Interview with Kenji Ishimaru – Thank you for sharing your World by Kodansha VR Lab

#veniceimmersive #kenjihishimaru #japanvr
Simona Cochi’s interview with Kenji Hishimaru – Thank you for sharing your World by Kodansha Production and Polygon Pictures.
Japan is recognized as a world leader in AR/VR technology and has pioneered development of gaming hardware and software over many years. Until now, VR/AR has largely been used in Japan for entertainment purposes. However, in the coming years, it is expected that the technologies will be applied in an increasingly wide range of industries, including medicine, tourism, retail and manufacturing. Japan’s adoption of 5th generation (5G) wireless technology, strong government support and an increased range of applications for VR/AR technologies will fuel the growth of the this sector.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR WORLD
Venice Immersive
Director:
Yu Sakudo
Production:
Kodansha VR Lab (Ishimaru Kenji, Pun Sham Kiu)
Running Time:
33’
Language:
English
Country:
Japan
Main Cast:
Zach Aguilar, Nicola Fricano
Screenplay:
Yu Sakudo, Ishimaru Kenji
Music:
haruka nakamura
Sound:
Masataka Ota
Art directors: Hanzaki Toshiaki, Yeung Gee
Lead developer: Jorge Pedrero Reyna
Developers: Mateo Juvera Molina, Joan D. Peris Sánchez, Andrea Carver
Project manager: Kano Yumiko
Voice over (Japanese): Nakagawa Tsubasa, Okayama Amane
Takashi lost his eyesight in grade school. Though he can recreate the world in his mind, he begins losing interest and is left with few things to enjoy. He has a friend, Shinji, who is autistic. One day, Shinji invites him to a steam locomotive ceremony. Due to some reasons, Takashi gets into a fight with Shinji, and they go their separate ways. After looking for him, Takashi falls into a gloomy state of mind. With people’s support, Takashi finally finds Shinji at the ceremony. With the train passing by, Shinji’s voice brings him back to the world and Takashi learns how to enjoy the world with his imagination.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
This work aimed to reproduce the world experienced by blind people, focusing on the expressive uniqueness of VR. To achieve this, we first shot the whole movie in live action. During this time, the main character was blindfolded (not only the performer but the director and the production team too, thus putting themselves in the main character’s shoes). By doing this, we learned the interesting aspect of not seeing people and objects coming up from unexpected directions. I realized that VR is effective to convey how a person walking toward you can almost bump into you, as well as moving the viewer’s eyes just with sound information, which are both used effectively in this work.

“The Italian Way” Youtube Channel (My Camera …..my Paintbrush) is an iconic video magazine created by Simona Cochi, an Italian journalist and pr based in Milan.
Simona unveils the exclusive features of the most relevant events about Art, Lifestyle, Design, Fashion, and more. Art interviews are one of the keys to being seduced by “The Italian Way” project.
The creative gesture of “direct capture” (the camera like a brush) blends different and transversal elements and draws on the visual heritage, the digital, and the sound in a field with still unexplored possibilities but which has the characteristics of a 21st-century Surrealism.
This editorial project has been conceived on Simona’s return after a year and a half of work and research in different European capital cities and iconic outposts.
Simona Cochi can claim international working experiences and an academic track record.
2017 – Simona Cochi starts her digital video magazine to adapt communication and journalism techniques to the new challenge of the 2.0 era.
In 2018, during her experience as a video blogger in Vienna’s museums, her definitive inspiration for surrealism was ignited through the work on the Man Ray’s show at the Kunstforum. Further creativity and motivation have been enhanced thanks to the research on Sigmund Freud, the other eminent Austrian figure with significant traces of his life and works in Vienna.

The digital producer’s aim is to “paint” the path of the art exhibitions with her camera, revealing an unprecedented vision, and delivering new interpretative nuances of daily reality.
The images and comments of the Italian journalist are expressed to describe the emotions of art but also to portray the magnificent outposts of culture. Simona Cochi’s footage is often accompanied by iconic interviews with the event’s protagonist.
The beauty of a work resides in its visionary strength, in its celebratory capacity, in the alienating effect it arouses and this is what the spontaneity of the author often manages to convey.
The creative gesture of “direct capture” (the camera like a brush) blends different and transversal elements and draws on the visual heritage, the digital, the sound in a field with still unexplored possibilities but which has the characteristics of a 21st-century Surrealism.