Notebook: Ichikikushikino
Talking about my favorite images.. the when, the why, the how, the what.
Tekkan Wakamatsu is a 5th generation shochu maker (Tōji) and represents a new generation of distillers in Japan. In this photo, he stirs a beginning stage fermentation in one of the distillery’s many “kame” .. A large 560 liter (147 gallon) earthenware vessel embedded in the concrete floor. Ichikikushikino, Japan (2016)
About the shot:
This was originally a scouting photo a took while I was shooting my documentary “The Spirit Of Japan”. This is something I like to do, time permitting, when I’m shooting and I’m going to be in the same general location for a few days. I’ll go around with my stills camera and look for nice angles, nice light and start working out the compositions that I could create in a given space.
I loved this angle right away, with the dark foreground area and the light coming from the background. The beautiful kame, lined up in a grid. Tekkan’s favorite blue hat giving that little splash of color in a sea of earth tones.
Over the course of the seven days that I shot at Yamatozakura during the 2016 season, I prowled around this angle quite a bit.. I did get some nice shots, but all the same elements didn’t really align in the same way again and I was’t able to replicate this still on video in the exact same way.
I think sometimes it’s also a little deceiving shooting RAW stills and then trying to do the same thing in a 422 LOG video capture. There’s a ton of processing on this still, to balance the light & dark, that’s a tad bit out of range for the video file (from the camera I was using). It’s one reason I’m excited about the Sony FX2, being able to shoot my production stills in the same color space as my video is going to come in really handy and just make my pre-vis process a little smoother.
It’s still one of my favorite photos from shooting at Yamatozakura and I think it’s emblematic of the tōji’s dedication to his work and the tradition of making shochu in Japan. It’s also a great example of how an impactful wide shot can give context to your story and give details to the space in which the story unfolds.