2011南方週末影展

文／想田和弘

我不會將《完全選舉手冊》視作一部政治作品，政治是另外一回事；我更願意將這部片稱作「觀察電影」，關於一場由過去曾掌權五十年的日本自民黨的競選活動，期望觀眾去察覺並詮釋這個複雜而難以闡明的選舉現實。

大部分的紀錄片工作者會在開拍前對於拍攝主題進行廣泛的研究、寫好詳細的劇本和計畫，其劇本通常是為了說服製作團隊—執行製片、工作人員與出資者—在藝術上和經濟考量上，這部電影都是有趣而值得投資的。

但在製作《完全選舉手冊》時，我打破了這個傳統。我特意決定不在開拍前寫任何計畫或劇本，堅持只紀錄所有在我面前發生的事情，避免做任何事前的研究，也不 與被攝者在拍攝前進行討論。這並不是一個瘋狂的決定，只是想要忠於我對於紀錄片製作的理念：導演應該盡量減少先入為主的觀念，而純粹去探索攝影機所拍攝到 原有的現實。這個理念對於一部由作者自己獨立出資和拍攝的影片而言，要能夠成功是個相當奢侈的想法，尤其我必須同時操作攝影機和收音的同步。結果是，這次 的拍攝是最為鼓舞和激動人心的一次，充滿了讓人大開眼界的新經驗。

剪輯影片時我也選擇了最為自然的方式。我僅以影像和拍攝時的收音來建構電影現實，而沒有使用任何旁白、強加的訊息、電腦動畫、特效或是音樂。因為我希望讓觀眾如我當時在拍攝現場一般地去直接觀看和體驗這場選舉。

這部電影要讓觀眾去觀察和思考他們在影片中看到的一切。現實並不總是黑白分明，反而有更多複雜的灰色地帶，在我們每天的日常生活上演著。我希望觀眾看完這部片之後能夠帶著未解的問題離開，並且在之後的幾天、幾個星期裡，甚至許多年後，都會繼續反覆思考這些問題。


（譯／江映青）

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
by Kazuhiro Soda

I don’t think of CAMPAIGN (SENKYO) as a political piece, though politics is its subject matter. Rather, it is what I call 『an observational film』 in which the viewer is expected to perceive and interpret the complex, difficult-to-articulate reality of an election campaign run by the Liberal Democratic Party, the party that has held power in Japan for the last 50 years.

Most documentary filmmakers conduct extensive research on their subjects and to write detailed scripts and treatments before they begin shooting. The scripts are often written to persuade members of the production team—executive producers, staff members, and
investors—that the movie is interesting and worth producing, both artistically and financially.

In making CAMPAIGN (SENKYO) I broke with this tradition. I made a conscious decision not to write a word before shooting. I was determined to record whatever took place in front of me and to avoid research and pre-shoot meetings with the subjects. This wasn’t because I was lazy. It was because I wanted to be true to my philosophy of documentary filmmaking, that a filmmaker should minimize preconceived ideas and should simply learn from the crude reality captured on camera. This strategy was a luxury made possible by the fact that this was a self-financed one-man operation; I both
operated the camera and recorded sound simultaneously. As a result, the shoot was one of the most thrilling ones I’ve ever had, full of eye-opening experiences.

In the editing room as well I chose the most naturalistic path. I constructed the cinematic reality using only moving pictures and sounds recorded during the shoot. I did not use any narration, super- imposed information, computer graphics, special effects, or music. This is because I wanted the viewers to observe and experience the election campaign as directly as I did while I was shooting it.

CAMPAIGN (SENKYO) asks viewers to observe and think about what they see on screen. In this sense, reality is not painted in black and white. Instead it is gray and complicated, the way we experience it every day. I hope that viewers will leave the theatre with unanswered questions, ones they will continue to think about for days, weeks, even years to come.

http://www.laboratoryx.us/campaign/statement.html