\n<\/p>\n
\nTakashi Yamazaki on making the VFX working conditions as comfortable as possible for \u2018GODZILLA MINUS ONE\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made it more comfortable & cozy; we spent some budget building out a kitchen. We have a designated sushi chef in the kitchen. We really try to avoid long hours, but if\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/UeCq6abDFs<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
– He confirmed Godzilla Minus One had a budget between 10 and 15 million. <\/p>\n
– On the workload needed to make a movie that cheap:<\/b> Outsourcing to a third party is going to take time and money. We tend to keep it in-house. That\u2019s just the most efficient and effective way to work. But that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have some external resources that we use. For example, the matte artists or miniature artists. We also have project-based freelance artists who have worked with us for many years. I would say, in this case, maybe one-third of the end-team-member count was freelance folks. We don\u2019t always have 35 full-time employees in this office.Being able to be on-site and interact with the artists right then and there and having that feedback loop is very effective for us. As I said earlier, when I\u2019m the director and the supervisor and I have this vision in my head that is so solid, it eliminates the need for outsourcing and saying, \u201cOh, that\u2019s not what we thought we were going to get.\u201d It\u2019s very solidified upfront. If we didn\u2019t have that workflow, I think we would go in circles and go back and forth, and that\u2019s when you end up wasting a little bit of time and money here and there.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one thing that we use as a best practice, in-house. We call it the second-round or second-cycle rule. Think of it as if you\u2019re a track-and-field athlete. The first loop, you just run as fast as you can. But on the second round, you want to improve. So we do the first round. Let\u2019s do everything that we feel that we want to. Just get it in. Then we take a step back and look at that and say, \u201cWe can do better here,\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s correct here,\u201d or \u201cWhat about this?\u201d Then we give the artist maybe about a month to do that in the second round. And that\u2019s pretty much it, at that point. Of course, when you let artists loose they want to do so much, so we give that opportunity to them during the first round, but then during the second round we say \u201cOkay, you have approximately a month to work on it.\u201d That\u2019s the approach that we take.<\/p>\n
– On the claims the Vfx artists were exploited:<\/b> \u201cIn Japan, we literally call a company \u201cwhite\u201d or \u201cblack.\u201d \u201cWhite\u201d is a company that doesn\u2019t exploit its employees and \u201cblack\u201d is one that makes you work overnight at all hours and really doesn\u2019t pay you well. Our studio name is Shirogumi (\u201cwhite team\u201d), so we want to believe we are setting up standards and an environment that is very workable for all the artists and everyone who is with us here today. As a creative myself but also an employer of creatives, I feel like what they make is so beautiful, and I hope and wish I would be able to pay our staff members better, at some point.<\/p>\n
We made it more comfortable & cozy; we spent some budget building out a kitchen. We have a designated sushi chef in the kitchen. We really try to avoid long hours, but if you do, it’s a very welcoming environment in which to spend a few extra hours.<\/p>\n
Sure, it might be challenging at times when we’re in a crunch or postproduction and need to get our work done. We try not to do late nights. We have all of our weekends off\u2026 Hopefully, in due time, VFX budget increases will allow for more improvements. I am looking forward to the day when we can pay creatives more.\u201d<\/p>\n
– On Being Oscar Nominated: <\/b>\u201cAs a person who\u2019s born in Japan, the Oscars \u2014 anything that\u2019s in Hollywood, anything that\u2019s in the West \u2014 is something that we feel like is just out of reach, unobtainable, and is not something that will happen. It will never come true… Maybe domestic awards, similar to the Oscars\u2019 level. That would be a great goal to set.\u201d<\/p>\n