making the Schuster films! Not that there is anything wrong with that, because that guy makes money, and in the end the film industry is a business. But we want to change the way this country does business.

District 9 was applauded around the world for its unique style, and its ability to act as a ‘breakthrough’ for the South African film industry. What did you feel about the movie, and do you believe it has helped us make a stand in the global market?

I’m so glad you mentioned D9 – This film has made South Africa, FINALLY, look cool! That is the exact example of what we want to do. Something different, something cool, something that one looks at and says, “Wow! Is that South Africa!”

Peter Jackson has a new found respect from me, since King Kong. The acting in the film was awesome! And just proves that South Africans can act, they just need a different approach in terms of acting direction. Never compromise! If something is shit, re-take it! The spot light is on South Africa because of that film. Even though it already was with previous films like Blood Diamond, Stander, but now even more so, with the HUGE success of D9.

District 9 shocked audiences with its raw and compelling storyline

You have mentioned to me before that you are trying to build a link between the gaming and film communities. Could you elaborate on this for us? Do you believe gaming (the smaller of the two) could benefit from such a unique relationship?

It all comes down to awareness. I would love to advocate gaming in this country. We need. I want more competitions, I want more teams, I think that there might be this stigmatism attached to gaming where people think it’s this taboo thing where only nerdy looking kids with pimples and side haircuts play. But I do know that home entertainment in terms of gaming, be it Console or PC, is growing. There needs to be more consolidated organizations such as Pantheon to get government involvement and start making the gaming genre more prestigious. I dunno, maybe what people see me doing, they might think that it’s ok. I mean people follow trends of those they see on TV, be it fashion, music life styles – so why can’t gaming be added to that. Haha.

Onto gaming, what can we expect from your new lineup of Avatar? Both your teams (CSS and COD4) competed at rAge this year, could we see this continuing into the future, maybe even an expansion of the organization?

My Counter-Stike Source team is looking good so far – and we are performing well. The lineup consists of myself (Ache), Shazzchck, Zeo, Hustler, Latency. A power house team IMHO, and we are really close. The COD team, did really well at rAge 2009 – They came 4th, which is good considering the amount of hardcore teams out there. I myself, have recently been playing Modern Warfare 2 and I’m besotted. What an awesome game! So definitely come 2010, I would like to get the COD team back on track, as the team that was at rAge have moved to other games, and teams. We’ll have to wait and see. In terms of MGO’s – I don’t know if I have the time or energy for that, I’ll leave it up to newly inspired players do that.

Thank you for your time Ryan, we hope that the Unforgiving is a success and that your gaming career equally prospers, any final words?

Please join the Facebook group !
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unforgiving/182824761184?ref=nf

From there you will be able to keep track of the latest news feeds regarding the film, and also from those who are apart of the fan group, will have first dibs on the test screening planned for January 2010.

For those not on Facebook can see the trailer at www.theunforgiving.co.za