Project “Film and Music/Sound Effects”

HCMC: 17 and 18 Dec 2012
Ho Chi Minh City University of Theatre and Cinema
–
Hanoi: 20 and 21 Dec 2012
Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema

From The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange:

The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam and UNIJAPAN, in cooperation with Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema & Ho Chi Minh City University of Theatre and Cinema, proudly present a two-day intensive project on “Film & Music/Sound Effects” by young promising film makers from Japan both in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from 17 – 21 December.

Blockbuster films with enormous budgets are mostly produced by studios in Hollywood and it seems to be reckless for filmmakers in the rest of the world to compete with them in the same way.

While some film producers and film makers are dreaming of working in a Hollywood style or reaching to the Hollywood level, the other creators are exploring the alternative possibilities of film making in different ways.

Mr. Tetsuaki Matsue, for example, made a documentary film “Live Tape” miraculously in a single 74-minute shot with an extremely low budget and won the Best Picture Award in “Japanese Eyes” section at 22^nd Tokyo International Film Festival in 2009.

Mr. Satoru Hirohara, a young master-degree graduate from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, also directed a film “Good Moring to the World!!” with a relatively small budget, featuring no name actors/actresses, and won a couple of awards including the Dragon & Tigers Award for Young Cinema at the 29^th Vancouver International Film Festival in 2010.

Both award winning films “Live Tape” and “Good Morning to the World!!” will be screened with Vietnamese sub-titles as samples of such alternative endeavors, followed by Q&A sessions with directors. Besides screenings, Mr. Tetsuaki Matsue will deliver his lecture on “Film & Music” to share his thoughts on this theme. Mr. Satoru Hirohara, on the other hand, will discuss about the film education in universities in Japan, welcoming Mr. Takaaki Yamamoto (Recording Engineer / Studio Engineer) as an interlocutor. Both lecture and discussion will be delivered in Japanese with Vietnamese interpretation.

One more exciting event in this project is a workshop on “Sound Effects” by Mr. Masaya Kitada, one of the best Sound Effect Engineers and Foley Artists in Japan. For exclusively invited promising students and young film makers, he will disclose his process of working in detail, introducing how to use the worldly standard software for Sound Effects in DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), Pro Tools.

We do hope this project will inspire lots of young Vietnamese students and filmmakers to develop their own alternative ideas in the future. Feel free to come to join the project!

Detailed schedule

Monday 17 December (in HCMC) & Thursday 20 December (in Hanoi):

08:30 – 09:00       Introduction about the project and Japanese artists

09:00 – 10:30        Lecture on “Film & Music” by Mr. Tetsuaki Matsue (Film Director)

10:30 – 12:00         Film Screening “Live Tape” (2009 / 74’ / dir. Tetsuaki Matsue), Q&A

14:00 – 15:30         Lecture by Mr. Satoru Hirohara (Film Director) & Mr. Takaaki Yamamoto (Recording Engineer / Studio Engineer)

15:30 – 17:30         Film Screening “Good Morning to the World!!”

(2010 / 81’ / dir. Satoru Hirohara), Q&A

Tuesday 18 December (in HCMC) & Friday 21 December (in Hanoi):

09:30 – 11:30         Workshop on sound effects with Mr. Masaya Kitada

14:00 – 15:30          Workshop on sound effects with Mr. Masaya Kitada (continues)

15:30 – 17:00         Evaluation

Film synopsis

Live Tape (2009, 74’, dir. Tetsuaki Matsue, documentary film) is all about intimacy, the intimacy of following singer-songwriter Kenta Maeno as he wanders through the streets of Kichijoji city on the first day of 2009, performing songs about life and love. It is also an intimacy that could only be achieved in a film made in one take, with minimum equipment and no script – the ultimate new-wave film.

Good Morning to the World!! (2010, 81’, dir. Satoru Hirohara, feature film) High-school boy Takahashi Yuta is effectively bringing himself up alone. His father is long gone and his mother is constantly off on trips; she leaves him notes and modest amounts of cash to keep himself fed. Not surprisingly, he’s a bit of a loner at school. But he’s fascinated by (identifies with?) the vagrant man who sleeps in a road tunnel near his home, and when that man is killed – apparently by a gang of local delinquents – he sets off on a quest to find the dead man’s family and friends, following clues in the man’s bag. For Yuta, this becomes a formative lesson in the ways of the adult world, taking him far beyond the teenage obsessions of his noisy classmates.