Good Smile Company Offices
On the 27th of December 2010, after filming at Kadokawa, we headed to East Tokyo to film at the Good Smile Company offices and cafe for the final episode of Culture Japan Season 1. You've already seen what the show was like and today we take a look at behind the scenes.
The first photo with Fukuoka-san (Ascii Media Works) on the far left of the photo, Izumi Kitta (voice actress) and Suzuko Mimori (voice actress).
After arriving at the Good Smile Cafe, I give the camera, lighting and set a quick going over - sent a separate team over to the cafe to set up while I was at Kadokawa. Everything is good so I nip over to the Good Smile offices with a separate camera crew.
First up its time to film what goes on in the studio where all the figures are sculpted. These offices are actually the new premises for Good Smile - they have expanded rapidly over the past 2 years and their old office was getting cramped.
We asked Good Smile to hide everything that would not be a good idea to show to cameras at this time - which was practically everything ^^;
As usual, we use the trusty Lumix GH2 for filming.
Good Smile just recently moved offices which is why the place is still a tad bare.
Surfacer is used on models to make it easier to see the nooks and crannnies on a model. The sculptor can then sand down and add extra putty if needed to smooth down the surface of the model.
The yellow putty is mixed with a hardening agent where the sculptor then has only 10 mins or so to work on the part before it becomes too stiff.
The heat box on the left of the photo is where completed parts are placed to speed up the hardening process.
Tools of a sculptor. I picked some up last Summer and have been meaning to show you how to make your own figure stands and wot not but have not got round to it ToT.
Yes they have lady sculptors too.
The 3D printer that you previously saw.
Bunch of figure magazines including the Dengeki Hobby Figure Maniacs.
The sort of paint racks that you would find in a shop.
These wires are used for making scale figures. The wires would be cut to a certain length and used as the skeleton of a figure. Putty would be applied around the wires making it easy to sculpt. Once the model is ready, it has to be cut into parts for production. The wires are soft enough to saw through.
The chap on the left of the photo helped out with painting the Mirai Figma - cant wait for her to come out later this year!
The laptop that comes with the Mirai figma. This will be used to make the molds in the factory. Which reminds me - have I shown you what goes on in the factories in China yet?
After filming in the studios, its time to have a look at the new offices of Good Smile Company.
Black Rock Shooter goodies.
Good smile have been doing a load of work with David Choe of late.
Still in the freshly-moved-in phase.
Deactivating the security systems.
Ths big boss of Good Smile Company Aki Takanori tries to activate the secondary security systems but alas its too late. I love Aki-sans office - me wants a tatami room in our next house.
Setting up camera and goodies on the table.
I think it was 2007 when I first met Aki-san but apparently he already knew about me for some reason before I went to his offices. Since then we've been working together on many different projects including events like the Tokyo Figure Show, Culture Japan and the production of their official website which runs on our platform Mirai Gaia. Our most recent project is Mirai figma ^^;
Anybody care for a tray O K-ON! Nendoroid Puchi?
Desk O ladies.
The new GSC offices are huge!
Aki bought this for the staff to play with.
Time to rig everybody up with mics.
This time its Yuri action. Is this what girls normally do with dolls?!
The Yuri fun continues. "oh come on, just a little bit" Izumi-san says.
Saber: "............"
Izumi-san wants a doll - who's going to get one for her?
The sound engineer has a go at Izumi for touching her mic. Leave her alone!
The lady at the back is my fave make up artist - shes a cutie.
Today we use 4 cameras - 3 fixed and my Lumix GF2.
The deck to balance the sound from our pin mics.
And that's a wrap! Quick group photo before the final part where vividblaze sings a tune.
Haku and his girl together with Suzuko-san.
Izumi, Suzuko, Saber and Sora.
Izumi-sans phone - she likes gyoza ^^;
Haku brings his other girl along - find out who she is at his burogu.
Setting up camera for the vividblaze bit.
The its time for Miho from vividblaze to give us a tune.
A quick round of the Good Smile Cafe - they got a ton of figures on display. Pay them a visit if you are in town. You can take as many photos as you want.
http://www.goodsmilecafe.jp/
The cafe has a load of figma's, Nendoroids and scale figures. All at retail price.
You will notice a load of rare figures. Which ones do you have?
Saber getting ready for the journey home.
All filming for the final episode is done and the clock is ticking. We need to edit the show for the broadcast which is due in a few days. We barely manage to edit a 30 min show in a week but this time round we need to edit an hour. In the van heading back to base, we start to encode the data in Final Cut Pro.
Saber comes up for a breath of fresh air after the journey home.
We are back at about midnight where editing has begun.
You can see screenshots of the final episode in the Culture Japan Season 1 Final post - was broadcast on the 2nd of January 2010. Folks across Asia will be able to watch the same episode this week Friday 28 and Saturday 29th on the Animax Network.
This post is just one of a series of Japanese office tours - you can see more visits of other companies listed below.