my new reel!

Kitao Sakurai · December 8, 2005

Hey everybody,

Here's my new reel. It's sort of a cross between a music video reel and a narrative reel. The first thing on it I directed and shot, the second thing (the 2.35 one) I produced and shot, and the rest I just shot, except for the thing at the end, which I directed.

Hope you enjoy!

here it is:

kitaosakurai.com

Thomas Burns · December 12, 2005

Looks great! What did you do to the color pallette on the shot of the woman sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car toward the beginning of the reel? I love the colors.

Thomas Burns

Novice DP

Los Angeles, CA

Rolfe Klement · December 12, 2005

Very nice feeling to the reel. Congratulations! Tell more

What cameras, lenses?

Nice TK - who did it?

Did this Quicktime come off a digi transfer?

thanks

Rolfe

David Silverstein · December 13, 2005

Looks great! What did you do to the color pallette on the shot of the woman sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car toward the beginning of the reel? I love the colors.

Though the same thing when I saw it. I loved the color alterations you did on that can you share some stuff on how you went and did it?

Also, cameras mostly film im guessing.

LOOKS AWSOME!

David S.

Kitao Sakurai · December 14, 2005

Hey, thanks a lot!

In answer, that stuff at the beginning, with the very saturated colors and black and white stuff was shot with a super 16 Bolex, actually. I shot the entire video (for this Japanese pop thing) on this steadycam-ish flight stick and with one lens the entire time, an old (I think 7.5mm) Kinoptik. I love those lenses. In some of the shots you see this beautiful flame-like flare that occurs at the bottom of the frame which I really like, and upon closer examination of the footage I found to be caused by the image of the sun illuminating the clouds... it's hard to describe how it works, but kinoptics feel more grungy and organic to me than zeiss superspeeds or whatever... I used two stocks - Ektachrome, which I had cross-processed (for the color stuff) and vision 2 500T 18 for the bw stuff (which I made bw in telecine). I also liked the look of the car interior stuff. I worked with a crew of 2 people for that one, so we had more freedom to go anywhere and move with the sun, basically.

The second thing - the 2:35 war stuff was 35mm 500T '79, which, upon extensive testing, was found to respond better to pushing and skip-bleaching than '59 or '18. It was shot with the beautiful cooke S2/S3 lenses. It was composed for 1:85 but I put a 2:35 matte on it just for my reel, cause I think it looks cool. The stuff with the woman and man in the bedroom was push process 1 stop and the war stuff was full skip bleach.

The other music vid. stuff following that was all super 16, a mix of '18 and the really really nice vision 2 250D. All of the extreme color "looks" were created mostly in telecine.

The last thing (the only thing that I didn't shoot myself, but wrote and directed) was 35mm vision1 200T with zeiss superspeed primes.

Thanks for the intrest.

best,

kitao

Rolfe Klement · December 16, 2005

I do have one minor thing after watching it a couple of times - there is a dynamic energy and risk taking in the framing in the earlier stuff that I really like but in the final 35mm project it is a bit too safe after all the fantastic stuff in the beginning

but as I said before - fantastic and great TK

thanks

Rolfe

Thomas Burns · December 21, 2005

What was the motivation for the vertical black stripes on the edges of frame in the black and white footage at the beginning? What caused it? I like it--seemed to spice the frame up a bit.

I agree that the first half of the reel is much more engaging and dynamic than the end. I thought the final footage was the weakest (though it still looked great).

Also, what song is that?

Thomas Burns

Novice DP

Los Angeles, CA

andrewwatson · December 23, 2005

hey, just wanted to say i really like your reel. Are any of the short films in your reel online for viewing? I would really like to see the one in the middle with the soldier. keep up the good work.

andrew

Kitao Sakurai · December 24, 2005

Hey, thanks.

Those black stripes were actually put there because when I shot with this reflex bolex super-16 "hr-16" (I think..) the filter-tray slot was dangling open for a few shots and fogged the extreme right side of the image in really strange strips. I thought that it was too distracting and "mistake-like" even though I liked the idea of side-fog like things... so in the on-line I just added these black vertical grads to both sides to cover the fogging and balance out the shots. I tried curved vignettes, but they looked too obvious and less interesting. In the end I think those grads improved some shots, like the opening one in the reel. I'm glad that light leak happened.

That soldier short film is a short called "Virgin Red," which I co-produced in addition to having photographed. You can go to it's site:

virginredmovie.com

You need flash 7 I think, but you can view stills, "making-of" things and pretty extensive content. We just did the TK a couple days ago so the film - or clips - should be up pretty soon.

And yeah, I hear you about the last half. I had wanted to include the 'slower' stuff at the end, as it was the first big 35 short that I had directed, and because it shows a pretty different tone from the rest of the stuff... but it is indeed slower and less immediately dynamic. Different people react to the inclusion of that last stuff in pretty different ways.

I'm thinking of maybe cutting a 2 minute "more dynamic" version, possibly.

What do you folks think? I mean, what does this reel say to you, if anything? What would you think as a director?

thanks!

kitao

Erik Turestedt · January 18, 2006

What is cross process?

Ektachrome cross process.

By the way superb colour.

Best regards,

Erik

January 18, 2006

What you did was great. My own personal criticisms lie mainly with your selection of content;-

1. Too many slow mo's.

2. Too much fighting.

3. Too many shots of the back's of people (in the beginning).

4. I felt that it lacked some very close-up sharply focused shots of faces interracting somewhere. Smiling one's too. I wanted to see some connection between characters in the film on a 'humanistic level'. Everyone seemed kinda individual to me.

5. I felt that it lacked a gritty expression or tears falling down the face, at some point. Something emotional. I felt that there were no really emotional moments going on.

6. All the emotions in there, I felt, were of a similar capacity.

7. It did not move me emotionally.

8. I felt that there were too many handheld and tracking shots.

9. Didn't you want to do any shots from higher elevations?

10. How about a love scene/element? An 'I love you' moment might of offered a nice contrast... and appeal to those who don't like fighting.

Colourful! Yes, very good images. overall. Great. Just my 2c worth...

Sean Azze · January 19, 2006

Hey Man

Amazing stuff. Really loved how you cut it to that Kanye track - has a real light, playful feel to it.

Some of the stuff in the bedroom was really dark (at the start of the 2.35 sequence) but that might just be my monitor.

Really the only thing I'd recommend is you cut it down - 2 minutes sounds like the way to go.

Congrats

Scott Bullock · January 19, 2006

I liked it a lot, but at times it seemed a tad repetitive. In my opinion, isolate (I understand this can be difficult) those best of the best shots and scale its running length to 00:02:00:00 and it'll be real slick. Nice work!