Finish my Film (Tokyo Cowboys)

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Daneeta

Last week I met with Simon, our composer and certified Japanophile. We had a listen to some ideas he’s been working on for the score. The stuff he did for the Salaryman/Samurai bit and for the Ask/Answer bit are so kickass that I nearly cried with joy that it’s all coming together. We’ve given him notes, and he’s in the studio as I write creating magic.

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Trying to clear the rights for “I’m just a Girl” by No Doubt. Called Universal Music who hold the rights, and they told me that No Doubt songs are notoriously difficult to clear, but I’m hoping that the fact that Gwen Stafani has a strong connection with Japan will bode well. I’ve sent off an email with all of the relevent information. Now we wait.

In the meantime, Katsura has been working hard on her end to get clearances for all of the Karaoke songs. She’s cleared “Ue o Muite,” which is the song we plan to use at the end of the film. You can see it performed here by the wonderful Ningyoko. She’s also got tentative agreements with some of the other rights holders.

Katsura kicks ass. She was a few years below me at The London Film School and is a director/writer as well as doing fab camera work. Her film Zekuu has been quite successful on the festival circuit. So melancholic and so beautiful…it’s very skillfully directed. Check it out if you get a chance.

Spent most of the day researching on WAB and BritFilms for all of the free festivals. I’m looking for November deadlines. I also have a “Top 40” list from Shooting People. Some of those are free…mostly the European ones. Patrick says this is because in Europe Film Making is subsidized by the Government. In America, it’s not, so the festivals have to charge. It’s a Capitalist State, remember? For the ones with fees, I have to weigh the cost over the festivals advantages.

Even with sites like WAB and ReelPort, it’s bloody hard work. Waaaaaah!

Cloudy has a new website: http://web.mac.com/cloudyb/iWeb/s/Mates..html. Check it out to see photos of his life in Japan and beyond.

Met up with Silvia Cambie today. She runs Chanda Communications, and was introduced to us by one of our investors. She is getting us to think about marketing the film, which is good. For literally years, I have not been able to see beyond finishing the film. But, now that we are so close to finishing, we have to start thinking ahead, and I’m thankful that Silvia came along at the right moment.

We’ve inter-cut all of the characters, and Patrick had a huge epiphany last night about how to slice and dice them more. He’s like one of those Japanese jujitsu knives that they used to sell on late night TV in America. He slices, he dices, he can even cut through corn on the cob. He’s finishing off cut 7.3 to hand over to two viewers tomorrow. We’re supposed to have the film as close to picture lock as possible by Wednesday. That’s when it goes to Simon, our composer. Then it’s off to Sweden for 11 days.

Silvia was asking me to think about which bits people will remember when they leave the film. For her, it was Ken…the Jewish boy from New York performing Christmas Mass in his role as rent-a-priest. But, it’s funny. Each person that watches the film picks their own stand-out scene. One person said it was Christmas morning with Ken, Aki and the newborn Taiga. The family celebrated a hybrid of Christmas and Hanukkah. Another said it was Hiromi changing Dave’s diaper after his butt operation…her devotion to him almost fanatical. And yet another said it was Cloudy, after performing in one of his shows, dropping a tiny girl off his lap. She squealed with laughter even after hitting the ground with a thud.

Of course I like all of the scenes in the film. But, I have to say that I am partial to the pauses…those sort of in between scenes that show Tokyo…complex, ineffable, dense…hiding secrets right on the surface of everything. Shhhh…

Oh, yes. The guts of Tokyo Cowboys. But, if you look closer, there is some order to this.

We are well in the middle of inter-cutting the characters. It is a head f@ck. Patrick will have cut 7.0 done sometime tonight. He says he only has 3 notes. I’m holding my breath. We are so close.

Now, if we can just get around this damn postal strike, we might even make the Slamdance deadline.

Lots of ups and downs over the past few weeks. We finished cut 6.3 and screened it around. I mostly refer to Jaime’s crit. He thinks we need to inter cut the stories. This is something that Patrick and I have been kicking around for a while, but we’ve avoided doing it. Not so much avoiding, just trying to get to a point where we can actually inter cut. We’re at that stage now. So, we’ve put all the cards up on the wall and are trying to fit the pieces together.

In the meantime, our composer Simon is working on some ideas for the film. Before getting Jaime’s feedback, I went through the film with him to show him music Q’s. I seems a bit premature now. I know we are close, but I had hoped that we were closer.

PJ and I worked a 16 hour day yesterday shooting a corporate gig in Rochester, so, today, we were a bit disinclined to get out of bed, rush to the computer and start on Tokyo Cowboys. But, after returning equipment and a nice walk back to our neighborhood, a coffee and some leisurely paper reading, we were finally ready to give it a go.

This is the first time we’ve watched the whole film through without the voice over, and, my God, it’s working. There is still loads of work to be done, but it is really coming together. We both made more notes, and PJ is incorporating them into the cut.

We also compared the order of the scenes to the chronological order. PJ was expecting some kind of revelation, but nothing was forthcoming. We’re swapping a few scenes around to see what happens.

The ending is still eluding us.

Got asked the question the other day “Sooooooo…what’s happening with Tokyo Cowboys.” Normally I don’t mind this question, but I detected a hint of pity in the questioners voice. Like we’ve been effing about this whole time and why is it taking us so long and the like. I just want to set the record straight now…neither of us gets paid for any of our work on Tokyo Cowboys. I’m not saying this to bitch about things. It’s my fault for not budgeting properly in the first place. It’s just that sometimes things move slowly because we actually have to stop occasionally and earn a living. And, as all of you know, earning a living takes a lot of creative energy. No matter how much you love your labor of love, it is difficult to get your ass to the editing suite when you’ve just worked at 16 hour day. That’s pretty much why we are taking so long.

Well, here we are again…at my birthday, and it’s actually quite depressing. If I got the idea to shoot this thing in March of 2002, then this is my 6th birthday spent working on this film. But, some of the footage is home video stuff from 1997, so…well…you do the math.

Actually, it’s coming along wonderfully. The new direction devoid of personal voice over is like a fresh new start. But, there is that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that if I’ve spent this long on the film, I should really pull off a masterpiece. The pressure is tremendous. I try to release some of it by thinking that I’ve done other things in the mean time…I’ve produced a few shorts, published a few things, worked on a couple of features, etc.

Must not let any of this negativity get in the way of finishing this thing.

So…off to writing, and off to re-visiting interviews, which, by the way, make me very home sick for Tokyo and how easy it is to get by there. I’m a bit fed up with the whole money situation. It’s not funny anymore, and I’m getting too old to be living hand to mouth. Enough all ready.