"Search" Director Shinzo Katayama: Film techniques that immerse you in the story without relying on words [Director's Interview Vol.175]

How to effectively use limited conditions

Q: The previous film, ``Misaki Brothers'', was an independent production, and this time it's a commercial film, so I think the budget has increased considerably, but on the other hand, I think there were also constraints in terms of content and schedule. How did you feel about that?

Katayama: When I was working on ``Misaki no Brother and Sister,'' I made everything with my own money, so I was in a situation where I could do almost anything as far as responsibility was concerned. (*The budget for ``Misaki no Brother and Sister'' was 3 million yen. circle). On the other hand, as I was making a commercial film for the first time, I had a fixed budget, so I had to think about how I could make the most effective use of the limited budget given the various constraints.

I really wanted to increase the shooting period, so I proposed a method of reducing the number of staff to the minimum necessary and increasing the number of shooting days accordingly. Even if a job that would take 30 minutes for 2 or 3 people took 1 to 1.5 hours for one person, I thought it would be better if it extended the shooting period by that amount. I kept saying that from the early stages of production, and I actually shot it that way, and I think it worked out well. Of course, this placed a heavy burden on the individual staff members, myself included, but I think we were able to take on new initiatives.

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Q: Perhaps because of his long experience as an assistant director, Director Katayama seems to have a thorough knowledge of how to make a movie look rich without spending a lot of money. Also, the location selection is great. Anyway, the "background" is nice and I feel the richness of the image. Of course, I'm sure there were some parts that the art staff worked on to create, but I got the impression that they made good use of the locations that were available for free.

Katayama: That's right. Where you choose to shoot is still important, and if you want to shoot in a cool place without spending a lot of money, reduce the number of indoor scenes and have the characters act outside as much as possible. And as you said, it's free (lol). I came up with this idea when I was filming ``Misaki Siblings,'' and I was very conscious of it from the scriptwriting stage.

Immerse yourself in the story without relying on words