Forum 1 「Understanding This Year’s Tourism Films」

Forum 1 「Understanding This Year’s Tourism Films」

fore foreign foreign [Music] okay so uh as we mentioned earlier we’re going to start forum one um together with all the international judges uh we would like to introduce uh all the members who’s going to come up on the stage so Alexander Camo um Don Don and Kung and Jay and Kumi Kato [Music] [Music] so let’s do the self introduction Maybe from the show from this side oh maybe I can ask would you like to start from you like just simply just Yeah just who it is and introduce yes uh so I I have to speak in English uh so like I said I’m I’m teaching architecture at North Umbrea University in the United Kingdom and I’m the jury president hi my name is Jay Churn i’m a director from Taiwan hi uh good morning everyone i’m Don from the Philippines uh I’m a filmmaker and editor um well I’ve been already introduced i’m the director of the international committee of film festivals uh used to be producing films and now we are organizing festivals like uh Khan corporate media and TV awards uh US international awards uh Grand Prix Victoria uh the state award for Austria and uh many more hi good morning everyone my name is Kumi Kato from Bakayama University i actually work with Kawasan my office is actually next to him um I’ve been uh part of this uh jury it’s been my really great pleasure every year to actually be part of this festival and uh I teach sustainable tourism um yeah sustainable tourism thank you very much [Music] so how we would like to proceed this forum is that so I would like you all to introduce one particular film that you really liked and then we want to talk about it after we show it is that okay and maybe we can start from you can well after the film uh that was uh be brave from Portugal i thought it’s already set they’re there getting ready so please hold oh there you go fore foreign foreign [Music] [Music] forever [Music] for more than malt for send you this [Music] Fore foreign foreign foreign [Music] That should give [Music] us Yes uh so as a jury members we have seen more than 100 films so it is very challenging to pick something you know very top and excellent but in my mind I have maybe two three key points why I thought this was the one of the best film for me uh from my own you know judgment uh the first one is uh at the beginning the film starts to show the journey the beginning of the journey so you see this passage visually so you can start to see he’s going to walk towards something so that’s a good beginning at the end you also see the the passages so it also shows you how this journey is made all the way through so that’s one thing for um the second thing is there’s some the beauty of minimalism so the film doesn’t overpop populate or overdo to show so many different things so there’s some you know other films try to show try to include so many 100 different things so ambitious so that ruins the clarity of this simple narrative but this film unlike those tried to include something very essential so it didn’t overpop populate so that’s another aspect I And finally um while pursuing this minimalism the camera angles and the lights are keep changing to generate some feeling of depth so you have seen the the the camera is going very close up and moving further away try to make a variations of these steps and also light keeps changing from dark to bright even the the color of the costume of the priest very black contrasted with this very white concrete uh geometric structure so it adds up to the whole simplicity with some depth and the some um the perfection of this whole um organization of the film and also I mentioned in earlier I said to Japanese audiences that we’re not going to be translating every words anymore so like during this for forum I would like you to just have a free discussion between the judges and then if necessary for Japanese audiences will just you can do a summary okay if that if you don’t mind so yeah you you yeah you can see something with 12 13 Okay do you think that this film will reach which target group what kind of target i’m sorry well it’s a tourism promotion film so the idea of a tourism promotion film is that tourists will come to this place so what do you think is the target group for this film well many different films try to show many different spots to visit encourage people to see you know how many different places are good in that city or area but this film didn’t highlight many different places but try to show the only the highlighted places so I think that’s one good strategy to make people feel like oh that there’s a potential of that area we can start from those spots what what would be the target group young travelers older travelers generational groups um I think it it depends on the what type of the style of journey you would prefer so even younger generation for example if they want to explore this outdoor the mountain area or wall climbing then probably they will be drawn to this film but also um it also shows the the gastronomy the food and some the local history heritage so that also pulls some interest from the old audience so I could this could attract many different generational groups okay because I think the film is very heavy and uh it’s pretty dark and the voice is very deep and so true it’s u it’s kind of a yeah it’s not light do I really want to go there if I’m in a good mood or will I go there and um listen just to fo and be even more depressive so that’s the feeling that I have i’m sorry but we’re talking very open yeah I I see your point yes that makes sense yes yeah no I I thought that beautiful sort of art film but I wasn’t too sure about the being a sort of tourism promotional kind of film but then someone probably as you say senior targets people like us senior audience who might be interested in a really kind of deep part of that history and art would be attracted to this probably thanks what do you think Dom uh yeah I’ve I’ve seen the film as well and I I recognize the merit uh in terms of the production aspect of it uh but uh yeah I think uh it might go well over certain audiences and not might not necessarily if we’re expecting something really light and very inviting in terms of tourism so it’s it’s a certain art form that needs um appreciation as well but yeah generally I think it might also not be very inviting for some then I’ll just pick the next film then i mean for this film I mean I I think I can use it as a contrast so like I’ll pick the Hilton Kyoto okay video and then it can contrast and we can discuss like the difference between right [Music] What’s your recommendation hilton Hilton Kyoto [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] heat heat oh what that was beautiful yeah i mean obviously like I think I’m biased as in I I enjoy like I really enjoy Kyoto and then I’ve I’ve worked there before i’ve shot there before and I think what this ad does well is that obviously it’s for the Hilton Hotel and but it also allows you to understand like okay what it would feel like to experience Kyoto’s culture through kind of like their services or kind of at least that’s what they’re trying to convey maybe you know hundred years of cultural indry uh but at the same time you know it’s a very specific product and I think um like compared to uh the brave one I think actually there are very similar elements where it’s like the visuals sometimes it’s a little dark sometimes it’s more like serene you know the nature obviously there’s a history the culture um but there’s no voice over I think the voice over was the big difference between the brave one in this and then the music is a little bit different so maybe even though you know Kyoto is kind of known as a serious city right it’s not like there’s a lot of history there um but the the music the editing even though it makes you feel serious there’s a serene like very peaceful feeling that I think Kyoto brings to people who understand that but I think um no one People who haven’t been to Kildo just by watching the video they can kind of understand what it would feel like if you did go there kim maybe you can yeah that film was also one of my best um so it it is very short but very powerful including many things you know normally if you have some commercial oriented film to celebrate hotel or resort you easily fall into this you know way of you know showing you know we are very good good hotel lots of facilities and you know luxury goods and everything but this one also try to be a little bit calm and set back and uh try to make a link to the surrounding city in a very nice way and uh as as Jay mentioned the the sound and the control of the the rhythm and the speed of the camera sometimes fast sometimes slow was really well managed so it actually overcame the limitations of this uh you know commercialized film to the level of more tourist or more welcoming film so I absolutely agree love this film it’s u it’s great um I mean I’m I’m spending so much time in hotels throughout the year so um of course they are showing an empty entry hall of course they are showing an empty restaurant of course you’re walking alone through the bamboo gardens uh which is definitely not going to happen but uh as uh Jon said um you have the loud city outside and you have the serene relaxing part inside and um that’s what you want from a hotel um you want to come into the hotel you want to have it more quiet and you go out for the action so for me for example this shot when they were showing the facade of the hotel which is pretty boring because that’s a concrete facade as all the facads and then you go into the traditional um into the traditional architecture the interior design and so on so that’s the cool thing and and again of course they’re playing with cliches um but that’s what they have to do um I’m very happy hello i’m very happy that you don’t see couples uh where the girls go shopping and the boys go to work um because that’s the classic cliche that you will have in some of the hotel films um and yes you’re not alone in the hotel uh accept this but you have the chance to take it as a retreat and um the camera and the editing is really cool and the music so it also fits perfect i think so from my point of view into the Japanese style or at least what we think is the Japanese style yeah I agree i think um this is obviously a very high-end product and then all the design I mean it’s really nice to see how the designs inspired by all the other elements in surrounding the hotel so all the vertical lines like a bamboo forest or tori the gates and that’s how it’s kind of inspired all the design inside and then so it’s a bit like Kyoto within the hotel in a way so I think that kind of design um uh image is a really beautiful and I really like the uh absence of the the narrative as well very but it’s really suggested really really beautifully thank you yeah I think everyone has summarized it perfectly uh I would just like to say that I really liked it from a creative standpoint and a production st uh standpoint it was really wellm made as Jay has mentioned there are certain dark elements to it but it also makes it more elevated since it’s Hilton and it’s almost reminiscent to a perfume commercial like the really dark ones you know that’s why it it gives off this really high-end feel to it that is very apt for the brand so I this is also one of my top films in the selection that uh the jury has made and yeah it’s it’s very well executed and I really like it too and again I hope that the entry hall will be full and the restaurant will be full unless we don’t see the Hilton to be staying there long enough for the next time fore speech [Music] did you voice over hi hello um for my pick uh again there were several options to choose from but I’m thinking one that really stood out for me would be well actually there are two from Slovenia but I would choose the one with Slovenia bonfire of creativity slovenia bonfire slovenia hey Hey everybody thank you a millennium ago the first known Slovenian words were written five centuries on the author of the first printed book in the Slovenian language a Slovian Protestant reformer named Primos Thrubar lit a bonfire of what would prove to be a culture on the rise from there despite difficulties Slovenian culture was unstoppable and what’s my part in all this i’m a professor of art history and a writer i’m an American who has lived in London Paris Florence Rome but in the end I chose Slovenia as my forever home i was so enchanted by its great architect the modernist mystic Yoja Plechnik that I moved here from then on I devoted myself to exploring the wonders of Slovenian culture and sharing it in writing with those who’ve not had the chance to encounter it yet on the world map Slovenia stands out with great writers architects artists musicians i’m lucky to call a few of them friends friendship and love are integral to the Slovenian language itself it is one of the few to have preserved the dual form [Music] [Music] it’s all here waiting for the wise explorer to discover as so many others have before [Music] okay so for this one this isn’t a very traditional tourism film it’s it’s a niche film in a way it’s about art it’s about history but I personally really love personal stories and genuine stories that’s one that’s one of the uh most of my work revolves around that and I think incorporating incorporating really good stories about real people will make films more emotional and more human and grounded so I think this one uh perfectly incorporates that and at the same time it involves the environment around our characters as I might as I might say so that might be really appealing to for example art enthusiasts and others but I think it really uh goes to show how it it will reach its certain audience that it it wanted to and I love the personal touch to it that’s why I love the film i think it it is quite interesting we have seen three films but I I would say the my top choice was one end which is quite artistic abstract but not very friendly the Jay’s choice probably is in the middle combining artistry but also try to explain why Hilton is good and Don’s choice probably is on the on the other side where quite friendly and honestly explaining why this is a good country to visit so I think it’s a quite whole range of spectrum we have seen in these three films so in that sense in terms of delivery and honest and friendliness that was a really good film um but it my my mind is it’s a kind of a very different types of uh production so each has its own merit in some sense yeah i really like this film myself because I’m one of the sort of academics like doing research and and being a professor but um initially I thought oh no not not English narration but then I realized and this is the this person is actually the the professor expert decided to live in the country and really telling us the art and history and why he loves a place so that makes that uh story really authentic and I think it’s a very interesting way of narrating giving the story of that place yeah I really liked it i wonder if I’m like too much of a skeptic like I wonder like if they just made him up well it could be could be story so I I think that’s interesting where like as I’m watching it my first thought is like I wonder if he’s real yeah i’m sure yeah like if if he’s good if he’s real I think I would feel more emotionally engaged and then if he’s fake then I feel like the script and his voice over is forced so I think that’s what’s interesting for me like I mean I I feel like using English narration is always uh like you said I think it’s a it’s Yes i think using English narration is very especially in tourism videos normal like a commercial where they explain every point of why you should like a place it’s very much it’s so direct that maybe I would enjoy Slovenia better if you didn’t tell me like you just show him doing what he does and then maybe sparse narration maybe but that’s I think that’s personal preference i think some people you know would enjoy more information whereas for me you know I think most people when you travel you know you don’t have a tour guide next to you all the time you know you you kind of do your own homework and then you feel connected to this place and then maybe someone shares some information with you so I think as far as you know I think it’s it’s a good discussion of like well how much narration should you do how much shouldn’t you do you some some videos they don’t use uh voice as a narration but they use text and that’s interesting also so I think again I think at the end of the day is if this video brings more people to Slovenia then it’s successful but if for some reason like they look at their metrics and they find out that oh it didn’t do as well as maybe another video they did that had less narration then I think that’s where like big data comes in and then it’s more about marketing in a sense than and of course back to storytelling than than it is about the quality of the film i think the quality of the film is great yeah well again you have different approaches to get the public interested or the target group interested in what you want to promote and um as you said if the guy is real then it’s super nice and it’s super cool um again I haven’t been to Ljubljana for ages i’ve been more often to Japan than to Slovenia which is a shame um okay even though I’m driving through Slovenia when I’m going to Zagreb um but um but it’s a very personal approach and um I think I like the faces at the end where he’s showing uh that’s my friends um the problem with these people is that they might be recognized in Slovenia and they are not being recognized outside of Slovenia so we had this in Vienna as well that you had uh incredible people for Vienna that were participating in the films but if you went 100 kilometers or 200 kilometers outside of Vienna nobody recognized them anymore because as we say in Austria they were well known in Vienna and um so in Vienna and that’s it so that’s that’s a danger or a trap and you might fall um so I don’t know how important and how how well known these faces were um we will not find it out today um but um I think it’s a very personal and a very nice approach we all did yeah we all did for [Music] story [Music] good then now it’s your my pick um of course I would have picked the Switzerland film um of this amazing series with Roger Federer but um I thought I’d rather follow Kyong’s point of view and go more into the trashy part so therefore I’m choosing from region in Croatia make your own movie foreign okay hello am I speaking with the location manager you are do you have a moment sure i’m in my office so am I nobody likes them yeah they’re all the same we’re shooting an adventure movie we’re looking for an untouched [Music] paradise we need sea but it has to be crystal clear we want marvelous sandy or pebble beaches preferably both breathtaking horizons and mountain [Music] peaks fairy tale-like lakes wild forests rivers waterfalls gorgees we need magic can you do it yeah I’ve already got something and the [Music] rest is this location manager on a high level fantastico we are shooting a family movie and we need a location sorry is this a good moment perfect [Music] [Applause] [Music] we are looking for a scent of history and culture castles old towns old buildings theaters so we are filming this road movie and we are in a search of beautiful landscape hello mystery come on man we need action we need those location [Music] [Music] [Music] hello hello dear it’s me again this time we want to shoot some kind of romantic comedy of course and we have the most famous [Music] actresses um the film is kind of a trap because you have a lot of or you have some videos from film commissions where they are showing the country so it started with a film about uh Creed uh which is more or less the same the same story then it was a film about uh the Canary Islands and then other locations so these were films that were showing um the locations for real location managers to attract uh companies to do films here it’s a trap it’s uh not for location managers it’s not for film locations it’s just the story about this and they’re showing everything really everything and um that’s what I like about this film um it has fun it has action it’s showing all the things from gastronomy to action to family to all the things and it gets more chaotic till the end and really the end is so show something uh whatever you show it’s cool um and that’s that’s the region and that’s why I think it’s a extremely funny film and um and therefore uh I think I like it and it’s pretty much the opposite of what Kong was saying yeah so definitely it was overpop populated overdone with bombardment of images so you have a rainfall of images from all the different aspects about the area one one beauty of this film however is while they are overdoing this you know the image you know generation it has very strong you know story line storytelling behind it so there is a reason for shooting all these images and also they have this cartoon images to collect what is necessary so it doesn’t overflow after having this multiple images because of that backbone of the strong narrative so that’s something I really appreciate this this movie yeah it’s it’s kind of really in yourrface approach but then that’s the fun part of tourism isn’t it that’s and then anything you want and I think that’s a great kind of message but at the same time at the end I thought oh which country was that uh this is also one of my top picks including the Hilton ones and I I really like this film generally i would just say that with the films that we viewed from this year I think there were a few ones I’ve seen about film making which is in a way very niche too cuz uh you know there are very technical jargon being discussed like location managers which which film people only know so when what I was just thinking about this if if like the general public will see it uh how would the really technical jargon would come across but I think the the visual the imagery that we have and the sound and everything showing everything would really entice its uh target audience I think yeah I agree i think uh yeah I think we talked like last night we talked about film making as far as like using that as a as a tool as a story in in a lot of these commercials and I think what’s interesting about this one is that at least the location manager like job is pretty simple like it’s easy for the audience to understand it’s not like a director you know trying to direct something or do something I think and then I think what it does well also is just that it just shows you a lot of beautiful images that you would want to go vacation there you know the sun is always out it’s really beautiful so you know while you might not remember is Croatia but at least it’s like “Oh that that’s pretty maybe I want to go there.” And then you’ll go do your homework and then try to find out where where that is so I think it’s successful in in that sense yeah well I mean again what I like is they don’t take themselves too serious um and they’re having fun and you see a beach that’s crowded and not a hotel that’s empty um so you see the real life and um and and he’s taking his job very easily and um on the other side he’s taking it very serious because he’s trying everything um like a like a crazy guy so um therefore yeah it’s whatever you see um choose it you you’ll find it and these um a llomeration of calls at the end with the different languages so you have English you have French you have Italian you have German you have all the all the things so that shows that it’s that it’s international and and again I mean the open end because you don’t know what kind of picture she’s going to send um is uh kind of giving you a mystery uh to think about for the next uh two three minutes at least therefore I like the film okay actually I do the jud judge too and when I my my point of view is always like you know after I finished watching it do I you know did this film made me want to go there and that’s the point um but actually I I do like your video too and even though I didn’t know where it was particularly but like you know gastronomy like the way he ate like that’s something like you know felt like in the very ancient that’s something that we don’t get to eat on our regular table at home or like in Japan at least so yeah that that made me very curious so like you know like you you know Jay was saying like I would do my homework you know research like you know what that place was so that was actually really unique but also like you know his movie was also like you know telling me exactly what I I could you know I could imagine doing you know it my own too it’s like you know then I can I I won’t be doing everything but like in a few of them you know that they were showing like I could well in some sense maybe we are not exactly targeting the generational age group or perhaps if we think about the beginner group right advanced group that might be also worth thinking you know what which group these film might be appealing to right so these more friendly film might be very good for beginners right but some abstraction the the more kind of reserved one might be better for the you know more advanced travelers for example so right there’s a lot of things we can think about yeah that’s true that’s true good point [Music] Okay um this is uh probably one of the very lowkey uh production quandal vests from Spain when you return um I just wanted to bring this because we in sustainable tourism we talk so much about authenticity of people’s life like this festival’s theme this time is like kurashi is people’s ordinary living so how do we feature people’s ordinary living but then at the same time make tourism product i think it’s a really difficult I it’s quite a big challenge so I just thought maybe this shows that aspect of the tourism sort of kind of tourism not trying to be tourism in a way i meanchech so this forum is now closure and uh we all the juries actually have to go into the prescription trip now so uh yeah we’ll um say thank you very much for joining us and uh yeah so Katoan’s film is going to be shown after we take off from the from the stage so thank you very much everyone for joining us thank you for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Yes [Music] [Music] fore [Music] speech foreves [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come on hello [Music] sorry [Music] [Music] moment no [Music] hallelujah [Music] wonder Yes

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Forum 1 「Understanding This Year’s Tourism Films」　
11:00~12:00, 18th March 2025