How We Made This Segment

"Morihiko: An Aspiring American" was shot over 4 days during a 10 day visit Mori took back to the States from Japan. The two cameras were lent to us - one was a friend's MiniDV camera and the other was a Sony HVR-A1U that shot 1080i HDV provided by SmogTV's sponsor, Band Pro. None of the actors were paid and SmogTV was kind enough to lend their Avid facilities for editing, which took roughly a month. I wrote the story but it was shot and performed very organically in Venice, with much of the dialogue being improvised.

Although it is in actuality a mockumentary, many elements of it remain true. The shot of Mori and I greeting each other was when we actually first saw each other, and when he leaves, that was the day he left. He's not an actor; he plays himself and actually does love America and would love to return. Years ago Mori told me a story about calling an escort service and when the girl arrived he had second thoughts, but was willing to go through with it so that he wouldn't hurt her feelings. She ended up stealing his money and making a run for it. That's where the idea came from. We all knew each other well and had fun with the shooting. Man-hours aside the film probably cost less than $100 dollars to make since everything was donated, including the MiniDV stock that my mom gave me for Christmas.

Ryan Philander Philander@ca.rr.com