Samurai Night and To lose is to Gain
Arts Leaders: Jessie Elliott, Lauren Wood, Andre Guimares, Jazmine Armstrong, Lucina Millar. Featuring Caitlin Hickman
Booking: More details on the film night and how to buy tickets will be available here soon
After the vicious murder of his master, a lone Samurai -now a Ronin- hunts down the shinobi responsible for the deed, in the hopes of retrieving a letter that will prevent the assassination of the reigning Shogun.
My name is Jessie Blue Elliott, director, producer and costume designer of the short film ‘Makeru ga Kachi’ (‘負けるが勝ち’ meaning ‘To Lose is to Gain’ in English), welcome to our website page! Here you can find out all about the behind the scenes of our passion project.
The project was inspired by the ‘Red Wolf, Blue Demon’ costumes that I designed in early April, these characters acted as a basis for the story that I fleshed out with Lucina Millar, co-writer, brown belt in karate and actor in the film. We gathered a small team and, over the course of three months, the six of us created this short, fantasy-action movie set in feudal Japan that tells the story of a lone samurai avenging his master’s death by hunting down the assassin who took his life.
Poster Designed by Lauren Wood, Photography by Jessie Elliott.
We had a team and a story, but lots of work was needed before we could film. The greatest challenge was that this is an action movie, meaning we needed fight scenes, so in preparation for filming we needed a choreography. This is where black belts in karate, Caitlin Hickman and Jazmine Armstrong came in. Caitlin, who was originally only going to act, used her expert knowledge of karate and samurai weaponry to choreograph an exciting sword duel, and Jazmine - actor, risk assessment advisor and leaflet designer – created an extensive sparing choreography for the two main characters to enact during the climax of the movie. Meanwhile I was hurrying to finish the costumes, Lauren Wood – graphic designer and editor – refined her skills and designed promotional posters and Andre Guimaraes – photographer turned camera operator – familiarised himself with the equipment.
Finally, the may half term rolled around, and we began filming. The location was the Pit Heap woodland by Howford Quarry, Acomb. We spent three days filming there, during which we had to explain ourselves to a lot of walkers and defend our lunches from passing dogs.......
Cast & Crew:
Jessie Blue Elliott - Director, Producer, Writer and Costume Designer
Jazmine Armstrong – Actor (The Diamyo), Risk Assessment Advisor, Graphic Artist, Sparring Choreographer and Black belt in Karate
Lauren Wood - Editor and Graphic Designer
Caitlin Hickman – Actor (Red Wolf, Samurai), Duel Choreographer and Black belt in Karate
Lucina Millar – Actor (Blue Demon, Shinobi), Co-writer and Brown belt in karate
Andre Guimaraes - Cinematographer and camera operator
Special thanks to Hannah Hickman, assistant sword choreographer and Arran Armstrong, sparing partner.