The ancient Japanese skill

We welcome guest blogger Maxim Beatty of Shanghai-based Yubi Digital http://yubi-digital.com/

Quality thrives in Japanese companies. — 确认 Quèrèn is what China needs. Especially in its creative industries where every detail matters. One brush stroke in calligraphic painting, a pixel in a graphic design or a single frame in a video can be critical to the audience experience.

Whether corporate video or feature film, this article offers a valuable insight that we can all profit from. I just wrapped shooting of the primary footage for my short film ANALYSIS http://www.obscure-productions.com/analysis.html and I know that what we created was so much better because I listened to input from everyone involved and got everyone involved in trying to make the end project better. I hope the end production will be well-received by audiences, but I know it will be better than what I would have made on my own because I listened to others and tried to share in their wisdom before making decisions. I thank all the folks who helped and put forth their best efforts on Analysis. Maxim Beatty of Yubi has always been a font of wisdom and source of support in my own film making and I know I can rely on his expertise and opinions.

The ancient Japanese skill

by Maxim Beatty

Many years ago in a former life, when I worked in Tokyo for an industrial manufacturer, I became acquainted with a very important word that is at the heart of Japanese quality control… ‘Kakunin’. The equivalent translation in English is ‘checking’ (in Chinese, ‘Queren’), and I discovered that it was this penchant for ‘checking’ that Japanese are so good at just naturally in their behaviour that led to the seamless manufacturing operations in their factories.

For example, if there was a new catalog being published by the marketing department, it had to do the rounds of the manufacturing department and be approved by every staff member (42 in total) on the entire department. However in efficient, this ‘checking’ habit proved to be invaluable when I started working in film production in Tokyo, then Shanghai, many years later.

‘Checking’ thoroughly at every stage is an essential part of the film production process, for both the production company and the client. While this is obvious for any work process in any industry, in film production it is even more so because of what is at stake. When we start a project, if the client has agreed to the proposal, the ‘checking’ begins in the initial interactions with the storyboard in its infancy, as we work back and forth with the client to develop something that reflects both the facts of the company and the creative ideas we are all trying to infuse. When working with a production company always make sure they make you sign off on the storyboard, because problems at the storyboard stage will only amplify as the project proceeds. Dot every i and cross every t, and make sure they do too.

Likewise, once the project enters the shooting phase, the director’s job is be aware of all aspects of the production, making sure the timings are correct, that the lighting hasn’t changed from one take to the next or from one scene to the next, checking the actor’s performance versus the storyboard, checking, checking, checking. Meanwhile the producer is busy maintaining the schedule, ensuring that people, equipment and locations are as they should be. For this reason it is always a good idea for the client to arrange to have someone on location, to ensure that everyone is on the same page in regard to visualising the end product. The same goes for post production. Producing a video is not cheap, and the cost of a reshoot or recalibrating an animation because the logo doesn’t reflect the latest VI update can be costly exercises that can be avoided if the production company has appropriate ‘checking’ procedures.

The fact is that ‘checking’ is actually a form of communication, that requires feedback and adjustment, self-reflection, and constant attention to create something really fantastic.

Yubi Digital is a Shanghai-based creative source for all levels of video and film production and has successfully provided top quality creative solutions for local and global clients.