The Happy Accident

The best things in life are free. I think that’s a saying from the 1950’s. Either way it is true. Some of the best things in Ashita were not planned, not even thought up they were what I like to call, “Happy Accidents.” They are also some of my favorite moments in the film. Not that I don’t like the scripted moments, because I do and some of they are clearly brilliant. The actors worked so hard to make the scenes unforgettable, which is why when the happy accidents happen it adds an extra layer of cool to the movie. I have no idea how many of these happy accidents will make it into the final cut, but I will probably include them on the Special Features part of the DVD at the very least.

The first happy accident I remember is in the Three Girls story when Miki, Ayumi and Yuki all run into each other and encounter the Mystery Woman. We were shooting this scene in a Chinatown back alley, next to a parking garage and the acting was top tier. I remember Tomomi (Yuki) was doing a great job of panicking as Maki (Mystery Woman) was approaching, Izumi (Miki) was trying to help and Minami (Ayumi) was swearing and annoyed. The whole scene was very chaotic, I love it as they were all talking over each other and disoriented—the coolest thing happened, as I was doing camera, I was filming from Mystery Woman’s point of view and I was walking towards the three chaotic girls and as I was doing that, a car came out of the parking garage behind me with its headlights blaring right on the three girls, giving them this creepy look and making seem that it was coming from Mystery Woman. The scene was wonderful and the happy accident of the headlights adds an extra sense of creepiness to the shot. I did not see it until I was watching the footage with Ashita’s editor Andy. When we saw it we both kind of smiled and thought it was pretty cool.

Sometimes, you’re shooting, you see something and it ignites a cinematic spark and an improvised scene happens. Ashita has a lot of outdoor scenes with people all over the city. One night, as we’re shooting the Teddy Bear story’s scenes where Sayaka walks through the city with her stuffed bear talking and thinking to herself. This was easy enough for Yoshiko (Sayaka) as it basically involved her walking around downtown Toronto, it wasn’t very challenging (other than the cold weather) and did not involve a lot of takes. To make things go even faster I scouted a lot of our locations with assistant director Yoko Omura a few days earlier and we had a really good idea of what we wanted to do and how long it would take. While shooting that night we walked from one location to another (I like to keep them close because I can’t afford Teamsters), but we took a wrong turn and walked past a park that was covered in fog, it was a brilliant sight. Parallel lights on both sides of the parks walk way, with a thick fog covering the path—I couldn’t resist, I had to shoot there. The cinema gods had made this just for my shoot. Yoshiko ran to other end of the path and I put my tri-pod in the middle of the path and I yell “Action”. What emerged was a beautiful, mood shot of Yoshiko walking out of the fog carrying her bear. It will be one of the most talked about shots in the film. When Andy, Izumi and I watched this footage all of us were excited. I am certain this shot will make into the film, it’s an almost perfect shot that happened completely by accident. I am so glad we took that wrong turn.

While shooting The Wonderful Elton Fuji with Daisuke as Elton, we had another happy accident, which was really a lot of fun for me. The scene, again, involved Daisuke walking down the street. For this particular sequence I had chosen a backstreet in Toronto’s financial district, it was located near the old courthouse building. We did a few takes of Daisuke walking up and down the street and then on one of the last ones, over my shoulder I hear a voice spew: “Hey man, you makin’ a movie? You makin’ a movie man? I love movies.” I turn around to see a creepy looking guy holding a big wad of cash in his left hand. He smiles at me. Of course when presented with awkward situations, I love to poke them with a stick and see what happens.

“Yes we are,” I say.

“Hey man, that’s cool. I love movies, man.” He says, his grin getting bigger. “What’s this movie called?”

“Ashita,” I say. “It’s Japanese. We’re making a Japanese movie.”

“Japanese, man, that’s dope yo!” He says. “Hey buddy man, you wanna shoot in my parking lot, go ahead its
all yours. Yo, we got a lotta nice cars in here. We got beemers man, a benzo or two man, yo I think I even saw a Ferrari in there man.”

Hmmm… free, well lit location in downtown Toronto, no questions asked. “Sure, that sounds great. We’d love to shoot in your parking lot.”

“One condition though, man,” he looks at Daisuke, points and smiles. “I want the movie star’s autograph.”

Humbly Daisuke replies, “Me?”

“Yeah, man. Give me your autograph right here,” he says to Daisuke as he hands him a hundred dollar bill.

Taking the hundred dollar bill Daisuke says, “You want me to sign this?”

“Yeah man, that way its worth a lot in more ways than one.”

So Daisuke autographed the hundred dollar bill. And we shot in the parking lot, what we shot was Daisuke sitting in the attendant’s booth sketching and drawing. It may sound like nothing really, but it adds an area of depth to the Elton Fuji character by giving the impression that he has a job. The character is a struggling artist, but by giving him the job in the parking lot we now get see that no matter what he does, he can escape into his art.

The latest happy accident was while shooting Fireflies with Leona. The scene was short and involved a few exteriors of Etsu (Leona) in Toronto’s harbor front district. These exteriors were coming at the tail end of a weekend of marathon shooting. Friday night we shot interiors where Etsu meets the half sister she never knew she had Ami (Tomoko Takahashi). The location was Ami’s house and we spent a few hours shooting outside the house, where Leona’s character was debating with herself over a few things. Tomoko was nice enough to help me out with lighting here, when then went inside to shoot a very intense and well performed scene. We wrapped that shoot at about 2:00 AM, I quickly cleaned up and went to sleep as I had an early meeting with another location the next day. Saturday, starting at about 3:00 PM we shot some interiors at a fancy downtown hotel room. We shot straight without breaks until about 7:30 PM, Leona, Izumi and I went to eat then Leona and I hit the streets do a few exteriors. By the time were done the exteriors it was nearly 11:00 PM. Both Leona and I were tired, very tired. As we were walking back to the hotel (like I said I can’t afford Teamsters) we walked under a small tunnel near Union Station and we saw the coolest thing, a man with an electric guitar and amp, playing a heavy metal solo in the middle of the tunnel. There’s traffic going by in both directions and this guy is busting it loose like Slash with his hair flying in the back wind of the cars driving by.

I see this and I stop walking. I had to film this, there was no way I could leave this scene behind and not immortalize in the lens of my camera. Leona is wondering what the hell I am doing as I giggle and take the lens cap off Josephine (that’s my camera’s name). I need to film this guy. As I begin to roll, he decides to take a break. A few seconds pass and he notices me with the camera across the road.

“Hey man, you wanna film a killer solo?” He asks. My reply is a simple thumbs up and with lightning speed he breaks into a wicked solo and I notice how great the acoustics in the tunnel as I film. It was really cool! Cars were wooshing by ad this guy was going nuts on his six-string.

Leona and I crossed the road and we filmed few shots of her walking by this golden sight. Leona seemed a little confused as to why I was so thrilled by the man with the guitar and the answer is simple: You can’t buy shots like this. No matter how odd they seem, these shots, however accidental they are, they just seem to work for the film.

I guess it is true…

3 GIRLS

I’ve been thinking a lot about the one story I have yet to write about in this fine blog. 3 Girls is the first story I wrote in Ashita. Of all the stories it the one with the biggest cast and it’s the most complex story. It combines some traditional Japanese cinematic images with some hints of my nostalgic memories of my time in Tokyo.

The story (and the movie) begins with Yuki, running towards the camera in complete fear. “Help me,” she screams. She’s being followed by a mysterious figure in white. The mystery woman’s chase of Yuki comes to an end in an alley where hell is about to be unleashed.

Meanwhile Miki and Ayumi are hard at work at the local Asian karaoke bar, they complain about work and money and are expecting another slow night. Then suddenly a mysterious white figure appears in the bar.

Somehow, Miki, Ayumi and Yuki’s paths all cross and are linked by this mystery woman. These three girls are cursed…

Of the six stories in Ashita, this will be the scariest. The acting, again in this story is top notch. Yuki is played by the wonderfully athletic Tomomi Kataoka. I’ve never put an actor through more physically trying scenes than I did Tomomi. I asked to run down the same alley in fear about 35 times in cold November and December weather. Lucky for me she once was a lacrosse player and was a wonderfully good sport about the whole thing, especially when she ran a hole through her boots. Mystery Woman, who can instill fear into all, was played by Maki O., who I commend for having the most complex make-up job (she’s painted entirely in white) and who wears only a thin white kimono (again in November and December). Though people think her acting job may have been easy because she has no dialogue, I disagree. To be able to remain so stone faced and emotionless to create a frightening atmosphere is not an easy task. Maki, too, was a good sport and we all had fun walking down the street with her while she was completely painted white. Or walking into a Starbucks to order coffee and warm up and there is was in the middle of the café all in white.

In the bar, Miki is played by my beautiful wife Izumi Di Rocco, whose portrayal of a down on her luck bar maid is dead on. Her younger, more flamboyant, pink haired counterpart, Ayumi, is played wonderfully by Minami Kubota. Minami is a sweet, young girl who caught us all by surprise with the viciousness of her acting. There is a certain scene when Ayumi yells at her boss (played by Takashi Fujita) it is, to put it simply, fantastic. I never thought such a sweet looking girl could be so visceral. It’s brilliant. Izumi and Minami have wonderful chemistry that gives them a natural big sister/little sister relationship. And when their characters cross paths with Yuki it is what is sure to be one of the most chaotic scenes in Ashita—and one of the most frightening.

I had a lot of fun shooting 3 Girls. It was full of wonderful surprises and nice little moments that I always smile when I remember them. The first was the pink hair for Minami. Sometimes casting against type works, anyone who met Minami would have thought her perfect to play a sweet, innocent girl (many suggested her for Sayaka in the Teddy Bear story) but my gut told me to put her as the bitchiest character in the movie. Somehow I knew it would be right. But her natural look was too sweet, we needed to give her a more an edge, like she just stepped out of the hippest club in Shinjuku. So I sat down with Ashita’s make-up artist Masayo and the first thing I said is that I wanted her to have colored hair, red, purple, blue. I don’t know something. Pink was the first color we tried and once I saw it, there was no turning back. We matched Izumi to look as flamboyant but with a more conservative, older look. We gave Izumi dark eye make-up, long nails and a big white feather boa over a fur coat and Chinese dress. Both girls looked awesome and carried the right kind of attitude for their parts. Izumi had experience working in a bar, so she had not trouble getting into the mood of the character, Minami took method acting very serious and she got a job in a karaoke bar for a few weeks just to garnish the experience.

When I watched the footage for 3 Girls is feels like it was a much larger shoot than it actually was. Though it was the one of my more open sets where anyone was allowed to watch, we had so much fun shooting that it doesn’t feel big to me. Some of Ashita’s most complex shots were pulled off with almost no difficulty, combined with the dedication of girls willing to freeze to death or run up and down the same alley 35 times so I could get enough coverage. For me, 3 Girls, was a completely new way of shooting. I did not preparation, no story boarding or shot listing. It was decided on set at the time of shooting—and it was deiced quickly because it was some nights it was so damn cold. We did a lot of rehearsals, but I planned no shots—which for me was difficult, because once the actors get the mood of the scene I spend most of the second half of rehearsal writing shots and shot lists. But for 3 Girls, I decided everything on set which was a refreshing experiment that I may or may not repeat based on the circumstance.

I am avoiding giving you more information about the story or the finer points of its meaning simply because I want you to be surprised. 3 Girls, like all of Ashita’s stories has a strong message about loneliness, however there is significantly more metaphors, mixed in with powerful imagery in this particular story, that should leave audience’s heads spinning to find the answers to the questions this story asks.

Thoughts From A Master

Today my daily glance at the online version of the Toronto Star newspaper, proved to be educational. The most read stories were, of course, stuff about the war on terror, the Toronto Transit Commission raising the price of subway and bus fares and the fact the McDonalds is revamping its look to give itself a sophisticated (I use this word deliberately for my lovely wife Izumi and the always joyful Kelly—who teaches me Japanese and to whom I teach English and to whom I instructed to use the word at least 3 times this week) new look. Though a sophisticated looking McDonalds, with leather sofas, built in fireplaces and pendant lighting may be interesting reading, what I found lower down the page was interesting article about one of my favorite filmmakers, Woody Allen.

The Toronto International Film Festival is going strong until this weekend and like every year it attracts its fair share of big stars. When I attend screenings, I usually like to stay for a conversation with the director after the film. The Q & A’s are always a lot of fun. I was on the fence about seeing Woody Allen’s new movie Cassandra’s Dream at the film fest for the sheer reason that I know it will get general release and I will be able to see it in theatres before Christmas. The only reason I was thinking about going to see it at the festival was that Allen would be there to possibly introduce the film and have Q & A afterwards—a rare public appearance by Woody Allen outside of a New York Knicks game is always a treat. In the end, I opted not to get tickets for Cassandra’s Dream but I am happy that my favorite newspaper was able to post this gem of a story. Basically Woody Allen calls himself a lazy filmmaker. He is quoted as saying: "I'm not a dedicated filmmaker, I'm lazy. To me, making a film is not the be-all end-all of my life. I want to shoot the film and go home and get on with my life… I said to myself after the first film, this is ridiculous, I don't want to work to get a shot and miss the basketball game. I don't want to have to work late, I don't want to have to kill myself on the weekend, I don't want to have to sit through rehearsals endlessly or shoot the extra 10 takes to get the perfect moment."

Allen makes a lot of sense in what he says on a number of levels. First, as a husband and soon to be father I have been conflicted over that past few weeks about future film projects. Yesterday in an e-mail exchange with my good friend Luc I expressed to him my thoughts about future projects. Certainly films are in my blood and I will never be able to put them out of my life, also I a have a creative soul so I will be unable to function without some kind of creative outlet. But making a film takes up a huge chunk of your life, lucky for me, my wonderful Izumi has been my partner and biggest supporter throughout this past year in making Ashita. And honestly, sometimes I have not made it easy for her. Not only was I making Ashita, I had also agreed to film and edit two live shows and a concert. This on top of making a feature film was pushing my limits. There were times when I felt like I was losing my mind. There were times when I wanted to shut down the whole production without caring what the cast and crew would think. I had suffered a depression a few years ago and I could feel another one coming, so I just wanted to stop everything and live a “normal” life. Then the most interesting thing happened. I took a vacation. I went to Las Vegas with my one my best friends Andrew, each year we make it a point to take our annual golf/gambling trip. Andrew is hard working civil servant with three beautiful kids and we’ve been friends since college. Our week in Vegas, full of booze, golf and black jack proved to be a welcome change from costume tests, camera tests, rehearsals and marketing meetings. It was what I needed to recharge my batteries. As it my as my private time with Izumi at the film festival. We are seeing five movies in ten days, we’ve has a date on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and also this coming weekend. We are spending valuable time together. Try not to take this out of context, but the time I have with my wife, my family and my friends is more valuable to me than making my movie. Woody Allen is right. Not that making Ashita is not important or does not mean anything, but too many times in the past did my personal suffer for my movies and it was truly not worth it. I am more than a filmmaker. I am a friend, a husband and soon a father and I cannot picture myself, nor do I want to say, telling my child we can’t play today because daddy has to finish his movie. No… Never. Daddy will play first, then make his movie. I love everyone who’s ever worked with me on any of my projects and I have deep respect and admiration for all of them and I am the first to tell them family comes first. I welcome husbands or wives on set, I will never ask someone to choose my movie over a loved one. I accommodate their needs for family events and personal events, because I would be foolish to think (and I have been in the past) that my film is greater in their lives than their families.

Allen makes another good point, though he hides in it in his quote about being lazy. He says he does not shoot a more than three takes, he does not wait for the so called “Perfect Take”. Again here we see the genius of Woody Allen who is heralded as one of modern cinema’s great directors. He is a man actors line up to work for. I think he makes a point in doing fewer takes, he’s realistic on an independent level. This is something all budding film students should learn. Actor Collin Farrell noted he did as many takes in Allen's latest film as he did in one scene of the film version of Miami Vice. For a big budget movie like Miami Vice it may be okay to got the extra perfectionist route. When you’re working with almost no money or very little time you have to make due with what you got. I am not saying cut corners, especially not with acting. Andy and I were discussing this last week, he complimented in saying: “You get things done.” Which is the first rule of I go by, get it done. Do it well, but if you spend too much time on one shot or one scene, you will lose perspective of the greater picture: The film. Last night I had rehearsal for Fireless, Ashita’s newest story. Leona and our newest movie star Tomoko Takahashi were over to rehearse and they will agree that they way I work is for the bigger picture, if I spend too much worrying about small things, the bigger picture will suffer, which I why I allow actors to change their dialogue and sometimes pick their own costumes. I give them freedom to move about how they like. The way I work with actors is simple, I tell them the overall picture, what the meaning is, what I feel the scene is about and them I let them lose to play and explore, this gives me greater performances from the actors because they have more freedom. I’ve seen far too many directors micro-manage (or micro-direct if you prefer) their actors. They tell their actors to hold a fork in a specific way or tie their shoe in such a manner, now if these things affect the bigger picture then yes do it, but if it’s just a character tying a shoe or eating dinner, than who cares how they do it. What Woody Allen is saying, is instead of trying to get that perfectly framed shot try to worry about the story and the movie instead. Get it done and care about it, but not too much—just enough to make your life fun.

Thank you Mr. Allen.

Reflections of Tomorrow

The Toronto International Film Festival is upon the city again. The lines are long to buy tickets to the various world premieres; folks will all of a sudden be shopping in the posh Yorkville area of downtown to hopefully run into a celebrity in the Prada store or Holts. Me, I’m in it for the films. I will be seeing five films this year which is more than I’ve seen at the last two festivals combined. Am I excited? Certainly the prospect of seeing 5 movies over 2 weeks in a room full of film enthusiasts (who else would pay roughly $27 to see movie?) is very intriguing and puts me in a reflective mood.

I’ve taken a break from Ashita over the next two weeks in order to attend the industry calls one of the most important film festivals in the world, I call it a giant geek-a-thon. Andy is also taking a break from editing as he is braver and maybe richer than me and will be seeing roughly 25 movies or so. This well deserved time off will allow me the chance to do a number things; 1) Have five dates with my wife in two weeks. 2) Watch some of modern cinema’s greatest master works 3) Seek inspiration 4) Reflect further on my new film Ashita.

Like I said, I’m in a reflective mood.

Last night I had an old friend over for dinner. Frank B. Kermit and his future bride were over to celebrate their wedding this coming weekend. Frank and I have a long history he is the one who gave me my first directing opportunity on a TV show in what feels like a century ago. Frank, who today, is a successful author, radio host and public speaker is a good friend of mine and has work on my two previous features, The Meatball Story and Truant Café, and my TV pilot, Cinema Fix. I mentioned to him that Ashita is very different than my previous work and that it feels a lot different making this one that the others. The Meatball Story, my first feature, I originally wrote as a play and wanted to present it as such, but theatre being more unstable than the film industry it was not to be. So not wanting to put months of rehearsals to waste, I decided to shoot it as film. It was shot in 6 days in black and white in my cousin’s tiny restaurant in downtown Montreal. And to be honest, none of us really knew what were doing. Not that Meatball is a bad movie, on the contrary, it’s a lot of fun to watch because it’s so inhibited and free. Someone once called it a “B-Movie Midnight Cult Classic” which I take as a great compliment. Truant Café, was a much bolder project with a very high ambitions. Truant Café reunited with not only Frank, but also Nina-Rose Singh and the versatile Anthony Colace. We did a complete 180° turn with Truant, I was aiming to make a very dark and angry psychological thriller. As much as the film was different from Meatball, it had a lot of similarities. Truant Café was shot in roughly nine days with a lot of the same cast and crew and I wrote the script over a weekend while visiting Montreal.

I am extraordinarily proud of both films and the excellent work involved. But both films suffer a little due to the time constraints imposed on us by the locations and the lack of experience. Again, both films, I think, are excellent but with my new film Ashita I’ve opted to do things a little differently. The biggest example of that is that 1 year after we began shooting, we are not yet complete. Am I afraid of falling into film limbo and not knowing when to stop? Of course I am, but I trust the people around me and the people I work with. I have a brilliant wife whose support and logic make her a great producer. I have an editor, who is not afraid to tell me I’m going overboard or too far. I am not saying Ashita will be a perfect film, it will be yet another experience that leads to many more. And the influence of Meatball and Truant hand heavy in this movie, from a cameo appearance by Anthony Colace to using the experience and past mistakes as a tool for progress. In Truant Café I had to make a very difficult decision to cut out my original ending and shoot a new one almost a year later. It is a very humbling experience when you first present the scenario to all those involved. Explaining to your cast and crew, who have all worked so hard and believed in your project enough to follow you and work on it, that you’ve changed your mind about something and need to re-shoot, is gut grinding. But it gets easier. The Meatball Story had no re-shoots and was marked with the very film school-esque attitude of: “We’ll iron out the shooting glitches in post.” Never iron out any glitches in post—it works sometimes and did so in the case of Meatball, but took almost one year to get a rough cut out, because I was “Ironing things out in post.” Truant Café was the first time I did a re-shoot and I am very happy with results. We re-shot the ending of the film and it gives the movie a much creepier feeling and darker undertones. With Ashita, I’ve done a number of re-shoots and I made the even harder decision to cut a character and story out of the film—I did something similar in Meatball because of length, but in Ashita the character and story did not blend well with rest of the film.

To be honest, if I had not met Frank almost 15 years ago, I would not be making Ashita today. Over the last that decade and a half I learned some valuable lessons: 1) Always treat your cast and crew well, or they will leave you. 2) If you can help it, don’t rush a shoot. 3) Nothing really gets fixed in post, do it right, it’s worth it. 3) Be honest to yourself as an artist 4) Know your limitations 5) Doing a film because you love it is the only real reason to do a film.

Was reminded of point number 5 a lot last night, and everyone whose worked on one of my projects was in it because they loved it, good or bad, they were in it to learn, play and do something interesting. The love of cinema will be present at the film festival also… But my biggest love for cinema is presented with the people who choose to work with me.

Like I said, I’m in a reflective mood.


You can check Frank out at: http://franktalks.com/

You can check Anthony out at: http://www.anthonycolace.com/