Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 408: The advancements in filming technology are truly remarkable.

Nara, Ikoma.

The school was tidied up a bit, and a special filming area was set up so that it could be used for filming when the students were not in class.

The Ultraman 80 series was originally a story set in a school, but because the students' holidays ended and the production team couldn't afford the follow-up costs, they had to cancel the planned episodes.

But of course, that won't happen now.

Money, in yen.

The venue is owned by Gu Ming.

No one will disturb the filming here anymore.

The special effects and human scenes were filmed simultaneously. The special effects scenes are usually directed by Koichi Takano, but this time Koichi Takano was just assisting. It was Eiji Mangaya who personally filmed them.

The human scenes were filmed by Hajime Manya, with Shinichi Ooka serving as his cinematographer.

If he had a choice, Gu Ming would actually like to play this role, but unfortunately, he's a bit too expensive now.

The side effect of winning an award at Cannes is that my commercial value didn't increase much, but my salary skyrocketed.

Unless he can find some sucker to fund him, or bring in directors of the caliber of Akira Kurosawa or Kinji Fukasaku, he basically has no usable film offers.

Accepting bad film offers would be beneath him, while good ones aren't available to him for the time being.

Thanks to this, Gu Ming managed to sneak onto the film set and work as a camera assistant.

The 80-inch leather suit is now easily made. It's not as difficult as it was a few years ago. New technologies make the new suits lighter and easier to make, and there's no longer a need to apply talcum powder to the person.

Overall, the suit design is somewhat similar to the later scrapped Ultraman design, 'Millennium Ultraman'.

In the original concept, this work was originally intended to star Ekin Cheng. The design of the character's body maintained the standard silver and red colors, while the chest lamp and eyes were blue. Outside the chest lamp, there was a breastplate-like structure called the "Manli Organization"—the physiological organization of Ultraman.

However, the film was ultimately not successfully made because the production company did not actually obtain authorization from Wan Gu, so filming was halted.

The rejected design for Millennium Ultraman was later used in many other works, such as Belial, Orb, Geed, etc.

This time, Gu Ming brought out the discarded design from Millennium.

Before Gu Ming's eyes, Niyamoto Tatsumi had already changed into his leather suit, and Gu Ming personally attached a chest lamp to him.

"How about it? The two families are doing alright, aren't they?"

"It's alright, I'm used to it." Niyamoto Tatsumi gave a thumbs up: I'm fine.

Gu Mingfang led him into the filming location.

"So this is the design for the new work. It's really...not bad." Eiji Mangaya examined it from head to toe, quite satisfied. The design has a retro feel, paying homage to the original Ultraman, but the design language is somewhat different, and the body lines have been modified.

Overall, he was very satisfied.

Wearing an old suit, Eiji Mangaya was in exceptionally high spirits, personally lying next to the camera and leading the photographer in taking pictures.

On the sand table, the set to represent the buildings has been completed, and a backdrop painted with 'eternal blue' has been placed behind it.

Gu Ming suddenly leaned closer and lowered his voice.

"Dad, actually, we don't need that anymore."

Mango Eiji suddenly froze, as if he had been struck on the head.

"Now there is newer technology that uses computers to perform near one-to-one optical compositing, which is more efficient and of higher quality than the manual painting of the past. Therefore, the common practice now is to use a green screen for shooting, and the background is composited in post-production. It just requires two separate shots during the photography process."

"Ouch."

Eiji Mangaya was not disappointed as he had imagined; on the contrary, he was very happy.

"This is a good thing. Nowadays, people don't need to go through as much trouble to make films as we did in the past. But it's really a pity that those things will eventually become outdated."

Mangaya Eiji ordered someone to remove the backdrop and raised his hand to touch the backdrop that served as the blue sky.

This color is called Eternal Blue, which was used specifically in the studio to simulate the effect of a blue sky during filming in Mangoku. The person who created Eternal Blue was Toru Narita, who has since left Mangoku.

It's unbelievable that this thing is now being swept into the dustbin of history.

Eiji Manaya wasn't sad; on the contrary, he was actually quite happy. "Technology will improve, but if we don't seize those advancements and cling to outdated methods, we'll inevitably fall into a predicament sooner or later. Mr. Manaya, I really didn't choose the wrong person. So, let's film it the way you suggested."

Gu Ming nodded and ordered someone to bring out a new set of scenery.

Furthermore, there was a fixed method for shooting action movies in the 1970s.

Slowly press, quickly release.

Or rather, it can only be played slowly and released quickly.

This is why Shaw Brothers' old movies feature a series of moves, one after another, because only in this way can the appropriate effect be achieved during filming.

When applied to giant-scale tokusatsu (special effects films), it simply means slow-motion shooting without fast-paced action.

However, with the improvement of camera performance, a new method emerged: 'slow motion shooting'.

When Gu Ming was filming, he had to rely on his physical abilities to do slow motion, but now it's different. Actors can use normal skills, and all that's needed is for the camera to shoot in slow motion.

Eiji Mangaya personally operated the camera, while Kei Mangaya was responsible for directing the scene.

Wan Gujie held up a megaphone and shouted loudly.

"Actors, get your positions! Costumes, get your positions! Three! Two! One! Action!"

Off-camera, the crew pulled the steel wire sharply, moving it just the right distance to pull Tatsumi Niimoto in front of the monster from the first episode. Tatsumi Niimoto then executed a flying kick, hitting the monster precisely without needing any additional traction from the wire.

The costumed actor playing the monster fell down immediately upon seeing the signal from outside the arena, creating the effect of being kicked.

"Oh!" Mangaya Eiji's eyes lit up.

The new filming method resulted in more refined and visually appealing action sequences, a stark contrast to the past approach that relied solely on the actors' physical abilities for simple kicking and punching.

Not only that, this also made the filming process much faster.

Eiji Mangaku quickly became immersed in this new filming method, directing Mangaku Kei to attach devices that would generate electric sparks to the monsters, so that when they were hit, electric sparks would explode at the corresponding locations.

Even in an era of advanced special skills, this ancient method is still necessary.

The negative energy monster encountered in the first battle of the 80th century was named Claysant, and its appearance somewhat resembled a gorilla version of Red King. Since it was the first battle, it was impossible for it to fight too badly. After a few punches and kicks, its weakness was found, and it was easily defeated.

The statue, which had been prepared beforehand, was placed on the field and detonated inch by inch at the command of Eiji Mangaya.

"Great, really great."

As the scene ended, Mango Eiji stood with his hands behind his back, filled with emotion.

"Filming is much faster now than before. Although it sometimes makes people think of that era, we really have to look to the future."

"Yes, perhaps in the future we won't even need people, only computer-generated images will remain."

Gu Ming chuckled and stepped forward to help Wan Guying, saying, "So, does Father want to rest?"

"No, I'm fine, let's keep filming."

As he spoke, Eiji Mangaya returned to the camera.

He glanced over and saw someone outside the arena come over and whisper something to Gu Ming.

"What's wrong, Furuya-kun? Is something bothering you?"

"It's alright, someone just came looking for me. But there's no rush, let's focus on filming here first."

As Gu Ming spoke, he returned to the film set once again.

Ryudo Daigo has indeed caught up with Nara; it seems his situation is truly urgent.

Gu Mingyi thought so too.

We have to act fast on this! If we don't act fast, the investors will just drag us out and stuff us like cream puffs!
If the investor is a woman, that's fine; even if it's an old lady, at least she's being plied with money by others.

According to Ryuu Masaki, Daigo Ryudo encountered a man!

(End of this chapter)