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!
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on May 9, 2013
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/fat-man-is-conceived-video-clip/
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!
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on April 30, 2013
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/nagasaki-no-kane-a-song-for-nagasaki-and-a-thank-you/
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.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on April 5, 2013
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/family-moments/
The first phase of the filming is now complete, and many key scenes from the first half of the script are now in the bag.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s a good time to look back and see just how far we’ve come with this project.
It’s been two years of hard, hard slog- research, research and more research, endless script rewrites, an outpour of storyboards and production artwork, countless hours spent fund raising… Long days and sleepless nights, but we’ve been driven by a passion to make this happen.
Most of the filming is now taking place in a location in Birmingham. We were lucky to find a perfect location for our shoot. Everything we need is literally on one site, studio space for our greensceen set-up, catering facilities, a coffee and tea area for cast and crew to relax and even a hotel to put up the cast members who were sleeping over. And with the beautiful Lickey Hills on our doorstep, what more could we ask for?
For most of the cast this is their first real experience of working with greenscreen, which brings new challenges for them and an exciting vibe to the set.
Getting ready for a take
We’d like to give special thanks here to, Tomasina Scott, Kikuko Wall and Sheila and Bill Evans.
Sheila and Bill have been amazing to us during our shoot, when they haven’t been preparing wonderful food for the cast and crew, they’ve been coming to rescue in the props department!
On the last day of this part of the shoot, our cast and crew had the choice of enjoying authentic Japanese cuisine, courtesy of a local Japanese lady, Tomasina Scott. Interestingly we learnt that Tomasina grew up in Hiroshima and that her mother was there the day the first bomb was dropped. A big thank you to Tomasina for spending the day with us and for preparing all that delicious food!
Once again we have to thank, Kikuko, a very special lady, who came all the way from Telford to bring us a suitcase full of beautiful Kimono’s for us to use on set.
From left to right – Kikuko, Sheila, Yuna, Meg and Tomasina
The second phase of filming, which will concentrate mainly on scenes after the bombing, will take place in late October/early November.
In the meantime though, there’s plenty of work to do with the footage we’ve now got, as most of it has been shot in a greenscreen studio, meaning the sets and locations have to be added, and then there is the “grading” process – the part where we give the film its unique look. We’ve added a few stills of shots we’ve worked on below, to illustrate the work that goes into creating the final images you’ll see on screen.
Below are some stills from our first week’s shoot, enjoy! All behind the scenes photos by Phil Pugh.
Nicholas Lu-Fong plays Makoto Nagai
Nicholas gets into the part with a new haircut
Leo (Takashi), Nicholas (Makoto), and Yuna (Midori)
Wardrobe department
Actress Yuriri Naka undergoes a two hour make-up session to play an atom bomb scared victim
Actress Meg Kubota and lead actor Leo Ashizawa enjoy a coffee and a chat
Dinner, East meets West. A local Japanese lady brought a Japanese banquet to the set. Special thanks also to Sheila and Bill Evans for the splendid food they made for us on the day
Ian and Leo discuss Character
Nicholas is proving to be a natural in front and behind the camera
Dominic painting with Light
Directors Ian & Dominic show cast and crew some of the shots they’ve been working on
Two crew members stand in for our cast as we set up a shot
Cast and crew
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on September 23, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/greenscreen-shoot-week-1/
With the first few days of filming now complete, we thought it was time to introduce you to some of the main cast.
Leo Ashizawa is Dr. Takashi Nagai
Leo Ashizawa is Dr. Takashi Nagai. Leo is an actor with great screen presence and charisma. Two qualities that help make him so well suited to the role of Takashi.
Check out Leo’s personal website here.
Yuna Shin is Midori Nagai
Yuna Shin is Midori Nagai. From her first audition, Yuna seemed to be the perfect choice for the role of Takahi’s faithful wife, Midori. Yuna brings a great emotional depth to the role.
Check out Yuna’s website here.
Meg Kubota is Tsumo Moriyama
Meg Kubota is Tsumo Moriyama. Meg is a very experienced actress who brings a great a presence to her role as Midori’s watchful mother. She is an actress who is capable of producing beautiful subtle performances.
Dai Tabuchi is Sadakichi Moriyama
Dai Tabuchi is Sadakichi Moriyama. From the moment we first saw Dai perform at the audition, we knew he would be perfect for the role of Midori’s father, a man who exudes warmth, compassion and sensitivity.
Junichi Kajioka is prof. Suetsugu
Junichi Kajioka is Professor Suetsugu. Junichi is an actor with lots of experience under his belt, having starred in the recent Chinese blockbusters City of Life and Death and Flowers of War, with Christian Bale (check out directors Ian and Dominic Higgins’ review of City of Life and Death here). With his tireless enthusiasm, he was not only great fun to have on set; he also created a very memorable professor Suetsugu on camera.
We were also very lucky to be able to have the chance to work with up coming actor Tanroh Ishida who, having not long finished work on a new Keanu Reeves movie and a Cameron Diaz/Collin Firth vehicle, is just about to head off to Hollywood yet again, to test for another major new feature film.
There are many more great actors involved in this production, of course, and we’ll be introducing those in a future blog – so be sure to stay tuned!
With a filming schedule that will run into November, there’s a lot of work ahead, but directors Ian & Dominic Higgins are very excited with how things are shaping up. “We’ve captured some great performances so far and we’re looking forward to sitting down and watching back over it all, while we prepare the next shoot”, explains Dominic.
“We now know for sure we have the right cast for the parts, and look forward to the rest of the filming”, adds Ian.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on September 14, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/meet-the-cast/
Production Room
In the week that marked the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki we officially began production on the live action drama scenes, for “All That Remains” (working title).
Hair, Wardrobe and Make-Up department, courtesy of F.A.T.T.S (Film, Television and Transport Services).
Newest member of the team, Nigel found himself thrown right into the deep end with helping us to organize what is without question, the largest film shoot- in terms of scope and logistics, we’ve ever attempted, Nigel’s risen to the challenge. We are indeed lucky to have him on the team.
Nigel on set “Sorted!”
Weeks of preparation went into organizing the ‘atomic bomb shoot’, which is the first of the drama scenes to be filmed. A derelict industrial site in Birmingham (UK) was turned into a set piece depicting atom bombed Nagasaki. It was a perfect location, a football pitch sized land full of rubble and debris.
The site manager and owner were incredibly generous in allowing us free run of the property for the two days. They handed us the keys to the gates and basically said, “It’s all yours!”
A corner of Oldbury Birmingham UK was turned into atom bombed Nagasaki
It was a great shoot thanks to a great crew; everyone was willing to get their hands dirty- just the sort of crew we like to work with! They all did an outstanding job!
It’s a dirty Job at times
Lilian, the youngest assistant camera operator in the history of film
We had a great Special Make-Up FX team who worked from artwork created by directors Ian & Dominic Higgins and archive photos to re-create the “Walking Ghosts” – the victims. We do not intend to make this film in anyway gratuitous, but want our audience to glimpse the horror of that day, the snapshots that are seared into the memories of the survivors.
We also have to give a special mention to the wonderful supporting cast drafted in from the Local Japanese community. They were patient with us and threw themselves into their parts like true professionals. We captured some beautiful performances that at times were very emotional. One of the cast, a lady named, Kikuko Wall, grew up in Hiroshima just after the war and explained that while she was holding the hand of a girl who was playing a ‘dying victim’, she was connecting with the past. Tears filled her eyes as our cameras rolled.
Preparing for a take
During a short coffee break, Kikuko presented us with a piece of paper that had the lyrics to a song about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then gave an impromptu performance for the entire cast and crew. It’s a beautiful song and she sung it beautifully, you can see Kikuko‘s performance in the video below .
“No more Hiroshima No More Nagasaki”
Below are some photos from the two day shoot. All of the photos on this page were taken by local filmmaker Phil Pugh- he took some great shots, enjoy!
Kikuko talks about growing up in Hiroshima after the war
Ian gets an actor ready for a shot
Ian & Dominic and Joel plus assistant on set.
Wardrobe wiz Monica turned out to be very handy with a pair of scissors
Two of the supporting cast- they were still smiling at the end of two very long days.
Bad Hair day? Another supporting cast member takes it all in her stride.
One of the Make-up team at work. They did an excellent job for us.
Filming with a supporting cast member
Hair stylist Nikki sets to work on a cast member’s hair
Ian and Joel on set
Joel and Dominic persevering in the rain
The youngest cast member at just 6 months old
Joel on camera, while Ian gets ready to shout “action!” on the first of the drama scenes to be filmed…
Three supporting cast members wait patiently for us to set up a shot
Ian and Nigel discuss a shot
Nigel, Dominic and Ian share a joke with cast
Some of the cast and crew
The shoot attracted the interest of the local press, so it was a great opportunity to generate some free publicity and good timing as we are about to launch a new crowd funding campaign.
You can read the local story here http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk
Now it’s back to the storyboard… as we prepare for the greenscreen and studio based shoot in London, which will take place during the first two weeks of September!
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on August 19, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/cameras-roll/
Our first auditions were held in London last Monday and already we are excited about what some of these potential actors will be able to bring to this film.
For directors Ian and Dominic Higgins this is one of the hardest parts of the filmmaking phase- getting the right cast. “We are visual filmmakers so when we cast, we are thinking, how will that face fit into the design of our film? “, explains Ian. “We are also casting for iconic roles here, so these faces need to be memorable, but performance is also paramount”.
”Absolutely, even though the visual style of the film will have a very animated look, with its strong painterly wash, we didn’t want to use CG actors because of course, an actor is much more than a physical prop”, adds Dominic. “A great actor has the ability to make you laugh or cry, because they allow you to see, in their performance, something that is honest. CG actors are actors without a soul, and this film is about a man who discovers he has one!”
The auditions will continue over the next few weeks, and will also include online submissions – where actors will be invited to submit videos of themselves reading specific lines via sites such as Youtube.
“We’re really looking forward to the call back stage, where we put shortlisted actors together to see what kind of “chemistry” they have together, which is absolutely vital if we are to convincingly portray what is, at its heart, an epic love story,” explains Dominic.
“It’s all about the chemistry on screen”, says Ian. “It’s the magic ingredient that connects an audience to our characters in an emotional way and makes us truly care about them”.
Stay tuned here for updates on the casting! We’ll also be uploading some of the successful auditions to the Production Hub section soon.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on June 16, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/london-calling-the-casting-gets-underway/
The painterly look of All That Remains.
As All That Remains will contain lots of archive material spanning from Pre-World War Two Japan to Post atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a lot of effort is going in to cleaning up and restoring these archive shots, and this work has had an impact on the intended visual style of the movie.
Directors Ian and Dominic Higgins are keen to explore ways of seamlessly blending the archive material that we have with any dramatic reconstruction scenes. Ian Explains, “this way, when we cut to the archive shots, during the dramatic reconstructions, the audience isn’t taken out of the drama, and consequently that vital emotional connection isn’t broken”.
“We have lots of amazing archive footage and we want to use as much as possible, but we like the idea that you can’t always tell what is real footage and what are shots that we’ve re-created on computers,” adds Dominic. “Of course, there will still be times when it’s obviously archive material as some of the footage is so badly damaged, but that’s OK, as it’s also part documentary there will still be moments taken from a retrospective point of view anyway– we just don’t want the drama sequences to be punctuated with the sense of distance from an event, that you get when watching old footage.”
“We always like to push the boat out both visually and from a story telling point of view and I don’t think there’s been a film shot quite like this before, with different elements blended together and given this pseudo painterly look – the idea of mixing in real people from the time and real recordings of actual events with the reconstructed sequences using actors and CGI this way feels more natural and the scenes will have much more potency,” concludes Ian.
Below are some more stills showcasing the “painterly look” and how it helps blend the different elements together.
You may have noticed there is another link on the menu called Production Hub, which is password protected, well, you may remember when we were running our Indiegogo fund raising campaigns, certain perks promised privileged “peeks behind the scenes” on some of the sequences in progress and other areas of production development/design – well this is where we’ll be posting them.
In fact, we’ve just uploaded a video sequence testing out the painterly/graphic style discussed in this blog – as it is also part of a key sequence in the movie (the atomic bombing) we’re keen to keep it under wraps at this stage, hence it not being posted in the public section of this blog, but for those who purchased the relevant perks, if you haven’t already, you can see it now!
Those who purchased the relevant perks on our indiegogo campaign should have received their passwords to unlock the page. If you haven’t, then email us here.
You can also check out the personal blog of Ian and Dominic Higgins for more on the techniques and ideas behind the movie.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on May 7, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/the-seamless-art-2/
Further blurring the line between what is real and what is digital...
As we mentioned in our previous blog, we’re now working out how to best maximise the budget and resources that we have, in order to be able to convey the original vision of the movie without sacrificing on quality.
An example of one area where we’ve had to think outside the box is the special make-up effects required for some of the key scenes in the movie, namely the post atomic bomb sequences.
While traditional make-up and prosthetics will be used in these scenes, the extent to which they will be utilised will obviously been restricted by the limited budget we have to work with, but determined to do the sequences justice, directors Ian and Dominic Higgins have decided that several of the special make-up effects will also be created digitally – that is, added to the actors in post-production.
Using sophisticated “tracking” software, the “digital prosthetics”, which will be created using a combination of digital painting techniques and 3D modelling, will be mapped to the faces of the actors after they have been filmed.
An actress with "digital make-up" applied. The face is kept shadowy, but we see enough to grasp the horrors and devastation inflicted by "Fat Man".
Although we don’t, in any way, intend to be gratuitous with what we show, we are adamant about conveying the events we are depicting as authentically as possible, in order for audiences to greater appreciate what Dr. Nagai and all the other survivors of the atomic bombings went through. Only by doing so, can we really appreciate their pleas for “no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki”.
For more on this story and other glimpses of the artistic and technical development of the movie, visit the blog of Directors Ian and Dominic Higgins.
Warning: Due to the nature of the subject matter, some posts on this site will contain graphic depictions of wounds and other images of war and destruction that some people may find disturbing.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on April 5, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/digital-make-over/
As the dust settles on our latest fund raising campaign, the next major step of the production process gets underway – namely the translation of all the Japanese interviews and research material, and within the next few days, the (potentially lengthy) casting process of finding our key actors will begin.
As always, script re-writes and work on effect shots continues simultaneous to the other production work.
Since our Indiegogo campaign ended, we’ve also received several emails from people asking if they can still make a donation to help towards the costs of production. Well, yes you can! Right under the video posted below, you’ll find a “donate” link, simply click on that and PayPal will take care of the rest. It’s safe, secure and easy. Feel free to donate however much or little you want, it’ll all make a difference. Donate $15 dollars or more and you’ll get to see your name in the end credits of the movie, $500 or more and you get a producers credit!
Below is an exclusive video in which Directors Ian and Dominic Higgins and Producer Joel Fletcher discuss their vision for All That Remains and why they believe it’s a great project to be a part of.
Posted by Major Oak Entertainment on March 22, 2012
http://allthatremainsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/now-the-indiegogo-campaign-is-over-the-next-stage-of-production-begins/
------------------- Everyone who donates $15 or more will see their name in the end credits!
