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Monday, April 25, 2011

I'm really going through 100 Years of Solitude

I ordered a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE two nights ago, then I received the book a couple of hours later on a Saturday morning from Amazon Japan. I started reading the book around 11pm, and before I realized it, the sun was already rising and it was dawn already.

I slept at 6am and woke up almost at noon. Then I resumed reading, and finished the book a couple of hours later. I didn't expect to finish this great literary work in almost one sitting, in a lazy eventless Sunday.


The following day, I was supposed to head to Honjo, which is in Saitama and more than hour away from Tokyo, to put on the finishing touches on my latest film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER. State-of-the-art postproduction facilities are there. Many major films that Waseda University had provided technical support for were done here. (THE MAGIC HOUR, JAPAN SINKS, HIDDEN FORTRESS, MONKEY MAGIC, SUSPECT X etc.)

Honjo Arts And Science Center


So it was a good Sunday for me to rest up my energies, soak in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, ponder about my own solitude which had seemingly lasted for a hundred years in the past week as I isolated myself from the rest of the world to finish my film.

It was evening and I headed off to do some grocery shopping. I had embark upon an epic quest to clean up my room during the weekend, the first time it had ever undergone one since the recent 2008.

When I returned to my room, the sky has darkened and I allowed myself to fall into a light nap while listening to Kanye West's MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY. Yes, a lazy Sunday indeed...

The nap lasted for one track before I was awakened by a phone call by Miyako (producer).

Bad news. Certain technical problems have happened at Honjo. It's complicated to explain (Malaysians shoot films on 25 frames per second, Japanese usually go for 24 frames per second. To go through their postproduction process, I have to convert stuff to 24 frames. Alas, some mistakes occurred during my conversion)

"You have to go to Honjo now." Miyako said.

"Now?" I was hesitant. Mostly because Honjo can only be reached via 3000 yen Shinkansen (bullet train) i looked at the watch, it was going to be 9pm.

But knowing that I had to go to ensure the completion of the film. I packed some bread and cookies and left my place. I knew it was going to be an all-nighter.

Two hours later, I reached the Art and Science Center in Honjo.

Corridor of Honjo Arts and Science center (Waseda University)


I was given a plate of curry rice. Which allowed me to save the bread and cookies for tomorrow.

Curry rice before an all-nighter


It's 2am now. I'm here in the editing room.

Editing lab at Honjo Art and Science center


Waiting. And waiting.

Waiting for Final Cut Pro

Editing is never really part of the hard work. Rendering and exporting your video into a file is. For a 25 min film, such processes run for an hour. And there is nothing else to do aside blogging, facebooking, tweeting, walking around, etc.

Location:Honjo,Japan