Osaka Day 3 and then to Nagoya

The last day in Osaka turned out to be a HOT summer day!
We had to shoot in the burning sun:
Two scenes where the two of them ride their bikes, and also a scene in a small park with children playing soccer.

The cicadas were so noisy. It was really unbearable.

This is something that comes with the territory in summer shootings, and is a cause for headaches for the recording team. It’s an annual event that we somehow manage to forget about until we face it the next year.

All the staffs that could spare a hand took long sticks and jabbed at the cicadas.
We at least wanted to get them away as much as possible from the places we were recording the actors’ lines.

But the cicadas became louder than ever, as if they were making fun of us.

When I saw a pack of fire crackers lying in the corner, I had leisurely thought, “oh, I guess we’re going to have fun tonight!”, but actually, they were prepared to shock the cicadas. The recording staff moaned, “Hey, those aren’t going to do any good!”
“Even a canon would last only about a minute.”

Hm, I wonder what kind of project used canons to fend of the cicadas.

Just when we were about to give up, they all stopped ringing completely at one particular moment.
WHY???
Never mind, we can’t let this moment go, we have to make the most out it and shoot right now! But…once we tried to roll the film, it started again.

“….I guess we have no choice but to record it later.”
This means we will record the voices in the studio at a later date.
So, our high noon strategy resulted in a failure.

We wrapped things up early evening that evening.
The next day was reserved for moving to Nagoya, so tonight was the first night in a while that we would be able tot take it easy. Everyone went off drinking with their close buddies.

I too, got in touch with Producer Choi, and had a good talk with Yasu-san on such things like memories of our shooting session in Korea.

So, our job in Osaka finished according to schedule.

(originally posted in Japanese on August 4, 2006)