I'm Just a Girl

Trying to clear the rights for "I'm just a Girl" by No Doubt. Called Universal Music who hold the rights, and they told me that No Doubt songs are notoriously difficult to clear, but I'm hoping that the fact that Gwen Stafani has a strong connection with Japan will bode well. I've sent off an email with all of the relevent information. Now we wait.

In the meantime, Katsura has been working hard on her end to get clearances for all of the Karaoke songs. She's cleared "Ue o Muite," which is the song we plan to use at the end of the film. You can see it performed below by the wonderful Ningyoko. She's also got tentative agreements with some of the other rights holders.

Katsura kicks ass. She was a few years below me at The London Film School and is a director/writer as well as doing fab camera work. Her film Zekuu has been quite successful on the festival circuit. So melancholic and so beautiful...it's very skillfully directed. Check it out if you get a chance.

Oh yeah...the Marketing

Spent most of the day researching on WAB and BritFilms for all of the free festivals. I'm looking for November deadlines. I also have a "Top 40" list from Shooting People. Some of those are free...mostly the European ones. Patrick says this is because in Europe Film Making is subsidized by the Government. In America, it's not, so the festivals have to charge. It's a Capitalist State, remember? For the ones with fees, I have to weigh the cost over the festivals advantages.

Even with sites like WAB and ReelPort, it's bloody hard work. Waaaaaah!

Cloudy's Website

Cloudy has a new website: http://web.mac.com/cloudyb/iWeb/s/Mates..html. Check it out to see photos of his life in Japan and beyond.

Thinking Ahead

Met up with Silvia Cambie today. She runs Chanda Communications, and was introduced to us by one of our investors. She is getting us to think about marketing the film, which is good. For literally years, I have not been able to see beyond finishing the film. But, now that we are so close to finishing, we have to start thinking ahead, and I'm thankful that Silvia came along at the right moment.

We've inter-cut all of the characters, and Patrick had a huge epiphany last night about how to slice and dice them more. He's like one of those Japanese jujitsu knives that they used to sell on late night TV in America. He slices, he dices, he can even cut through corn on the cob. He's finishing off cut 7.3 to hand over to two viewers tomorrow. We're supposed to have the film as close to picture lock as possible by Wednesday. That's when it goes to Simon, our composer. Then it's off to Sweden for 11 days.

Silvia was asking me to think about which bits people will remember when they leave the film. For her, it was Ken...the Jewish boy from New York performing Christmas Mass in his role as rent-a-priest. But, it's funny. Each person that watches the film picks their own stand-out scene. One person said it was Christmas morning with Ken, Aki and the newborn Taiga. The family celebrated a hybrid of Christmas and Hanukkah. Another said it was Hiromi changing Dave's diaper after his butt operation...her devotion to him almost fanatical. And yet another said it was Cloudy, after performing in one of his shows, dropping a tiny girl off his lap. She squealed with laughter even after hitting the ground with a thud.

Of course I like all of the scenes in the film. But, I have to say that I am partial to the pauses...those sort of in between scenes that show Tokyo...complex, ineffable, dense...hiding secrets right on the surface of everything. Shhhh...

Tokyo Guts

Oh, yes. The guts of Tokyo Cowboys. But, if you look closer, there is some order to this.

We are well in the middle of inter-cutting the characters. It is a head f@ck. Patrick will have cut 7.0 done sometime tonight. He says he only has 3 notes. I'm holding my breath. We are so close.

Now, if we can just get around this damn postal strike, we might even make the Slamdance deadline.