sin-sin

In choosing a subject for this film, I felt that themes drawn from today’s society or drama that takes place in settings that people are familiar with would be interesting. So my intention was for this film to be something like an encapsulation of the various problems arising in society today. In particular, I emphasized the issue of social security. There will soon come a time when quite a few people across Japan will be unable to survive without public benefit payments or aid. In such an age, both ourselves and our children must help one another, and at times, boldly power through life. My aim in creating this film was to offer encouragement to a great many people in Japan, to tell them, “Go on, don’t give up!” and “Give it your best!” If that message got through to viewers, even if only a small portion of it, then I am truly happy.

SIGMA fp is absolutely amazing. It is so good it’s almost scary. The camera’s ability to capture dark areas is superb, and noise is barely noticeable. It is as if all information entering the sensor is recorded as is. I am simply astonished by fp’s image quality. Very, very, very, very astonished. It pours all the information from its full-frame sensor into CinemaDNG with almost no compression at all. One might describe it as the difference between freshly-squeezed fruit juice and juice from concentrate. At any rate, it delivers extremely high image quality perfectly suitable for the cinema screen.

This film deals with social issues, but there are comical aspects to it as well, so I intentionally shot the scenes straight from the front to create candid images. I thought about how to get all viewers immersed in the story and also about how I, being physically closest to the actors, could create an environment for them to perform comfortably, and the small fp opened up possibilities. During filming, I tried to capture each character’s emotions, the sincere expressions that suddenly appeared on their faces, the unique ambiance of the fishing port, and the realistic details that Yu Yamanaka wanted to convey. I think SIGMA fp’s great dynamic range and color information made that possible.

Shooting still photographs for a film could seem strange at times. The actors directed by the film’s director are recaptured through my camera (which for this film was actually the same camera, the fp), and imprinted as slightly different beings. For this film, I also shot some of the landscape footage. I did so hoping that they would add an interesting oddness to the movie. I have known Yu Yamanaka for almost 20 years, and I am glad to have been able to participate in his filmmaking.

When I first received the rough cut of this film, I was immediately captivated by the looks in the characters’ eyes. Those were the eyes that Yu Yamanaka had watched (and intends to watch) intently in this film. This holds true whether the eyes belong to someone far in the background who is just walking by, or a person that appears only for a moment in a scene with a hint of comedy. The eyes do not say much, and yet they speak volumes. Such eyes of ultimate clarity were essential to the creation of music for this film.