This is what I consider my professional debut as a director and I still feel incredibly lucky that the opportunity dropped on my lap the way it did. When I got offered this job, I hadn’t even finished working on the boxing film with Arisa yet and had no directing reel to share.
I had edited for the Condé Nast Japan video team a few times before and had pitched some video ideas to them in the past so I had developed a pretty good relationship with them. We were working on a promotion for Vogue Girl and they felt they were missing a scene but were out of budget to rehire the director for an extra day. Since we really needed it, I told them I could do it. It was a pretty simple production and it came together pretty smoothly.
During the shoot, the producer from Condé Nast told me she was working on making original film content for the Japanese market and they were looking for a director and production partner in Tokyo.
They wanted something like the video above but without a sponsor and therefore without a budget. I was just excited to have the opportunity to direct something so I convinced Cutters Studios Tokyo to let me bring it in, even with the ridiculously small budget.
The team at GQ Japan had two web series concepts. The first was about dancers. I had never made a dancing film before and always found them tricky to edit but I was excited by the challenge.
Since we were aiming to reach a younger audience, I wanted to add a bit of a message, something a little deeper.
I first came to Japan as a high school English teacher and though I really loved the experience, I have kept a sense of dread towards the Japanese education system. The way that conformity seemed to be valued above all else shocked me. Watching these teenagers slowly transform into automatons, giving up their individuality was painful. I couldn’t understand why standardized tests were the only measure of success and why piercings and colored hair were such a big no-no. Having spent more time in Japan now, I think I understand it more, but I like it even less. I still hate how this follows them into later life and permeates the toxics Japanese work culture.
I wanted to address that. I wanted to reach through the monitor, grab our viewers and shake them. I wanted our films to resonate with that kid who deep down feels that fitting in is overrated. And so it’s with that youth in mind we produced four films, each celebrating difference, rebellion and self-realization.
Me, seen here being self-realized.
I asked my good friend Matt De Sousa to join the project. I had wanted to work with him since we had met a few years before but it’s not often that directors of photography and editors really get to collaborate. In spite of the ridiculous budget, he agreed to join our team and we finally had our first professional job together. From there, the planning and the casting took us a few weeks and we ended up up shooting all four films in two exhausting days. We let the choreography up to the dancers and used interviews for the voice-over. Having no money to license music, we got our tracks from Artlist.
What went wrong
There was a miscommunication with the dancer from the second film. His call time was at midnight but he thought it was midnight the following day. We were delayed by about an hour and didn’t really affect the final product but that was still a very scary moment. I suggested I would take his place but I was kindly told to stick to directing.
Shooting for two days straight without a break was a terrible idea and the project suffered from it. By the third film, we were completely exhausted. I fell asleep during the interview and we rushed through the dancing part. We stopped looking for ways to make it better and just wanted to get it done. I still cringe when I think of how that one turned out.
How I could possibly agree to these outfits and fake tattoos is beyond my waking self.
What went right
The fourth and final one was better. The dancer was a middle schooler and I was afraid she might be difficult to direct. I could not have been more wrong. She was absolutely amazing. The moment the music came on, her entire demeanor changed and she absolutely rocked it. It was like a surge of energy for the entire team.
For a first experience, it was pretty good. We managed to shoot everything that we planned as well as a good series of still photos. The team we had put together worked really well together and everyone added to the project. Matt and I had great chemistry on set and the mood was good on set and I thin the final result was pretty good overall.
I also spent time talking and joking around with the cast before and during the shoot. I think it helped make everyone more comfortable to just have fun. There was no choreography so they needed to be able to just let loose and I think we pulled that off pretty well.
Joey, seen here letting loose.
The schedule being really tight for the post-production as well, I asked Sachi Sasaki, my fellow editor at Cutters Studios and overall amazing person to help me out. Her approach was completely different from mine and made me re-examine all of my edits for the better.
Finally, the client was very happy with this first project. They wanted to show to the global teams that they could make some original Japan content and they did, which cemented the trust we had with them even further and allowed us much more freedom for the second one.
What I learned
As a director but I guess more broadly as filmmakers, you have to keep caring. As shooting days drag on and get longer and longer, I realized that I tend to compromise the quality more and more just to get it done. This is a terrible attitude and I find that the crew tends to follow your lead on that. So now, I’m never tired, I guess.