Back in 2018, when I cared about how many followers I had on Instagram, I met a bilingual Japanese actress named Arisa and we got together for a photo shoot. I left Tokyo to meet her in Yokohama and walked around for a few hours, taking photos and talking. During this time, I also shot a bit of video, hoping to make a story or two to post alongside the photos. Looking back, the photos are nothing to be particularly proud of and I don’t even have those stories saved anywhere but it was a great experience and Arisa struck me as a kind but driven person.
Probably the best shot we got that day.
This gave me an idea for a project. I wanted to do short form projects where I would introduce average people and give a peak into their lives. A sort of “Peoples of New-York” in video form, and obviously, made in Tokyo. These were originally meant to be very simple capsules under a minute long with the subject’s own voice use as voice-over while they perform something they like. I thought I could make a series out of it and pump them out almost every week. Arisa was keen to participate and since I had very limited experience behind the camera, I decided to ask a much more experienced friend for some help. He agreed immediately but suggested that we bring along another friend of ours to help with lighting so that we could bring the quality higher.
This second friend was interested, but didn’t want it to be “instagram quality” and would only do it if we were interested in making it the best possible film and to go through a proper production process. Personally having nearly zero experience on the production side, I was a bit weary but he assured me he would handle everything as a producer if we treated it as a professional production. We decided to each pitch in a bit of money and split the roles between the three of us: director, producer and director of photography.
Already the scope of the project had gotten bigger but I was excited that we would be making something bigger and hopefully better that could be on all of our reels. Since Arisa had experience with martial arts for the screen, we decided to make a boxing video where we would mirror the struggles of a boxer in the ring with her struggles in her career. I started working on the creative side, finding references for lighting, angles, editing and so on.
We ran into trouble early as we struggled to find our main location to shoot, especially with our limited budget. It also became apparent that our producer had taken on too much responsibility for the project and wasn’t able to deliver on some of them. Instead of raising a flag however, he opted to lash out at us and our group conversations turned sour and toxic to the point where the cinematographer nearly left the project.
We pushed forward in spite of this and the producer gathered an impressive crew. We got some outside help for the location and managed to get a great spot for free for a day. We had the gear lined up, wardrobes, hair, make up and cast all ready to go with a few days to spare.
A huge crew for the scale of this project, but a great group nonetheless.
On the day of the shoot, things did not start smoothly. The atmosphere was good but it was clear that we were going to be short on time. As I was briefing the cast on the details of the day, I heard a very loud voice swearing at me to stop wasting time. I was surprised as I really didn’t think the situation warranted anyone losing their cool but I also knew it was good to have someone keeping us on track. I had originally planned to start with some simple shots to allow the cast to warm up and find their rhythm. It was immediately obvious that Arisa would need guidance as she had less boxing experience than I expected. As I guided her through her actions and got her to repeat them a few times for the camera, the producer’s voice again rang out in the room as he screamed to cut.
As the producer complained that he wouldn’t be able to use any of what we were getting because the cast was being too static, I walked up to the cast to discuss how to improve their performance. That’s the moment when I heard what I think is worth a direct quote: “He doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing.” He was loud enough that there was no question that everyone heard it. I was in a kind of shock, unable to respond and not knowing what to do. It was my first time really directing and it was true that I was way out of my depth. Arisa is the one that made me snap out of it. She said that I was the director and that she would only listen to what I would tell her and ignore everyone else if it came down to it.
Having her in my corner made it much easier for the rest of the day. The rest of the cast and crew followed her example and we managed to get through the shoot smoothly. Even the producer quieted himself for the most part.
He had one more outburst before the day was over. As we unpacked our gear in the second location, he once again shouted that I had to get my shit together because no one knew what they were doing. I asked him if he had looked at the shot list I made, told him that if he had, he would know and that everyone else knew what they were doing. He backed down after that and we finished the shoot with minimal issues.
It’s aaaallll under control.
Once in post, things got smoother. As I was the editor on the project, I was able to experiment and play with the footage as much as I wanted. It was a tricky edit. The performance wasn’t perfect but I remedied it with some tricky editing. Still, I felt there was something missing so I wrote a VO based on some of the things Arisa and I discussed when we first met. She came over and we recorded her voice and added it to the timeline.
After the edit, things became a little less direct. The color, music, mix, and finish were all being done by other people, who all accepted to do it for free, which made me uncomfortable to rush them. Without going into painful details, the project was finally finished more than a year after the shoot, further straining my relationship with members of the team.
It’s a wrap! Get it? Wrap?
What went wrong
-From the very beginning, I completely failed to assert myself on set. This forced confusion with the crew as they told me later that they didn’t know who they should be listening to. I allowed this situation to go on and it should have been nipped in the bud long before the shooting day. I tried to avoid conflict in the name of friendship and it almost destroyed the project.
-Finishing the project so long after the shoot is really unacceptable. A lot of people gave their time and skills for free and they deserved to get the final result much faster.
What went right
-Based on the lessons from my previous project. I was able to keep the cast on my side and in that way, manage to realize my vision.
-In the end, the project turned out much bigger and better than I originally planned and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help I received.
What I learned
-Be the most prepared member of your team. If you’ve done all your homework, it takes away their excuses to not doing theirs.
-Choose you team wisely. Someone being a friend doesn’t mean they’ll work well with you. While I can easily get a drink with the producer on that project, it would take a special set of extreme circumstances for me to ever want to be on a project with him again. Nope.
