His head on collision with Los Angeles has left him hemorrhaging confusion and consumerism.

Member is a hypnotic, hallucinogenic, fast-cut, 15 minute swerve and screech around the streets of Los Angeles, driven by 19 year-old Gianni. You're not just in the car with him - you are inside his head. His mind has been tainted and twisted by LA - the ubiquitous ad campaigns that bang at his brain, the pressure to 'con-fucking-form', the desire to belong. Now he wants retribution. Prowling in his snarled metal machine he is looking for the perfect vehicle - he's thinking maybe a BMW, Lexus, Mercedes - one that is breaking a traffic law so he can slam into it and claim his slice of insurance pie. Sucking in his favorite brand of carcinogen, the 'goodlooking corpse-to-be' lets vulnerability and vitriol spit forth...

British-raised Brooks lived in South Central Los Angeles for the past decade and says, 'This fucking thing took almost three years to make. Fifteen fucking minutes of film. Since we shot the first frame of film the cast and crew have flourished: Josh has become a major star, one of the producers now runs a studio, and me? Well I finished it, didn't I? Oh yeah, I've also moved out of the ghetto.'

There is a desperation to this semi-autobiographical piece but Brooks shrugs, 'I was never that low, even when I was on drugs and food stamps'

'Member is a part of David and his experience of LA. I think making this film is a way for him to put this part of his life to rest,' muses producer Juan Carlos Alvarez.

It also serves a practical yet experimental purpose - Brooks has edited for directors including Baz Luhrman and Ridley Scott and explains 'The decision to shoot Member was based on my desire to cut in ways directors don't require. There is always a point at which they say, "Okay - enough" Just once I wanted to go past that point.'

Brooks says he hopes the film has elements of Mike Leigh's Naked, Scorscese's Taxi Driver and Cassavetes' La Haine. Director of Photography Joe Caramico Maxwell sees it as 'a 15 minute Tony Kaye commercial' He deliberately went 'dark' because he likes to 'make the audience work a little'.

The nineteen page script was shot during an intensive two-day shoot on an insert stage in Silverlake. 19-year-old actor Josh Hartnett flew in after zero hours sleep from Austin where he'd been shooting Robert Rodriquez' The Faculty. He battled exhaustion to give what Brooks describes as 'a very real, personal performance that brings out the sad humanity in the material.'

'When I first saw Josh I wasn't sure if he could be crude enough to play Gianni but he is at ease with putting forward his bad side,' observes Brooks, adding: 'He's not blinkered by his looks.'

Hartnett was brought to Brooks' attention by casting director Brennan du Fresne working with Fox's Christian Caplain. 'Josh was great for the part because he expressed the anger without coming off as an angry person. He's sensitive without being soft,' she explains. 'He's already on his way to becoming a huge star and I think he will work long and hard.'

Producer Alvarez raves: 'It's a blessing and a God-send to have Josh - he has a great look, a great attitude and he's a great actor. He's gonna be bigger than John Lennon.'

'This film was shot as one long special effect. Once I had Josh's basic performance shot, I had to get all the other elements onto film which would make this fucked up world as real as possible.' explains Brooks, adding: 'All this shit cost money. I'd work for six months, then come back and blow my wad on pick-up shots, or a film scan, or an effects machine.'

Hartnett's main co-star was one of two identical vehicles found rusting on the Disney lot after their previous incarnation as 70s TV show cop cars. The car interior is a clutter of junk, memorabilia and spiritual artifacts. 'I wanted to reflect how Gianni is lost and has searched in many different places for answers,' explains Art Director Rebecca Howard. 'As well as kitsch aspects like the 'wedding cake couple' it's filled with clothes and garbage to give the sense that he hasn't left the space in a long time.'

As he drives his clothes change from sweats and the old high school woolly hat that acts as a comforter to the hip gambling-motif shirt and finally his naked torso emblazoned with the black tribal/Mauri tattoo. The car interior also changes randomly around him: 'I set decorate TV commercials: twenty-five minds focused on each corn flake,' grimaces Howard, 'so it was refreshing to work on Member where continuity wasn't an issue, in fact it worked better for things to jump around'

Dozens of extras also jump around - 'people as props' ranging from 'wannabe beautiful people' to profoundly 'colorful characters' were cast to play the priest with 'HATE' tattooed on his knuckles, the spiritual healer on the mobile phone, the bald orange-swathed Buddha, the prostitute, the dominatrix and the Swingers' waitresses pulling pantyhose on their head bankrobber-style. The guy recklessly shaving off his hair GI Jane-style in the back seat happens to be the director.

Gianni drives oblivious to the stripping, writhing, bantering and guitar-strumming going on around him. The only person he interacts with is the OD'd junkie he pushes out of the backseat onto the hospital driveway. Then he drives on to complete his mission, both 'skipper and marksman' muttering his mantra: 'Let me no longer want what they have and let them always want what's mine.'