Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda’s observational documentary Campaign is a fascinating film about one candidate’s campaign in the strange world of Japanese election. In the following Skype video interview, Soda and I chatted about Campaign, the Peabody-award winning film I love, and his latest project temporary entitled Theatre.
[HT to Mad Dog for introducing me to Soda’s film]
The following time codes and descriptions will give you a quick way to revisit a topic that interests you the most.
Time Codes for Part 1:
0:00 Soda’s Peabody award experience and of being told on April 1st
0:53 How did Soda convince “Yama-san” and the LDP party to let him shoot the film?
2:05 Why Soda knows the film is going to be interesting before he shoots? The traditional political party of LDP vs the liberal and Bohemian “Yama-san” (this is a great story, you need to hear where Yama-san went to for honey-moon)
3:45 More about the conflicts b/n LDP and Yama-san
4:39 What makes this story interesting
5:05 Soda’s advice to new filmmaker to film an election?
6:13 Soda’s idea of an observational film and how to make an interesting documentary.
Time Codes for Part 2:
0:00 How many hours of footage did Soda shoot for his films (Campaign, Mental, and Theater)?
1:10 An update on “Yama-san”
2:38 Talking about Soda’s editing process.
3:55 Does Soda write a script when he is editing?
5:38 Soda’s process of creating/finding logic & POV.
7:10 What does Soda focus on when he shoot?
Time Codes for Part 3:
0:00 What happens in the editing room
0:37 When to start and stop recording/shooting? For example, when shooting Campaign, Mental, and Theater.
3:34 What kind of equipment Soda used to shoot? Shot three films with Sony HDV Z1.
5:15 What is Soda’s advices to people who want to make a documentary? (very insightful)
Posted in Documentary, InterviewByKempton, InterviewByKempton-Arts, Japan, politics, Video, World, YouTube 
