Century Kings

March 1st (Thursday) - 3rd (Saturday)

Filming weren’t done on these days, so the production was on break.
Well, not really, since there’s a mountain of things to do.
The acting and production department both went to clean a building at Nikotama River where filming will take place on 3/6. This western style building will be the stage of a major action scene and is destined to be destroyed after filming. It’s a restaurant that went out of business long ago, so it’s full of dust and bugs. Even the insides of your nostrils will turn black without a mask on.

It’s the art and costume department’s job to turn this building into a “living” restaurant. Following the plans made by a designer, the building will be decorated with tables, chairs, lights, blinds, several hundred alcoholic beverage bottles, flowers, tablecloths, dishes, silverware, and paintings of Shocker. We call the food and drinks that we use on film as “vanishers,” but we don’t bring them in until the day we shoot.

In these three days we’ll also prepare clothes for the actors, fitting of the Rider suits, meetings with the director to go over the storyboards, Kato Kazuki-san’s [note: Kazami Shiro] wine décantage, official events, and much more.

(Today’s image is the filming schedule that we follow each day. The next day’s schedule is passed to the staff members one day before filming. I always looked forward to assistant director Takahashi’s drawings and notes near the bottom right.)

[Translated by Pal. Originally posted on 10/5/2007 @ Official Kamen Rider THE NEXT Blog]

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March 4th (Sunday) - 5th (Monday) early morning
Today was filming of the action scene that lasted all night to dawn the next day

Action scenes are filmed with choreographer Yokoyama-san and director Tasaki-san both watching the monitors.

Normally scenes are explained on how the cuts are arranged by the director, but action scenes filmed by following storyboards with side notes. Action that doesn’t make much sense when filming makes complete sense in choreographer Yokohama-san’s head, and it’s not uncommon to realize how the scene fits together in the editing stage of production.

Today’s scene was when the heroes first meet Shocker. Chainsaw Lizard, one of the enemy characters, is usually a sexy woman in a body suit; once she transforms she becomes a female kaijin with a powerful chainsaw arm that can shred any foe. There’s also the introduction of the Shocker Riders. Like Takeshi and Hayato, they are also cyborg warriors - and there’s 6 of them. Getting all the stuntmen from AAC STUNTS into the suits was a job on its own.

Since this scene is taking place at a train station, there were many extras as well. Kikawada-san [note: Hongo Takeshi] showed us impressive fighting against the 6 Shocker Riders and the Chainsaw Lizard, as well as AAC’s stuntmen’s impressive stamina, and filming continued nonstop until the morning. By the time we were done the commuting rush began, and honestly, I was exhausted. The car ride back I was riding in the passenger seat of the company car and was told to not fall asleep, but I snored several times and was yelled at, “Hey, Kato!”, but my reply was “Yesh…” or “Zzz…” I apologize for losing to the sleep demons. m(_ _)m

[Translated by Pal. Originally posted on 10/10/2007 @ Official Kamen Rider THE NEXT Blog]

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