Almost every shot in All That Remains is a special effect shot, as most of it is shot against in a greenscreen studio. So it’s a good job that directors Ian and Dominic Higgins also run a special effects company! The above video gives an indication to the extent of work that goes into producing these shots, once they have been filmed.
We’re currently getting ready to call “action” on two more days of filming!
A big thank you to everyone who supported our campaign on Indiegogo – thanks to you, we’ve had a tremendous boost to our efforts!
Fr. Paul Glynn is the author of “A Song For Nagasaki”, which is one of the books that inspired our movie. In this interview filmed during our research trip to Japan, he explains what the story of Takashi Nagai can teach us today.
With more filming about to commence next week, we’re busy preparing for the work ahead. Stay tuned for more behind the scenes info, photos and production stills soon!
Show your support for “All That Remains” on Indiegogo! (Click the link below).
Below is the scene where Prof. Peierls writes up the memorandum which lays out the details necessary to construct a super bomb. This information would lead to the building of Fat Man, the atom bomb which destroyed Nagasaki.
The clip is pre-sound mixed
Our Indiegogo campaign is going great, thanks to everyone who has so generously contributed! Check it out by clicking the link below!
As a thank you to all those who have been so generous in their donations to the production costs of All That Remains so far, we’d thought we’d share this very special memory from our trip to Japan with you.
When visiting Fr. Paul Glynn, author of “A Song For Nagasaki” in Nara, to interview him for our movie, we did not expect to get such a fantastic welcome, a welcome which included a wonderful meal (washed down with sake) and the above performance by Opera singer Yumiko Okada of the song “Nagasaki No Kane” (The Bells of Nagasaki) which was the theme song for the 1949 movie on Dr. Nagai. We think you’ll agree, it’s a very beautiful and powerful song and a stunning performance by Mrs Okada.
Remember every penny really does go a long way to helping us reach the finishing post! If you have a few dollars to spare and fancy being a part of this amazing project click the link below!
David Yip plays Noboru Nagai, the father of Takashi. In the above interview he talks about what drew him to the project and his experiences working with the ATR team.
Help support our film and play a part in making it happen on Indiegogo!
Dream sequence in ‘All That Remains’ where Takashi Nagai comes face to face with the atom bomb that destroyed Nagasaki.
These last couple of weeks, our main focus in the edit room has been FX work – turning concept art into convincing special effect shots and recreating iconic scenes from archive photos.
Most of the “digital set pieces” are a mix of photographic, live action and computer generated 3D elements.
For the dream sequence pictured at the top of this post, a 3D model of “Fat Man” – the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was rendered to match the exact angle and lighting of the shot. Below, the Fat Man model is prepared for a final render.
All the elements for each shot were composited in PhotoShop, the shots were then completed in Adobe After Effects (an industry standard visual effects software) for coloring and final blending of all the elements.
For the shot illustrated above, we worked from an archive photo and built up the atom bombed landscape using a mixture of photographic material and 3D renders. Actor Leo Ashizawa was filmed in the greenscreen studio and superimposed into the scene to recreate an iconic photo of Dr. Nagai.
As we push on with the final leg of the filming, we’ve decided to launch another crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo, to help cover the costs of getting the last few scenes in the bag.
As we always say, every dollar/pound really goes a long way, so if you can spare a few bob and fancy seeing your name included in the final credits, why not head over to Indiegogo now?
A cold reception – Midori visits Takashi’s father.
As April kicks off, we get back to scheduling and preparing to shoot more scenes. This month the focus is on the aftermath of the A-bomb – so there are a lot of grueling days ahead.
During March we concentrated mainly on filming all the “Nagai family” scenes before the Atom bombing, including scenes between Takashi and his father, Noboru.
Noboru was a descendent of a Samurai and the first of the Nagai family to study and practice Western medicine techniques. He was a very influential figure for the young Takashi and encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps by becoming a doctor.
When Takashi converted to Christianity, Noboru however proved to be a staunch traditionalist and was vehemently against it. In fact, Takashi’s decision to convert caused a serious rift between father and son. A rift that was eventually mended by Midori.
Playing the part of Noboru is David Yip, star of the cult 80’s TV show, “The Chinese Detective”. It was a great honour for us to have David on board, and directors Ian and Dominic Higgins were very excited to get the chance to work with him.
“David was the first Asian actor in England to be given a main starring role in a prime time TV show, back in 1981”, explains Dominic, “and our film is also breaking new ground, by being the first Western movie to deal directly with the atomic bombing of Japan, so he seemed a prefect to choice for such an important role.”
“In fact, David remains the only South East Asian actor to have been given the lead role in a British drama,” adds Ian, “so I do hope that our film will now also shine a huge spotlight on the great talent this over looked sector of the acting community has to offer”.
David Yip talks to Ian & Dominic with producer Nigel Davey
Our Chief Make-up artist Vera Fenlon did a terrific job in helping David ‘step into the character’ of a stern Japanese father. “As a Chinese actor, I was a bit concerned about playing the part of a traditional Japanese father,” Says David, “but after Vera had finished her work, and I looked in the mirror, I saw a Japanese man staring back at me!”.
Aided by Make-up artist Vera Fenlon, Chinese actor David Yip plays a Japanese father.
Yuna Shin as Midori Nagai
David Yip in All That Remains
For those of you with access to the “Production Hub”, we’ve uploaded a very special clip that illustrates what a truly remarkable woman Midori Nagai was.
Charlie Green singing in a scene from All That Remains
As we prepare for our next shoot this Sunday and Monday (the 17th and 18th March) just time to post another update…
The main focus of this upcoming shoot is the scenes of Takashi and his father, who was also a doctor. Takashi’s father was a huge influence on his son, talking him out of his aspirations of being an artist and encouraging him to take up medicine when he was a child.
He was also very against Takashi’s conversion to Christianity and his marriage to Midori (the daughter of an important Christian family). In fact, it would be Midori who would heal the rift between father and son caused by his conversion.
On our next blog we’ll post stills and more in-depth info on the shoot!
Meanwhile, we’ve posted some more stills from our last shoot along with a special clip from the “China War sequence” (at the end of this posting) featuring Singer Charlie Green making his feature film debut appearance, performing “There’s No Place Like Home”.
For the directors, Ian and Dominic Higgins, this is one of the key scenes of the movie.
“Charlie was not only a joy to work with, he gave us what we wanted straight off the bat”, says Ian, “and thanks to him, we got an amazing scene that really helps set up one of the ways we want to use music in the film – to symbolize the transcendental power of the human spirit, even in the bleakest of moments.”
“Charlie’s voice has the power to move, and that’s exactly what we were looking for in this scene”, adds Dominic.
Charlie Green performs “No Place Like Home”
Alongside the war scenes, we filmed other scenes depicting married life for Takashi and Midori, including the night Midori carried her husband home on her back, after finding him collapsed, suffering a severe asthma attack on his way home from a night-time call out. We’ll be uploading this scene to the production hub soon.
Midori (Yuna Shin) and her mother, Tsumo (Meg Kubota) try to hide their concern for Takashi who’s been called out to a patient in a snow storm.
A worried Midori goes in search of her missing husband
Midori Rescues Takashi
The Graceful Bamboo – Midori carries her sick husband home, on her back.
On the “Production Hub”, you’ll also be able check out some storyboard art for the upcoming shoot too.
A huge thank you to Pastor Malcolm Bull and his wife, Janet for their wonderful hospitality and generosity during our previous shoot and once again, our gratitude also goes out to Bill and Sheila Evans for keeping us all so well fed and for always going the extra mile.
As we prepare for our next shoot in Mid-March, the scenes we shot in early February are taking shape in our edit suite. The main focus of the February shoot was Takashi Nagai’s personal experiences of war during his service in the second Sino-Japanese War.
Takashi Nagai was called for military service in February 1933. Japan and China had been unofficially at war since 1931. Takashi was sent to China as a medical officer in the 11th Hiroshima Infantry Regiment. He would actually serve two tours of duty in China, the second being in 1937 when the unofficial war finally became official.
Takashi’s personal experiences of the horrors and brutality of war had a profound effect on him and influenced him greatly, so for directors Ian & Dominic Higgins it was important to portray at least some of his experiences in China.
“There’s no doubt that Takashi returned from his first tour of duty traumatised but also far more spiritual”, says Dominic.
“Up until his time in China, he was still the scientist exploring the possibility of life after death and religion through the clinical microscope of science, war changed that”, adds Ian.
The war scenes required the usual attention to detail and planning the directors insist on before cameras roll, which meant storyboarding, pre-visual art and shot lists…
During the filming of the war scenes, the directors have kept their cameras focused on the human cost of war and our make-up artists Stephanie Bentham and Jenny Gillings, aided by Birmingham’s South and City college students Donna Woodman and Dolly Karoni, did a fantastic job helping us to bring a sense of reality to the scenes.
Below are some stills from the China war sequences…
We’ll be posting an exclusive preview of a very special scene on the Production Hub page soon!
This Monday and Tuesday we’re shooting more scenes and that means we’ve been hard at work these last few days with plenty of planning and preparation. Before any shoot, we design the scenes. We do this by using storyboards and shot lists.
When it comes to the storyboarding we opt for 3D software as opposed to the traditional hand drawn ones, as the software we use allows us to work with “virtual” cameras and lights, meaning we get to test out different ideas with camera angles and lighting set-ups well in advance of the filming dates.
Using 3D software that utilizes virtual cameras, lights and actors (even if they sometimes resemble mannequins) really helps bring a scene to life.
For those of you who have access to the “Production Hub” we’ve uploaded the storyboards for the up-coming shoots.
