Sony - FUTURE PROOF : What is the Future of Filmmaking?
Upbeat music plays. A bold white Sony logo sits in the upper left corner of the view against a magenta background.
ON SCREEN TEXT: SONY
On the left side of the view, a cone-shaped window swipes open, revealing a video chat feed. A Japanese woman with a ponytail and a white cardigan sits in her home. Behind her is a bookshelf lined with books, a globe, a white orb, and a stuffed figure of a cartoon bird. Text appears beside her video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Nao Kondo
Artist & Entrepreneur
Nao waves.
NAO
“Hi, Diana!”
A second cone-shaped window swipes open on the right side of the view, revealing a young mixed-race woman with a pulled-back afro wearing a pink hoodie. A shelf behind her holds a plant pot with medals looped around it, and a cup of paint brushes. Text appears beside her video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Diana Sinclair
Artist & Activist
DIANA
“Hi, Nao!”
As the women disappear, a red semi-circle descends from the top right and a horizontal arc pushes into the magenta background from the left side, revealing a film crew on a sound stage. A man peers through a film camera and a man holds a thick cable behind him, his camera trained on an actor walking in front of a screen showing a virtual set of a sun rising over a vast plain. Text appears beside a white line trailing over the scene.
ON SCREEN TEXT: What is the future of Filmmaking?
The scene sweeps away, and Nao and Diana’s windows reappear. As Nao speaks in Japanese, yellow subtitles appear.
NAO
“Before the shutdown, I was working with engineers from all over the world. Now I’m doing everything by myself, but it’s really hard.”
Diana nods, then responds in English.
DIANA
“Yeah, I think so many creatives have felt similar challenges this year, and that’s what I love about this idea. It’s giving access to these younger creatives to the people and the technologies that they need, when they need it the most.”
On the film set, a camera operator and a director in a fedora stand silhouetted against the sun rising over the trees. Text appears in a purple bubble beside the director.
ON SCREEN TEXT: TOHO STUDIOS
Tokyo, Japan
Now a film director, a slender Japanese man in a fedora and a graphic t-shirt, interviews against a dark background. A purple bubble with text appears beside him.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Shinichiro Ueda
Film Director
Yumemi’s Amazing Journey
Director/Writer/Editor
As he speaks in Japanese, yellow subtitles appear.
UEDA
“Challenge is what motivates me to make a film.”
He sits in a chair on the film set, a medical mask covering his mouth, focused intently on a screen attached to a camera.
UEDA
“Action!”
A Japanese man with center-parted dark hair slouches in front of the dark background as he interviews. Yellow subtitles appear as he speaks.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Yohei Kikuchi
Producer
Sony Pictures Entertainment
KIKUCHI
“The DIVOC-12 program was founded to support filmmakers and help them tell their stories during this unprecedented time.”
A scribble of vibrant colors swirls across the view, then slips away in strands, leaving bold English text with Japanese kanji beneath it.
ON SCREEN TEXT: DIVOC-12
A film crew wander down a street beneath a web of power lines. A man holding a notebook peers through the viewfinder of a camera, a lush forest in the distance behind him.
KIKUCHI
“We saw how hard the film community was impacted during the past year.”
A woman in a yellow sweater walks through a tree-lined street with a man in a bucket hat and face mask carrying a notebook. Now a crew films an actress wearing a Japanese school uniform standing in an alleyway. Kikuchi briefly appears, then Ueda appears in the interview room.
UEDA
“There were a number of challenges.”
A timelapse shows a film crew on a soundstage busily working as a wall-sized screen cycles through various digital sets.
UEDA
“One was the virtual production I used for my film.”
Two actors ride a stationary motorbike in front of a screen showing a road speeding past behind them, as though the motorbike were racing forward. The driver holds tight to his porkpie hat as the woman riding behind him grins over his shoulder.
ON SCREEN TEXT: ©2021 Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. All rights reserved.
UEDA
“Another was the fact that there were four directors working together as one team to make a film.”
In an office, Ueda writes on a whiteboard, smiling back at another director, Miyako Evans, a young Japanese female filmmaker with sandy hair pulled back in a bob, who watches with a pen perched in her hand. Now Ueda sits with a man with short hair, both wearing masks, then rises to his feet. On the film set, Evans gestures at a script in her hand as she addresses a man and woman. Ueda sits with Evans on a plush couch, both happily engaged in conversation. On the soundstage, Evans gazes forward with a dreamy look, then interviews in front of the dark background. As she speaks, subtitles appear.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Miyako Evans
Film Director
The Front Cover
Director/Writer/Editor
EVANS
“When I first began this project, everything seemed like a dream, and I was very nervous.”
Evans speaks to her crew on the set, then watches footage of a woman picking up a tea cup.
EVANS
“That’s when I realized that I really had a lot to learn.”
She turns around and holds up a hand with her thumb and forefinger pressed together in a “perfect” gesture. Now Ueda opens a door and gazes into a dark room.
UEDA
“For DIVOC-12, I was introduced to this new technology called virtual production.”
He strides onto the soundstage, silhouetted against the vibrant sunrise over the virtual set of the plain.
UEDA
“It allows you to shoot many different locations all in one place, so you don’t need to shoot on location.”
Ueda, Kikuchi, and a camera operator stand in front of the giant curved screen, which displays the inside of an industrial warehouse. Ueda taps the screen, and it turns a blank white with computer command windows displaying text. A camera pans back and forth over Ueda, walking in front of the background of the plains. The camera operator slides the camera over the soundstage.
KIKUCHI
“There are about a dozen scenes packed into a 10-minute film, which would have been impossible to shoot in just three days on location.”
ON SCREEN TEXT: ©2021 Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. All rights reserved.
Film scenes flash past. Horrific zombies with decaying flesh, and an eldritch fish creature with a gaping mouth lined with spikes, rise up around a sneering woman in an office building. Two men with glowing red laser swords slash past each other in a warehouse. A waiter in a restaurant props a woman wearing a hairband against his arm, a tray of glasses balanced on his other arm. The two stare lovingly at each other. A bloodied man lies unconscious against a tree trunk in a forest. A woman in front of a blurry background looks up with fierce determination in her eyes. In a house in a black and white movie, a father sits down and comforts his sobbing daughter. Now a young boy with glasses watches in awe as the woman from the office building, no longer with the zombies, jumps into the air and flies through the sky, then reappears in the empty office building. The view pulls back, revealing a camera operator filming her in front of the virtual production screen.
KIKUCHI
“So I think the technology was a good solution for what Director Ueda wanted to do.”
Ueda and a camera operator gaze over a camera. Kikuchi slouches in a chair. A timelapse shows the film crew filming scenes in front of various backgrounds on the virtual production screen.
EVANS
“I hope this project will inspire people like me who are interested in filmmaking to take the first step.”
Evans and Ueda talk to an actor in a room with white walls, then sit together with two men behind them. Evans peers down at a script. Now Evans strolls in front of the virtual production screen, silhouetted against a scene of a girl eating ice cream in a quaint home while watching a game show on a television. Evans interviews, then Ueda interviews.
UEDA
“I hope this film will inspire people to make films themselves.”
He gazes up with joy at the background of the sun rising over the plains. The magenta background reappears, and Nao and Diana’s windows sweep open again.
NAO
“It’s exciting to see how technology opens up so many possibilities in filmmaking. It makes me want to make one of my own!”
DIANA
“And what sort of movie would you make?”
NAO
“I’d like to make a movie about life in the future. With people and robots living together on land, in the sea, all around the world.”
Diana grins.
DIANA
“I would absolutely watch that film.”
NAO
“What kind of movie would you like to make?”
DIANA
“I would probably make an afro-futuristic space film.”
Nao’s eyes widen with excitement.
NAO
“That sounds really interesting!”
Two red semi-circles appear in front of a magenta background. The left side has bold English text with Japanese kanji beneath it, and the right has a Sony logo.
ON SCREEN TEXT: FUTURE PROOF SONY
With a single high-pitched note, a bold Sony logo appears amidst watery blue light.
ON SCREEN TEXT: SONY