"The 3rd Niigata International Animation Film Festival" Jury and Producer Noriko Matsumoto The fun of film festivals is meeting people [CINEMORE ACADEMY vol.38]

Animation is an amplifier of expression

Q: The film festival also plays a role in nurturing talent. Do you have any advice for young creators or those aiming to work in the anime industry?

Matsumoto: There are a lot of educational programs planned for this event, so I would like to participate. The good thing about participating is that you can meet friends and rivals who want to learn just like you. You can share information with them and talk about your impressions of the work. It's very meaningful to share such an opportunity with people you've never met before. Animation production is often a collaborative effort, so I think it's important to meet many different people and experience differences in opinion when you go out into the world and create big works in the future.

Q: Anime can be enjoyed by a wide range of people, from children to adults, and is also an early stage medium for children to come into contact with video works. What do you think about the power of animation and its significance?

Matsumoto: Animation is like an expression amplifier, and I think it is a medium that allows us to extract only what we want to depict. Children can enjoy animation that is tailored to the processing ability of each age, and for adults, we can amplify specific elements, such as fantasy elements, and make them feel real. I think animation is what allows us to adjust the amount of information and direction of expression in this way. I've been talking a lot recently about what animation is, and it's only been in the last five days that I've finally been able to put it into words (laughs).

"Bottle George" ©CHIMNEY TOWN

Q: You have worked on a variety of stop motion films, but what do you see yourself doing in the future?

Matsumoto: I think that Dwarf's mission is to create something that people all over the world can enjoy. Especially stop motion animation. It's hard to make animation, not just stop motion animation (laughs). If we're making it with such hard work, it's better to have as many viewers as possible. Also, animation is a very strong weapon for Japan to go out into the world. There are few companies in the world that do stop motion animation, so it was easy to go out into the world. That's one of the reasons why I use stop motion animation as my weapon.

My mission as a producer is to bring out the most interesting creators and connect them with each other. Rather than always fighting with the same people, I want to change the team composition from time to time and change the way we fight to go out into the world.

The producer's job is to create work.