At
Fanime Con, we learned about the plans to release the the Vampire Hunter
D: Bloodlust film in the U.S. At Anime Expo, there were some insights into
the production of the film from Hisashi Abe, the animation director for
the new movie that was produced by Madhouse. One of the points Abe made
is that the Vampire Hunter film isn't that new, in a sense; the production
of the movie took six years. Ave said the first three years were used to
animate the film - then the funding ran out. It took another three years
to add the sound track, including the English-language voices. And then
the film had to be re-edited for the U.S. "We had to cut out the violent
and bloody scenes," said Abe. "In America, animation mainly is for children.
There are restrictions on the violence we could show - but we also wanted
to have a less cut version if possible."
Since
it's a vampire story set in Transylvania, the Vampire Hunter film is going
to follow the conventions of that genre, including scenes in a dark, mysterious
castle. "The castle is the most important thing in the vampire setting,"
said Abe, noting that the film's director traveled to Italy to research
locations in the film's background plates. "The director really liked that
dark feeling and i like that world, too," Abe said. But, around the same
time that Abe was working on the Vampire Hunter film, he also was working
on one of the Card Captor Sakura movies. "It's been only five years since
we started doing the cute childrens' works," Abe noted. "Before that, we
were doing the more sylized animation. I enjoy doing a wide variety
of animation, and my art skills have improved."
There's
an old movie cliche about all actors wanting to direct, and that might
be true of animators as well. Abe has developed some ideas in his career,
and he's like to turn them into a film that he would direct. "It would
be hard to do this by myself because animation is not done by one person,"
said Abe. "One day I want to direct and I'm certain one day I will have
a chance. There's no specific genre I want to do." However, the Japanese
way of animation doesn't favor a director's getting a chance to create
his own works. "Usually there is a client who wants to have something happen.
The client asks the producer for that work and then the animators are asigned
their jobs."
At
Fanime Con, we learned about the plans to release the the Vampire Hunter
D: Bloodlust film in the U.S. At Anime Expo, there were some insights into
the production of the film from Hisashi Abe, the animation director for
the new movie that was produced by Madhouse. One of the points Abe made
is that the Vampire Hunter film isn't that new, in a sense; the production
of the movie took six years. Ave said the first three years were used to
animate the film - then the funding ran out. It took another three years
to add the sound track, including the English-language voices. And then
the film had to be re-edited for the U.S. "We had to cut out the violent
and bloody scenes," said Abe. "In America, animation mainly is for children.
There are restrictions on the violence we could show - but we also wanted
to have a less cut version if possible."
Since
it's a vampire story set in Transylvania, the Vampire Hunter film is going
to follow the conventions of that genre, including scenes in a dark, mysterious
castle. "The castle is the most important thing in the vampire setting,"
said Abe, noting that the film's director traveled to Italy to research
locations in the film's background plates. "The director really liked that
dark feeling and i like that world, too," Abe said. But, around the same
time that Abe was working on the Vampire Hunter film, he also was working
on one of the Card Captor Sakura movies. "It's been only five years since
we started doing the cute childrens' works," Abe noted. "Before that, we
were doing the more sylized animation. I enjoy doing a wide variety
of animation, and my art skills have improved."
There's
an old movie cliche about all actors wanting to direct, and that might
be true of animators as well. Abe has developed some ideas in his career,
and he's like to turn them into a film that he would direct. "It would
be hard to do this by myself because animation is not done by one person,"
said Abe. "One day I want to direct and I'm certain one day I will have
a chance. There's no specific genre I want to do." However, the Japanese
way of animation doesn't favor a director's getting a chance to create
his own works. "Usually there is a client who wants to have something happen.
The client asks the producer for that work and then the animators are asigned
their jobs."
