Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

3nd February 2006

Number 30 - A voice I shouldn't be able to hear...

Actually, yesterday I took half a day off.
Thinking that if I didn't take a rest now I'd never get over it,
I spent all morning sleeping at home.

Since I only wrote the other day "I can't possibly rest now", I feel ashamed of myself.

When I arrived at work at about half past two, completed key animation together with the layouts Mr. Momose had drawn were piled up on my desk.

Looking askance at this mountain, I sat down, and right away, I was called out because Mr. Okui, the cinematographer, was waiting for me. When I got back I was called out to an animation meeting with the key animators[1], and then next after that by Mr. Takeshige, the art director. Then I was called by the ink and paint division...

When all of the checking for each of the divisions was finished for the time being, I finally made a start on excavating that massive pile on top of my desk. I checked about fifteen cuts of completed key animation with Mr. Yamashita, the supervising animator, then checked 10-15 of Mr. Momose's layouts and then finally this tempest of a day was over.

Today we showed the rushes. The rushes are where every week on Friday, the whole staff view the completed footage, still without any sound, cut by cut.

I was thinking that I really had to write about last weeks rushes, and then I completely forgot about it. Because the rushes are like a final check, everybody watches them tensely, but last week a rare laugh occurred.

It was a scene where two old women are gossiping, but it was amazing.

Watching the movement, even though there were no lines attached, I could hear an old woman's voice whispering. "Hey, have you heard...?"
I felt that I had seen the starting point of animation: "Watching the pictures move is fun in itself"

The person who drew the key frames for this scene that made us feel that we could hear voices was Shinji Ohtsuka.[2]

Mr Ohtsuka, there"s one more scene I definitely want you to do.
Please, I'm counting on you.

Translator's Notes

[1]: or possibly "with a key animator". Japanese lack of plurals makes this hard to be sure.

[2]: Veteran Ghibli animator. Key animator on just about every film since Totoro. Animation Director on Kiki's Delivery Service and Pom Poko.