![\"Januel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Januel-Mercado-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Januel Mercado, Credit \u2013 Charles Murphy \/ DreamWorks Anim<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re big fans of anime and Studio Ghibli, especially the OG Hayao Miyazaki,\u201d Mercado told us. \u201cWe were always so blown away by his portrait of Japan. Every time you see it, you want to go to Japan. You can see this is his home, and this studio loves their country; it\u2019s just so romanticized. There\u2019s such passion and authenticity for the way they design Japan, and we wanted to do the same thing for the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Jo and Raissa arrive on Nakali, the lighting changes along with the setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt it wouldn\u2019t make sense if the lighting reacted the same way as our lighting does because the sun is this stylized light source; the Filipino sun,\u201d Crawford explained. \u201cIn the mythology, there\u2019s seven moons that are in the sky at one moment, so what does that do to light sources? It\u2019s chasing the authentic, and not being limited by expectations or what\u2019s been done before. I think just being truthful of what inspires us and what feels impressionistically right for the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The directors also worked with head of cinematography Scott Cullen to explore how lens choices could serve the story. One result is a third-act sequence in which Raissa sees Jo\u2019s memories for the first time. It includes a 40-second shot that follows Raissa as she runs across a rooftop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the years, we\u2019ve been pushing the visual storytelling,\u201d Mercado said. \u201cJoel and I were always like, \u2018What can we do to utilize every facet of filmmaking to push the emotion of the story?\u2019 When Raissa is running through [Jo\u2019s] memories, there\u2019s that shot of her on the rooftop. It\u2019s the longest shot in our movie. It\u2019s 40 seconds, and it\u2019s just following Raissa running across the roof. It\u2019s probably one of the most intense, dynamic action set pieces. But then it ends with one of the most quiet, dramatic moments of her reliving a memory, and that\u2019s one shot. \u2026 You\u2019re running on that rooftop with Raissa, and you\u2019re reliving that childhood memory with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s opening montage presents another challenge: showing Jo and Raissa grow from children into young adults, with their friendship unfolding over a decade to INXS\u2019s \u201cNever Tear Us Apart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of filmmaking montages, musical montages are really hard to lock in the timing,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cWe have this amazing editor, Jim Ryan, who we\u2019ve worked with on every film. The artistry of Jim and his team really tells that story musically and sets up so much. We definitely iterated and redid moments to find the quick storytelling that tells you why Jo and Raissa need each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something pretty powerful about that,\u201d Mercado added. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen much of that, especially in animated movies. Usually, you start here with kids, and you\u2019re kind of with the kids. But here, you see them grow up before your eyes. There\u2019s growing pains and the nostalgia of life going by really fast. In a snap, they\u2019re young adults. You feel the loss and the longing from the memories you just lived through.\u201d<\/p>\n Crawford said an album of Mercado\u2019s childhood photos from the Philippines helped shape the montage\u2019s aged, tactile look.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing how tangible all those moments feel when you look at old pictures or old videos, there\u2019s usually an interaction with the lens because the situation, or the environment\u2019s not ideal,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s lens flares and dirt on the camera. In that growing-up montage and throughout the movie, like when it\u2019s drizzling, there\u2019s some rain that collects on the lens. We really wanted to actually counteract animation in a way with the invisible camera. Obviously, it\u2019s a CG world, but we wanted everything to feel tangible in the same way as when you\u2019re looking back at a photo of an old memory.\u201d<\/p>\n The bracelets the friends wear accumulate charms representing memories the montage doesn\u2019t show. Crawford said those details help the audience feel the years passing alongside Jo and Raissa: \u201cWhen you see their bracelets full of charms that represent core memories, you\u2019re like, \u2018I get it.\u2019 That was so important in the setup, and that\u2019s one we\u2019re really proud of how that turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Forgotten Island, directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado take best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Joel Crawford, Credit \u2013 Charles Murphy \/ DreamWorks Anim<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n