Following up on a June lecture at Meiji Gakuin University, DocCross Asia was again invited to give a presentation on July 29, entitled “Talking with the DocCross Asia international co-production team.” Professor Ikegawa Takayuki of Kyoto Institute of Technology hosted the remote talk by Nagoya TV producer Fuminori Murase, and Nguyen Nhat Duy and Phan Ý Linh. Thirty-two undergraduate and graduate students of media and design at the Academic Field of Design participated and posed a wide range of questions. (See Project Updates: Filmmaking is “painful but fun!”, July 2021)

Here’s a sample:

• How does your experience in news reporting apply to documentary production?
• What are the differences between making feature films and documentaries?
• How do you get around media suppression when dealing with sensitive topics?
• What should we keep in mind when making documentaries?

“I’m a ‘news guy,’” Murase explained, “so the way I shoot footage is rather bland or flat. Shooting in a short time and getting the footage out quickly for broadcast is an ingrained habit. But working with my Vietnamese partners made me realize I've hadn’t been shooting carefully, one cut at a time. I was reminded of the power of images.

“Also, in Japanese TV, we often go out knowing beforehand what we’ll shoot and then fill in the story. But this narrows down the possibilities. With my Vietnamese partners, I must create the story from the footage they shot in Vietnam. That is an exciting experience I never had when working on my own.

“Now I feel I must listen more deeply to my subjects, reconfigure the settings according to the footage, search for new materials, among other things, and that is very stimulating for me.”

Then Duy, a director who originally worked on fiction films, explained the lure of documentaries.

"While you can create a fiction film with your own perspective, making a documentary is a process of discovering other people's perspectives. Then we need to create a story while respecting those perspectives. I met many people in so many different conditions. Each time was a surprising experience and every time I encounter new perspectives, I feel empowered."

Finally, Linh shared her thoughts about the essence of documentary production.

"We focus on the human story. We don’t focus on specific issues, or blame anybody, but we try to lay out a focus on people’s emotions. People's wishes for a better future are not sensitive topics, and there is always a way to depict them.

“The most important thing in portraying people is time and patience. You really need to take time for your protagonist. No rushing. Before shooting, we listen to the subject and understand their psychology, their wishes, and their challenges. Then, to let them express their emotion, we distance ourselves and use a wireless microphone to pick up all their dialogue. Even for one minute of footage, we must hold the camera for hours to capture the words and expressions that reveal their thoughts. It's a lot of work, but if you're flexible enough to change the story according to what you get, it will be an exciting time, full of discoveries and surprises."

This kind of international co-production, conducted remotely due to the pandemic, also requires patience and flexibility. So we were particularly struck by the filmmakers’ words conveying the excitement of discovering new perspectives:

"Watching the images from the other side for the first time is like opening a jewel box.”