Max Golomidov, the director of Yoyogi Haiku talks with Deborah Kingsland, co-director of Stronger than Fiction.
Deb: Congratulations on Yoyogi. You recently attended the World Premiere. Tell us about it.
Max: The world premiere of Yoyogi took place at Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic (October, 2022). We had a good spot in the screening schedule and it was a full house. It is a unique experience observing how people react and watch your film. A few laughs here and there, all sorts of reactions to scenes I thought would hardly get recognized. And the Q &A was also very lovely and intense.
Deb: Can you tell us how you came up with the idea for the film?
Max : After moving to Japan in 2014 I found myself visiting parks a lot. Those visits reminded me of my homeland of Estonia which is a quiet place.Tokyo is very noisy - I love the way parks are designed here; once you’re inside, you barely notice you’re in the very heart of a big megapolis.So Yoyogi Park became my go-to place. It's a public park, always open, easy to get to. One day I took my camera with me and thought I would start “collecting”, capturing those precious moments of life inside the park.
Deb: Hannah de Feyter, my co-director and I love Yoyogi. We both smiled all the way through and don't exactly know why. It's magical. How did you arrive at the decision to follow a strict format of only shooting wide shots ?
Max: It’s good when film makes you smile- smiling is what we need these days! From the very beginning I wanted to go 100% observational style, zero staging, no interviews, no random shot sizes, static shots, no distraction with unnecessary camera movements. I planned my shots so that all “action” takes place within the limits of the frame (almost like on a stage in the theatre). I used to come to the park completely unprepared - curious as to what the park would offer me. Sometimes nothing at all, sometimes those little “gems” would happen. I would walk around the park, observing and waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen. I used to feel a bit like a hunter.
I chose wide shots - a safe shot-size for this style of film. Yet, I still call it “an intimate distance”. I wasn’t very close, yet wasn’t far enough to call it “candid/spy” camera, most of the time I was seen/noticed.
Deb: What were your criteria for shots that made it to the final edit?
Max: We picked the most precious moments with a symbolical action “link” at the beginning and in the end of each shot, this way I was able to connect scenes: a tree branch falls down and this connects with the boy landing a successful front flip; water from a water-gun links well with a spout of water rising from a fountain, and so on. There’re tons of hidden links throughout the film. Because of the decision to use such links, I had to give up some very interesting scenes simply because there was nothing I could them link with.
Deb :The people who appear in Yoyogi seem unaware of the camera. How was this possible? Were you using a very long lens or did you hide the camera ?
Max: The whole film was shot with just one lens (35mm). This is not a very “hidden camera” approach, due to the distance I chose to stick to. Once I noticed something was happening - I simply went for it, started capturing it, then sorted out all the talk and permissions later. Most of the time people were very friendly and open-minded saying - “If it’s something that is interesting to you - feel free to record”. And I did, often filming one person for an hour or more. It might have been a bit annoying to them (:
Deb: How long did it take for you to shoot the film? What was the post-production schedule?
Max: My first visit to Yoyogi Park with my camera was in December 2017, and I finished shooting at the point when Covid hit Japan, I didn’t want to include Covid in the film so the footage would be timeless- you would hardly know when it was recorded. Editing took a few months. My on-location sound was barely usable due to noise, constant crows around, cicadas and wide shots. So we redesigned and re-recorded almost all sounds that you hear in the film. Also, it was my first time working with a foley artist.
Could you name a few filmmakers whose work you particularly admire.
Max: Hard to give names, too many of them…Sergey Dvortsevoy, Viktor Kossakovsky, Michael Glawogger, Andrey Tarkovsky, Ulrich Seidl, Gaspar Noe, Wong Kar-Wai…
Deb: Do you draw inspiration from Estonian or Japanese culture?
Max: I draw inspiration mostly from everything around me: people walking down the streets, books, music, nature, painting, unexpected new places…
Deb: You are a colourist. Can you tell us a little about your decisions on how you graded the film.
The film was shot on a digital camera, but I always try to give the digital image a sort of “analogue” film characteristic feel without going crazy, just keeping it natural, soft, less crisp probably…
Deb: What do you think is the most accurate logline for Yoyogi?
Max: An observation of unnoticed things in a public park of Tokyo. Sorry, that doesn’t sound fancy, but it is probably the most accurate description.
Deb: Are you working on a new film?
Max: Hard to answer that. Way too much stuff happening non-stop all around, it’s up to us to notice something that is close to our hearts. I keep observing and searching…
still from Yoyogi Haiku
Max Golomidov is a cinematographer, colorist and director. He was born in Estonia, Tallinn. He graduated from Baltic Film and Media School as a cinematographer in 2008. He filmed such documentaries as Anthill (Sipelgapesa), Celebration (Prazdnik), Hippodrome by Vladimir Loginov, fiction film Kontora by Anshul Chauhan.
Max did color for Rubiks Road by Laila Pakalnina and Close relations by Vitali Manksi. Max moved to Japan, Tokyo in 2014 following a job offer as a colorist.
Yoyogi documentary is Max’s directorial debut set in Tokyo’s park called Yoyogi.