8/31 Production Snapshot Diary

To infinity and beyond! Carrying the equipment in, one after another. A young production team. Finished carrying everything in! Camera check. “Aye! Yo! Ayyye!” JNTHED. Having to do mechanical design on location. Shooting with a digital camera and compiling the data… Back at ground level, preparing documents under the eaves of the bar restaurant. From the left, stylist assistant Yuri Koshino-san, Manami Ohsumi-san, hair and make-up assistant Hiroko Makise-san, hair and make-up artist Chieko Shimizu-san. Styling the kids everyday. The children in the cast. Taking a peek. So detailed! The techniques of the lighting team.

8/30 Production Snapshot Diary

Haga-san, who is known as “Gah-hah”! A full smile. “Welcoooome!” Art department assistant Kuroiwa-san. Summer! Man juice! Jururi! Today’s lunch was from Popeyes. Yunoki-san, styling the children. Holding up umbrellas for the children extras, Genshimon Kazuyuki Mitani (left) and production assistant Kobayashi-san (right). Kaikai Kiki’s Koichiro Endo distributing cold tea in his Italian cap! “It’s cooold!” Yuta-kun, prop sortie! Shooting on location at the elementary school. So incredibly sunny, like “El Topo”? Watching the monitor at the base. Today is so hot we feel like we’re going to die. Lunch. “Today we have a nighter too…!” Exhausting just thinking about what lies ahead in the day. Changing locations!! A pre-school. This wall was drawn just for this. The entrance. We create a brand-new sign, and then paint it to look tattered… Our production tools. Equipment, transporting them…makes me dizzy just thinking about it. Kaikai Kiki’s Miyazaki is coordinating the wrap party. “Uh, hellooo. I’m calling to ask about your organic food…” A bonus: Movie still Koiketaka-san teaches us how to catch a dragonfly. You slowly approach it with a wooden chopstick. And it transfers onto the chopstick. Slowly bring it to your mouth. A lesson on how to eat a dragonfly… (Though he didn’t eat it.)

8/29 Production Snapshot Diary

A paper cup that says, “It’s hot!”. But the end of summer is quickly approaching. A Kyonan jewel beetle! Beautiful. There are a lot of grasshoppers. Nagano-san, stretching carefully. Reason being, he works with heavy equipment all day long. Spending many hours on the crane, his body becomes cramped. Conditioning the stage. Group of shovels. Sand to place softly on the surface. Pulling unnecessary weeds…then filling the holes with sand. “Gekiba”. The stage. Shimizu-san (left) runs the film commission of Kyonan. “I’m carrying the Japanese film industry on my shoulders here in Kyonan! Isn’t that right, Saito-san?!” Saito: “Um…yeah, yes.” We have things this size. This is a composite scene, so “silver”. A remote control to adjust the focus. Second Production Assistant Nao Kitano-san runs the remote control. Second Assistant Director Kishizuka-san (left) and Third Assistant Director Haga-san (Gah-hah). Zun zun zun. Zun zun don. These three from Kaikai Kiki Genshimon helped out again today at Kyonan. This is unrelated, but mushrooms are growing like crazy in the Tupperware where we keep the beetle larvae!! Fall’s here.