Yoshikaze Kenezawa nearly missed this year’s Fabulous Four premiere because his passport was out of date! Luckily he made it to ADFEST in the nick of time. Yoshikaze is an Assistant Director from Dentsu Creative X Inc., Tokyo.

 
What was the inspiration behind your script?
 
It was out of the blue. I thought of the idea, ‘what if a dad was a drone?’ So I just started to build a story from there, in that one single idea. I thought it would be very different and funny if a member of the family is a drone. In many movies out there, one member of the family is a robot – like in the sci-fi movies. So I thought this idea was very Japanese-like.

 
Who is your inspiration in the industry?
 
Kenji Yamauchi. He is a director from our company, Dentsu. When I first joined the company, I was looking through the commercials that the company made. And most of the commercials that I liked was made from Kenji Yamauchi.

 
Are there any new techniques in film making that you are bringing to advertising?
 
Using a drone as one of the cast is something new.

I’m very interested in VR and 360 shooting, I would like to give these technologies a shot. The reason being: it is very interactive; whoever is watching it gets a first-person experience. For me, as a director, I have to continuously visualize what it will be like to incorporate VR and think through how the audience will experience the film.

 
Do you like to direct short or long films?
 
I like both. Making a short film and a long film is very different – overall, I just like to make films and new challenges. You have more time to shoot different films if they are short.