Hiroaki Hirakata

Your project takes a part in our festival. What is your project about?
The "URBAN CROW" project, which includes my "The tragedy of Spaceship URBAN CROW", is a video work that everyone is slightly interested in. This is an image drawn by AI, drawn by Midjourney. Then, fragments of songs composed and sung by an AI called CREEVO operated by a laboratory at Kyoto University are sent to the AI on a website called D-ID, an Israeli company. I just edited the video that was moved. As the director of these videos, I just did what a director should do: words, selection, and composition. In other words, I have shown the possibility of creating images with a new camera called AI and actors, and I am grateful that it has an appeal worthy of evaluation.

unnamed 1jpg

What were your requirements for actors to take a part of your film?
I have been directing commercial films for 40 years. What I expect from an actor is the color, scent and vibration that he or she possesses, and of course it is a spiritual meaning. The characteristic of an actor is to become a character and express that life in front of the camera. Like pianists, all actors are different. That's why I want understanding and cooperation, scent and vibration.

How did you communicate with the cameraman?
It's an interesting question, a question of someone who understands all of the director's work, or of the director. A moment when the photographer shines brilliantly and captures a wonderful one shot. When you don't have time and when a sudden accident happens.
That's why we don't bore the cameraman, we keep him active and always thinking, and he asks us to do more difficult things. No instructions, no commands, please. Because most of the shots look better when I take them myself!

What locations did you choose for your project? And why?
This is a good question, my work is a new advertisement. This is an unofficial publicity campaign for the movie "URBAN CROW", which will be released in Japan from now on. It's a project I started for a new crazy movie I call FILM "CRAZY" NOIR. You can see the whole picture at the gallery of the okama bar called SNACK URBAN CROW, a fictitious bar on the web!
https://rabbit421.wixsite.com/my-site

You'll be surprised, but you can see it all here, so stay tuned!

Why should distributors buy your film?
I don't want people to buy my film, it just shows the obsolete way of filming the actors acting in front of the camera. Don't you feel that the problem is that the work is becoming obsolete? "Because you didn't think that the fake image you drew after being educated by AI was cute, right?" until now.

What expression elements did you use in your project? How would you characterize your work?
This is troublesome. I have already said, The producer of the movie "URBAN CROW" is Mis.This is the second movie in the style of "FILM "CRAZY" NOIR" if you ask me for the project of producer Reyna Hayakawa. The first movie she produced is "HOWLING", which is also a stylish and crazy Japanese movie. It's a movie that you can't sit back and watch, and it's made by two producers, Mis. . And I'm trying to promote it by making a video that has nothing to do with movies. it's funny, is not it?

Here are the two ~FILM" CRAZY" NOIR~ movies.
https://tsuchipro.com/urbancrow/index.html
https://tsuchipro.com/tooboe/index.html

unnamed 2jpg

unnamed 3jpg


And, I don't know who the main character is in the movie "URBAN CROW", I've seen a movie with such a rhythm that the story is driven by a tremendous impatience that makes it feel like it's stuck forever, but the movie still doesn't move. No, it may be the unusual time experience of the movie "URBAN CROW". It's a made in Japan movie you've never seen before!

At what festivals have you had success? Has the film already premiered? If so, where?
You bless me at all the Festivals I've been involved with, and I've found that
"It means that you love new, unfamiliar, and unfamiliar things!"

What motivated you to become a filmmaker?
This one has an easy answer, the 8mm camera my dad got in the 1960's. I think it's thanks to you teaching me how to use it as a child, giving me the film, paying for the developing fee, and letting me play.

Which movies are your favorites? And why?
The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983) directed by NOBUHIKO Oobayashi
Kundun (1997) directed by Martin Scorsese

It's a movie that touches your heart. It's my favorite movie.

And,Lol !

A beautifully fighting producer Mis. Reyna Hayakawa.
On the other side of her, she is active as an artist of the KAWAII_project called "PIYOPIYO_RADIO".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiqjzvJk0NE
I will explain it because it is the Japanese version, it is a sad story where this yellow character tells the secret of his birth. I'm sure you can understand without words.
Interesting!

What topics do you like to deal with in your work?
This is, of course, about new methods of expression and their effects. Now I don't use a camera, I don't paint, I don't compose, I don't animate. I have been awarded and recognized. And this also proves that it is a new expression method from now on. It is my desire to continue to do things like this.

What genre do you like to shoot and why?
Shooting a movie is very hard work, so I make the original.
What we have now is the story of a boy in the 1970s, a summer in FOLKSONG JAMBOREE, and a journey. A story about becoming a summer hero in the end, even though you can't even play the guitar. The title is "Shounen Guitar"/"Boy the Guitar", and I write the stories of SPIN OFF derived from it. I'm writing a boy's growth story. It's in Japanese, but it's here, and there are lots of other stories about ancient Japanese adventures!
https://note.com/hiroaki133/m/m67b0e9321d51

What project would you like to shoot one day, what would it be about?
It would be ideal to one day start filming about Japan's hidden mysteries. Japan's history has been erased from the beginning, that is Japan's hidden history.
The mystery lies in the structure of the Japanese language, and the mystery becomes apparent. it's funny, is not it? I am writing such an original This is the story of "SUGARU/Little Dragon who Bites Thunder Lightning", which has not been announced yet, so please wait.

How has COVID affected your film life?
It hasn't affected me in any way, I'm just finding fun things to do in the meantime, so I'm enjoying it. I live in Japan, so

What do you do if you're not thinking about a movie? What are your hobbies?
Film is my job, but film is my play, so when I'm working, I don't think about film, and that's normal all the time. First of all, I don't go to the cinema very often, I rarely watch TV, I watch movies on the web, it's serial dramas. I find the old grammar and style of movies boring, so I quit most cinematic movies if they weren't interesting by the first title. I don't watch most movies because they are boring. I don't want to see any more fictional stories for catharsis that only depict murder, guns, dogs, travel, and someone's growth. A waste of time, right? It has nothing to do with me, lol.

What projects do you plan to shoot in the future?
I'm trying to make something like a mad design alien singing Christmas songs while sacrificing himself and singing on a plate to spread the Gospel. Enjoy the gospel!


Biography:
In the 1980s, Hiroaki Hirakata received a film education at Tokyo Zokei University (the only art university in Japan with the Bauhaus philosophy), and became a director at Japan Color Movie, Japan's largest TV commercial production company, for almost 40 years. He is still planning and directing more than 500 video works.
http://halappa.jp/directors/hiroaki-hirakata/

His new song is SAYONARA TOKYO / Apocalypse of URBAN CROW has a transposition for each phrase, that's the idea of ​​this song. It is a song to say goodbye to each person's memories of Tokyo. https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilintokyo/video/7171036197752458497?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1


unnamed 4jpg