There’s a point in every good story where the hero must decide whether the headlong dive to glory is worth the risk of failure.
For Kenji Doughty that moment arrived when he was a production assistant whose job was to monitor life jackets on the film "Battleship." He had to choose between returning to college for the fall semester or getting as close as possible to the greatest passion of his life: making movies.
Today, if you attend the ‘Ohina Short Film Showcase (screenings at 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. at the Doris Duke Theatre), you can decide whether Doughty’s decision to drop out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2010 was the right one. "Until the Sun Sets," the film he made with childhood friend — and fellow dropout — Yamato "Yama" Cibulka, makes a compelling argument for taking chances.
"Everyone was very supportive," said Doughty, who told his family he could always go back to school if his idea was a bust. "I told them I would rather fail than to live the rest of my life regretting not trying."
It seems to have worked out fine. Doughty and Cibulka, both 24, have been a creative force on the local indie film scene since they decided to risk it all. They’ve made a dozen short films, including several that won the every-other-month Showdown in Chinatown film contest. And their desire to succeed was underscored by their work ethic. They would often go from a 14-hour day as a film or TV production assistant to the set of their own projects.
"We would shoot until two hours before call times the next day," Cibulka said. "We were very sleep-fried. It got really intense. We would work, rush home and shoot our movie."
Their friendship goes back to the sixth grade, when they met while growing up in Japan. Their hobby was making movies, and by the 11th grade, Doughty and Cibulka had even created a TV series for their high school.
"Until the Sun Sets," their biggest project to date, was created by Rising Sons Productions, the film banner the duo created when they first got together. They have since expanded to include Michael Shapiro, Matty Wong and Ryan Miyamoto.
"When we originally planned this, we wanted to think as epic as we could," Doughty said. "Instead of thinking, ‘We can’t get this location,’ it was, ‘How can we get this location?’ And it worked out better than we could have imagined."
The story follows a clash between two ancient Hawaiian tribes. There’s a bloody battle that was shot on a hillside at Kualoa Ranch and an incredible fight that takes place 30 feet underwater on a sandy ocean bottom off Yokohama Bay. And all the dialogue is in Hawaiian.
THEY HAD a budget of about $1,000, which only allowed them to feed a cast and crew that worked for free and to buy the materials needed to make authentic-looking weapons and costumes.
But this is where the Hawaii film community came together to lend support, as it often does with aspiring artists. Both Doughty and Cibulka had made a lot of connections.
"You meet all these great people who are the best at what they do, and a lot of times they are willing to help you out of love and kindness," Doughty said. "And I think that is the unique aspect of Hawaii. They will give you their time and their energy."
The makeup artists were especially helpful when it was time to prepare the 20 warriors for battle, Cibulka said. "The day before we shot the war scene, we had to have all the warriors spray-tanned," he said. "They all had tan lines. We had a wardrobe fitting, and they all had dark stomachs and dark faces and super-white thighs."
When they started casting for the female lead, they were interested in Ha‘a Keaulana, whose father, Brian Keaulana, is one of the best ocean stunt coordinators in the world. He was so interested in the project, he volunteered to help with the underwater scenes, Cibulka said. And Keaulana’s daughter became the stunt double for the female lead, jumping into the ocean holding a 50-pound rock to get to the bottom.
Doughty views the finished product in a collegiate way: It’s the end of the duo’s freshman year.
"It was the end of our beginning process, and we are moving on to our next step," he said. "The next step is a feature film. We want to do that next year. We feel we are at that level. It’s a daunting task, but we feel motivated by that challenge."
AND that’s a wrap. …
