ScreenAnarchy Interviews After The Apocalypse Director Yasuaki Nakajima

If you're a regular reader of this site then you already know that we're fairly smitten by After the Apocalypse, the debut film from Yasuaki Nakajima - a young Japanese director currently living in New York City. It's a starkly beautiful film and we were lucky enough to have a lengthy conversation via email with Nakajime about its creation ...

Let's start with a bit of background ... your bio mentions that you are largely self-taught. What sparked your interest in film? What were your early efforts like?

After I graduated from high school I went to Tokyo and spent a year making a short claymation film called “Hand & Egg” with a secondhand Super-8 mm film camera in my apartment at night while working during the day as a high-rise window cleaner. That was my film school. I wrote, shot, edited, sound designed and moved my clay actors. I learned all the basics of filmmaking from making one 12-minutes claymation movie. I also learned a lot from watching films at a theatre called Bungeiza Theatre in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

Bungeiza Theatre had Saturday over-night screening of art films like Kurosawa, Kubrick, and Truffaut films, stuff like that. So I used to go there every Saturday after my window-cleaning job (I worked Saturday too) drinking coffee and stayed until morning watching three feature films over night. And slept Sunday all day and went to work on Monday morning.

Why America instead of Japan? Is it really that hard to break in to the Japanese industry?

My short claymation film, "Hand & Egg" was screened at Image Forum Film Festival in Tokyo, but that’s all about it. At the time, there weren’t many places to show independent films or to learn filmmaking in Tokyo unless you worked for a Japanese Film Studio. Actually, I enrolled for half of a semester at a night film school but soon after I realized I wasn’t learning any practical filmmaking at all. So I quit after one semester and gave up to go film school.

In my review I compared your film to Shinya Tsukamoto and Chris Marker ... are you familiar with their work? Are there any film makers that you consider key influences?

I saw Shinya Tsukamoto’s “Tetsuo” during my high-rise window cleaner days. It was inspiring to know he produced, wrote, directed and edited it himself. But he had been commercial director for many years. That’s how he learned to make films. He saved up enough money to make “Tetsuo” by directing commercials and quit his job and worked on “Tetsuo” for a few years. To me, to get into commercial industry is harder than making independent film. I remember I felt his way of becoming a feature director was impossible for me.

But I think both “After the Apocalypse” and “Tetsuo” are similar types of film. When you bring up his name I just realized that. Both films are like painting. And sound is important as much as picture for both films. A critic, Fred Thom wrote a review about After the Apocalypse saying “a film to be approached as an experience, rather than as standard plot-fueled fare” I think “Tetsuo” is also that kind of film.

Recently I saw Chris Marker’s “La Jetee” since someone told me that I should see it. It was after I finished “After the Apocalypse” though. “La Jetee” is also similar type of film as “Tetsuo” and “After the Apocalypse” They are films “to be approached as an experience”.

My key influence is John Cassavetes. I remember I was really inspired when I saw his "Woman Under the Influence" at Bungeiza Theatre. I was like "Wow, this is really real. I felt those people in the film. They are real. They are really living their life!" I remember I thought I wanted make movie like that.

In your bio you talk a little bit about the frustration of living in places where you didn't understand the language ... how did that experience shape the film?

Soon after that I learned that John Cassavetes’s background was acting. And I thought, "Oh, I have to study acting like John Cassavetes.” I didn’t figure he was a NY based filmmaker until later though. But I figured I couldn’t study acting like that in Japan. And I thought I had to go abroad and study English first, then I can find a place to study acting like that. Then I will be a good director like John Cassavetes.

My first step for that was going to Australia in 1994. I didn’t know if I could study acting like John Cassavetes, but I knew Australians speak English and Australia is safe.

After I saved quite good money from my cleaning window job for four years, I quit the job and went to Australia to learn English. In order to learn English I gave a task for myself to hitchhike all around the continent so that I would be force to speak English.

But I was faced with a communication problem. I couldn’t pronounce any words right. I took some English class in Tokyo before I left there, but that was American English. I hadn’t thought that Australians speak with such a strong accent. So I developed non-verbal communication with eyes and body. But, I found it is possible to connect emotionally if I have strong needs. That's is the catalyst of creating AFTER THE APOCALYPSE.

When did you decide to come to America to pursue film?

During my staying in Australia I learned John Cassavetes was a NY based filmmaker. And I also watched films like "Lows of Gravity" and "Trust" which are made by NY based filmmakers. And I was really inspired by those low-tech high quality styles. And I thought "I gotta go New York" And I found Lee Strasberg Acting Institute in New York.

I was trying to get foreign student visa through that school, but I couldn’t convince them how serious I was about studying acting in America because I was hitchhiking in Australia for a year and had no history of studying acting.

But I found there was Lee Strasberg Acting Institute in London, England. They changed their name to Method Studio later. And I was accepted. I thought that’s a good step to get closer to John Cassavetes.

In London I was faced with a communication problem again, because they speak completely different English from Australian English. It was very frustrating time because my mind was always going to NYC to study acting and directing.

After one year at London school, I finally got American foreign student visa in 1996. And I enrolled at HB-studio. As you may guess, I had an another hard time to get used to with American English because I was speaking British English for a year.

I really enjoyed studying acting and directing theatre at HB-Studio, NY. And I was also obsessed with my experience of non-verbal communication I developed during my stay in Australia. And I really wanted to share the experience with art form. So I joined American Mime Theatre and started to take Le Coq style of physical workshop with Flying Machine.

It was around 1999. People were starting to worry the apocalypse may happen in the year 2000. And I got this idea: what if a global scale catastrophe happens and we lose our voice because of a catastrophe gas. That story can express my communication theme with higher stake in dramatic situation. In the situation, every decision is desperate and finding food is a life or death situation. Since we wouldn't need special costume or set to create apocalyptic setting, I became very realistic with this idea when I found a few great apocalyptic looking locations around my neighborhood in Brooklyn and Queens.

I read that you worked on After the Apocalypse for about five years ... was this time all in New York? How did your experience as an outsider in post 9/11 New York shape the film?

Yes, we spent five years making this film. 9/11/2001 morning I was walking on Chambers Street when the first airplane hit to the North Tower. I was heading for my class (starts at 9am) at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College. Chambers Street was just 3 or 4 blocks away from the Twin Towers. The airplane did fly over my head and crushed into the building. I was really shocked because I was making this apocalypse movie and I thought the same thing was going to happen for real.

So I ran up to Noho and hid in the office of the company where I had an internship. I was interning at several post-production companies at the time in order to learn sound work for completing AFTER THE APOCALYPSE. And I stayed there for all day to avoid the “Apocalyptic gas”. I didn’t really want to lose my voice. I was just like my character in "After the Apocalypse", hiding in basement….

How did you finance your film?

I think people take a risk to challenge them once or twice in a life. Some people invest on house, car, business and marriage. I invested five years of my life, dedication and any money I can find for making a feature film. I thought it was a right time to take a biggest risk of my life since I had made enough short films to know all phases of pre/pro/post-production process, and luckily I haven’t got enough experience to know what's kind of pains I was going through. Basically, I didn't have a family or kids, why don't I take a risk with something I’m passionate about? I borrowed money from my parents, their friends and my sister and I had been using whatever money I could find.

After picture-cut was done, I spent four and half years for unpaid internships at four post-production companies to learn how to create sound track and get access to those post-production equipment on weekend for free. If you are not in hurry, there is always way to get things for free. But if you think, “time is money” my style of filmmaking is not smart.

Apocalyptic imagery tends to crop up in all forms of Japanese art - I'm always a little surprised at how common it us in youth-targetted anime. Has the war left a permanent mark on Japan?

I didn’t realize it until you say that. But it is true there are many apocalyptic movies and anime in Japan. I wasn’t really a comic book reader or crazy with TV when I was kid. My parents never bought a TV. We didn’t really care about TV. But I sometime picked up TVs from the street and brought them home. Of course, those TVs didn’t work very well, so I didn’t have much expectation from TV.

One thing about comic books I remember is “Hadashi no Gen” (Barefoot Gen). It was a comic book about a boy who growing up in a waste land after the loss of his whole family after the Hiroshima bomb. The comic book was based on a true story and written by one of Hiroshima bomb survivor. I didn’t really read comic book, but that book was very fascinating to me, I remember….

How did the story come together?

I made a premise that we will go back to basics if we get some catastrophe stuff or crisis like nuclear war or destruction happens. We will have to communicate with basic level since we can't use cell phone or e-mail. My idea of this film is to capture these survivors in nature on film just like a wild life documentary film capturing behavior of those animals in nature. They don’t speak, but it’s interesting because every behavior has needs. I constructed the structure based on a theory of Maslow's human basic need theory that we have stages of need starting from air, water, food, take piss/shit, clothing, shelter, sleep, friend, sex, excitement, power, freedom, piece, family to society. I bought a white board to construct the structure of the film writing down the HUMAN NEEDS (themes), location, characters in the scene and what the character wants to achieve in the scene. And I moved the scenes around to make story sense.

After the story construction I came up with a 10 page story line to work on during the 3 months rehearsal process. There was about 40 scenes with a few sentence description of where each story take places, which character wants to achieve what, in each scene. That 10-page story line worked as a spine during the 3-month improvisation rehearsal period.

Did you have a clear idea of where you wanted to go with the story? I imagine the script must have been rather slim, how did you provide direction for your actors without having dialog to build around?

I went to drama school for three years before making this film. What inspired me most from going acting school is to learn three words: Objective, Obstacle and Action. Objective is a goal, which a character wants to achieve or get in a scene. Obstacle is a hurdle that disturbs them from characters reaching to their objectives. Action is physically, orally, psychologically doing things for the character to achieve the objective.

We did discuss the previous circumstances of each character and I gave their objectives and obstacles in each scene and I let the actors pursue their actions to achieve their character’s objectives and overcome obstacles rather than telling them what to do during the rehearsal process. I didn't even show them there was a story line because I didn't want them to expect how to act. I wanted them to discover during the rehearsal process. Some choices they made were expected but I never told them what to do. I wanted to keep them as their choices so their acting would be stronger and they remember.

Once we started shooting, there was no much need of discussion. We just recreated what we did from the rehearsal. We didn't even have proper script. I gave notes with what their goal in scene and their choices I liked. The lack of proper script created kind of vulnerability to characters and gave the actors a need to focus in a moment rather than thinking to act.

But our previous female lead actor didn't like the informal script style and left five days before the shooting. It was struggle to find a new actor two days before shooting…

Basically most of my directing job was done during the 3-month rehearsal period. The production time was like opening night for live theatre. Everybody knew what's going on and each crew enjoyed working on each part. The production was the smoothest moment compared to before and after.

Where did you find those ruined buildings? Was there ever a safety concern filming there?

I was looking for locations that looked deserted. So I looked at a map and made circles where we’re near rivers because I believed that human would live near water if modern society doesn't exist. So I did train rides through all five boroughs in New York and walked around with still camera, taking photos, creating photo book titled "Images of Apocalypse" And those deserted areas happened to be around my neighborhood, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Long Island City. And our cast and crew happened to live around the area. It was convenient location from city as well.

We did principal photography in November 1999. That was before 9/11 event, it was not difficult to get in and shoot wherever. There was an old broken factory warehouse floating on East River in Greenpoint, where early part of story takes place in the film. It was not difficult to get in those areas. But it was quite dangerous, actually. Every time we went to rehearsal we saw different look. Those walls of the warehouse were corroding every day. But our DP and crew were excited with the post-apocalyptic look of the location and didn’t really care about the danger, anyway.

About three month after the shoot, I visited the old warehouse to see how it became, and found it disappeared completely. I thought I came to a wrong place so I checked the street number, but I was right at the same spot. There was nothing left. There was just the East River. It seems like the warehouse sank into the East River totally.

Basically, all our locations have disappeared. The main hut and the deserted area in Long Island City are covered with big building construction now. Williamsburg near East River is fenced and nobody can go in now. The only way to find that deserted cool look of Brooklyn and Queens now is to look at this film.

The same question holds on the technical end ... I'm amazed you were able to put together such a good looking film with your first effort, especially with you being acting in most scenes ... how closely did you work with your DP to get the look you wanted?

I had to use myself as a main actor was just because I couldn't find any actor who would participate the three months acting workshop plus two weeks straight shooting. I was the only person available.

Everybody had to work, you know. I was the only person who I knew that could work the long period + two weeks straight shoot for free. That organic choice came out as a good result since I knew the story and circumstance so well. And I am glad that the organic casting decision resulted to cast Asian lead, myself, because we don’t see Asian leads often in American media.

Basically, my directing job was done during the three-month rehearsal with actor and one week tech rehearsal with our DP before the shooting. Once we started to shoot, everyone knows what's going on. I was able to concentrate on only acting during the production.

Only thing I found it difficult to direct myself is when I was acting for love scene. That’s the only part that we couldn’t rehearse much because you don’t want to lose the excitement by rehearsing too much. When I am acting, I am in a character and need to see the situation from actor's subjective point of view. I need to pursue my actor's goal subjectively and should not be objective. I almost have forgotten to say "Cut" during a love scene because I was so much into my character's objective…

Once we started the acting workshop, I had started to look for DP, which is the key of this film. I had put an ad on a monthly newspaper, Independent Film Monitor. I have received a few resumes and reels and met about 4 DPs. Most of DP did not take seriously because of the experimental style script format. Many said two weeks shooting for a 16-mm feature film is impossible.

Meeting Carolyn, our DP was a miracle. She has experience of commercial films as well as experimental films. She liked my idea of capturing these five survivors in nature just like a wild life documentary capturing animals in nature.

I took her to our rehearsal and spent a week of blocking with video camcorder. We basically shot the full movie with video camcorder at the actual location to figure out framing and blocking actors before we brought the actual film camera. The one-week tech-rehearsal process was a very important time. We discovered framing, lighting, and story arc from the process. My directing job for camera blocking was basically done during the one-week tech-rehearsal time. Once we started to shoot, everyone knows what's going on. We got most of takes in one or two takes. Shooting ratio was 2:1. We spent 10 days of principal shooting days in two weeks and spent another two days for re-shoot. We used two lights only in one location. Other than that, all natural day light with a bouncing board was our light source.

We used Aaton LTR 54, 16mm film camera with Cooke 9-50mm zoom to lens, mainly. And we also used Bolex with Switar lenses for hand-held shot.

Would you consider yourself more an actor who directs or a director who acts? Which part do you enjoy more?

I started studying acting simply because I wanted to be a better director. So I am a director who acts. I enjoy directing very much. But I am not sure if I can enjoy acting for film very much because of that business side of marketing image or casting process stuff. I don’t know much about acting, but there is so much to do with business to get a part. And even when you get a part; actor is not a strong position unless you are star. I am not strong enough as an actor to maintain the artistic side when I am surrounded by business and marketing ideas. I did act in my film because I had to and I did enjoy it, actually. I believe filmmakers have to do whatever to make film, like parents have to do anything for their child to survive.

I know the film has had some good success on the festival circuit ... have you had any interest from distributors or DVD companies?

Basically I have received requests for screeners from every single theatrical distributor when After the Apocalypse was selected for the Los Angeles Film Festival and SXSW Film Festival. But I keep refusing to send tapes and asking them to come to see the film at theatres because I don’t like imagining that they would watch my film on small TV screen during their lunch. But those executives didn’t come to screenings since I don’t have a rep that would call them. So basically none of acquisition reps have been watched our film yet.

We just got an offer to have its New York City Week-Long-Run Opening at THE TWO BOOTS PIONEER THEATER between March 16 and 22, 2005. The theatre found us from somewhere. I am looking to give out DVD screeners if acquisition reps can’t make it to theatres.

What's next for you? Do you have any other projects in the works?

I have two projects that I have passion about, now. One is about a series of short comedy anthology pieces with plots based on a Greek anthology. It will be expanded into longer, feature-length films or TV series. The other one is a feature documentary called, “Backpackers” which is a verite style documentary follows the lives of several backpackers who cannot (or do not want to) participate in society. I am looking to spend next half decade as I spend my energy for AFTER THE APOCALYPSE!