~Monosus Eizouken × Marionette collaboration project~
"Porta Goes to Town" Short Film

hello everyone.
My name is Haruka Baba and I work as a coder.
It's been almost a year since we purchased the marionette as part of an internal project to explore the interests of our employees.

As a result of our practice, we created a short film with the help of Kawarasaki Taira, who writes articles for Monosus Eizouken.

Here is the finished video! Please take a look.

The short film we produced this time is "Porta Goes to Town"

About Porta

The main character of the video is Porta, a brown bear marionette.

Porta posts on Instagram every day and is constantly exploring what he can do.
I usually stay inside the house, but occasionally go for walks around the area.
Among them, my friend Tori often appears.

Tori and I live together and we are very good friends.

In the video we shot this time, Porta suddenly finds itself in the middle of the city.
The story follows a man who is confused but excited by unfamiliar scenery and new experiences, wandering around in search of clues to find his way home.

Porta is usually a laid-back guy, but even when he is suddenly left alone in an unfamiliar place, he walks around without hesitation, which is very reliable.

I have written in detail about my encounter with Marionette Porta and my life with her since then in a previous article, so please take a look if you are interested.
Puppet show and me
Life with marionettes

About video production

This time, the shooting

The workshop was conducted by three people.

The photoshoot took place in late August. It was a windy day, as a typhoon was approaching. The weather was unstable, sometimes sunny and sometimes cloudy, but it didn't rain, and we were able to complete the shoot safely.
This was the first time for all of them to shoot a marionette. We asked them again about their impressions.

-How was it filming a marionette for the first time?

Kawarazaki: While we were filming, the three of us came up with ideas together, like, "If we do this movement, it will bring out Porta's emotions more," "It looks fun," and "It will bring out the best in the movements," and that was what was fun and what we focused on.
It's interesting to see the life being breathed into them. The way they really feel alive is something that is unique to marionettes. A doll doesn't move, but a marionette moves, so I thought it was interesting.

Saito: It was impressive that Kawarazaki was always filming while crawling on the ground. He wasn't filming Porta's world from a human perspective, but rather filming him as a documentary, as if he were an ordinary person.

Kawarazaki: That may be true. If I took the picture from my own height, it would look like I was looking down on Porta, so I tried to take the picture from as low a position as possible, like when photographing a small child.

-Was there anything else you paid attention to while filming?

Kawarazaki: If the puppeteer (Baba) was in the frame, the image would be far removed from the image, so they may have tried to frame him as best they could so that he wouldn't appear in the frame.
For this reason, I tried to use telephoto camera lenses whenever possible.
Also, using a telephoto lens makes it easier to blur the background. The tone of the video this time was minimal, and I wanted to blur the background to create a cinematic feel, so I mainly used a telephoto lens.

-What other ideas do you have to come up with to create a cinematic feel?

Kawarazaki: It's generally said that "teal and orange" makes an image look more cinematic when it has blue-green and orange accents. A common technique is to bring the shadows closer to blue-green while brightening them a little, which also looks more cinematic, so I tried to find the right balance.
I also tried things like reducing the brightness to prevent the bright areas from being too blown out.
However, everyone has their own preferences, so while some people may find it cinematic, others may not.
I also wanted to give it a retro feel, so I added some noise to give it a slightly rough texture.

-Can you tell us what you consider when editing?

Kawarazaki: When I was editing, I had a story in mind, so I tried to make the story easier to follow. However, if the footage is too explanatory, it becomes clumsy, so I tried to make it so that it could be understood.
Also, throughout the film, I wanted to give Porta emotions, and express his happiness and sadness in the video. I used bright music for the happy scenes, and toned down the music for the tired scenes at the end, and was conscious of how to show Porta's happiness and tiredness.

-When do you enjoy making videos?

Kawarazaki: I'm really nervous when I'm preparing. But when I actually shoot and the shots come out better than I imagined, I feel good. The scene where I drink juice and the scene on the swing were not originally planned scenes, but when I shot them on the day, they turned out to be really good scenes, so I feel happy at times like that.
Also, the moment when the music and the composition come together nicely, it's like a puzzle piece fitting into place, and I get such a happy feeling when I feel like if I keep going like this, it will turn out well.
I also feel happy when people see what I've created and give me a positive response.

Mr. Kawarazaki's story about video production was interesting, and I ended up listening to him at length. I realized that he was editing the video with this in mind, and it was interesting to watch the video again and see it in a different light.
In fact, Saito-san took a lot of photos of the behind-the-scenes of the shoot this time, so I hope to write an article about them again next time.

And lastly, we would like to introduce the shops that cooperated with us in this shoot.

He was very gracious in agreeing to let me take his picture.
Thank you again for your cooperation!