Archives

August 23, 2011

Charge forward and take on everything in your path. That’s the for Nishimura Eizo’s success. The battle lies in whether or not everyone buys in to the formula!

Green screen.

Tons of empty aluminum cans!

I had these prepared by Endo, Ishii and Yamazaki as part of the set.

Holding a meeting on prop construction strategy with Koichiro Endo.

Production Gatekeeper Masato Date.

Line Producer Ryo Uchiyama. Crunching numbers.

Lighting assistant Keito Hokari. 19 years old. A booming figure.

Cinematography apprentice Junnosuke Matsumoto. We’ll keep introducing you to everyone involved with the film.

August 22, 2011

As of today, we’ve crossed the peak of shooting and are on the downhill slope. Though I had practically no experience or knowledge on set when we started, I’ve come to a vague grasp of how things work… but even with that said, I still lack the vocabulary to carry out each scene completely on my own. Nishimura and Nagano continue to push ahead. There’s really nothing cooler than pros at work.

Sneakers for the cast!

Oooh, it’s the geniuses at Kurosaswa Film. It’s said they can provide solutions for any lighting scenario out there.

Taiga Ishino and Ayumi Nakajima from the special effects studio Higemegane. They’re like peas in a pod!!

Myself quizzing Nishimura about the choreography of a scene.

This is the much talked about “White.Silver”!

Miyata-san.
Holding the “white.silver” which is a device used for CG composites. Is he taking a photo of himself for his blog?

There she is! Wada-chan. Among Cinematogapher Nagano’s unit, she’s a real celebrity!!

Souvenirs for the extras.

Shio-chan counting the large buttons we handed out to extras.

Wha..! What the heck is that?!

August 21, 2011

Today, I learned a lot about Assistant Director Shiozaki.

  • The Japanese word for Assistant Director is Jokantoku. He hates it when it’s shortened to “Jokan”.
  • He makes a breakfast dish called Popeye that is an absolute standard on set. It’s even been featured multiple times on the morning corner of the TV show Hanamaru Market. His mother once told him that she wanted to try it, but he turned her down on the reasoning that since it was a breakfast item, there’s no way he would be able to take it home. A certain faction, though, suggests that if he’d simply had her come to the front of the Shinjuku Subaru Building at 6 AM, she could have tried it. We haven’t yet had it during Jellyfish Eyes. I look forward to tasting the fruits of his labor! (afterall, I’ve already thrown so much work on him anyway).

and many other interesting tidbits. There was a lot more but I’m afraid I’ve already forgotten. Sorry. If I remember, I’ll be sure to record it here. There’s really a lot that can be learned from the different customs on a film set (including Popeye Breakfasts).

Production staff Shinobu Iwamoto.A soft-spoken hunk. When he goes to pick up box-lunches for us, the ladies behind the counter are all smiles.

Rain means more work. We build a roof over the set and then soak up all the rain water with a spone…. it’s very time consuming…

Everyone is in raincoats. We don’t have any additional stock.

I asked Fung Shui Master YU to hold a ceremony and am hoping the clouds will clear up soon!

A special thanks to all the extras. An official movie button.