Andrew Harmon is traveling the globe pursuing his love for making films.

Harmon, a senior in Biola’s cinema and media arts (CMA) program, traveled to Venice, Italy last Friday to attend the 66th Annual Venice International Film Festival.

The story behind this trip began over a year ago when the CMA department decided it wanted to produce a foreign film. The process would take an entire school year to complete. Harmon had to pitch his ideas and apply to become a member of the production crew. Harmon was First Assistant Director on the project which became known as “Jitensha”, Japanese for “bicycle.”

Last fall, planning began as the production crew of thirteen met for class each week to prepare. The short film, lasting 24 minutes, was to be shot over nine days on location in Tokyo during interterm. The location of the film posed a unique set of challenges to the crew and Harmon specifically.

First up was the language barrier. Shooting in a foreign country and using local actors was one of the biggest hurdles the crew had to face. To help bridge the gap, each week the class spent time learning basic Japanese.

Harmon described his job as being a facilitator. He was in charge of scheduling for the shoot and running logistics on set. The challenge for Harmon was to do those tasks and make sure that everything happened smoothly, “in a country where I have never been to or seen locations,” he said.

The Biola crew partnered with Studio RE: a Japanese mission group that had a similar mission statement to Biola in that it wants, “to impact Japanese culture for Christ,” according to Harmon.

Studio RE: helped the crew by providing translators, actors and location scouting.
For Harmon, it was the first time he had traveled outside the United States and he said one of the most memorable parts was to experience a culture completely different from the West.

“One thing over there is that at most places you take your shoes off. So I’d be running in out of buildings all the time and end up just yelling instructions from the doorway.” Harmon said with a laugh.

After the shoot wrapped, the crew got the chance to tour Tokyo and take in some of the sites. Harmon got to tour different parts of the city as well as make a visit to Tokyo DisneySea.

Last spring a postproduction class took over the reins and put together the final cut of the film.

The film was shot in Japanese with subtitles. It has been submitted to many film festivals and so far has been accepted to three: the Rhode Island Film Festival, Hartland Film Festival, both of which already took place, and the festival in Venice. The Venice festival is ranked as one of the top festivals in the world as well as the world’s oldest film festival, first taking place in 1932.

Last Friday Harmon and professor and director Dean Yamada as well as some of the crew once again traversed the globe. This time it was to see their hard work honored with a screening before an international audience.

“Jitensha” was screened in Venice on September 8th. The members of the crew in attendance had a question and answer session to discuss the film on the 9th.

“It’s exciting not just for us but for Biola CMA,” Harmon said. “It helps put the program on the map. We have had films in American festivals before but not international.”