Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight: Ork

Published on January 28, 2023

Team TokuNet interviews Ork Project staff to learn more about their indie tokusatsu production Ork. The video will be available to stream on YouTube for a limited time starting January 29, 2023 at 9:00 pm (Japan Standard Time).

Trailer

Takumi: “I’ll fight you till the very end.”
Nozomi: “Takumi, I’ve been by your side since we were kids.”
Ryo: “That’s exactly the spell I’m under, but I don’t care!”
Witch: “The target also has such a nice expression.”
Takumi: “I’m going to save Nozomi!”

Ork is an independent tokusatsu production filmed entirely on iPhone. To learn more about the project and to help bring attention to this film, Team TokuNet interviewed the staff of Ork Project for their insights.

What is the premise of Ork?

Takumi Kijima is an art student who has closed his heart off after having lost both parents. One day, a witch appears before him and bestows upon Takumi an Ork Stone, an object that grants its user the power to see the future. In one vision, Takumi sees his childhood friend Nozomi Shirai being killed by a mysterious red creature named Gowm (pronounced “goom”). To prevent such a future from happening, Takumi transforms into Ork in order to fight Gowm and protect Nozomi.

Shodai Ishikawa as Takumi Kijima

How many people are on the Ork team (cast and crew)?

It’s hard to give an exact count, but I’d say at least thirty people are involved. Some people only participated here and there, and there had been some turnover along the way. About ten people were involved in the filming process.

What was the inspiration for the character designs?

The characters were originally drawn by our director, Shoma Muto, when he was a student. The designs were improved and updated in order to film Ork.

Ork

Gowm

Ork (yellow), Gowm (red)

When or how did the Ork project start?

This project started in the summer of 2020 when its producers Shoma Muto and Yasunari Tsukagosi met. At first, it was just something to do for fun, to make something for the sake of making it. However, they wanted to keep raising the quality of the production, so they began a crowdfunding campaign.

Why choose an iPhone to film Ork?

Unlike professional filmmakers, we don’t have a lot of money. However, we do have the ideas and the energy, so that’s the framework we wanted to build upon. At the time, we all had iPhones in our hands, so that was what convinced us to use it as our camera. Another reason is that we’ve never heard of anyone producing a tokusatsu movie filmed only on iPhone, so we wanted to take on that challenge.

What were some of your biggest challenges during production?

Scheduling was by far the biggest challenge. The cast and staff have their own jobs, so we met on our days off in order to film. There wasn’t much time to spare, so we had to make the most of the day and be efficient with our filming time.

Many foreign fans were very excited by your announcement to include English subtitles. Can you tell us more about this decision?

We knew fans outside of Japan would take interest in Ork, so we felt that we had to provide English subtitles.

“Change the future yourself.”

Will there be more videos after Ork is released on YouTube?

We plan to upload several videos after Ork. We can’t say more than that, but please look forward to them!

How can fans follow your project?

Please follow us on YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok at the links below!

Final comments to our readers?

This production is the culmination of everyone’s love for tokusatsu. It’s because of you that Ork could be completed, so we’d like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone. Thank you so very much!! Your support cannot be understated at all. We hope you enjoy Ork!

Thank you for telling us more about Ork! We’re looking forward to watching the finished product.

Starting January 29, 2023 at 9:00 pm (Japan Standard Time), you can watch Ork on YouTube and see the results of this team’s hard work!