Editing Seven Samurai (section)

==Production==
===Writing===
Akira Kurosawa had originally wanted to direct a film about a single day in the life of a samurai. Later, in the course of his research, he discovered a story about samurai defending farmers. According to actor Toshiro Mifune, the film was originally going to be called ''Six Samurai'', with Mifune playing the role of Kyūzō. During the six-week scriptwriting process, Kurosawa and his screenwriters realized that "six sober samurai were a bore—they needed a character that was more off-the-wall".<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=Toshiro Mifune interview|type=Pamphlet|publisher=Criterion Collection|date=August 25, 1993}}</ref> Kurosawa recast Mifune as Kikuchiyo and gave him creative license to improvise in his performance.<ref name="Perera_2021">{{cite web | last=Perera | first=Ashen | title=Seven Samurai: Kurosawa's masterpiece | website=[[Sunday Observer]] | url=https://archives1.sundayobserver.lk/2021/09/05/seven-samurai-kurosawa%E2%80%99s-masterpiece | date=September 5, 2021 | access-date=March 3, 2024 | archive-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304165717/https://archives1.sundayobserver.lk/2021/09/05/seven-samurai-kurosawa%E2%80%99s-masterpiece | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wheeler 2020 m761">{{cite web | last=Wheeler | first=David | title='Seven Samurai,' a timeless world treasure, one of cinema's greatest masterworks | website=The Standard | date=April 28, 2020 | url=https://www.the-standard.org/life/reviews/seven-samurai-a-timeless-world-treasure-one-of-cinema-s-greatest-masterworks/article_8aec556c-8965-11ea-aac9-2bbe925cfea7.html | access-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-date=March 4, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304162703/https://www.the-standard.org/life/reviews/seven-samurai-a-timeless-world-treasure-one-of-cinema-s-greatest-masterworks/article_8aec556c-8965-11ea-aac9-2bbe925cfea7.html | url-status=live }}</ref> During the six-week scriptwriting process, the screenwriters were not allowed visitors or phone calls.<ref name=":3" />

Kurosawa and the writers were innovative in refining the theme of the assembly of heroic characters to perform a mission. According to Michael Jeck's [[Audio commentary (DVD)|DVD commentary]], ''Seven Samurai'' was among the first films to use the now-common plot element of the recruiting and gathering of heroes into a team to accomplish a specific goal, a device used in later films such as ''[[The Guns of Navarone (film)|The Guns of Navarone]]'', ''[[Sholay]]'', the western remake ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'', and Pixar's animated film ''[[A Bug's Life]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lack|first1=Jonathan R.|title=An Appreciation of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai|url=http://www.jonathanlack.com/2012/05/appreciation-of-akira-kurosawas-seven.html|website=Fade to Lack|access-date=February 20, 2015|archive-date=June 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601022246/http://www.jonathanlack.com/2012/05/appreciation-of-akira-kurosawas-seven.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] speculates in his review that the sequence introducing the leader Kambei (in which the samurai shaves off his topknot, a sign of honor among samurai, in order to pose as a monk to rescue a boy from a kidnapper) could be the origin of the practice, now common in action movies, of introducing the main hero with an undertaking unrelated to the main plot.<ref name="StillInterEmpire">{{cite news|author=Roger Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=The Seven Samurai (1954)|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|date=August 19, 2001|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954|access-date=February 24, 2021|archive-date=March 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305233724/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other plot devices such as the reluctant hero, romance between a local woman and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry, had appeared in other films before this, but were combined in this film.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

===Set design===
Kurosawa refused to shoot the peasant village at [[Toho Studios]] and had a complete set constructed at [[Tagata District, Shizuoka|Tagata]] on the [[Izu Peninsula]], [[Shizuoka Prefecture|Shizuoka]]. Although the studio protested against the increased production costs, Kurosawa was adamant that "the quality of the set influences the quality of the actors' performances... For this reason, I have the sets made exactly like the real thing. It restricts the shooting but encourages that feeling of authenticity."<ref name="robnixon">{{cite web|last=Nixon|first=Rob|title=Behing [sic] the Camera of the Seven Samurai|url=http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191474%7C0/Behind-the-Camera-Seven-Samurai.html |access-date=April 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706060910/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191474%7C0/Behind-the-Camera-Seven-Samurai.html |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
He also spoke of the "intense labour" of making the film: "It rained all the time; we didn't have enough horses. It was just the kind of picture that is impossible to make in this country."<ref name="richiedonald">{{cite book|last1=Richie|first1=Donald|url=https://archive.org/details/filmsofakirakuro0003rich|title=The Films of Akira Kurosawa|date=1996|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520200268|edition=3|location=Berkeley|page=[https://archive.org/details/filmsofakirakuro0003rich/page/107 107]|url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Filming===
[[File:Eiganotomo-thesevensamurai-dec1953.jpg|thumb|alt=Film makers stand in front of actors while filming the movie.|Akira Kurosawa directing Seiji Miyaguchi (far right side)]]Long before it was released, the film had already become a topic of wide discussion.<ref name="richiedonald" /> After three months of pre-production, it had 148 shooting days spread out over a year—four times the span covered in the original budget, which eventually came to almost half a million dollars. Toho Studios closed down production at least twice. Each time, Kurosawa calmly went fishing, reasoning that the studio had already heavily invested in the production and would allow him to complete the picture. The film's final battle scene, originally scheduled to be shot at the end of summer, was shot in February in near-freezing temperatures. Mifune later recalled that he had never been so cold in his life.<ref name="robnixon" />

During filming for the scene where the samurai arrive at the village, Kurosawa set up a shot at the top of the mountain from which the village could be seen in the valley. In order for this to work as an evening shot, the crew spent the entire day setting up for the single shot, but camerman Asakazu Nakai and Kurosawa ended up debating when to start shooting the scene by looking at the light through the camera's viewfinder. Despite spending the entire day preparing, Nakai's hesitation to start shooting caused the sun to set and the scene wasn't shot.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nogami |first=Teruyo |title=Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |year=2001 |isbn=9781933330099 |location=Berkeley |publication-date=2006 |pages=112–114 |language=en |translator-last=Carpenter |translator-first=Juliet Winters}}</ref>

Through the creative freedom provided by the studio, Kurosawa made use of [[telephoto lens]]es, which were rare in 1954, as well as [[Multiple-camera setup|multiple cameras]] which allowed the action to fill the screen and place the audience right in the middle of it.<ref name="richiedonald" /> "If I had filmed it in the traditional shot-by-shot method, there was no guarantee that any action could be repeated in exactly the same way twice." He found it to be very effective and he later used it in movies that were less action-oriented. His method was to put one camera in the most orthodox shooting position, another camera for quick shots and a third camera "as a kind of [[guerrilla]] unit". This method made for very complicated shoots, for which Kurosawa choreographed the movement of all three cameras by using diagrams.<ref name="robnixon" />

The martial arts choreography for the film was led by [[Yoshio Sugino]] of the [[Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū]]. Initially Junzo Sasamori of the [[Ono-ha Itto-ryu]] worked with Sugino, but he was asked by the Ministry of Education to teach in Europe during production.

===Editing===
During filming, Kurosawa quickly earned a reputation with his crew as the "world's greatest editor" because of his practice of editing late at night throughout the shooting. He described this as a practical necessity that is incomprehensible to most directors, who on major productions spent at least several months with their editors assembling and cutting the film after shooting is completed.<ref name="bertcardullo">{{Cite book
 | last = Cardullo
 | first = Bert
 | title = Akira Kurosawa: Interviews
 | publisher = University Press of Mississippi
 | date = 2008
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eVs7KxKpWeEC
 | isbn =978-1578069972 }}</ref>{{rp|89}}

===Soundtrack===
Kurosawa had a heightened interest in the soundtracks of his films. For ''Seven Samurai'', he collaborated for the seventh and penultimate time with friend and composer [[Fumio Hayasaka]]. Hayasaka was already seriously ill when Kurosawa visited him during the filming of ''Seven Samurai'' and he died of tuberculosis on October 15, 1955, at the age of 41, while Kurosawa was filming ''[[I Live in Fear]]'', his next film, which Hayasaka was unable to complete.<ref>Larson, Randall. "The Vintage Score: Seven Samurai", analysis in Cinemascore: The Film Music Journal. Vol. 15, Winter 1986/Summer 1987. 1987 Fandom Unlimited, Sunnyvale, California. Pgs. 121</ref>

{{Track listing
| all_music       =
| headline = Track list

| title1 = Title Backing (M-1-2)
| length1 = 3:17

| title2 = To the Water Mill (M-2-1)
| length2 = 1:00

| title3 = Samurai Search One (M-3-1)
| length3 = 0:49

| title4 = Kambei and Katsushiro ~ Kikuchiyo's Mambo (M-6-2)
| length4 = 3:43

| title5 = Rikichi's Tears ~ White Rice (M-7-1)
| length5 = 2:09

| title6 = Samurai Search Two (M-8-2)
| length6 = 1:30

| title7 = Gorobei (M-9-1)
| length7 = 2:18

| title8 = Let's Do It (M-10-1)
| length8 = 1:04

| title9 = A Fish That Was Caught (M-11-2)
| length9 = 1:43

| title10 = Six Samurai (M-12-2)
| length10 = 2:51

| title11 = Unconventional Man (M-13-2)
| length11 = 1:13

| title12 = Morning of Departure (M-14-1)
| length12 = 1:02

| title13 = Travel Scenery ~ Our Castle (M-15-1)
| length13 = 2:51

| title14 = Wild Warrior's Coming (M-17-2)
| length14 = 0:35

| title15 = Seven Men Complete (M-18-1)
| length15 = 1:24

| title16 = Katsushiro and Shino (M-19·20-3)
| length16 = 2:43

| title17 = Katsushiro, Returning (M-21-3)
| length17 = 0:12

| title18 = Bed Change (M-22-1)
| length18 = 0:57

| title19 = In the Forest of The Water God (M-23-4) 
| length19 = 1:34

| title20 = Barley Field (M-24-1)
| length20 = 0:20

| title21 = Kambei's Anger (M-25-2)
| length21 = 2:15

| title22 = Interlude (M-Interlude)
| length22 = 5:18

| title23 = Harvest (M-26-1)
| length23 = 2:05

| title24 = Rikichi's Conflict (M-27·28-3)
| length24 = 1:51

| title25 = Heihachi and Rikichi (M-28-5)
| length25 = 0:57

| title26 = Rural Landscape (M-29·30-1)
| length26 = 2:35

| title27 = Wimp, Samurai's Habit (M-31-1) 
| length27 = 1:49

| title28 = Omen of Wild Warriors (M-32-4)
| length28 = 0:26

| title29 = To the Night Attack (M-35, From Film)
| length29 = 0:55

| title30 = Flag (M-39, From Film)
| length30 = 0:20

| title31 = Sudden Reunion (M-40-1)
| length31 = 0:25

| title32 = Magnificent Samurai (M-41-2)
| length32 = 2:29

| title33 = Invisible Wild Warriors (M-43-1)
| length33 = 1:00

| title34 = Kikuchiyo's Rouse (M-44-1)
| length34 = 0:49

| title35 = Compensation (M-45-1)
| length35 = 1:07

| title36 = Tryst (M-46-1)
| length36 = 1:02

| title37 = Manzo and Shino (M-47-4, M-48)
| length37 = 1:02

| title38 = Rice Planting Song (PS. From Film)
| length38 = 1:22

| title39 = Ending (M-49-2)
| length39 = 0:43

|total_length = 62:14
}}