LBBO’s Laura Swinton recently spoke with Superprime director Kiku Ohe on his previous and past work.

On filming his first feature “The Lines” in California:

“California is such an interesting and strange place. Once you get out of the city it is pretty stunning. The severeness of the desert. The landscape is really interesting to me.

It was a real personal project exploring a narrative arc over an hour, and the character development and the performance within that time frame was so exciting and challenging… What I’ve learnt from the feature side I’m applying to the advertising side of what I do.

I think one of the biggest things is the sound aspect. I learned a lot in the mixing of the film and the cinema and getting into the details of that and how powerful that can be. I think it translated successfully. And also the performance; working with actors over that kind of arc and sharpening and tightening the performance is something I really enjoy.”

On filming an upcoming project with Shawn Mendes:

“It has been crazy. Originally it was scheduled to shoot in the UK and then Sean’s schedule changed and so we had to shoot it in New York. It was funny; we had to follow him around and literally stay at the same hotel that he did here in London and New York. He’s the level of pop star that has hundreds of 15-year-old girls waiting for him outside the hotel. It was quite remarkable. At one point I felt like I was one of them – following him around and waiting for the time to shoot! It was a great insight but he’s a lovely guy.”

On his inspiration of nature:

“I think it’s becoming more and more relevant in terms of where the population is heading, particularly living in an urban world and the amount of connection we have in our modern lives. I’m always interested in what happens when you disconnect from that and how we respond to that very differently as human beings now compared with twenty years ago. Or ten years ago. More and more, it’s going to be a complicated theme for everyone,”

It’s not even just about the relaxation or the calming sense of it. There’s the power and weirdness of nature too – and the abstractions within it are so complex. But simple at the same time. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that.”

Read the full article on Little Black Book here.