How interesting things have been over the last few months. We shot our last frame of scripted Ashita (meaning anything that was written in the script) in early May.
In June we shot some sequences that were somewhat improvised with one of Toronto’s most prolific dancers Keiko Ninomiya (http://www.keiko.ca/). These sequences we shot with Keiko represent a type of story narration—much like the Chorus in ancient Greek theatre. Since the film is riddled with voice over by many of the characters, I felt that I needed some kind of overseer (this stems from my love of classic theatre and comic books) to be the puppet master or god who juggles these characters. I most certainly knew I did not want this character to talk. Upon watching a lot of Fellini movies, I got the idea for a mime or clown to be the film’s overseer. But that would change. As I edited a video I had shot of tomolennon’s art/fashion show I got to watching the dancers he had in his show. As watched and re-watched the Fellini movies, the mime was quickly changed for a dancer. Lucky for me, my lovely wife Izumi knows almost everybody in Toronto and when I mentioned to her my idea, she quickly threw Keiko’s name at me. And thus the new sequence grew. For a while, I was pent up on the dancer being a clown and I had discussed that I length with Keiko, but in the end, we went with a stoic white mask—which works and is completely frightening and sad at all the same time. I know I had a lot of fun shooting the dance sequences with Keiko and they will beautiful scenes and visually stunning.
As the post production progressed, Andy (the editor) and I discussed in great detail certain aspects of the movie and the overall feel of Ashita. I mentioned to Andy that I had certain reservations about the Miss Smiley story—this is the story of the angry female assassin that was brilliantly played by Leona Kitabayashi. I felt that the story was too different from the rest of Ashita. Of course when I wrote and shot it, it worked—but as things progressed the movie took on a new feel and the story about the assassin didn’t seem to flow with the rest of the film. Andy agreed with me and made a very good suggestion; he said he would edit it anyway and we would try it in Ashita, if it works great—if not, we have a stand alone short film. I got busy in writing a new story. I know one thing was for sure, I wanted to work with Leona again; she is a fine actor and is a pleasure to work with. When I met with Leona in July to inform her of what I had decided to do with her previous story in Ashita, I was a little nervous. I thought she was going to get angry and kung fu kick me, but luckily she was happy to work with me again (phew). Finally last week, I finished a new story called Fireflies—a much more somber story about a young lady named Etsu (played by Leona) who is looking for her father who abandoned her when she was just a little girl. I plan on shooting this story later this month.
Its funny how movies never seem to get made the way they are originally planned—based on my plans we should have been screening Ashita by now, then based on my revised plans we should have had a completed rough cut by now… but this, of, course is not the case. The case is, Ashita is right where its supposed to be. It’s a piece of art discovering itself. Like my cast and crew, I am excited to see the finished product, but I do not want to rush it… because I can see where it’s going and it will be brilliant.
On a sad, final note, this week saw the death of two of cinema’s greatest:
Ingmar Berman (July 12, 1918-July 30, 2007) who as a director, Bergman favored intuition over intellect, and chose to be unaggressive in dealing with actors. Bergman saw himself as having a great responsibility toward them, viewing them as collaborators often in a psychologically vulnerable position. He stated that a director must be both honest and supportive in order to allow others their best work. His films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde. I chose to pay homage to Bergman in Ashita by shooting as scene in the Teddy Bear story in which Sayaka (played wonderfully by Yoshiko Nomura) plays chess against her teddy bear… for those film enthusiasts reading this, you’ll know that one of Bergman’s most famous scenes—in fact one of the most famous scenes in cinema history is from his film The Seventh Seal where a man plays chess with the personification of death. I, like millions of others, love The Seventh Seal and I felt that a scene in which Sayaka plays chess against Teddy would not only pay homage to my love of films, but also bring a deep depth to Sayaka and what her stuffed bear symbolizes.
Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1912 – July 30, 2007) was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. Film historian Virginia Wright Wexman describes Antonioni's perspective on the world as that of a "postreligious Marxist and existentialist intellectual." In a speech at Cannes about L'Avventura, Antonioni said that in the modern age of reason and science, mankind still lives by "a rigid and stereotyped morality which all of us recognize as such and yet sustain out of cowardice and sheer laziness". He said his films explore the paradox that "we have examined those moral attitudes very carefully, we have dissected them and analyzed them to the point of exhaustion. We have been capable of all this, but we have not been capable of finding new ones." Nine years later he expressed a similar attitude in an interview, saying that he loathed the word 'morality': "When man becomes reconciled to nature, when space becomes his true background, these words and concepts will have lost their meaning, and we will no longer have to use them." Most of Antonioni’s films explored themes of characters whose lives are empty and purposeless. Again, I studied his work extensively when preparing the melancholy tones of the characters in Ashita.
Both Bergman and Antonioni were gems to the film world and I can only hope that their influence on me and Ashita be minutely as good as their contributions to the cinematic art.
-MJ
In June we shot some sequences that were somewhat improvised with one of Toronto’s most prolific dancers Keiko Ninomiya (http://www.keiko.ca/). These sequences we shot with Keiko represent a type of story narration—much like the Chorus in ancient Greek theatre. Since the film is riddled with voice over by many of the characters, I felt that I needed some kind of overseer (this stems from my love of classic theatre and comic books) to be the puppet master or god who juggles these characters. I most certainly knew I did not want this character to talk. Upon watching a lot of Fellini movies, I got the idea for a mime or clown to be the film’s overseer. But that would change. As I edited a video I had shot of tomolennon’s art/fashion show I got to watching the dancers he had in his show. As watched and re-watched the Fellini movies, the mime was quickly changed for a dancer. Lucky for me, my lovely wife Izumi knows almost everybody in Toronto and when I mentioned to her my idea, she quickly threw Keiko’s name at me. And thus the new sequence grew. For a while, I was pent up on the dancer being a clown and I had discussed that I length with Keiko, but in the end, we went with a stoic white mask—which works and is completely frightening and sad at all the same time. I know I had a lot of fun shooting the dance sequences with Keiko and they will beautiful scenes and visually stunning.
As the post production progressed, Andy (the editor) and I discussed in great detail certain aspects of the movie and the overall feel of Ashita. I mentioned to Andy that I had certain reservations about the Miss Smiley story—this is the story of the angry female assassin that was brilliantly played by Leona Kitabayashi. I felt that the story was too different from the rest of Ashita. Of course when I wrote and shot it, it worked—but as things progressed the movie took on a new feel and the story about the assassin didn’t seem to flow with the rest of the film. Andy agreed with me and made a very good suggestion; he said he would edit it anyway and we would try it in Ashita, if it works great—if not, we have a stand alone short film. I got busy in writing a new story. I know one thing was for sure, I wanted to work with Leona again; she is a fine actor and is a pleasure to work with. When I met with Leona in July to inform her of what I had decided to do with her previous story in Ashita, I was a little nervous. I thought she was going to get angry and kung fu kick me, but luckily she was happy to work with me again (phew). Finally last week, I finished a new story called Fireflies—a much more somber story about a young lady named Etsu (played by Leona) who is looking for her father who abandoned her when she was just a little girl. I plan on shooting this story later this month.
Its funny how movies never seem to get made the way they are originally planned—based on my plans we should have been screening Ashita by now, then based on my revised plans we should have had a completed rough cut by now… but this, of, course is not the case. The case is, Ashita is right where its supposed to be. It’s a piece of art discovering itself. Like my cast and crew, I am excited to see the finished product, but I do not want to rush it… because I can see where it’s going and it will be brilliant.
On a sad, final note, this week saw the death of two of cinema’s greatest:
Ingmar Berman (July 12, 1918-July 30, 2007) who as a director, Bergman favored intuition over intellect, and chose to be unaggressive in dealing with actors. Bergman saw himself as having a great responsibility toward them, viewing them as collaborators often in a psychologically vulnerable position. He stated that a director must be both honest and supportive in order to allow others their best work. His films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde. I chose to pay homage to Bergman in Ashita by shooting as scene in the Teddy Bear story in which Sayaka (played wonderfully by Yoshiko Nomura) plays chess against her teddy bear… for those film enthusiasts reading this, you’ll know that one of Bergman’s most famous scenes—in fact one of the most famous scenes in cinema history is from his film The Seventh Seal where a man plays chess with the personification of death. I, like millions of others, love The Seventh Seal and I felt that a scene in which Sayaka plays chess against Teddy would not only pay homage to my love of films, but also bring a deep depth to Sayaka and what her stuffed bear symbolizes.
Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1912 – July 30, 2007) was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. Film historian Virginia Wright Wexman describes Antonioni's perspective on the world as that of a "postreligious Marxist and existentialist intellectual." In a speech at Cannes about L'Avventura, Antonioni said that in the modern age of reason and science, mankind still lives by "a rigid and stereotyped morality which all of us recognize as such and yet sustain out of cowardice and sheer laziness". He said his films explore the paradox that "we have examined those moral attitudes very carefully, we have dissected them and analyzed them to the point of exhaustion. We have been capable of all this, but we have not been capable of finding new ones." Nine years later he expressed a similar attitude in an interview, saying that he loathed the word 'morality': "When man becomes reconciled to nature, when space becomes his true background, these words and concepts will have lost their meaning, and we will no longer have to use them." Most of Antonioni’s films explored themes of characters whose lives are empty and purposeless. Again, I studied his work extensively when preparing the melancholy tones of the characters in Ashita.
Both Bergman and Antonioni were gems to the film world and I can only hope that their influence on me and Ashita be minutely as good as their contributions to the cinematic art.
-MJ
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