From every aspect, the movie Confessions had nothing that could be called high-budget. More than ninety percent of the film was set indoors, in very common locations like classrooms, homes, and meeting places. There were no visual effects or big-scale scenes to speak of. The salaries of the leading actors were not high, and even the extras were just middle school students.
In short, the crew of Confessions was a "cheap" existence. But no one would look down on this movie because of its low investment. Anyone with a little understanding of the industry knew how much energy the combination of writer Hachiman and director Tetsuya Nakashima could unleash. It could be said that with an excellent original novel and a director who was best at shooting such works, the success of the movie version of Confessions was a foregone conclusion. All that remained to be seen was how much artistic processing the director could bring to the film.
In terms of filming locations, the crew had found an abandoned school building in Tochigi Prefecture, where all the school scenes would be filmed. However, the crew was still staying in Tokyo. After finishing the other scenes there, they would go to Tochigi to complete the school portions.
That's right, filming a movie is just that free. After all, with the crucial step of editing in post-production, one doesn't have to worry about the order of shooting.
When Hikigaya Hachiman, who was completely unaware of this, "accidentally" arrived on set and found that they were filming a scene from the second-to-last chapter of the book, he subconsciously praised, "You're making great progress." (This sentence was later deleted from the behind-the-scenes vlog at the request of Assistant Sakamachi.)
Hachiman had no experience visiting a film set. He felt that the crew of Confessions treated his arrival as if he were an important dignitary. Everyone stopped their work and lined up, waiting to shake his hand one by one. The only thing missing was a banner that read, "Warmly Welcome Mr. Hachiman to Come and Guide Our Work."
"Director Nakajima, please don't delay the filming because of me. I'll just take a quick stroll," Hachiman said to Tetsuya Nakashima, who was accompanying him closely. He had come to observe and learn about the filming process; if everyone stopped what they were doing, what else was there for him to learn?
"Then I'll let the assistant director continue to accompany you, Mr. Hachiman," Nakajima explained, before giving some instructions to the assistant director beside him. "The company has instructed that you must be accompanied by someone when you're on set. Otherwise, some dishonest actors might intentionally approach you, so you'd better be careful."
"Is there such a thing? Aren't our lead actors all people with strong professional ethics?" Hachiman found it a little hard to believe. He knew the actors in this crew were mostly from Japan's top entertainment companies. If their agencies found out they did something like that, they would be punished severely.
"Of course not the lead actors, Mr. Hachiman," Nakajima clarified before leaving. "Don't forget that many of the extras in this crew are middle school students. The companies behind them don't have such a bottom line. No one can say what they might do to become famous."
After the director returned to his post, the entire crew began to operate again. Taking advantage of this time, Hachiman found Hoshino Aqua, who was reading the script. After all, this was his only acquaintance in the crew, and some of the things he cared about could only be learned from him.
"How is it, Hoshino? What's your first impression of the Confessions crew?"
"Objectively speaking, even though I've worked on many crews, the professionalism here is something I've never experienced before," Aqua commented seriously. As a director's apprentice and helper, he had been in and out of many sets, so he was an expert in this area and his words were valuable. "I can only say that Director Nakajima is worthy of his name, and the team he leads is the best in Japan."
"I'm relieved to hear you say that," Hachiman said with a nod. "What kind of person is Director Nakajima at work?"
"Well, actually," Aqua said with some regret, "just this morning, I was scolded by him..."
"Of course, I wasn't the only one," Aqua explained, knowing he had been scolded many times before. "If only one actor is scolded by the director in public, he becomes the center of everyone's private discussion after work. However, if everyone is scolded by the director, then after work, everyone only discusses the director. So I don't feel embarrassed."
"Is that so... I didn't expect Director Nakajima to be like that when he was working." Hachiman really couldn't connect the polite, elegant, and easy-going artistic uncle with the hot-tempered director Aqua described.
"By the way, Hoshino, you don't have any other filming tasks going on right now, do you?" It wasn't a good thing to overlap filming schedules, but in order to make more money, many small companies often let their actors take on multiple projects at once.
"Of course not, Mr. Hachiman," Aqua answered. "There was actually a stage play that wanted me to act in before, but I refused. And Director Nakajima would never tolerate overlapping roles. He requires all of us actors to report to the crew every day to study the script or watch the filming, regardless of whether we have a scene that day or not."
He cherished this opportunity very much. Being able to receive guidance from a director as high-level and strict as Tetsuya Nakashima was an opportunity that many actors his age could only dream of.
In fact, when Nakashima sat behind the camera, he was a tyrant on the set. Whether it was the lead actress, Fujima Takako, or the fledgling middle school students, as long as their performance was not satisfactory, he would scold them directly in front of everyone. The agents of these actors could only stand outside the set, observing the situation with fear.
Of course, for Hikigaya Hachiman, the more these actors were abused, the stronger his confidence in the movie's success became. After all, he would be getting a share of the box office. Even if he didn't hold a position in the crew, he still had to pay attention to their work.
If he ever found out that someone's negligence was costing him money, he would not be as friendly as he was now.
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