The Trailer for The Sea Is Watching
I edited this trailer for The Sea Is Watching for Sony Pictures a couple of years ago.The film was based on a screenplay written by Akira Kurosawa, and directed after Kurosawa's death by Kei Kumai.
I was the editor of both the international and domestic trailers, and Dean Blagg was the producer. Dean's one of the partners at Winston Davis & Associates.
I've always liked working with Dean, and I've worked with him on a number of projects. One of the things about working with him that I think is cool is that he respects the fact that I know how to make movies (since I've produced, directed, and edited for years), and so he generally works like an executive producer with me. He'll give me a script, and I'll come back in a few days or a week with a spot. I've often gotten a Producer credit on my jobs with Dean, because I end up mostly self directed.
Dean's instruction to me on this one was "give me a chill up my spine." So, I spent the next 3 days looking for music that I used as a temp track to cut the spot. The final music was all composed specifically for this trailer by Lee Sanders, who is the composer for The Amazing Race, with whom I've collaborated on What Babies Want, Dinner, and countless other projects.
I tried to be very delicate with this one, with a haunting, minimal sound design (I always do my own sound design), and a careful juxtaposition of shots. The sound used for the transitions was a combination of real ocean sounds and sounds I created on an Alesis Airsynth.
A trailer is a kind of remix of the original movie. When watching this piece, you're seeing my favorite bits of the movie combined with totally new music, and totally new sound effects (except for one sound that I used from the actual movie - you get to guess which one). I've taken the shots out of context, and recombined them to create an entirely new piece. The pacing is different, the mood is different, the tone is different. There is an essential similarity between what a film editor does and what a music producer does.
Copyright (c) 2003 Sony Pictures
This is for my portfolio.
5/05/2005 12:37:00 AM permalink
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2 Comments:
It was in the theatres maybe two years ago now. You can get it on DVD now. Kurosawa was planning on directing it, and had been trying to get financing since the early 90's, as I recall. It was after his death that Kurosawa's son took the script to Kei Kumai, whose work Kurosawa had apparently admired.
I like the film, but I think had Kurosawa lived, he would have done some more rewriting. I think that the producers felt that they couldn't touch the screenplay after his death, and, IMHO, it could have used another polish. The film is based on two different books, and I think the seams show a little too much.
Great trailer. Didn’t know Kurosawa had anymore work coming out. Was his plan to direct it, or was he only interested in the writing of it?
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