In 2010, the famous Japanese animation director Imatoshi died of illness, leaving a suicide note that every time I watch it, one of which shows that it is very regrettable that it is too late to complete the work "Dream Machine", so that the "original work, script, character and world view setting, storyboarding, impression music, etc. all the ideas of the work remain in the mind of Imatoshi himself."
Imatoshi's first work, Perfect Blue, is still one of the classic animation works, and the theme of Imatoshi's creation is often about "subconscious or the flow of consciousness", such as fantasy, dreams, time, network, etc., with superb image transmission, the work often makes people shudder.
Foreign YouTuber channel Every Frame a Painting analyzed imatoshi's editing, and also quoted Imatoshi in an interview that he did not think of creating a live-action film, because for animation, the "editing" of the live-action film is too slow, which is better than today's Min can use 6-frame film grid to make a live-action film 10-frame effect. If you have read Imatoshi's book: Kon's Tone (Simplified Version: My Dream Road), you should be able to understand that Imatoshi's achievements come from the many difficulties in production and the contributions of the staff to create the Imatoshi Fantasy Kingdom.
All those who are familiar with animation know that Imatoshi's work is an "impossible task", and only Imatoshi in the world has the talent and budget to make such a powerful work. When blue dread began production in 1996, the budget was only 90 million yen (about NT$24 million), and although various accidents overspended the final work, under such a budget, Imatoshi's "supervision" skills were used to the extreme.
The first time the original artists handed over the manuscript, the total number of shots did not exceed 1,000 shots, but Toshi Imamoto still made a decision to redraw 800 of them. For him, what can't work is not okay, especially if he has a good team to work with him, the work will also be everyone's painstaking efforts, and it can't live up to everyone's efforts, that is, it must be strictly controlled, so maybe the team was afraid to hear director Toshi Imatoshi say, "Well... One more change."
However, I will also encounter a re-painting that has been beaten back, but it still cannot meet The expectations of Imatoshi. Imatoshi also understands that if he continues like this, he will "bully people", and he will take the designs that have not been able to pass the test to himself, or ask the better original artists to modify them together, so this is why Imatoshi's works can only be done by him.
The above procedure takes "Blue Fear" as an example, each animation process may be different, and it is not necessarily the completion of the stage to enter the next stage, but the stage is successive stages, which is the most ideal state. However, the reality is often less than expected, and it is often necessary to "take the lead", overlapping the before and after processes in the same period of production. And "Blue Fear" is due to the improper supervision and communication of the executive production team, and there will also be situations that must be adapted at any time because a certain program is too late.
For Imatoshi, whose painting is the source of inspiration, when making "Inception", there are also when the script is not completely finalized, Imatoshi began to make storyboards, because for him, painting can give him more inspiration to try different images from words. But the consequence of such overlapping production is that the staff must have a large heart, and there is also a possibility that their efforts will be wasted.
Compared with the title of the film "Perfect Blue", director Toshi Ima and the art director especially use red to hint at the violence and sexuality in the film, and the red elements can be seen in the unma room and various scenes.
And because Imatoshi specified that the lighting of the unhemp room must be "incandescent yellow light", blue and green are less likely to be displayed in such tones, and red as the actual contrasting color of blue and the contrast of the title can bring the audience an uneasy impression.
In addition, in the film analyzed by Every Frame a Painting, it is also mentioned that the way Imatoshi expresses death is very interesting, such as the old man swallowing his last breath, the windmill outside the house stops; but when the old man suddenly wakes up, the windmill begins to rotate again.
My dream-making path
Hideki Hamasu, who directs the painting of Blue Fear, is a talent that Imatoshi recognizes as a talent whose painting ability is comparable to his, and even if his job is only to "prevent the decline in quality", this requires a task that can only be done by constantly checking, revising, and repainting. In the later stages of production, even because of hard work to recur occupational injuries - tenosynovitis, you must completely stop the wrist movement (painting) to restore health.
In the production of "Blue Fear", the challenge for the crew should be how to draw a cute girl's room, and even if the lighting in the room is set to be "incandescent yellow lights", there will also be "when the lights are turned off", "morning", "kitchen side", "apartment appearance" and other details of the color presentation, and for the director, design the whole color, and accurately grasp, is the responsibility of the art director.
In the room alone, Imatoshi was painstakingly asked art director Ike Nobutaka to change it to the 10th edition before it was finalized.
Because animation is designed to reconstruct the world, the protagonist's character affects the color, proportions, and atmosphere of the entire film. As far as "Blue Fear" is concerned, the most important thing about the art scene is the protagonist's "room of the unmamp", which is so important that the director and the team, in order to "find" the ideal room, refer to a lot of photographic albums or films, such as "Yellows Privacy '94", "Tokyo Style" and so on.
In addition, the dubbing process is also to first select Iwao Junzi as the voice actor of the protagonist Unma from 20-30 candidates, and then select secondary roles and supporting roles according to the voice of Unma.
With music, actual dance moves are also important reference materials for drawing animations, and can only be performed through imagination. So the crew commissioned a professional teacher to choreograph, and the team set off to the studio to shoot images and come back for reference. Mr. Morita, the original artist who wanted to implement this animation in place, also bought a special screen and player according to Imatoshi, and painted while watching video tapes every day.
Most animators use their bodies to actually perform movements to draw or make precise movements of the characters, and Imatoshi praises Mr. Morita's professionalism: "A man in his 30s who learns the movements of his idols in reality, it doesn't matter if he is handsome or not."
Comparison of works such as "Full Launch" and "Black Swan"
After the death of Imatoshi in 2010, director Christopher Nolan's film "Full Start" was released, and the concept and composition of the work were similar to those of director Imatoshi's "Inception Detective" released in 2006, and there are still fans arguing to this day, but Nolan himself has indicated in the interview that he did not refer to "Inception Detective".
The director Dylan Elonovsky directly bought the copyright of Imatoshi's first work "Blue Fear", using the same composition of the photographic picture in "Nightmare Elegy"; the subsequent work "Black Swan" is often analyzed together with "Blue Fear", but Elonovsky said in an interview that the film is still based on "Swan Lake" as the story prototype to create, and is not adapted from "Blue Fear".
For Imatoshi, every dream he makes remains in the hearts of fans, but we can continue to watch his works, refer to his works, and continue to learn from him through Imatoshi's works.