In United States, where I grew up, October is the month for Halloween, which also means it’s the month where people choose to spook themselves with horror films. I wonder if that is catching on in Japan, where summer is the traditional season for scary movies. In case you’re in the mood for some award […]
Here at ELFS Japan, we cater most of our workshops to filmmaking beginners. Let’s say you participated in one of our workshops to learn the basics of filmmaking and you would like to pursue filmmaking further. As you get started, the first equipment you might think about getting is a camera. But.. “Which camera should […]
The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world — attracting over 480,000 people annually — and serves as the last stop on the major film festival circuit before the awards season at the beginning of the new year. Over the years, the buzz created during TIFF […]
Our “Art of Film Directing” instructor and award-winning director friend Eric McEver is stars in a short film that is in competition at the 40th Pia Film Festival. The short film he is in, “Good bye, Eric” by director Takumi Takashina is one of 18 films that was selected out of 529 entries and was […]
This week I wanted to share short films that are currently available to stream on the Short Shorts Online Theater. You do have to register in order to stream the short films but I highly recommend you to do so to watch some of the best short films for free. Here are five short films […]
Even though the heat continues to bear down on us, the eventual changing of the season from summer to autumn means more than cool, comfortable temperatures and the colorful fall foliage. It is also the season of film festivals all throughout Japan! This week we bring to you a list of notable film festivals during […]
Last week’s blogpost took you behind the scenes of the preparation process for Making the Short Film. This week, we’d like to share a few photos from the actual filming and post-production process. The students spent the whole day at the ELFS Japan Studio with two actors, taking turns directing their assigned scenes as well as […]
This week we welcomed six students from all walks of life to take part in the Making the Short Film workshop. We spent three nights during the week getting to know one another, learning about scripts, getting familiar with the basics of filming, working with actors; all in preparation for Saturday when each of the […]
I often think about how much technological advancement has taken place just in my lifetime when it comes to filmmaking technology. I am part of a generation that has straddled both analog and digital eras: the earliest movies I watched was on a Betamax tape; the earliest filming I did with friends was on a […]
“A short film can be anything. Just like a poem. But that doesn’t mean it is easier. Sometimes it’s much harder to write one great poem than to write a whole novel.” – Director Sara Broos I recently came across this quote by a Swedish filmmaker Sara Broos in an interview. It got me thinking […]