In filming the stories for this project, the biggest challenge was accomplishing a cinematic look & feel, all the while maintaining a deep level of authenticity and truth to the characters we were filming.

It all started with the feel of the production itself—instead of using large crews to help manipulate camera moves and lighting, we did the opposite and kept the team extraordinarily small. We filmed using a small team in Japan that specialized in documentary and journalism work.

On the camera side of things, a package was customized to be as small and unobtrusive as possible so that our real non-actor characters could move about their daily lives without feeling intimidated. We also relied heavily on natural lighting, which meant that we had to plan precisely and be extremely diligent. Again, having a nimble but highly skilled team made this possible. (Goh Iromoto)