ABOUT
In 2017, a creative education program was held in Yokoze town, Saitama, by several top creators in Japan. This film project was to be the final output of the program, and was held in aim to develop the students leadership, team-building skills and creativity. The students who participated wrote their own plot and script, and three of them were selected to be filmed by themselves as a short film.
PLOTMAKING
The theme of the final output was “A piece where the students can feel a sense of pride and love for their own home town”. Therefore in the plot-making stage, the students first elicited some keywords associated with the community by using a huge map. Using the keywords, the students each created a plot for their original story through numerous dialogues amongst themselves and the creators.
SCRIPTWRITING
Next the students wrote an original script and storyboard with the guidance of a professional. Visualizing the story in your head, putting it into accurate words to communicate it to others, was all a big challenge for the students. As they learned the basics of visual storytelling, the students worked for many hours to complete their original scripts for the first time.
SHOOTING
Amongst the original scripts, three were selected and a film crew was arranged for each story. The shootings of the stories were done entirely by the students, taking the role of director, cameraman, production management and casts. With a shared mission, each student became more aware of their responsibility of shooting the stories. This has lead to growing autonomy amongst the members, and enabled the production of a personal and high quality film piece.
