Posts Tagged ‘School’

Toho Gakuen Film Techniques Training College (東放学園映画専門学校) , located in Takadanobaba (高田馬場), Tokyo, was where I took a 2 year filmmaking course while under the NAC Takashimaya scholarship program. The school was established by TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) in 1969 to nurture able talent for the Japanese film, animation and music industries, and has continued to produce skilled professionals for the media industry till this day. Well, so the website says. :p

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With the bulk of work for Freedom 3 completed there is finally some time to catch my breath before the rush sets in again when Freedom’s TV commercial postpro starts, and not till that is finished may I, there are rumours abound, get a week off work. I think I’m just going to sprout wings and fly straight out of the studio when that actually happens.

Anyway. I was fairly thrilled yesterday to recieve Abe-san’s signature on my Jinroh Boxset ( see pic below ) ; its always been one of my favourite animation films since watching it a full 8 years ago at the Singapore Film Festival. Abe-san, who was previously from IG and had also worked on GITS SAC, commented she too was a newbie when she joined Jinroh’s production. ( she’s now the colour designer for Freedom project. )

Outside work I also finished my 2 year film school at Toho Gakuen, here’s a photo at the graduation ceremony with my classmate from Shanghai, ( he tells me the animation studio that made Monkey God and Nezha is just right behind his house, s**t. ) we had quite a time shooting our graduation film together. See this post.

That’s all the updates for now I think. Its spring in Tokyo. I need a break !

Some screengrabs off my recently completed graduation film project “Umi no Namida” ( Tears of the Sea ), where I tripled as cameraman/cinematography, storyboard artist, as well as editor. For any filmmaker there’s always the indescribable rush of excitment and pleasure as one watches the film take shape slowly during the editing stage, so I guess those all-nighters hadn’t gone to waste.

Some production photos from the locations of my final year film project. More updates coming soon.

A recent 16mm film shoot filling up 2 weekends have had me appreciate the value of sleep in a way I had not since the army days; let’s hope at least the rushes turn out decent. As we wrap up things on this shoot preproduction starts for my final year project, in between a serious and earnest lookout for a job opening here in Tokyo. Amidst these hustling events just as I am about to lose sense of all time and purpose an appropriately timed present from my Korean sharemate ushers me back to one of my most cherished creative inspiration; a book procured from a 2nd hand book store; a Iwai Shunji’s Love Letter photobook, for less than 1.50 singapore dollars. To me, its true worth can hardly ever be calculated.

On location in Minami-Sunamachi. Principle photography has wrapped and editing is in the works for a short film about 2 ladies who start a cat fight over a cheesecake. As the cameraman for the shoot I also got a humble cameo ( actually almost everyone else in the team did a cameo )as an english teacher ( in a TV advertisement within the film )who tries unsuccesfully to instruct proper pronounciation for the word Cheesecake ( read as chee-su-ke-ki in Japanese ). Now that was great fun.

Just a week into term 2 and three film production shoots are cramped back to back, I’m thinking about dropping a module lest I die a painful, undeserving death : ” film student dies of fatique during shoot, hand still clasping zoom servo. ” Meanwhile, time for watching films become harder to come by but I was glad I finally got around to see Majo no Takyubin ( Kiki’s Delivery Service ), fantastic, as per Ghibli animation.

On a sadder note, I wish the school would inform us earlier when “erai” characters such as the cinematographer for the film Shall We Dance ? visits the school for a talk, I would’ve prepped my copy of the dvd, screaming hysterically for a signature like a rabid F4 fan. Just wait till Iwai Shunji shows up.