Thursday, May 23, 2013

New Neighbor - The Poster

The poster for "New Neighbor" is complete!



Created by writer / designer Yoshiki Takahashi, it is pretty much everything I could have hoped for. Hats off to Yoshiki for another amazing contribution to the "New Neighbor" production.

I'm also pleased to announce too that the film will have its premiere screening tomorrow night (Friday 24 May) at "Japan Filmfest Hamburg" in Hamburg, Germany.

Here's a link to the film's entry...in German of course.
http://www.jffh.de/2013/new-neighbor/

Until next entry...

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Trailer for New Neighbor

I'm happy to report that after much back and forthing, my awesome editor Yasu Inoue and I have completed the trailer to my upcoming film, "New Neighbor".

Actually, the film itself was completed this past week. It's hard to believe that two years has past since I first thought up the story and over a year since the bulk of the shooting was completed. But that's the way it goes for small productions. Not able to pay out a lot, I have to work around other people's schedules or figure out how to do things myself. This is not a complaint at all. I feel lucky that I can do the things I want and with people I like and respect. Everyone involved with "New Neighbor" has only been 100% supportive.

Next week I'll be announcing the first screening of "New Neighbor". I'm also working on more screenings.

Here's the trailer... I hope you like it.
(Click photo to access trailer:)



Friday, May 3, 2013

And now The iDol does facebook!

Taking a cue from the page I made for my upcoming film, "New Neighbor", I decided to make a similar page for my first film, "The iDol".

Click the banner to visit and perhaps bestow the page with one of those much sought after "likes":


Why now after all these years since finishing the film?

First off, I've never been happy with the outcome of the film and how it's never gotten a release. While I'm well connected to filmmakers, I'm not so when it comes to the business end. I did have a few meetings with DVD companies in Japan, but I felt their offers were self-serving and there was a general sense of laziness to the way they do business (a common problem in Japan). I wasn't looking to retire from the film, but I also wasn't looking to getting ripped off, or get with some company I have to bow to all the time while they do nothing (a common problem in Japan). So, I've basically sat on the film...

However, that's about to change.

A month or so ago, the on-line video service Vimeo introduced an "on demand" option. As such, I'll be offering "The iDol" on the site in a few weeks time. I have a few things to do on the film before it is available, however. Now that I'm a professional subtitler I'm giving the film a new set of subs I feel will make it more enjoyable for non-Japanese speakers. I also have to work out my account with Vimeo (figure out how this on demand thing works!) and get the film's splash page looking pretty. Thank god it's the holiday time in Japan (Golden Week) so I can sit at Starbucks all day long working on it while everyone else is out having fun... :-/

In the meantime, I've uploaded a trailer to "The iDol" that I made this week. It's more what we call in Japan an "image trailer" as it's a collection of random scenes from the film. My hope is that this will give viewers a taste of the variety of material found within the film.

Here's the trailer:
(Click photo for trailer:)


I'll update the blog again once the film is up and ready for eyeball consumption!