Montreal: A Buddhist tale of the ancient wisdom of life and death has united the creative forces of the National Film Board and the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (nhk). And with talk of a second coproduction underway, the hope is that their first collaboration, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, will become the first step in a long and prosperous journey.

Impressed

It began when Atsunori Kawamura, special projects producer at nhk, was shooting the two-part, two-hour Tibetan Book of the Dead. He came across the work of celebrated nfb animator Ishu Patel, and was so impressed with the Montreal artist’s work, in particular his award-winning film Afterlife (1978), he invited Patel to animate a portion of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The film, an animation/live-action exploration of the ancient and Eastern wisdom of life and death, was seen by close to 40 million television viewers in Japan earlier this season.

Distribution rights

The nfb recently completed an English-language version of the production, acquiring along the way distribution rights for the North and South American markets with additional rights in English-, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets.

Barrie Angus McLean, nfb executive producer, Studio A, English Program and a coproducer on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, says the deal is quite a coup for the film board. The potentially lucrative back-end rights and growing interest in Buddhism in North America and Europe made it especially enticing, he says.

Human experience

Kawamura, who was in Montreal recently, says as a producer with a major public broadcaster he looks for projects that deal with the human experience, philosophy, spirituality, the emotions.

‘When I look at a coproduction project, it’s not the country itself that is of interest,’ says Kawamura. ‘What I look at is what is being produced and the uniqueness of the project. The nfb’s work is very interesting and unique, and in the future we would like to continue this relationship.’

During his visit, Kawamura discussed a possible second coproduction with McLean. Like their first project, it would be a two-parter based on mythology and old scriptures with modern applications.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead visualizes the afterlife and journey of the human soul through a blend of animation and live-action video photography of Buddhist rituals and daily life.

Patel’s original plasticine animation technique was especially effective in creating the film’s supernatural imagery.

The technique was first used in Afterlife when the veteran animator discovered that by applying a thin coat of plasticine to a backlit glass plate in a totally darkened room, the plasticine appeared translucent.

To animate or alter the glass surface, Patel uses fine sculpting tools to metamorphose ‘the action’ – in other words, to mold the plasticine.

Instant rendering

‘The result is an instant rendering of supernatural lighting with highlights and variable glossiness,’ he says.

Patel explains the logistics used on The Tibetan Book of the Dead: ‘The way it worked was that they (nhk) sent me live-action Betacam shots. These shots were transferred onto laser disc here at the nfb and the animation was rendered frame by frame.’

In the elaborate North American versioning process, McLean says the two programs had to be reduced from 68 and 75 minutes to 48 and 45 minutes respectively.

‘The structuring of the material seemed not to be in accordance with North American tastes,’ he says. ‘For instance, it (the Japanese version) was more leisurely and directed to an audience that already had an understanding of Buddhism, which is not the case here.’

Dharma teacher

McLean hired an American dharma teacher of Tibetan Buddhism to rewrite the entire script, and then asked an old friend, another Buddhist, singer/ poet Leonard Cohen, to do the narration.

Selected credits on the us$1.3 million film include nhk directors Yukari and Hiroaki Mori, producer Toru Hirota, and from the nfb, Patel and producers McLean and David Verrall. Additional visual f/x were created by Eve Ramboz of France’s Mistral Films, also a coproducer on the project.

The nfb will screen the two-part program in its completed English-language version at mip-tv this month.

Joanne Leduc, u.s. sales manager and market development at the nfb, says international coproduction is the way of the future for the board.

‘If you are going to continue to make high-quality films, and are going to continue to make films, then it has to be with international partners,’ she says.

On the international distribution front, Leduc says the Arts & Entertainment network in the u.s. has agreed to buy 20 hours of nfb programming in 1994/95, with the likelihood of an additional 20 hours the following year.

Top clients

According to Leduc, a&e, pbs and Discovery Channel are the board’s top clients in the States, with growing interest from cable outlets like Bravo!, hbo and Cinemax.

Worldwide, she says the best broadcast buyers of nfb fare are Channel Four in the u.k., La Sept in France, arte in Germany, Channels 11 and 22 in Mexico and nhk.

Kawamura says nhk is also on the lookout for high-definition programming. The network is currently broadcasting three hours a day of hdtv programs. A new satellite launch in 1996 will mean more hd broadcasts on the network, but, he says, ‘more, better quality material is required.’

Kawamura’s latest project is a six-part documentary on Albert Einstein, replete with unusual graphics and special effects. Coproducers are from Germany and the u.k.

In 1993, McLean and the nfb’s Studio A and Channel Four in the u.k. completed Bob’s Birthday, an animated 12-minute short from directors Alison Snowden and David Fine.