"An American Piano" is nearing completion

[Paul Leeming]

Hi all, I've been a bit quiet around these parts of late, being deep into post-production on "An American Piano", my latest directorial effort based on a true story of a young girl playing piano next to a POW camp in Tokyo during WWII.

The film is now nearing completion and I'm happy to be able to post some stills from it showing off the near final colour grade.

We shot it on Epic (Kazu Kaneto was DP on this project as I was directing) using Canon EF lenses. I am aiming high with this film and see it as my short film swansong. From here on in I plan to only direct feature films, so with any luck it will garner many awards and help propel me to the next level.

The film is in Japanese and stars famous Japanese comedian (in a serious turn) Lou Ohshiba, Qyoko Kudo of "Wolverine", Jun Matsuo, Adam J. Yeend (who worked with me in my directorial debut in 2005, "Eve") and Leon Masuda as the young girl.

Comments, questions and criticisms welcome as always

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

Some more:

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

And the last ones!

Enjoy!

Paul

 

[Bob Gundu]

Paul, these still look fantastic. Good luck with the project!

 

[Paul Leeming]

Thanks Bob

The film is so beautiful and I can't wait to screen it around the world. We've already submitted it to a couple of major festivals so with any luck we'll get selected and be able to finally tell this amazing story.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

A few BTS shots

1. It was really cold on set, even though it was meant to feel like summer in the movie! The perils of shooting in the middle of December

2. Checking angles and fogging up the place for atmosphere!

3. One of the film's opening shots.

4. The wonderful cast checking out a take on the Epic's monitor.

Photos courtesy of Yoshi Enatsu.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Jeetu Chawla]

Great look & seems like you got a powerful story in there! Wish you luck, always... & eager to see more
Cheers ~

 

[Paul Leeming]

Thanks Jeetu

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

looks gorgeous!

 

[Matthew Scott]

Beautiful! Would love to see it

 

[Carlos Reyes]

Beautiful work Paul! Definitely will keep an eye out for this one, keep us updated

 

[Detlev Eller]

...
nice!

 

[Zeb B]

Looks amazing!

 

[Paul Leeming]

Thanks all

I now have a Facebook page up for it so you can follow its progress on the festival circuit and hopefully catch it near you soon.

http://www.facebook.com/AnAmericanPiano

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

For anyone in Japan who is interested in seeing the film, we have chosen a cast/crew/producers screening date: 18th January 2014.

If you'd like to attend, please send me a message and I'll see what we can do. Seating is very limited (140) but we will be screening the film in 4K, and will also have some speeches etc. The entire cast will be in attendance, as will most of the crew, so it will be a golden opportunity to interact with everyone.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

Here are the two posters for the movie.

Asian market:

International Market:

Which one is your favourite?

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Leeming]

It's done!

We had the cast and crew premiere on January 18th here in Tokyo at Imagica Gotanda, one of Japan's best mastering facilities, screening the film in beautiful 4K

It was a great success and audience feedback was very positive.

From here we will be taking the film into the festival circuit, so hopefully you can see the film soon as we tour with it. Until then, here is our official trailer for the film:

Enjoy!

Cheers from Tokyo,

Paul

 

[paulherrin]

looks awesome

i think i like the local poster a lot, but the red rays are cool, too

 

[Robert Hart]

I like what you have done thus far. Don't forget to let us know who your worldwide distributors are in the future. Over our summer in Perth, Western Australia, we have a Festival film season which includes foreign language films. Our SBS-TV also broadcasts foreign language films.

 

[Paul Leeming]

Thanks guys

Robert, I'm definitely planning on getting to Oz as that's where I'm from (Queenslander, though I lived for a year in Perth whilst doing flying training at 2FTS with the RAAF over in Pearce). SBS would be great!

Paul Herrin, thanks for the feedback

Cheers,

Paul