A coming-of-age story set in a foreign land, Katrita is a fantastic short film by writer, director and star Virginia de Witt, which saw its debut at the influential Dances With Films Festival that was held recently.
indieactivity: Now that Karita is complete, what are your feelings about the entire project?
Virginia de Witt (VW): It’s mixed, as I immediately get excited about the next thing. I’ve wrapped two projects and been involved in four projects since finishing ‘Karita’ as either a producer, director or actor. But also, I think directors and writers are always looking at where they can improve. It would have been a different movie if I’d known what I know now – but of course, I only have that knowledge because of the experience of making ‘Karita’ – and thanks to Koji, Haruka, Takei and the team, it was a great experience.
Casting is one of those steps in a film production you have to get right. How did you get through it?
Virginia de Witt (VW): It was funny since auditions aren’t the normal process in Japan. But we were also dealing with very green actors in every role except Mika Ushio as Suki, who’s a seasoned stage actress. Auditions aren’t a common process in Japan, so it was an interesting experience getting self tapes. Once we found the actors, who we loved, it worked out that they were green be and they were so enthusiastic about learning, and were so down for the rehearsal process we had to make sure very thing felt really natural, and they had great attitudes on set, which was awesome since we were on such a low budget. I really loved our cast, I hope they go far.
What went into the pre-production process for Karita?
Virginia de Witt (VW): A lot of scheduling zoom calls over various time zones. We had Koji and Takei as boots on the ground in Tokyo, and I just trusted their judgement. We did a few rewrites that got translated. I wish I had written a few more English drafts, but it was such a fast turnaround and we needed room for everything to get translated, I’m just happy we got it done.
Without giving anything away, tell us a little bit about the script, how did you come up with the idea?
Virginia de Witt (VW): I was asked to create an American character in Tokyo by Mitsuhiro Kubo, who gave us our production budget. It was a surprising challenge as I didn’t want to portray a white American in a foreign land as necessarily good or evil, but I needed conflict. I want the story to be centered around a car so we could see as much of the landscape of Tokyo as possible. I knew what resources we’d have with our limited budget, I’m used to writing with constraints like that, so it all fell naturally from there.
Who is Karita for? Who do you think would enjoy it the most?
Virginia de Witt (VW): We really wanted something that would humor both Japanese and American audiences.
How long did it take to shoot the entire film?
Virginia de Witt (VW): 3 days.
How did you work with actors to get the best performances? Give us a typical onset direction at production?
Virginia de Witt (VW): We did several rehearsals in advance. Since we knew we would be shooting really quickly in locations where we didn’t necessarily have permission to shoot. Koji and I have a good working relationship. And, everyone knew what their jobs were in any particular location, so we ran pretty smoothly.
What’s next for you? What are you working on right now?
Virginia de Witt (VW): Shooting a horror short on 16mm film – watch out for our fundraiser
How do you tackle projects with very tight timelines or challenging locations?
Virginia de Witt (VW): Go baby go.
What tips would you give aspiring filmmakers?
Virginia de Witt (VW): Don’t under plan, but don’t overthink.
Tell us what you think of the interview with Virginia de Witt. What do you think of it? What ideas did you get? Do you have any suggestions? Or did it help you? Let’s have your comments below and/or on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
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