In just 7 days the Tokyo Olympics will get underway. But did you know that back in 2017 we were selected to produce a short film to promote Tokyo in the lead up to the Games?
Our brief was to show a side of Tokyo that people may not have seen before.
We created ‘Shakespeare in Tokyo’, exploring Tokyo through the eyes of a young man with Down syndrome who escapes the watchful eye of his older brother to discover the city on his own!
Even back then when we were filming, the city was buzzing with Olympic excitement. A mad rush to complete construction everywhere and Olympic banners down the sides of streets.
We absolutely loved Japan and creating this film has been a career highlight so far.
We worked with a mostly local Japanese crew, and brought just a couple of Aussies over with us to bring the film to life.
A little filmmaking secret… we actually shot the whole film twice!
As we would be filming in very public places and we had scheduled a lot to capture in a short amount of time, we paced the streets of Tokyo first and shot the entire film on my iPhone ahead of filming. This allowed us all to work out ahead of time exactly what would be required on the day.
Here's a preview of how the first version looked :)
We also partnered with the Japan Down syndrome society and mentored a group of filmmaking students. Genevieve ran a filmmaking course and then the heads of departments from our crew mentored local people with disability on set.
This was the first time something like this had ever happened in Japan!
"Shakespeare in Tokyo is a truly wonderful film. I could have spent hours in this world with these characters. This is hopeful and humanistic work of art made with love and attention to detail."
Luke Buckmaster Film Critic; Guardian
So in the lead up to the Games, please enjoy a taste of Japan with our film 'Shakespeare in Tokyo'...
Henry Smith
Henry is one of those rare creative types who can switch from creativity and ideation to logistics and screen business with the elegance of those fancy quick costume change acts. He is also the co-founder of Taste Creative.