Production Notes VIII
Schedule at the Bottom updated as of Dec.25, 2004

Feb.. 17, 2004.
Well, after going through a long dark tunnel, we can start to see the light at the end!
The final stages are coming together.
First of all I would like to thank all of the people who have helped me with this project. It has been an interesting,trying,hard, and fun at the same time.
New Staff Introduction:
The coordinator position is the most difficult and I have been fortunate to have some really great ones during the past two years.
First was Yasuko Mihara, Keiko Kawashima, Michiyo Ogura, Akiko Tahara, and now at present Saori Usumura.
Saori has been in touch with Merry and Kagrra so we hope to get the much needed interviews soon.
As for the Staff reunion on Feb.7th, I must say that I was a little sorry not to see more of you come. You missed food and drinks on me!
Plan of Action:
1)Get Sponsors for concert in Los Angeles(will do on trip to LA)
2)Get fan interview in house with parent(s)(No parents and no house so just one fan in bar talking about specific items)
3)Get Sunrise shot(one more time) Uyen is getting this shot!
4)Get night shot of Nightlife in Japan( All done)!
5)Get the rights to use music from various bands not in the film.( Work in progress)
6)Finish Voice over's and continue editing.(work in progress)
Above plan of action was Updated as of June 13, 2004
I am going to Osaka this Thursday and Friday on a business trip so I might be able to get some good shots of the Osaka nightlife. Kisaki is also in Osaka so I will try to contact him before I leave. Under Code Productions is the name of his company. I meet him in 1998 when he was with Mirage.
 
As of Feb. 22!
Well, Osaka was quick and tiring! I didn't get much sleep but I did get some nice shots of Namba nightlife by Sotoboribashi. Also on Saturday morning, Yasuyuki and I tried the Sunrise again after climbing up a mountain at 5 am in the morning. The bad thing is the cloud rolled in!!!! So once again, the weather missed up the shot but maybe I could use some of it somehow(I don't like busting my arse for nothing!!haha).
Schedule:
Kagrra Live at Shibuya Kokkaido March 3rd
We should just get the outside and some of the flowers being delivered. AMU will sponsor some Standing flowers for the band!
Merry interview in March or April.
 
Update: March 24
Well, we have not been lucky in Getting the interview with Merry. We may just put in another band. Now some good news! If you watch Space Shower TV(cable or Sky Perfect) then you may know Mr. Bryan Burton Lewis. He is very knowledgeable about Japanese Rock Music and has his own show and interviews bands. He will be letting us interview him and hopefully gives us a little push on air when the time comes to advertise the film.
Next up is Another Cheery Blossom Season so we will have to try and get some good shots even though the rain is coming.
Oh, Mr. Takigawa ex. Dope Headz Manager is now with Music Up Network which is in charge of Visunavi! That is the best web site for Visual Rock bands and he will be helping us try to find to good bands. He really believes in the project and we really must give him some good press when the time comes!
 
Update: June 13, 2004.
Okay, on May 21st, we had an interview with Ms. Akemi Oshima. Saori and Chieko were the staff for the day and everything went fairly well. However, when I got back home to look at the footage.... nothing!!! The tape was not playing back properly. I sent it out to the manufacturer but they also could not get it to work and sent be a new free tape! I am calm now but boy was this a big and costly error! So now I have to check to make sure the tapes are working correctly before shooting! So as you can imagine, we have to redo the interview. Ms. Oshima has been very nice in accommodating us by offering to redo the interview again. I am sure she will be even better.
 
Date's for interviews:
June 17(Thursday) between 6 and 8 pm. Location: Ikejiri Ohashi station: Place: Blackmore's (Rock Bar)
June 20(Sunday) Japanese Fan interview ( not in house):Location: Takadanobaba: Place: (Visual Rock Bar)
June 21 - 28 Merry interview. Also Kagrra update interview.
This should be the final interview so we can finish the film and continue editing.
Update as of June 25th, 2004
Well we finally got all of the bands interviewed! Merry went well after a few mishaps getting the screen to work. The bad news is that Kagrra would not let us get a follow up interview. The new label is being difficult! Oh, well to bad for them. So we are now in the final editing stages. I will go with what we have and forget Bryan Burton Lewis(Space Shower TV VJ) since his management is being also too difficult.
update Sept. 17
Well, it has been a long hot summer here in Tokyo, Japan. The editing has been taking longer than I thought and at one point, the film was about 3 hours!!!! So we had to cut down a lot of good parts. However, hopefully we will have a another chance to have a director's cut of the film and put back in some interesting things. It is funny since so much has happened t and I have not written a lot. Well, let's go back to July ...After coming back from LA to take care of some business, we began the final editing of the film. Sound and Subtitles have been a real problem and a pain! We also got to see Merry play live and here the new album and songs. They sound great and their live shows are always entertaining.
August
Well it is getting closer to the cut off date for film festivals and still the film is not complete. Since this film is being produced and directed by myself, I have to spend lots of money. So to support the film, I have to work!!! So the whole month of August was working at my P/T Job and trying to finished the editing. The Final Cut Pro HD is a bear of a program. Since the update, I have had nothing but problems and this has pushed back my schedule.......to be continued.
September
Well, after working hard in August and into September, I have been able to get this film done! I sent it out a rough copy to the Sundance Film Festival on 09/13 which was two days before the cut off. So let's hope they like what they see. However, after looking at what I sent them, I am not too happy with some mistakes that I saw after. Oh well, this has been a technology problem so there is not much I can do. Anyway, now it is time to party!!!
Wrap Party:
October 16th
From 7:30 to Late at Orange House in Sasazuka.
This is a party for all of my staff members who have worked with me over the past two years! Thank you all so much.
December: Well I submitted the film to the Sundance film Festival but out of 2900 films only 100 were selected and we were not one of them! So next is Tribecca in New York and Coachella in Palm Springs, California.