American Cinematographer - February 2005 - 18

for

one

stock for

a

movie," he notes. "I

like the visual

continuity a single stock
provides, even if it's difficult to look
through the viewfinder when a lens has
to be packed with ND filters for a dayexterior shot."

Although the cinematographer did
place two 40-watt Kino Flo tubes in the
children's tatami

room

to facilitate expo¬

during night scenes, he decided to
"respect the darkness" at the picture's
emotional low point. When Yuki, the
youngest, dies after a fall, her siblings
quietly pack her into a makeshift coffin,
sure

the

same

suitcase used to sneak her into

the apartment in the film's opening
scenes. Yamazaki shot the night vigil by

candlelight, wide

T1.3.
exemplifies Kore-eda's
strategy for coaching the film's principals,
a philosophy he calls "shooting the
action." Fie explains, "I tried to show the
characters' emotions by their actions,
through the movements of hands, arms,
heads or whole bodies, without relying on
dialogue or facial expression. I tried to
focus the kids on physical activities. I
didn't give them scripts, but instead occa¬
sionally prompted them with whispered
This

Above:

Kyoko

(Kitaura Ayu,
left) reads to her
sister Yuki

(Shimizu
Momoko).
Below: Director

of

photography
Yamazaki
Yutaka.

who did his

own

operating, could roll at

almost any time. "I was confident that if
I could build a relationship with the chil¬

dren, I could shoot them without their

being overly aware of the camera," says
cinematographer. "I'm always keen
on
building relationships with my
subjects. As a documentary filmmaker,
my job is to carefully watch the nuances
of my subjects' feelings. I like to keep
such feelings somewhere deep in my

the

heart when I shoot fictional films, too. I
never
considered
modifying my
approach to accommodate the children.
To film anyone, you need curiosity,
respect and love."
Yamazaki didn't replace the
apartment's fixtures with film lamps; the

fluorescent

over the sink shines a sickly
and the bulb over the kitchen
table looks decidedly orange, some¬
times in the same shot. "I try to empha¬
size the colors of existing bulbs in every

green,

scene

of

because I'm keen

on

the textures

space," he emphasizes.
In a sequence that shows elder
daughter Kyoko reading a book to her
sister, both girls are bathed in soft, white
sidelight from the sun - a lucky coinci¬
dence of natural light and action. "I
never arranged the children in the light
intentionally," says Yamazaki. "Everyone
[gets] covered with light that reflects his
or

a

her character, like it or not."
Yamazaki filmed

on

Nobody Knows
Fuji Super-F 500T 8672. "I always opt

open at

scene

lines."

One exception to this rule,
however, pushed the limits of the film¬
makers' naturalistic methods. As Akira
drifts through

the crowded city, distraught
point-of-view shots

after Yuki's death,

mimic his disorientation. The

camera

is

handheld and unstable, and the image is
four stops overexposed. "Kore-eda
wanted to

distinguish that scene from the
movie," says Yamazaki, "and I
thought the overexposure might involve
the viewer emotionally in Akira's numb¬
rest of the

ness

at that moment."

Earlier in the film, for scenes

showing Akira venturing out into the city
to scavenge for food or beg for money,
Yamazaki stole high-angle shots from
rooftops with a Canon 12x zoom, and he
tried to maintain the visual claustropho¬
bia of the apartment by framing out the
sky. "When Akira goes outside, we
aimed to depict the real feeling of a
stranger living in Tokyo," he explains.
Adds Kore-eda, "He's alone in

16

February 2005

a

crowd."
American Cinematographer - February 2005

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