Week 04 Research activity
It is an analysis of 4 stages development for movie, Weathering With You, in term of hand-drawn animation which received four Annie Award nominations of ASIFA-Hollywood, and was selected as Japanese entry for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.
Weathering with You (Japanese Title: 天気の子 )
July 19, 2019 (Japan)
112 mins
| Directed by | Makoto Shinkai |
|---|---|
| Cinematography | Ryōsuke Tsuda |
| Starring | Kotaro Daigo Nana Mori |
| Music by | Radwimps |
1. Clear narrative vision
It is a journey of an ordinary high-school boy, Hodaka who has escaped away to Tokyo and meets a girl who appears to be able to manipulate the weather. Hina called herself “Sunshine girl”, as wherever she located, there will be sunny day for them. They spent their time together and developed a kind of love relationship.
One day, Hina disappeared without a notice. Hodaka tried to tackle every obstacles and started looking for the secret of his girlfriend.
2. Strong terms of reference
Shinkai designed and referred every shots from the reality angle.
The style of Shinkai is well-known for using Japan urban reality scene as reference.
17 Higashitabata, Kita-ku, Tokyo Shibuya Station
3. Ideation & Design workflow
Based on previous success of Shinkai’s earlier works, 5 Centimeters per Second (2007) and The Garden of Words (2013), his work on Your Name (2016) also gained critical acclaim and commercial success.
Regarding of the global climate changes issue, Shinkai put his concern incorporate into the film, including his own wishes to arouse audience’s attention and contribute to his own community.
Pre-production
Production
The term ‘production’ has come to be used to refer to execute director’s plan with drawing, shooting and editing in hand-drawn animation.
Post Production
Post Production refers to coloring, vfx, dubbing, music composing, and rendering.
In contrast to Western industries which colour management is mostly the final stage for post-production, Shinkai decided the colour palette as early as the compositing stage. This, in turn, allowed whole production team shared a sense colour in use.
4. Technical Research & Development
Evidenced by Ijyumi, the VFX artist in this movie, Adobe Photoshop and Aftereffect are used as the main software, with her wacom tablet to add layers for line drawing, coloring, highlight and shadow to create at least 7 layers for one single raindrop.
Budget and manpower
There is a multitude of views about Japanese animation production as an auteur-driven industry. Although there are good arguments in favour of the whole storyboard has drew by director’s his own, as remaining the style of Shinkai, some people have a different view for its drawbacks. Within 6-month production, in Shinkai’s own words at the interview by Polygon in 2019:
“For both Your Name and Weathering With You, production was pretty hard. What’s happening in animation in Japan is that there’s not enough people, there’s not enough time, and there’s not enough money.”
According to the description provided by Shinkai, Japanese animation industry was facing insufficient situation of lacking of systematic working condition for production crew. Shinkai also stated that he tried to improve staff retention with organic food, massage therapist and acupuncturist in studio.
It shows the fact that the production stage in Weathering With You has faced challenging situations before every pieces of art work being confirmed eventually.
Reference:
1. Alekseenko, A. (2019). ColorEdge Monitors Used for Production of Director Makoto Shinkai’s Latest Animated Work Weathering with You. [online] DisplayDaily. Available at: https://www.displaydaily.com/article/press-releases/coloredge-monitors-used-for-production-of-director-makoto-shinkai-s-latest-animated-work-weathering-with-you [Accessed 25 Dec. 2021].
2. Toh, A. (2021). Weathering With You: 15 Real Life Locations in Tokyo. [online] Mipon. Available at: https://mipon.org/weathering-with-you-pilgrimage/.
3. ワコムタブレットサイト. (n.d.). 映画「天気の子」VFXクリエイター特別インタビュー｜ワコムタブレットサイト｜Wacom. [online] Available at: https://tablet.wacom.co.jp/article/tenkinoko-interview [Accessed 25 Dec. 2021].
4. McLean, T.J. (2020). Global Hit Toon “Weathering With You” Signals Climate Change for Japanese Anime. [online] Variety. Available at: https://variety.com/2020/artisans/production/japan-weathering-with-you-anime-1203467424/.
5. Toon Boom Animation. (2019). Make it rain: 5 facts about Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You. [online] Available at: https://www.toonboom.com/make-it-rain-5-facts-about-makoto-shinkais-weathering-with-you [Accessed 25 Dec. 2021].
6. Born Digital (2019). Monthly CGWORLD + digital video vol.254. October 2019 issue ed. Japan: Born Digital.
7. Weathering with You Official Art Book 新海誠監督作品『天気の子』美術画集 (2020). Shinkai makoto kantoku sakuhin tenki no ko bijutsu gashu. (n.d.). Kadokawa, Kadokawa.
8.Weathering with You. (2019). Japan: Toho.
9.Shinkai, M. (2019). Tenki no ko Weathering With You Official Book Guide Character Design Art Cast Interview. Japan: Kadokawa.
10.GKIDS Films (2020). Weathering With You [Official English Dub Trailer – GKIDS] – January 15. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps8qwWG8Uio [Accessed 28 Nov. 2021].