Hayao Miyazaki is a master artist, storyteller, director, writer, animator,
filmmaker, and humanist. His film work stretches over a span of decades
influencing every demographic of people in his ever-growing audience. Many film
buffs placed him on the list as one of their top filmmakers for any myriad of
reasons; whether it be the emotionally relatable stories, the visual appeal of
his hand-drawn scenes, or his well written characters, Miyazaki is definitely one of
my favorite filmmakers for all of these reasons but there's one thing in
particular that I find striking about Miyazaki's work and I want to study the
decisions he makes as a filmmaker in order to make his stories impactfu.
There's a great documentary about Miyazaki and his fellow workers at
Studio Ghibli called the Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.
During this documentary you are taken through the journey of Miyazaki making
what is potentially his last film ever, The Wind Rises. As he goes along figuring
out the details of this last story he is sharing with the interviewer his process,
some of his nuances, and even what has kept him going as a filmmaker for nearly
five decades. He is making his last film in his 70s drawing every scene and
writing every character to life. The main thing that Miyazaki aims to portray in
his films is the human experience. There's quite a lot of fantasy in his
films but he does a good job of understanding that fantasy is okay to be
obscure, but the stories of the human characters are portrayed just like that,
human. Many of his protagonists begin their journey with some lack of
experience or growth, but finished their journey with a newly learned lesson or
discovery and by no means are the protagonists perfect. Miyazaki
understands that even good people experience things like jealousy or
laziness or one-sidedness and those aren't inherently bad qualities because
everybody experiences these at one point or another. Everybody knows what it's
like to be thrown into a situation of total confusion or what it's like to
have a thought about vanity. It's the way that these characters navigate their
situation that makes them who they are and essentially teaches them
quintessential life lessons that is then reflected to the audience. Miyazaki often
speaks about what people want and what people think, and it's because that's what he
observes and has been observing his entire life, and this awareness of the
way people actually are is reflected in every one of Miyazaki's films. The first
thing that I found compelling about Miyazaki's process is the fact that he
never has a script for any of his original films. He just has a general
idea of what he wants to do, then he starts to visualize it, and he draws the
entire film in storyboards. Sometimes he doesn't even add dialogue for the
characters until well into the storyboarding process.
Studio Ghibli will start animating the first half of the film before he has even finished the
second half or the ending. The process takes so long that it would be
counterproductive to wait for the entire storyboard to be completed. For one
Studio Ghibli film, Miyazaki could have 50 artists simply drawing different
aspects of the film, like the backgrounds the characters, the movements, the
obstacles. For every film it seems like Miyazaki challenges himself to draw
something new or different and he maintains a deep involvement in every
process of the film. Whether it be overseeing other artists, being present
for the voice acting, the music composition the digital animation,
everything. During this documentary he talks about his struggle with drawing
airplanes, which is sort of a big obstacle considering the movie is about
airplanes. I just find Miyazaki's dedication to the
visual art of storytelling so important The fact that he is willing to try to
tell the story simply with images first sort of forces him in a way to make this
story flow without dialogue, so when dialogue is added on top of the
story it makes sense. Many filmmakers today use dialogue almost exclusively as
an expositional tool. Instead of showing you what happens next they have a
character spoon feed it to you by blatantly explaining their situation.
Films are far more compelling when they show you how to feel instead of telling
you how to feel. All of Miyazaki's films are drawn so beautifully in their own
ways that you already know what to feel, and this is largely due to the fact that
Miyazaki knows how to illustrate the basic subtleties of human interaction
and show a wide range of different emotions just by things like body
language or the way a character does an action; and because of this, the dialogue
is almost strictly for character interaction and occasionally a piece of
wisdom or thought, instead of exposition. To any filmmaker who is trying to write
a concept or to anyone who is having trouble finishing a script, I would say a
helpful tool is to always storyboard your film. So many people undervalue this.
Even if you aren't the most well-rounded artist, drawing stick figures and poorly
rendered structures will start to give you a better vision in your head of what
you actually want to put on screen and perhaps it will even help you to finish
your story, but most importantly it will help the
people who you are working with to understand your vision much more clearly.
Adversely to trying to tell them what you're seeing in your head or what
you're feeling it will be much easier just to show them instead. If you don't
know how to storyboard don't worry it's actually pretty simple, the channel
Rocket Jump Film School made a great video on the basics of storyboarding and
I highly suggest you watch it if you are interested. I will leave a link in the
description. It's not just the fact that Miyazaki
storyboards to better visually tell this story.
He is also storyboarding because the visuals of his film are half the
experience. In an animated movie specifically drawn by an artist with the
caliber of Miyazaki, the limits of reality are truly stretched, and as a
result of it, amazing visuals emerge all the time. There are very few times in a
Miyazaki film where you can't pause it and feel like you're looking at a
detailed painting. It's just beautiful artistry in motion. Towards the end of
the documentary Miyazaki and the interviewer are at the first screening
of The Wind Rises. Miyazaki has finished his last film and he is reflecting on
the experience of his entire career. He calls the interviewer over to the window
of a tall building and asks her to look out. He tells her this.
When I heard this it struck me
that this man wasn't just making films to tell stories. He was drawing the
realities he wanted to experience. whether it be a train track moving along
the ocean or a castle in the sky, Miyazaki was imagining these stunning
worlds and bringing them to fruition through his artistry and I'm truly glad
that he did, because they're amazing and that's the reason I titled this essay,
"What You Can Imagine." The message I want to get across is to remember that films
are make-believe.You can create whatever you want in them especially as
technology advances more and more every day, so don't be afraid to push the
limits of what's actually possible and show people the world that you imagine.
During an interview with Stanley Kubrick in the 60s he said that one way
filmmakers can improve the industry is to be more daring and more sincere
so take risks, push the boundaries of what's possible, and create stories with
characters that are true to the human condition. Thank you guys for watching. I
hope you enjoyed. If you did please like this video. It simply tells me if people
enjoy what I'm making and it ultimately decides if I should keep doing it. If you
have any suggestions of topics about film or otherwise you think I should
study, feel free to leave it in the comments below. There's much much more to
be said about Miyazaki as his filmography is so diverse and his
stories are much more immersive than I am probably portraying them, so if
you're still interested, I would highly suggest you watch his films and see for
yourself. My personal favorite is Spirited Away. Also many other people who
study film have covered his work in more detail, specifically about his characters
or his attention to detail regarding animation so you can research that as
well if you like. Anyway my name is JD, thank you for watching, and until next
time, peace.