There is nothing as satisfying as a job well done and that is how I feel right about now. Simon and I are winding up the production of In Ryo’s Footsteps 2, and when we have finally finished adjusting levels of audio between clips and adding effects here and there, the production will be done and ready to be released.
It has taken longer than we both hoped getting to this point. Many factors have contributed to these delays: the death of my mother, our day jobs and also health issues, but without fail, whenever we had time and the energy to work on the movie, we would sit and work hard. I have to admit that it became difficult at times while we were planning the film to really envision how we could condense such a huge game like Shenmue into a short documentary production. Naturally, things have been cut, but we tried to not cut anything that would disappoint fans of the games.
One of the things that has kept me soldiering on and working as hard as I have been on the film has been the support of the community either on SEGA Nerds, Imran Yusuf, Shenmue Dojo or my subscribers on YouTube. I remember being close to tears once reading the comment thread on my first film; people saying I made them smile, that I made their day by making the film, that their life was hard and seeing this gave them something to take their mind off of everything. How could I not make this film after so many people fell in love with the first? I was deeply humbled by the reaction to it.
I will say now that as much as I love In Ryo’s Footsteps, I really noticed areas I could improve after I finished it and uploaded it. The problem was, at the time I shot the first film, I only had a simple, cheap DV camera that I was lugging around with me in Hong Kong and hoping that when I got home, I could stitch together a film out of it. I got home, made a film and people loved it, and I love every single person who did, but I couldn’t help but feel that I could do so much better to not only give you a movie you deserve, but to also treat the source material with the respect it deserves.
So, here we are with the sequel in an almost finished state. Not only is it far more beautiful, but it’s also better paced, the art is better, the soundtrack is higher quality and the overarching “story” is much, much better. As I mentioned in the first Director’s Diary, I wanted In Ryo’s Footsteps 2 to be far more accessible to people who may not be familiar with the series, and I feel we have achieved that. Every aspect I felt I needed to improve over the original film, I feel we have improved.
I hope you love In Ryo’s Footsteps 2 as we have made it for Shenmue fans. We have made it for you passionate people that have supported us, loved the first film and most of all continue to support Shenmue to this day. I hope you love the next film.
Andrew Pine,
Director, In Ryo’s Footsteps 2
