Personal History & Personal Report

       Tiana is a brilliant cinematographer but a clumsy amateur director. Because she aspires to the latter role, both she and her collaborator, Rebecca, face a rocky road. Already tight schedules are constantly delayed, and meager budgets are squandered. Yet, whenever the producer comes calling to hold them accountable, Tiana always finds bizarre excuses to deflect blame; meanwhile, Rebecca, seemingly brainwashed by the very footage Tiana shoots, invariably shields her.

       To outsiders, Tiana appears to be a cunning, seasoned operator who exploits Rebecca’s naivety to indulge her own artistic whims, completely disregarding the fact that the project is on the brink of collapse. While this assessment isn't entirely wrong, Rebecca genuinely understands Tiana’s vision. She knows that Tiana suffers from the same anxiety and anguish of an unfulfilled artist, which is why she rarely reproaches her.

       Tiana possesses an exceptional eye for visuals and excels at capturing cinematic, blockbuster-quality shots, ensuring she is never short of work. However, her tendency to act on her own initiative makes it difficult for her to last long with any production crew. She frequently deviates from the shooting schedule to endlessly chase after shots she deems precious, often leaving the editing team tearing their hair out as they are forced to admit the footage simply cannot be pieced together.

       For Tiana, following a rigid shooting plan holds no appeal; she seeks to capture a "driving force" that runs through the entire film. It is said that great directors do not conceive films based on scripts, but rather visualize key shots first and then work out the narrative context. Consequently, her work often features sudden, brilliant shots, a sunset over a vast river on the grasslands, a tiny creature peeking out from the snow, or even a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful woman on the street.

       Her sketchbook holds even more magnificent visions waiting to be realized. Yet, she possesses neither the means nor the resources to turn these visions into actual footage, let alone a full-fledged film. She viewed "The Call of the Wild" production team’s trip to Nox as a rare opportunity; an alien world might offer novel shots waiting to be captured, and the new sponsor, Yumiko Nishimura, was someone worth winning over, after all, given her ethnic background (Tl Report: She was an Akitsuniese after all), how could she not love "Kagemusha" and "Throne of Blood"?

Interviews transcript

Interviewee: Violetta
You know, that commercial Director Tiana shot for "Burger Governor"... I don't really know much about filmmaking, but the whole thing was just me and Wojtek walking around, talking to people, and a few shots of Ms. Nishimura firing a gun, there wasn't a single shot of our burgers... Would anyone watching this actually know what we're selling?

Interviewee: Ruby
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country! You make the poor bastards on the other side die for *their* country!" , Why didn't that speech make the final cut? It took so much effort for General Ruby to find a mosaic mural that big to use as a backdrop...

Interviewee: Aspiring Extra
When Ms. Tiana approached us, she said it was going to be a single continuous take. We were all so excited! It was a ten-day schedule: five days of rehearsal followed by five days of actual filming, two takes a day, ten takes total, with the best one selected. I was blown away by the idea; it was such a huge challenge! You couldn't make a single mistake, it was a one-shot take, after all! But then Ms. Tiana decided to scrap the idea... Sigh... It’s just... such a shame... I really wonder why she gave up on it...