Campus Ninja 4 – Legend of the Storm (2011) Short movie

Campus Ninja 4 is a short movie produced by V.A.S Arashi in association with bartMedia Designs.

In general:

Shorty after the foundation of the new Dutch University in Enschede, two martial artists prevented a kidnapping by ninjas. Together with the headmaster of the University, a plan is devised to battle this new threat, but things would not play out as planned.Campus Ninja 4 tells a story about the origin of Campus Ninja: the Legend of the Storm

Producers: Koen Berends and Daphne Lameris

Directors: Bart Klaassen (bartmedia designs) and Emile van Wijk

Filmed and Edited by Bart Klaassen

I joined the project as bartMedia designs short after the movie script was finished by the Arashi team. A unique opportunity to work with my new Panasonic HMC151EJ, together with a new Rode NTG1 shotgun microphone. I filmed the whole project with the assistance of the main director Emile, when we started filming at the weekend of July 9^th, followed by the upcoming two weekends. The final shot (some additional takes) took place on august 5^th.

The Arashi Team was already well prepared. The planning, agenda matching and task divisions were finished before we took the first shot. With this professional and disciplined team, everything turned out great. Especially if you have more than 20 people on/surrounding the set, this part of “making a movie” is very important. The catering was quite nice on those harsh sunny days (some even reaching 30 degree’s Celsius)

As a “No Budget” film there was no room for any other fancy gear, but the team managed to build a dolly track, so I could insert some Dolly zoom shots and side tracking shots of people, which greatly improves the look. Also real Ninja suits were purchased, making the ninjas even more scarier together.

The main focus was on the 20 minutes maximum, and to edit to movie on specific soundtracks. Carefully choosing your soundtracks for your shot lists is a very effective approach in visualizing the movie before it has been shot (for me). We didn’t had the time nor budget to make an extensive storyboard with pictures, so only the shot list with the soundtracks and the creative minds covered that.

To balance the movie in overall, different genres in music were chosen which were related to the movie script and expressed the feelings in the scenes. We went from some Epic Choral Action music, to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, only to come back to Whitesnake with “Fool for you loving”.

The editing was done during the week by myself to speed up the whole process. First making raw cuts, tuning it with the music, then continued in advanced color corrections and cinema movie like aspects. Combined with some subtle visual and sound effects I continued with the master leveling.

After multiple feedback rounds we were ready to present the movie to the general public in a special premiere evening at the Agora Cinema, University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) on 24-09-2011. With a turn-up of 150 visitors, all having positive reactions, this indeed can be called “A succes”. Even if you don’t like Ninja’s, this movie will keep you focused for 20 minutes and will drive you to the end of your seat.

The full movie: