HOW-TO, Techniques, & Best Practices Channel
Makoto Shinkai: Do-It-Yourself Animator
By Patrick Drazen
posted Mar 26, 2008, 14:42
One of the biggest revolutions in filmmaking has come with the computer. Elaborate, even impossible, special effects can be produced with a few keystrokes.
Click here to get a copy of the May 2006 Edition, so you can read and enjoy all of the excellent articles inside. Check out this article in the May 2006 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 10 .
Author of the 2003 Anime Explosion: The What? Why? and Wow!
of Japanese Animation, Patrick Drazen has presented at the 2004
Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits, at Yaoi-Con in 2002, at the 2006
Anime Marathon at the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution,
and for several years at Anime Central in his hometown of Chicago.
He's written on anime for Animation magazine, and is currently
working on his second book.
Makoto Shinkai: Do-It-Yourself Animator
One of the biggest revolutions in filmmaking has come with the
computer. Elaborate, even impossible, special effects can be
produced with a few keystrokes. Even animation, which used to
require a small army of inkers and in-betweeners, has felt the
impact of the electronic age. Where computer-generated
characters were once limited in their design and movement, CG
images now rival traditional cel animation in warmth and
character. The growing sophistication of both hardware and
software gives animators a tool-kit that seems to be growing bigger
every day.
For that matter, you don’t even need a Pixar-sized corporation to
produce stellar animation. In Japan, where animation isn’t a “just
for kids” medium, several young filmmakers have bypassed film
altogether, creating computer animation with the look and the
emotional “feel” of cel animation. And people are taking note.
Makoto Shinkai was born in 1973 in Nagano Prefecture, in the
“Japanese Alps.” Anime wasn’t a large part of his childhood: “I
couldn't watch many of them because I lived in the countryside,
and my hometown's TV station had a small number of channels.”
One that did stick with him, and many viewers, was the anime
version of Anne of Green Gables, whose animators included Hayao
Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, founders of Studio Ghibli.
Shinkai traveled to Tokyo to attend college where he studied
literature and started drawing children’s books. He also got a job
doing animation for a computer game company, and this is where
his studies and his background began to come together. After five
years of creating animated videogame “cuts”
(action/romantic/musical sequences meant to advance the plot, and
not part of the gameplay), he began trying to make his own short
animations at home on a Power Mac G4 running Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe AfterEffects, with only the help of a girlfriend to provide
a voice. His first major success was a 5-minute short titled Kanojo
to Kanojo no Neko (She and Her Cat).
Told in a black-and-white style heavily influenced by French
New Wave cinema, this film is a series of ten short vignettes from
the point of view of a cat adopted by a Tokyo office lady. We see
him watching her move around her tiny apartment getting ready for
her day, watching the weather, watching as she gets a phone call
that leaves her in tears (perhaps the end of a love affair). We know
that, despite the difference in species, the cat sees himself as her
lover. In the end, with the cat at home and the woman riding the
subway, they state the same thought at the same time: “we like our
life.”
She and Her Cat is told with the limited means of a children’s
picture book, but it became the Grand Prize winner in a computer
animation contest sponsored by Project Team DoGA, a not-forprofit
foundation to promote independent CG filmmaking. Yutaka
Kamata, head of the foundation, said while presenting Shinkai with
the Grand Prize, “In the Japanese CG community, a professional
CG creator has to be an ‘operator,’ who in making images defers to
his clients and his supervisor, and has almost no chance to have his
own name known. The CG community truly needs a ‘creator.’ Not
a mere operator, but one who plans for himself, makes by himself,
presents under his own name, and consistently make his living that
way.”
Privately, Kamata gave Shinkai some advice: “Make more showy entertainment.”
The opportunity to make more CG animation came soon. She
and Her Cat was shown to Yoshihiro Hagawara, a producer at
CoMix Wave. He was so impressed that he arranged for CoMix
Wave to support Shinkai, an independent animator who still didn’t
have a commercial production to his name. Still, this support
allowed the 27-year-old Shinkai to quit his day job and devote
himself to his next project.
That new project was a 25 minute, full color animation, Hoshi
no Koe (literally “Voice of a Star”, known in the west as “Voices of
a Distant Star”). The story falls back on science fiction, a mainstay
of anime, but also continues the lyrical quality of She and Her Cat.
It’s a long-distance romance between two junior high school
students, Noburo and Mikako. This particular relationship, set
about 40 years in the future, gets sidetracked when the girl,
Mikako, becomes part of an elite group of fighters training under
extraterrestrial guidance to fight an intergalactic enemy. But the
battle isn’t the point of the plot; it’s the fact that Mikako can only
communicate with her boyfriend on Earth by text-messaging. As
she moves deeper into space, the messages take longer and longer
to reach their destination; can this long-distance relationship work
out?
Hoshi no Koe definitely worked out for Shinkai. The anime won
several awards, including one for Shinkai as Best Director in the
2002 AMD Awards. And, just as She and Her Cat led to bigger
things, Hoshi no Koe led Shinkai to direct a feature-length anime.
Again, science fiction is the genre, except that it’s an alternate
past rather than a potential future. The mysterious title The Place
Promised in Our Early Years refers to three students: Hiroki, his
friend Tayuka, and Hiroki’s sort-of girlfriend Sayuri. Hiroki is
building a mini-plane in order to leave their home in the north of
Japan (also Shinkai’s home) to investigate a strange tower, rising out
of sight, on the northern island of Hokkaido. Fast-forward three
years: Sayuri is in a coma, and the childish ambition of building
and flying a plane has taken on interplanetary significance.
Once again, Shinkai allows the story to unfold languidly, even
lyrically, showing that the French New Wave influence of She and
Her Cat still serves him well. The popularity of the film in Japan
has also proven that Shinkai knew what he was doing on his first
professional feature. The Place Promised won the 2004 Mainichi
Film Award for Animation over veteran directors such as Hayao
Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira).
If there can be a secret to Shinkai’s success, it probably comes
from two sources. One is his ability as a writer. Even in a visual
medium, what Spielberg said when he received the Irving Thalberg
award is still true: in the beginning is the word. A film relies on its
language, and Shinkai’s films are lyrical enough to keep the audience interested.
The second source is Shinkai’s love for the CG medium.
Working at a computer is a solitary pursuit, but so is creating
children’s books. Shinkai can still find a kind of play in his
medium: “While I was using 3D modeling software, I could build a
3D world in front of my eyes as though I'm playing some kind of
game. Thus I enjoyed the task itself.”
Whatever’s next for Makoto Shinkai will probably involve resources stronger than a Power Mac G4.
This article may not be reprinted in print or internet publications without express permission of StudentFilmmakers.com.
Don't miss another important edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine which focuses on cutting-edge, pre-production, production, post production, and distribution technologies and techniques. Six-month, 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year subscriptions available with discounts from the cover price. Back Issues are also available while copies last. Go to www.studentfilmmakers.com/store >> |
StudentFilmmakers magazine, the #1 Educational Resource for Film and Video Makers, publishes 12 editions per year. Subscribe today and get this important magazine delivered right to your doorstep every month. Each edition contains high level, educational articles for serious filmmakers and videographers like you - articles including cutting edge, real-world practices, trends, and technology, as well as in-depth inspiring interviews with independent filmmakers and experts.
There is something for everyone in each issue, whether you are a director, cinematographer, camera operator, gaffer, editor, producer, sound engineer, animator, composer, actor, screenwriter, ... With today's technology changes coming faster and faster, we are all students.
StudentFilmmakers magazine would like to hear from you!
Click here to share your comments and feedback about the magazine, monthly editions, your favorite articles, and your favorite topics.
We always welcome and appreciate your Reader Comments. View them here, and send yours to the editors today!
www.studentfilmmakers.com © 2004-2005. All rights reserved.
A division of Welch Integrated, Inc.