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Nerd Film Fusion

DAVID PARITSKY – EDITOR

 

It all started when I was in grade school and couldn’t understand why manga (A Japanese style comic book) was only printed in black and white.  I saw these comics as intricate coloring books with page after page of stories that needed to be fixed with my colored pencils. These stories were of a teenage heroine who protected the world from evil with magical powers known as Sailor Moon.  

This was the beginning of a deep fascination for me in the world of Sailor Moon which remains to this day one of the most historic pieces of animation to come from Japan. This film project started its roots with a group of 9th grade junior high students from Long Island, all with a similar interest in the anime and manga world. This group of kids would spend their free time rehearsing skits and musical numbers based on the series in an attempt to bring the show to life.  Numerous endeavors such as live performances (In my father’s basement), a group cosplay or “Costume play” at the popular anime convention Otakon in Baltimore, and a music video were started but never saw completion.

Fast forward 10 years, after graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a bachelor’s in film editing and computer art, I found himself looking for a project to start, something to add to my reel as an editor but most importantly something that would be fun and interesting to make. What started out as a joke quickly escalated into a very large and very time consuming undertaking after I; remaining to this day a self proclaimed nerd, brought up the idea of regrouping the gang and reviving the Sailor Moon project. Many of the original cast returned also joined by a couple of new friends though, aside from the acting Sailor Moon The Movie is entirely a one man show. I have poured my heart and soul into the making of this film doing everything from writing, directing, producing, filming, editing, all the way down to sewing costumes and hand crafting props – all the while trying not to starve to death living off minimum wage in New York City.

Sailor Moon The Movie is a fan made live-action feature length film based on a culmination of the many reincarnations of the Iconic Japanese Sailor Moon series and is localized to New York City where the project is currently being filmed.  What started out as a side project of the “Just-for-fun” variety, eventually spanned into a 2 year production with a huge amount of road bumps along the way.  The long production is mostly due to lack of funds, spending so much time and energy creating everything from scratch.  Adapting the script was also a challenge trying to squish an entire season of television into a single film while remaining faithful to the material is no easy task.  It has been an amazing experience getting to work on this film with all my friends involved as actors but that surprisingly turned out to be the most difficult aspect of making it.  Most of them are not professional actors and many have never acted before in their lives.  Professional actors in films with actual budgets are there to do their jobs, you can tell them when and where to be and they’ll show up because they’re getting paid to do so.  Working with friends who volunteer their talent, it’s next to impossible to get 6+ people in one place at one time; they all have lives of their own.  Some of them attended school out of state so filming during the winter was not an option, two of them even married each other and had a baby!  That was a good 6 months or so of not being able to shoot scenes with that character.  But I am truly honored they have stuck by me all this time and continue to do amazing work on this film.  I really could not have done it without all of them!  

Now that Sailor Moon The Movie is almost completely shot and post production is well under way I can begin to focus more on promoting the film and working more within my field which is editing.  One of the perks I’ve discovered in doing an adaptation film is that it comes with a pre-existing fan base.  Sailor Moon has been around since 1992 and gained such much world wide success that even though the series is not as prevalent in pop culture as it once was, the fan base is wholeheartedly devoted and ever expanding with newer generations of manga readers and anime lovers.  The show having been off the air for years now and the manga long since out of print has created a longing for anything and everything Sailor Moon.  It’s within this community that fan made projects can thrive.  Being a member of this community myself I strive to create something that has never been done before; something not only for fans but for everyone to enjoy in the hopes that we contribute to the legacy that is Sailor Moon.

You can help bring this American Sailor Moon live-action film to its completion and also get some really spiffy things like the DVD, posters and T-shirts all by joining our campaign at www.IndieGoGo.com/SailorMoon.

BIO:

David Paritsky is an editor born and raised in New York and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan with a bachelor’s degree in film editing and computer art.  As an aspiring editor his interests are working on independent projects, film shorts, and music videos as well as graphic design work and as a hobby, photography.  David has had the opportunity to work with many talented individuals, including John Cameron Mitchel as an intern on his feature film “Shortbus.”  He also enjoys traveling the world and experiencing other cultures and is of course an avid anime, manga and sci-fi fan.  Favorite artists include CLAMP, Michel Gondry, Tetsuya Nomura and Yann Tiersen.  

www.IndieGoGo.com/SailorMoon
www.SailorMoonTheMovie.com
www.twitter.com/SailorMoonMovie
www.youtube.com/sailormoonthemovie
www.facebook.com/groups/SailorMoonTheMovie

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