"Me, me, me," Yoshika Matsuoka x Ayumu Omori x Shinichiro Kanagawa Three short films created by CM director [Director's Interview Vol.347]

Script writing by three parties

Q: Were there any challenges you faced when writing the script?

Omori: I used to write down everything I thought on my secret account on X (Twitter) or on mixi when I was a university student. I printed out everything I had written down like a diary and wrote the script while staring at it. Most of the stories were annoying, but surprisingly, the material came out of them. It was a fun process.

Matsuoka: I started by googling "how to write a script" and wrote one by imitating what I saw. When I showed it to my senior, he said, "None of the characters have any life in them..." (laughs). I was so focused on creating a story that I didn't portray the human beings at all. So I started over from scratch, thinking up the story the characters had lived up to that point, making a resume for the main character, drawing out a relationship diagram... and so on. Then, gradually, I began to see the words the main character would speak. "I see, that's what my senior told me," I thought, and at that point, I finally understood how to write a script. I redid a lot of things, so I submitted my application right before the deadline. Writing the script was the hardest part.

Q: By redoing the character designs, did the story or structure change in any way?

Matsuoka: Yes. I thought, "This kid would never do something like this," or realized, "There's something wrong with the story's structure," and even wondered, "Why did I end it like this?" (laughs). I had to essentially start over from scratch.

"Fuyuko's Summer" Watashi-Films© All rights reserved

Q: In your case, Mr. Kanakawa, you started with a script, but did you revise the script when directing it?

Kanakawa: I wrote down the parts that bothered me while reading it, and rewrote those parts, including the ending. I sent it to Ms. Kemyama saying, "I want it to be like this, what do you think?" and she returned it to me with everything except the ending reverted to the original. I felt her strong will (laughs). I thought I was making the suggestion as a professional in the film industry, but I wondered if it was right to shoot it as it was without changing it myself. She had a concrete worldview in her mind, and she could already see the picture. So I started by thinking about how to materialize it.

Q: Were there any points in the script that you didn't understand?

Kanagawa: Yes, there was. I would ask him "What does this line mean?" and confirm anything that bothered me. He would then write "I wrote it with this feeling" next to the line and send it back to me. Thanks to that, Mr. Kemuriyama and I were able to share the meaning of all the lines, and in a way, I was able to approach filming with a 100% understanding.

Even so, when Ms. Kemuriyama saw the rough edit, she said, "It was completely different from what I had imagined, in a good way." (laughs) Maybe she had a more specific image in mind.

What is the role of the storyboard?