Archive for January, 2007

Cover art for Freedom 2 dvd.

Sitting in for a preview screening of Freedom 2 with the rest of my colleagues yesterday I was engulfed by a pang of surreality watching the scenes I had so painstakingly lighted for the past 2 months materialize in its final, finished form, complete with background art and effects. Calculating the number of shots I was assigned, I must have lighted about 1/4 of the entire episode, the rest covered by my chief Matsui-san and some minor scenes subbed out to other studios.

Later in the evening at Freedom 2’s celebration party I had a chat with the director Morita-san, where I was told more and more challenging scenes will be assigned to me from Freedom 3 onwards. That simply translates as reduced sleeping hours, non existent weekends, a constant sophorific state. Heck, bring it on I say.

Freedom 2 will hit the stores from Febuary 22th and is available for preorder from Amazon here.

I swear, after watching Zack Snyder’s dizzyingly intense trailer for his film 300 I almost wanted to leap out of that weary cubicle seat of my, hunt down the nearest gym and sign up for 2 lifetime memberships to start working out some serious abs. Well, almost, until the thoughts of Jiro ramen ( the biggest, baddest ramen you’ll ever eat ) for lunch wafted my mind, certainly something as satisfying as having beautiful abs, though somewhat significantly easier to accomplish. Speaking of which, California Fitness Club should definitely do a tie-in with this film, and I bet they’ll see their membership numbers shoot right through the roof.

In any case, an eagerly awaited film. And when is medieval Japan’s release date for this ? Check it; June 2007, a full 3 months behind the entire universe, so lengthy a time I could have worked out leaner abs than Gerald Butler by the time it hits Japan shores. I just need to get Jiro out of my head.

I’ve got all three bikes parked in my garage, had them shined this morning too.

All Illustrations by Sajiki-san, our character and concept designer, whose usually serious and calm demeanour vanishes inexplicably to be replaced by loud, gregarious laughs and silly antics everytime he gets into a conversation with Matsui-san, my lighting chief, who oddly enough displays the same affliction. Crazy folks.

Yesterday we were handed the storyboard for Freedom 3, which promises more action scenes than both 1 and 2 put together. I can’t wait to see the finished product, but with significantly more shots than Freedom 2, it simply means more time in front of my workstation for the next 2 months or so.

Those were some screencaps off the 4th 30 second spot for Freedom now playing on Japanese television. You can also catch it streaming from the official Freedom website here.

Happy New Year folks !

Films Retrospect 2006

Total tally for films watched in 2006 stands at 28 in theatres and 96 on dvds, making that 124 in all ( Click here to see the entire list ), down from 178 in 2005. This decline is largely due to a full 5 month hiatus from summer as I got bogged down by my film project and job search. Here are my top 10 favourite films viewed in 2006, in no particular merit.

1)Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright)
2)Munich (Spielberg)
3)Children of Men (Alphonso Cuaron)
4)Proof (John Madden)
5)Crash (Paul Haggis)
6)The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles)
7)Wallace and Gromit : Curse of the Wererabbit (Steve Box/Nick Park)
8)Planet Earth (Documentary, David Attenborough)
9)Paprika (Kon Satoshi)
X)Matchpoint (Woody Allen)

It is regrettable my access to the latest films are always at least 4 to 6 months behind the living world due to Japan’s inexplicable slow release system, which I am more than resigned to having been here for almost 3 years. Notably Korean and Japanese films are missing from my favourites as there hadn’t been any winners like Tony Takitani last year. I hope to catch The Host soon. A few other notable films I enjoyed were Lord of War by Andrew Niccol, I’ve been his fan ever since Gattaca; Team America World Police, Jarhead, and A History of Violence. I think the worst film of 2006 had got to be Eragon.

With that, here’s to a bountiful year ahead for film watching !