“Search” Director of Photography Naoya Ikeda Only people who face the work. What is the strength of a small staff? [Director's Interview Vol.182]

Realize “what you want to do now”

Q: ``Sagashisu'' is a very moving movie, and the camera moves around in all directions. How did you use different equipment, such as dollies, cranes, and Steadicams?

Ikeda: Another of my mentors, Hajime Kobayashi, used to say, ``As a director, sometimes you wake up and change your mind.'' In other words, it's not just the camera work that was decided upon in advance, but also the technical parts that I thought the director would want to do at this moment.

However, when shooting Japanese movies, the budget is limited, and to be honest, it's rare to have the perfect equipment. Even if there was a camera work that the director wanted, there was always conflict, such as, ``I can't afford to borrow that because of the budget...'' or ``If I could borrow this kind of equipment, I could make it happen...'' Of course, in the end, it's all about money, so there are times when we have casual conversations like, ``We don't have a budget, so we don't have a crane,'' or ``We don't have a budget, so we can't use a Steadicam.'' However, if this continues, the director's own ideas will run out, and us camera operators will not only be unable to do it due to a lack of equipment, but we will also be unable to do it technically. That's the most dangerous thing.

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Q: So how did you respond this time?

Ikeda: This time I used a gimbal. In the past, I've used Steadicam and handheld a lot, so this time I tried using a gimbal, including practicing.

Previously, Katayama-san and I worked on a WOWOW drama called Wandering Blade (21), and we used a Steadicam the entire time. So Mr. Katayama had Steadicam camera work in mind, and he wanted it again this time, but due to the number of people and equipment, it was difficult to use Steadicam this time. However, as I prepared by scouting locations and meeting with actors, I began to think that the director's ideas and images might have been thrown away due to the inability to do Steadicam camera work, and I realized that the accuracy of the Steadicam was not as good as the Steadicam. I suggested that you could do the same kind of camera work with a gimbal, although it might fall off.

The digital single-lens camera and 300 yen lens used to photograph “Sagashi”