Chapter 90: Miyazaki Aoi's Growth
In the Japanese animation industry, animators are just one of the lowest rungs, basically being exploited as a proletariat under capitalism. Once you start "creating manga" and get serialized, then you're an anime creator. Some artists may have it good, but no matter how well they do, at most they'll still be just an artist. Authors can also have it bad, but compared to artists, authors' ceilings are much higher.
Zhou Xiao's division of shares is actually very generous, comics, animation and peripherals. For the vast majority of animation authors, this is already their largest source of income. As for movies and TV? Usually when they make an animation, they don't consider this aspect. If there is such an adaptation in the future, that would be best, but if not, they are also very indifferent.
No choice, although Zhou Xiao didn't draw a single stroke from start to finish, but others are making money with this. Zhou Xiao's outline has at least 100,000 words, barely enough for a book. Recently, these days, while filming during the day, he is busy with these things at night. The 100,000 words aren't all descriptions of the plot, but more descriptions of the scenes, such as detailed depictions, style settings, etc. I believe that with these 100,000 words combined with Yajigang's understanding of classical music and comics, the appearance of "Symphony Dream" shouldn't be a problem.
"Then you get ready first, I'll come and see the results in a week?" After saying that, Zhou Xiao had more or less said everything.
Contributing to a manga magazine doesn't require drawing out the entire manga, or else there wouldn't be rumors of someone's draft being delayed. A week later, when Zhou Xiao and Yaguchi Akira appeared at the office of KISS magazine under Shueisha, what they had in hand could be said to be already quite refined. (After all, "Symphonic Dream" is a girls' manga, it can't be serialized in something like Weekly Shonen Jump.)
The character settings of the comics are complete, and all main characters have been designed. The plot is detailed to the point where it almost describes every important scene. It can be said that in this collaboration, Yaguchi Aki did very little.
The story is also very wonderful. Originally, when looking at the outline, the editor of KISS was worried about how to express the sound in pictures, but after seeing several manga drawn by Yaguchi Akira based on Zhou Xiao's text description, the last bit of worry disappeared.
Soon, another contract under Zhou Xiao's hand appeared, and this time it was a comic. Zhou Xiao estimated that when the news came out, the Japanese would despise themselves again, who let him be so shameless...
Specific things are left to Watanabe Keiko to discuss, Zhou Xiao rushed back to the crew from the magazine company. In fact, the crew is the same with or without him, but for Zhou Xiao, it's not the same, he has to learn how to take pictures after all.
The filming of "One Liter of Tears" is proceeding in full swing, with the first half of the scenes featuring Zhou Xiao already completed. Currently, they are working on the middle part of the film, where Ya and her mother fight against illness together, which is why Zhou Xiao has time to run out and sign contracts. The entire crew of "One Liter of Tears" is actually very happy, and the atmosphere on set is mainly influenced by the lead actor, director, and investors. In this case, Miyazaki Aoi does not have much influence on the filming site, but the person who really affects the atmosphere among the actors is Yakushimaru Hiroko, a sister in her thirties with a great personality, who occasionally even brings the exaggerated expressions from acting into real life, making quite a fuss. As for Nagata Kotono, she is a new director who has not yet developed the habits and aura of a big director, and she is very kind to everyone. And as for Zhou Xiao? He is someone who didn't even mind becoming a comedian, although he ended up not doing it due to various reasons, which already proves his personality.
This time, Zhou Xiao, who had just returned from outside, spent a lot of money to bring back food for the entire crew as a treat: "Everyone has been working very hard recently, these snacks were bought by me to invite everyone to eat, please don't be polite!"
Zhou Xiao shouted.
"A One-Liter of Tears" is not a big production, but even so, the entire crew still had dozens of people when it started working. Except for some important positions such as photography and sound recording, preparing props and lighting were also a large number of people, not to mention the extras that would inevitably be used. It can be said that a movie may only describe two or three people, but the staff behind it are tens of times more than the actors.
To treat dozens of people to a good meal, Zhou Xiao spent over 100,000 yen this time.
But this money is actually well spent. If the boss doesn't use this method to win people's hearts, how can he keep these people who will definitely continue to be useful in the future?
In terms of filming, it's not just Zhou Xiao and the crew that have fully found their rhythm, but also Miyazaki Aoi who has also completely gotten into the swing of things.
"Great! Cut! Another take, perfect!" Nagata Koto exclaimed with great satisfaction. The part they were currently filming was actually the most difficult part of the entire movie. After Aya learned that her illness was incurable, the scene where she expressed her anguish and asked "Why did God choose me to get sick?" was a crucial part of the film. Most of the audience would feel complex emotions after seeing and hearing Aya's desperate cry - on one hand, they sympathized with Aya's situation, but on the other hand, they couldn't help but feel slightly relieved that they didn't have such an illness themselves.
Zhou Xiao sat together with Nagata Koto in front of the monitor and watched the entire scene being filmed. Miyazaki Aoi's acting skills were almost completely brought out, showcasing her frustration and pain. One take was all it took for this important scene, which was almost impossible for a girl taking on a leading role for the first time. But Miyazaki Aoi did it, and her small expressions in front of the camera revealed the true emotions of a young girl - the heartache and pain were so real that even the people on set felt like they were experiencing it themselves.
The girl who originally had a very rare acting talent, after a period of time, thoroughly adapted to filming and thoroughly fell in love with filming. Holding Zhou Xiao's script, she almost put her entire heart and soul into this matter, every day, apart from eating and sleeping, the two words "acting" were always on her mind.
Unlike the Miyazaki Aoi that Zhou Xiao knew, she is now receiving a more worldly film education. In contrast to her early days when she first entered the industry and made several award-winning films that few people knew about, the movies Miyazaki Aoi makes now are undoubtedly less artistic but on the other hand, they allow her to adapt to this world faster. She is no longer the naive girl who only understood filmmaking and ended up marrying a second-rate and unreliable guy. Perhaps she will still take the path of art films in the future, but for now, she will likely accept worldly things more quickly and make more commercial works.
In "A Liter of Tears", the scenes with Nakahara were filmed quickly because of Ayako Miyoshi's rapid-fire acting, even bringing out co-star Takako Uehara who had been in the industry for over a decade. It was as if they were competing to see who could act better on camera, which made the overall style of the film slightly exaggerated. However, neither Zhou Xiao nor Nagata Koto stopped this from happening, worrying that if they really did rein them in, it might make the film feel unnatural. They were more concerned that Miyoshi's acting, which had finally been brought under control, would be disrupted by this change and revert back to how it was before.
As the filming went on, Zhou Xiao became more and more tense. He never forgot that he had a role to play, and this last part was not easy at all. In his past life in 2005, Takashi Jinbo and Erika Sawajiri had performed a heart-wrenching reunion scene in the TV drama version that moved countless people. This time around, Zhou Xiao worried about how he would portray that kind of painful farewell.
