Shell 'Guitar Kid'

Director: Vince Squibb

I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to shoot in Tokyo Japan. Ironically our script took place in a small apartment that could have been built on a stage anywhere in the world. Despite this I was determined that the Tokyo nightscapes become a feature of the visual landscape of this film. Due to the restrictions of finding an apartment with the right view and shooting at nights with the child we opted to black out our set and composite plates of the night vistas in post. We also made a trans-light from photographs I took on my Cannon D5 that I had just bought in Tokyo and was enjoying playing with. In fact many of the night plates were shot on the D5 as it was easier gain permissions and to get a variety of plates from different positions around the city using this small unobtrusive camera than to drag a 35mm camera around. Essentially I treated this as a small dramatic scene from a movie and used somewhat classical framing and lens choice to imply tension and formality with the father whilst the shots of the ‘Guitar kid’ were, in contrast, looser and less composed. I particularly like the shot where he looks up at his reflection in the glass, beyond him is a plate that I ‘stole’ from the hotel bar just before departing for the Airport.