Although Ponyo (the new Ghibli) hasn't been released yet on DVD or Blu-Ray i thought this was interesting to know.

I read in the latest Empire (september issue), where they have a feature called Miyazaki on Miyazaki in which he talks about all his films including Ponyo. In it he mentions he's proud of the credits section of Ponyo where he just has all names (cast/crew) alphabetized WITHOUT roles assigned

Let's start to think how to deal with this once it's available

Paul

from GhibliWorld.com -


14th of July, 2009: MIYAZAKI TALKS PONYO'S END CREDITS: This week Ghibli Asemamire, Suzuki Toshio's very own radio show at Tokyo FM, brought an inside look at Ponyo's end credits with none other than master animation director Miyazaki Hayao telling all about it.

On May 5th (Children's day in Japan) there was a film screening of Ponyo held in Shimanto, a small rural town in Kochi prefecture with a river that is famous because of its clear water. Like every Japanese, the children there very much wanted to watch Ponyo, but they couldn't as there is no theater and the nearest one is very far away. To try and solve that problem the people of Shimanto collected 5000 signatures and asked Studio Ghibli to screen it. Miyazaki accepted their wish and even decided to visit it as well. Just the day before, Miyazaki asked Suzuki to join him and the two both attended the city hall and had a small talk show after the screening.

Suzuki told, "To tell the truth, the home town of Fujimaki's wife's is here. Fujimaki often told Miyazaki and me how nice Shimanto River is and recommended us to visit it. In fact, Fujimaki's wife is somewhere in this hall now and listening to me as well."

Furthermore, Miyazaki talked about Ponyo's end credits. "Usually, the end credits rolls of recent movies are very long. Sometimes a lot of names are endlessly scrolled on just a black background. Even our movies have more than 400 staffs working on them, so if it they would be scrolled it would take 5 minutes at least. And if a theme song is played along to it, it would be too short and Hisaishi should add a half-hearted stretched instrumental melody after the song ending. Sorry... (laughing) You know, if you go abroad and watch a movie, when the end roll begins, the theater is lighted and the entire audience leaves their seats. The end rolls only exist for the staffs' parents, who live in the home countries of the staff, so that they can expect to find their son's or daughter's name on it. If our films are made for small kids though, the end roll should consider about its style as well."

"The first verse of Ponyo takes 1 minute and 50 seconds. I had to force 400 of names into it, so I cut all of the position titles and just arranged them alphabetically (note: not by ABC but in Japanese style A I U E O order). Even the company names weren't given an order of superiority. From large companies like Toho and NTV to tiny studios like Anime Torotoro, all of it is alphabetically. Furthermore, I even added the office cleaners of our studio and the nursery staffs to it. And to a space that was left open I added Shachi, Makkuro and Ushiko, the 3 cats that live in our studio who we fed too much and gotten fat. In conclusion, every staff member who saw the end credits was much pleased with it. It is a style with which nobody can complain about the order, font size or position titles. I'm proud of adopting this style and we'll keep it in future movies. As you can see, some of the main staffs and voice actors have their names on the opening credit roll. This is because they work with their special talent and I thought they should be treated appropriately in another way."

Miyazaki also talked about what his latest movie means for kids. For example, some people worry about what Gran Manmare and Risa are talking about. "They, not kids but 50 year old ojisans, say that they can't get the story because of the lack of explanations. However, I thought if Gran Manmare and Risa's talk is heard clearly, 5 year old kids or younger can't understand it. I basically cut everything that 5 years old or younger can't understand."

Quoting paulb_99:

Quote:
Although Ponyo (the new Ghibli) hasn't been released yet on DVD or Blu-Ray i thought this was interesting to know.

I read in the latest Empire (september issue), where they have a feature called Miyazaki on Miyazaki in which he talks about all his films including Ponyo. In it he mentions he's proud of the credits section of Ponyo where he just has all names (cast/crew) alphabetized WITHOUT roles assigned

Let's start to think how to deal with this once it's available

Paul

Paul:

What's the big deal, the rules are setup to handle this. What's to be concerned about.

Skip

If it's Crew too, Pete, I can only say <eeeeeeeeeek>! I hate Hollywood or is Tokyo in this case.

Skip

<chewing fingernails>

A lot of people will wale on me for saying this, but if indeed all we get are alphabetized names, then I would rely on Wikipedia Japan to at least assign the crew.

Please note that Wikipedia Japan is very accurate, unlike the mess that is Wikipedia US or IMDB. Heck, Wikipedia Japan is more accurate regarding Japanese cast and crew than our own database, thanks to the strict self-regulating nature of Japanese contributors. Have a look:
Cast
Crew

sigh, I forgot Japanese text en Japanese links don't work on these forums 


Edit: found a better one: cast and crew credits with roles on the official Ponyo site:
http://www.ghibli.jp/ponyo/
Just click the second link on the right that says "Sakuhin no Naiyou no Kaisetsu" (= detailed annotation of the work/production). The last few slides contain credits. It'll just be a matter of romanizing them. It's not exhaustive but it seems to have the main crew listed (writing, direction, production, music, main cast, etc). Problem solved, I think.

Quoting Taro:

Quote:
A lot of people will wale on me for saying this, but if indeed all we get are alphabetized names, then I would rely on Wikipedia Japan to at least assign the crew.

I won't wale on you, but I will point out that this is not allowed for contribution purposes.  While we can use other sources for cast roles, when none are listed in the credits, we are not allowed to do so for crew.

Thanks Battling Butler for the extra info. The Empire article didn't mention the opening credits.

Just got to wait till it's released to see how to handle everything (or until synner_man has the time to check the credits of his copy once it's arrived)

Paul