Archives: プロダクションノート

Production Notes 1: Miyuki Tanaka

September 25th, 2017

This movie has a preceding title. INNERVISION was a movie in which Kato, a congenitally blind man, experienced the sites of filmmaking and scriptwriting by the guide of Makoto Sasaki, Kato’s friend and film director, and ended with a scene where the introductory narration was recorded. When I saw that title, I felt it was not a movie about visual impairment, but a movie investigating the process of filmmaking from a different perspective of “not seeing.” Because he cannot see, questions that would query the fundamentals of movies, stories, and aesthetics occurred. A subject that could inquire the essential nature of “creation” could be found here, by focusing on themes that would have never been put on the table for discussion when your eyes could see. I felt the possibility of an unknown world exceeding perceptions of seeing/not seeing could arise by stepping into the further process of “visualizing,” thus, made my decision to actualize the production of this new serial movie.

Kato, who is blind, would never see his own short film included in this title. However, is it true that only the visual aspects allow us to “see” a movie? This movie in which the audience would be seeing, was made by staffs who have eyesight, under the direction of Kato. In the movie, all staffs are trying various possible ways in order to visualize the world drawn in Kato’s mind. No schemes would be possible to confirm whether the visual images in the movie precisely reflect the images inside Kato’s mind, but would it not be possible that Kato is the man who knows the most about that movie, although he wouldn’t use his eyesight?

Visual perceptions at times become an obstacle upon making deepest speculations. To see is not the only way to comprehend the world, but people who can see easily become captivated by what can be seen. The audience would be swaying back and forth the world of seeing and not seeing—trying to haul in the things in-between the two. That is what this movie, NIGHT CRUISING is about.