Film Production – Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media

　　
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  • The Department of Film Production fosters filmmakers with the technical and creative capabilities to bring their narrative films to the world's stage.

  • The Department of Film Production offers 7 course specializations: Directing, Screenwriting, Producing, Cinematography, Art Directing, Sound Design, and Editing.

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Fostering high-level technical expertise and artistic sensibility

The Department of Film Production nurtures filmmakers with the creative and technical capabilities to work at the highest level on the international stage. There are seven course offerings: Directing, Screenwriting, Producing, Cinematography, Art Directing, Sound Design, and Editing. These specializations correspond with the functional divisions in commercial film productions and prepare students to join the industry after graduation. The curriculum is centered on film production experience, and students produce narrative works of varying lengths throughout the year. The university covers production costs, depending on the scale of the film. Students also have opportunities to work in the Japanese film industry and join co-productions and workshops with overseas institutions.
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Creating a new film production system

The film industry is in the midst of a digital movie revolution that rivals the upheaval seen during the transition from silent movies to talkies. We have embraced this new era in filmmaking by introducing a digital cinema production system in which everything from shooting to screening is done digitally. In addition, we recognize the trend toward combining fields of expertise in todayʼs film production system. Our comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approach adapts to this new era in terms of both “hard” aspects such as equipment and “soft” aspects such as personnel and expertise.  

Department of Film Production alumni workplaces

Cine Bazar Casting Department, Stardust Pictures, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Trixta (new venture), Auditorium Shibuya, Laputa Asagaya, Dentsu, Yomiuri Advertising, TV Asahi, Asmik Ace, Transformer, Aoi Studio, Arquebuse, Phantom Film, Media Factory, Image Studio 109, MICOTT & BASARA Inc., Pict, Curators, Nintendo, Kawaguchi City Media Center, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo/Film Center, Lightning, Directions, Takushoku University, Musashino Art University

FILM EXPRESSION TECHNOLOGY COURSE

  • DIRECTING COURSE
  • SCREENWRITING COURSE
  • PRODUCING COURSE

Directing Course

It wears the understanding and judgment and writers against movie sensuously.


A film director has a definite influence on the production where film making is a joint effort of a specialist group. e students in the Directing Course broaden their understanding of movies through classes and seminars, developing judgment on-set through practice work, and acquiring a sense of how to reflect their individual character into the film production which cannot be self-produced.

  • Nobuhiro Suwa

    Born in 1960. He was involved in independent movies while attending Tokyo Zokei University. After graduating and gaining experience in producing TV documentaries, he directed 2/Duo in 1997 and won the NETPAC Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. He was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize in the Parallel Sections at Cannes Film Festival for M/Other. His other major works are H Story, Paris, je t'aime (omnibus), Un Couple Parfait which won the Special Prize of the Jury in Locarno International Film Festival, and Yuki & Nina. He is known for his particular method that uses uncompleted scripts.

  • Akihiko Shiota

    Born in 1961. Starts his career with 8mm independent films as a university student. In 1999, he simultaneously released Moonlight Whispers and Don’t Look Back. Then, Harmful Insect (2001) was selected for the Venice International Film Festival, and later won the Special Jury Prize at the Nante Three Continent Festival. Futher, Resurrection (2002) and Dororo (2007) achieved the domestic box-office hits, grossed over 3 billion yen. He continues his filmmaking by bouncing back and forth between commercial films and art-theater film productions. His recent works include Wet Woman in the Wind (2016) and The World of You (2022). In addition, he’s the author of the film criticism ”The Cinematography: Why are these Directions so Attractive?”, which also translated and published in China.
    『Moonlight Whispers』『D’ont Look Back』『Harmful Insect』『Resurrection』『Dororo』『Wet Woman in the Wind』『The World of You』

Screenwriting Course

  • Michiko Oishi

    Born in Tokyo. After graduating from the Fine Art department of Tokyo University of Arts(TUA), interjecting a period as an employee, she was then enrolled in Film production of Film and New Media graduate school of TUA in 2005. There, she studied screenwriting under Yozo Tanaka and finished her course by 2007. Some of her major screenwriting films are Tokyo Rendezvous (2008, directed by Chihiro Ikeda), GeGeGe’s Wife (2010, directed by Takuji Suzuki), Drive in Gamo (2014, directed by Masaki Tamura), and an animation work To You - Letters from Hibakusha- (directed by Yuka Imabayashi). She was also the supervisor of Japanese lines for Abbas Kiarostami's film, Like Someone In Love (2012).

  • Yuji Sakamoto

    Born in 1967. Won the Fuji TV Young Scenario Award at the age of 19. At the age of 23 he wrote the screenplay for Tokyo Love Story, concentrating thereafter on writing screenplays for TV drama series. Recent works include Watashitachi no kyokasho (Our Textbook), Mother, Soredemo ikite yuku (Still, Lift Goes On), Saiko no rikon (The Greatest Divorce), Woman, Mondai no aru resutoran (A Restaurant with Many Problems), and Itsuka kono koi wo omoidashite kitto naite shimau (Love That Makes You Cry).

Producing Course

The responsibility of the producer is rather serious and the work encompasses many fields. In practical production, students handle all processes from various negotiations to management of production costs. Students gain understanding of how long a process, how many people are involved and how large a budget is needed during production through practical experience. Above all, every year during a "production project" which is completed in the first term of the second year, students execute the central functions involved in responsibilities from project development to the work being released to the public.

  • Shozo Ichiyama

    Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan in 1963. After graduating from the Economic department of Tokyo University, he started his career by joining Shochiku. While he was placed in Office Kitano Inc., he produced a variety of films inside and outside of Japan. Some of his major producing works are; Nowhere Man (1991) directed by Naoto Takeuchi, Flowers of Shanghai (1998) directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Blackboards (2000) directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, A Touch of Sin (2013) directed by Jia Zhangke, and They Say Nothing Stays the Same (2019) directed by Joe Odagiri.
    Also, he was the Program Director of TOKYO FILMeX from 2000 to 2020, and from April, 2021 he works as the Programming Director of Tokyo International Film Festival.

  • Eiji Watanabe

    Born in 1967. After graduating from Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Currently: Japan Institute of the Moving Image), he has participated in numerous projects such as Kei Kumai, Yoichi Higashi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takashi Ishii, Yojiro Takita, Shusuke Kaneko, and Sogo Ishii, as a staff of the production department.
    He has also produced the following films since 2000: Hush! (directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi), All Around Us (directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi), Border Line (directed by Lee Sang-il), Wandering Home (directed by Yoichi Higashi), My Grandpa (directed by Yoichi Higashi), Somebody's Xylophone (directed by Yoichi Higashi), The Matsugane Potshot Affair (directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita), Dolphine Blue (directed by Tetsu Maeda), Homeland (directed by Nao Kubota), Thousand and One Nights (directed by Nao Kubota), Monster (directed by Hirokazu Koreeda).

FILM PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY COURSE

  • CINEMATOGRAPHY COURSE
  • ART DIRECTING COURSE
  • SOUND DESIGN COURSE
  • EDITING COURSE

CINEMATOGRAPHY COURSE

Cameras and lighting are the areas which fully support the images in a movie. To bear this heavy responsibility, students not only acquire necessary knowledge and skills but also cultivate the ability to appreciate the beauty of images in film. The cooperation of multiple persons is indispensable for the operation of the highly specialized equipment and lighting apparatus. In practical work, students acquire particular team working skills for filming, lighting and communications as well as developing their individual skills.

  • Sohei Tanikawa

    Graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Cinema. Mainly shoots films and TV dramas. Studied in the UK as part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Study Program for Artists and serves on the board of the Japanese Society for Cinematographers. Main works as cinematographer include director Sion Sono’s Noriko’s Dinner Table, Love Exposure, Guilty of Romance, and Himizu; director Takashi Shimizu’s Kiki’s Delivery Service; director Satoshi Miki’s Adrift in Tokyo; director Yuichi Sato’s Kasane: Beauty and Fate; and director Hideki Takeuchi’s Fly Me to the Saitama and Daughter of Lupin.

ART DIRECTING COURSE

When it comes to furniture, clothing, and properties which appear in any movie,it is necessary to prepare items which not only match the setting of the time and place, but are appropriate for the atmosphere of the film. Therefore, it is necessary to possess a wide knowledge and sensibility. In the Art Directing Course, students study production tricks and acumen which go beyond mere technique through seminars and practical work.

  • Keiko Mitsumatsu

    Mitsumatsu graduated from Art Directing course of Nikkatsu Visual Arts Academy in 1995. She started her career as a trainee, and after three years as a prop makers, turned to an art assistant. She worked as an art director for Nobody Knows (2004), Our Little Sister (2015), Shoplifters (2018), and Monster (2023) directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sway (2006), Dear Doctor (2009), The Long Excuse (2016), Under The Open Sky (2020) directed by Miwa Nishikawa, Tokyo Rendezvous (2008) directed by Chihiro Ikeda, Drowning Love (2016) directed by Yuki Yamato, The 8-Year Engagement (2017) directed by Takahisa Zeze, and Life in Overtime (2018) directed by Hideo Nakata.

SOUND DESIGN COURSE

In the Sound Design Course, we provide education and research activities which concentrate on "sound design in film." The specific course contents(common classes with another area are excluded) are as follows:1. In the seminar practice, we deepen knowledge of the acoustical instruments necessary from on-set recording to mixing work, and acquire the necessary techniques.2. In the lectures in seminar, we cultivate knowledge of image expression from the viewpoint of "sound design" and learn to construct our own "viewpoint of sound design."3. Repetitive practice by producing films. is course resides on these three main pillars. By practicing the above three items, students will acquire and master specific skills to become a sound professional, a sound artist, or as soundtrack composer and the like in the movie industry.e Sound Design Course also aspires to exist as a "free space" in which the students can use the sound mastering room and the recording materials, etc. as much as they wish in order to pursue original research. Put another way, this course wants to be a place of "practice" and "experiment" with sound design in film expression.

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  • Hiroyuki Nagashima

    His work on the sound live remix of a movie directed by Director Sogo Ishiiled to work on music and sounds of numerous works regardless of the media.His main movie works are Sogo Ishii's Angel Dust, Katsuhiro Ootomo's Memories episode 3 – ‘Cannon Fodder’ (Taiho no Machi), Shinji Aoyama's Eli,Eli, Lema Sabachtani?, Kunitoshi Manda's Seppun (The Kiss), Hiroshi Takahashi'sKyofu (The Sylvian Experiments), and Makoto Shinozaki's SHARING etc. He also performs with the group Dowser, an electronic music group.

EDITING COURSE

What is editing? Editing exists to bring movie images to life by compiling theow into a definite stream, using the rush films(dailies) which were shot according to the storyboard, things which accidentally appear in frame, and disordered images. Even as the film age changes to the digital age, what is essential to editing has not necessarily changed. To deeply analyze the material, to communicate effectively with others, to discover the subject of the work,and to find out whether specific elements connect or not; to satisfy all these components it is necessary to possess knowledge of not only movies but also the world outside of movies. Technique will follow through once one physically understands what should be expressed. Because the time has come when anyone can easily edit a digital film, the editor’ s position is becoming increasingly complicated. In an age when movie directors can edit for themselves, can a film possibly be edited by another with more precision than what the director intended? In the Editing Course we foster editors who can relate to the present movie environment, after experiencing reel film editing as well as learning the fundamental techniques for connecting film.

  • Shogo Yokoyama (appointed April 2025)

    Born in Kanagawa Prefecture. Obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media from the London College of Communication. After returning to Japan, enrolled in the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, specializing in editing. Worked as an editor on numerous domestic and international films, including Abbas Kiarostami’s 『Like Someone in Love』 Amir Naderi’s 『CUT』, Kei Ishikawa’s 『conversation(s)』、 Shota Sometani’s 『Similar But Different』 Nagme Silhan’s 『Maki』 and Yoshihiro Hanno’s 『Lighting Over the Beyond』. Served as the director of international film production workshops targeting ASEAN countries for many years. Holds a Ph.D. in Media and Film Studies.