"Cast me if you can" press screening at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo was packed with 150 people - Japanese NTV did a reportage for today's morning show!!
「脇役物語」、ロサンゼルスのアクション・オン・フィルム国際映画祭で最優秀オープニング・アニメーション賞を受賞! “Cast me if you can” wins Best Title Sequence Award at the Action On Film International Film Festival in Los Angeles!
At our World Premiere, more than 150 audience, mostly Chinese, were laughing out loud as they watched our film! Rave reviews and TV interview at the Expo!?
Saturday, June 12th, 18:45@ Hall 1, Caoyang Cinema Monday, June 14th, 15:45 @ Hall 1, Xingmei Lemo International Cinema Tuesday, June 15th, 13:30 @ Hall 1, Yonghua Cinema (Official Screening followed by Q&A with the director) [6月15日(火)13:30 公式プレミア・舞台挨拶・監督による質疑応答] Friday, June 18th, 18:45 @ Hall 1, Broadband International Cineplex Sunday, June 20th, 15:45 @ Hall 1, Movie Station New Era Mall More festival details on http://www.siff.com/
Cast me if you can has been selected as one of the 10 films to compete in the New Asian Talent Award Competition (ANTA) at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival (June 14-19, 2010)! This is a FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producer's Association) festival and is considered as one of the top international festivals.
Cast me if you can upcoming media coverage : Sunday, May 23 at 5:55pm TV Asahi "Break through" (90-120 seconds) Monday, May 24th Asahi Newspaper Japanese morning edition (GLOBE "Break through")
This autumn, Cast me if youcan will be released theatrically nation-wide in Japan through Tokyo Theatres Co., Inc. after opening at the Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho in the heart of Tokyo!
With generous and dedicated support and assistance from our associate producers, funding for our film was raised both from inside and outside of Japan. In the spirit of Cast me if you can, each of our associate producers also appear as cast in our film. From left, Yukimori Akanoma, Chairman of the Japan Association for UNHCR, Kazi Kuwahara, Former President, Harvard Forum Japan and Engin Yenidunya, President of the Yale Club of Japan.
Wednesday March 17th from 1:05pm on NHK Channel 1, there will be a live interview of our lead actor Toru Masuoka. Images from "Eternally Yours" and "Cast me if you can (Wakiyaku Monogatari)" may be shown. Please have a look if you can. Since the program is live, there is a chance that it will be cancelled or postponed depending on world events of the day.
Original animation for the opening sequence and end roll credits were designed by the versatile Karim Cherif and Lian Aelmans in the Hague in the Netherlands at their design company United 135. During the film shoot, Karim visited Japan for the first time in his life to experience it first-hand and even appeared as an extra on our film set, in the spirit of Cast me if you can! His visit inspired the light hearted hand-drawn animation of stick figures running across the Tokyo cityscape, appearing as paper-made pop-up film sets, in the opening of our film. Having worked with the director Atsushi Ogata on his two previous films, Karim managed to work with Atsushi on the design via the internet and Skype after returning to Holland.
Film music was composed by the young and talented Jessica de Rooij in Los Angeles and recorded with live musicians! Ranging from playful & thrilling to romantic & intimate, more than 30 original compositions were created that reflects the various scenes, giving power and energy totally fitting our romantic comedy! Songs by Jessica's brother Jacques de Rooij are played as background music within the cafe, bar and bed room scenes in the film to mach the ups and downs in the storyline. Here is Jessica with music editor Nicholas Skalba, and the totally jet-lagged but happy director Atsushi Ogata at Jessica's studio in Santa Monica.
Visual Effects & D.I. for was realized at Cineric, Inc., renowned restoration and post-production house in New York. Our 35mm film negative was scanned at 4K high resolution, edited together into a Digital Intermediate (D.I.) and then color-corrected on Lustre. Television and surveillance camera imagery were composited using Flame. From top left, our executive producer Balazs Nyari, post production supervisor Steve Rutt, colorist Daniel DeVincent, producer Eric Nyari and director Atsushi Ogata.
Sound effects & dubbing were realized at Cinema Sound Works in Tokyo. Dialogue recordings were cleaned up by sound mixer Yasushi Eguchi (center), various sound effects ranging from barking dogs and Japanese toys to machine gun shots in TV drama and theater were prepared by Shoko Sato (second from right), and mixed together with the music by veteran sound designer and CEO Takamasa Nakayama (far right). From left, sound assistant Hiromi Yukutake and boom operator Seiichi Sato.
Veteran editor Masahiro Onaga edited our film with incredible speed. Specialist in editing action, horror and comedy genre films, his sensibility was right on the mark for our film! Assistant editor Ayako Yamamoto helped prepare the English language subtitles, in spite of her never having done it before!
Experienced as an actor, comedian and improviser, director Atsushi Ogata would often explore and explain scenes by spontaneously acting them out himself, which in turn, generated more laughter.
The director’s father Shijuro Ogata often wonders when his son will grow up and get a real job. Upon visiting the film set, however, he was pleased to see his son working intensely on a film in which the father character is modeled after himself.
In Japan, internet cafés consist mostly of booths. It’s often cheaper to stay overnight there than in a hotel or a flat. However, there are all kinds of dangers, including bursting water pipes that can suddenly flood the entire floor and require your film crew to turn into a emergency rescue team!? (from left, prop master Kenji Arakawa and making-of director Fumie Nishikawa)
Filming in moving trains is one of the most challenging and exhilarating experiences. You have 30 seconds to board the train with all the props, equipment, cast, crew and the extra’s. 46 minutes to direct and film 6 camera positions, including setting up the props, camera, cast & extras for each shot, in spite of the light constantly changing as the train runs past other stations and through tunnels. After you survive this spaghetti Western experience, everything else is a piece of cake.
Shooting in 35mm in low-budget, required us to be innovative. Our camera & grip team used a jib, a steadicam and dollies to make our imagery more dynamic, energetic and romantic. Left picture, center is the DP Yuichi NagataJSC and left is loader Hidehiko Kobayashi. Right picture from left, focus puller Yaeko Shimizu, first assistant camera Mio Nakajima, and camera operator Yoshinobu Nagamori.
As a romantic comedy, our film needed a fast tempo. Co-writer Akane Shiratori (center) was concerned that otherwise our film would become too long. While script-supervisor Yoko Matsumura (left) kept track of timing with a stop-watch, director Atsushi Ogata (right) kept talking fast like a human machine gun, directing the cast to also speak faster.
Shooting in any public locations with lots of potential interferences can be an utterly hopeless nightmare, unless your unit production manager is the tough and amazing Shinji Haseyama (left). He can take care of cops, gangsters, motorcycle gangs, drunks and even a white cat that walks into your set. Leave it up to legendary location manager Etsuhiro Deguchi (center) to secure a free empty theater on a national holiday when nothing is available anywhere around Tokyo, or to find streets with the perfect view. You’ll never go hungry with the ever smiling key production assistant Hiroshi Kimura (right) who provides you with catering where you want to have both choices on the menu.
All we want to say is “Thank you!” to everyone who volunteered as extra’s in our film because you had the misfortune of knowing us personally, socially or otherwise.
In the spirit of Cast me if you can, First AD Naohito Sakai (right) was cast as the director for the TV series within the film, while third AD Shingo Tokuhiro (left) played the AD. Second AD Kazuyuki Chatani (center) doubled as a grip.
Comical props prepared by the art department - a gignatic spy pen that turns into a gun, a vending machine that shoots out cans and change and a eavesdropping cell phone!?
In the spirit of Cast me if you can, our art department cast themselves in posters used on sets. Art director Kazumi Kobayashi (left image - right), assistant Nao Uematsu (left image - left) and set decorator Takayuki Hirata (right).
益岡徹・永作博美主演の、国際共同製作映画『脇役物語』。
10各国以上の出資家の支援によるアメリカ式インディペンデント映画の製作体系で、いよいよ、7月19日、東京にて撮影開始!
監督は米国・ヨーロッパを中心に活躍してきた緒方篤。共演は松坂慶子・津川雅彦、他。
/"Wakiyakumonogatari"starring Hiromi Nagasaku, Toru Masuoka,Keiko Matsuzaka and Masahiko Tsugawa,is a Western-style romantic comedy based on an original script by up and coming writer/director Atsushi Ogata. Wakiyaku Monogatari is an international co-production with renowned New York restoration and post-production house Cineric, Inc.