LBB Film Club: Alaskan Tapes - Of Woods and Seas
Set in Tokyo, ‘Of Woods and Seas’ represents the fourth collaboration between Toronto-based composer Brady Kendall and Radke director Andrew de Zen. Serving as a continuation of ‘Alaskan Tapes’, a thematically-connected set of films that exists as an ever-evolving ambient music project, the work explores the realisation that someone can be more important in your own life than yourself.
Beautifully depicted through the lens of a father-son relationship, the father is forced to explore, experience deep moments of introspection, and come to terms with this fact as he confronts his past. Packed with poignant moments and vivid visuals, such as a Newton’s Cradle that gets frozen in time, a man of pure light, and a giant glowing orb, colour, sound and writing come together in the best way possible here, creating a piece of work that’s thoughtful, and most of all, gorgeous.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Andrew to learn more about how this came into existence.
LBB> This isn’t the first time you’ve collaborated with composer Brady Kendall. As such, how did you get started with this project, and what immediate ideas came to mind?
Andrew> This is our fourth film together! Brady is a good friend and sometimes shares new music with me, or sometimes I pop in to see if he’s got anything cooking in the oven… which he always does. The guy is always making new music and it’s quite an inspiration really.
His album, ‘Who Tends A Garden’, was something tonally new, and this track (‘Of Woods And Seas’) was especially light and airy - as if I could just lie back and the wind would carry me. Immediately, I knew I wanted to make something that spoke about celebrating life in some way. That core seed over time mixed together with an idea I’ve wanted to put to camera set to his music which was this man of light. After that, the rest fell into place.
LBB> How did you approach writing around the score?
Andrew> What I love the most about creating visuals to Brady’s music is that it gives an opportunity to explore something a bit beyond the scope of a regular music video. I need to understand something first before I can let my imagination go freely, so I break down the structure and flow of the music initially - where and how does it change, and when? Then, I write everything down.
The film itself eventually became a thing on its own, growing past the original length of the song as the story grew. When that happens, all you need to do is step out of the way and take it where you know it needs to go. What you see in the film is an original extended piece of music.
LBB> What made the theme of confronting the past the right choice for this project? And specifically, what made Tokyo the right destination to set this story in?
Andrew> I was travelling through Japan in August last year when I visited Naoshima Island, this rare hidden gem that is slowly becoming more and more well known. It’s a tiny island composed of many different museums built by Tadao Ando, who worked with artists to collaborate on permanent art installations. There are two from James Turrell that absolutely blew my mind. It was a very visceral, intense experience that seared itself into my brain. This personal experience in Japan, combined with Brady’s music and some long-stewing visual ideas are what coalesced into the film you see now. Confronting the past is the result of bringing myself into the material. I’m not a father. But I can speak to the idea of choosing to face your own past mistakes, and finding joy in life after living with a certain amount of discomfort. Things clicked into place immediately because it felt honest and like ‘OK, I can tell this story’.
LBB> Tell us about the character creation itself. Why was the story of a father and son the right way to embody these themes, and how did you work with the actors to develop these characters throughout the process?
Andrew> A lot of the stories that boil up to the surface for me come in the shape of father-son stories because of my own life. There’s an honesty I can speak to about relationships like these. The music of ‘Alaskan Tapes’ has always made me deeply introspective and it leaves room to tell deeper stories. I wanted to ground a story in a relationship I could authentically explore while setting it in an unfamiliar location like Japan - one that could excite me.
As for working with actors, I like to have a strong foundation set for how I see the characters, but there’s always room for someone to make it their own. On a project like this, you’re always fighting for as much time as possible in every way, and that extends to time with the cast. So, I had early conversations with our leads, Shogen (the father) and Itsuwa (the son), but it was all quite a natural process. This film is also quite conceptual so a lot of the conversations on set were explaining things that, when said out loud, make you sound insane (haha), but they trusted in it fully and I’m grateful for them committing so hard.
LBB> Building on this, what was casting like? What were you looking for, and what inspired you to make the choices you did?
Andrew> Casting is always the most important thing. I consider myself extremely lucky to have Shogen and Itsuwa both in this. I knew right away that I wanted the highest calibre of talent I could find. I spent a while looking for the right actor for the father, and when I saw the trailer for ‘Daughter’, which sees a totally transformed Shogen, I immediately knew he was right for this.
However, it’s thanks to our casting director, Rikiya at Kaiju Inc, that we were lucky enough to get them both. We held auditions for the role of the son and Itsuwa was the second boy to audition. You know it when you know it, and seeing Itsuwa just listen to Rikiya translating my English notes to Japanese - it was pretty incredible. The maturity and talent he holds is something special. My producer (Adam) and I just looked at each other as soon as Itsuwa finished and thought the same thing – ‘OK, we’ve found him’.
LBB> The film features many moments of intimacy. How did you help enable such strong performances, but also capture it meaningfully?
Andrew> I mean it when I say it - these two are the best performers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Every actor is unique, but it’s a different thing entirely when you can trust your cast fully. The less you have to do, the better.
What I’m really doing is trying to give them time together before the shoot and during the shoot, but also create as safe a space as possible, allowing them to make mistakes, play, explore things, and see what works and what doesn’t. As a director, I make sure the person understands the intention of the moment, and then I give them the space they need to fill up that box. Watching these two together was such a joy.
LBB> And how was the shoot itself? Do you have any anecdotes from on set?
Andrew> The shoot was the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Easily. We shot in Japan for five days, shooting in Tokyo and the famous Aokigahara forest (Japan’s suicide forest). I location scouted in Japan for nine days, and overall, spent more than a month with my producer, Adam Maruniak, in Tokyo for production. We flew some key crew from Canada and brought on the amazing production company Nakama Film to create a wonderful bilingual international crew of friends and talented artists.
From there, the film grew from a three-day shoot to a five-day shoot. What we once called a ‘family style production’ became quite epic in scope and that became a running joke for all of us. Japan is a wild place to shoot. Beware… you will want to shoot all of it. It’s just that cinematic!
LBB> What type of gear did you shoot with? Also, what inspired you to use the final aspect ratio you chose?
Andrew> We shot on four-perf 35mm film using the Arriflex 235 with a mix of Kodak Color and Double-X black and white film stock. (I always shoot on film now for my own projects.) Aside from all the many technical reasons, I enjoy it much more than digital. I’m also the same with photography; what it does to the set, the cast, your own process, and the chemical nature of the image - it is always more exciting. Plus, you must respect it.
We shot on a 1.375:1 aspect ratio because we wanted to create more iconic images that embraced the conceptual visuals. It frames things in a more singular way and changes the feeling of a landscape or a face in close up drastically.
LBB> As a whole, what were your goals for the aesthetic and colour of the film?
Andrew> I wanted to mix black and white with colour to separate the worlds and parallel threads of the story. What this object, ‘The Orb’, is doing to him needed to be shown in a different, more abstract way. To this end, light itself plays an important role throughout the film, in the form of the changing glow of ‘The Orb’ and of the way it takes shape in the man of light. So, I wanted rich, vivid images to give us those deep blacks contrasting against bright highlights, with strong uses of colour all together in one piece.
LBB> Super memorable shots include Newton's Cradle freezing, the man encountering the man of light, and ‘The Orb’. How did you achieve these?
Andrew> A lot of careful detailed planning went into all these elements. I like to draw my own storyboards for VFX sequences to convey the precise shots. I brought on the team at Impossible Objects to handle VFX and the phenomenal work they did is on full display here. But without a doubt, the most complicated part was the man of light. While prepping in Tokyo with the full crew, we had a reflective suit custom-made in Vancouver, shipped to Tokyo, and our production designer, Caitlin Byrnes, and art director, Brodie Kitchen, created a practical light suit that we would then touch up in VFX. So, we created a practical effect of a human figure emitting light on camera.
LBB> What was the editing process like? How did you create such strong visual juxtaposition, combining music, sound and colour to create a final product?
Andrew> My editor, Michael Barker, and the team at Outsider Editorial really dug into this piece with me. I really love editing - it’s probably my favourite part of the whole process. The experimentation of it all is loads of fun. Michael and I have worked together so much that we have an almost telepathic level of collaboration, where I can mumble a noise and he’ll know what he needs to change. But, it’s just a process of iterating and iterating and iterating. We constantly push each other to sharpen and try new things in the edit. Nothing is off limits.
The same goes for sound and colour. I go in with a strong idea of ‘here’s what this is supposed to be’, and then I ask, ‘How do you see it?’, ‘What can you bring to it?’, and ‘What can you make better?’. To this end, Nikolay Antanov, our sound designer, brought a lovely subtlety to it… and I’m always especially critical of sound. It’s such a lovely opportunity to explore unseen depths and details. And, Sa Gilling, our colourist, also has a brilliant eye where you can just trust his view of the work.
LBB> What is your favourite shot from the film, and why?
Andrew> That’s tough, because I truly think what Oliver Millar, our cinematographer, accomplished here is amazing and, in my opinion, some of his best work. He has a special gift in wielding a camera and using light, colour, and tones. But, if I had to choose, the wide shot of the man of light coming into contact with the father as the camera slowly pushes past the trees, all rendered in black and white, is something straight out of a dream. That’s a moment on set where you’re looking through the eyepiece or monitor and you get goosebumps. That would have to be the one, I’d say. It sums up the entirety of everyone’s work on this film in a single, powerful image.
