Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

2nd June 2006

Number 97 - The Struggle of the Music Staff

This week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we got stuck into mixing the theatrical soundtrack in the central city studio[1].

While I was in the studio I brought my PC so that I could update the Director's Blog, but the battery has gotten so weak, then when I plugged it in and went to use it, it went into sleep mode...
I guess using it all the time in place of a desktop was not so good. As a result, the updates have been lagging a bit.

The process of audio mixing is also something that is pretty hard when you actually come down to it. You don't just proceed score by score, looking at the degree of completion of each one. Instead you have to think about how well each piece of music fits with the atmosphere of the whole scene and the lines the characters are speaking. You are adjusting it as you go back and forth from one piece to another, so the whole thing takes more time than you think.

Yesterday I arrived at the studio after lunch. When I left the studio (in which there was still no sign of finishing), with the smiling face of Tamiya Terashima (on a high from lack of sleep) behind me, it was already the next day.

Probably tonight as well, Mr. Terashima and the rest of the music staff will work all through the night, and I guess the momentum will carry them over to the next day's mastering.

By the way, when Producer Suzuki showed his face at the studio, he relaxed at the nearby baths, and then had his body loosened up by a masseur, before leaving the studio totally refreshed...
I am greatly impressed by his skill at slacking off.

Translator's Notes

[1]: That is, not the actual Ghibli studio in Mitaka, but a different one (I'm fairly sure it's the TV Tokyo building in Iidabashi) that they rent for these things.