Kirabo-3

2015, Short | A girl struggling to find her purpose in life is guided by a magical robot.

Agency | Nameless K.K.
Client | Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Directed by Anthony Gilmore
Cinematography by Ryan Seale

Kirabo-3 is a short film used as a branded content piece to promote Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences (NUAS) in Japan. The story is about Tomoko, a high-school-aged girl who encounters a magical robot named Kirabo-3. On their journey, Kirabo-3 helps Tomoko find her true passion and what is important for her to pursue in life. 

The film explores the ideas of creativity, imagination, multidisciplinary curiosity and exploration, and how all of those things are what contribute to our own humanity. These themes directly correspond with NUAS’s philosophies.

Shot on multiple locations over 4 days in Nagoya, Kirabo-3 combines camera angles, camera movement, lighting, and art direction that is a nod to 1980s fantasy film nostalgia. This execution helps bring to life the magical undertones of the script and gives an element of whimsy to balance the film’s heavier themes. The 2.4:1 widescreen aspect ratio extracted from the RED digital cinema camera yields a cinematic look that in years past, would have only been possible by filming on cost-prohibitive 35mm celluloid. 

Kirabo-3 was brought to life using 3D design software, was animated, and then digitally integrated into each scene of the film using camera tracking and compositing techniques. 

For the night scene in the rice field, I shot day-for-night, a technique which under-exposes shots during the day so that they can be manipulated during image processing to appear as if they were filmed at night. This technique helped to significantly reduce the film’s production budget by eliminating the need for the high-powered lighting that would have been necessary to capture footage after dark in an area with limited existing light sources. 

The school projected the final film in AEON mall multiplex theaters during invitation-only movie screening events for hundreds of high school students. Additionally, the film was deployed on the NUAS official website along with a special microsite built specifically for the campaign.