Conversations with Minami Moriyama

Today we’d like to introduce you to Minami Moriyama.

Hi Minami, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and grow up in Osaka, Japan. During childhood, I experienced various art. (Painting, photography, listening to music *playing music *steel drum, capoeira, African dance, and so on.)

My mother loves art, and she always encourages me to experience new things and cultivate an aesthetic eye although we were not less well-off. Among many various arts, movies were the most fascinating to me. There was a time in my life when I lived with my grandmother, and her hobby is watching Foreign movies. So, every Friday night we watched many kinds of movies which made me absorbed in.

I also watched lots of behind of scenes in movies and got to know how movies are made. After that, I went to a school for getting a job, but I couldn’t forget about movies and started thinking about filmmaking more.

When I turned 20 years old, I moved to Los Angeles and learned filmmaking. Among various departments in filmmaking, I became interested in doing focus-puller in the camera department. Since I decided to pursue this, I have been involved with many projects (narrative, commercial and music videos so on.)

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Interestingly, any obstacles and challenges are kind of exciting to me because I’m aware that they would lead me somewhere anyhow eventually. Looking back, I should have had some at the time and struggled a bit, but it’s a bit difficult to remember now. I think it is because I used to often worry about too much about many things in my childhood, but as I get older, I realized that worrying takes my energy rather than just dealing with it.
I also like to analyze and try to think from different perspectives which definitely leads my mind into thinking the progress and improvement rather than obstacles.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My role is called focus puller. The primary responsibility of a focus puller is to maintain and control focus within a shot as it is filmed. I believe this technical skill contributes to the creative shots. That’s what I like about it. There are many various types of cameras and lenses, and they have unique characteristics. So I need to keep in my mind when I work with them. Moreover, taking care of everything related to the camera is part of my job as well.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
It is a little bit hard to assert because this industry (or even this current society) changes at a dizzying pace. What I can see is the digital format is continuously progressing with new technology, and simultaneously, the film format is lively surviving by passionate film supporters. I think as a filmmaker, I need to keep cultivating technical knowledge and a creative mind.

• Link: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5622728/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

• The Lightkeeper ****Director: Zach Bandler, Cinematographer: Jon Keng
         -Woods Hole Film Festival (Winner, Director’s Award for Cinematography)
• The Stairs****Director: Zach Bandler, Kelly Blatz , Cinematographer: Jon Keng
  -River’s Edge International Film Festival(Winner Special Jury Prize Best Film)
  -Ashland Independent Film Festival (Winner Audience Award Best Short Film)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minami_crease/

Image Credits
Profile & additional: Tracy Shen Additional: Kenneth Camellia