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

The producer's job is to create work.

Q: What do you think the job of a producer is?

Matsumoto: A producer's job is to create work. They turn what someone wants to do, be it a director or a creator, into a job and make it a reality. I'm perfectly happy to be the behind-the-scenes supporter. If it's better for the producer to step forward, then I will, but if it's not necessary, that's fine too. Still, if the film goes well, I'm happy no matter how well it's evaluated, as if it were my own achievement. The best part of being a producer is being able to share the joy in every aspect of the film. Of course, I'm also in a position to take responsibility for the results (laughs).

Creating work also means creating works that no one has asked me to create, that I don't have to create. There are already so many works in the world that I don't need to produce them. When I moved from the advertising video (CM) department to Dwarf, I thought, "Creating work is so hard." But on the other hand, I also thought, "This is what it means to do what you want to do and make what you want to make."

Many animation works are made up of contract work. I don't think that contract work is bad at all, and in fact, we do a lot of contract work. But to put it in extreme terms, if the person who is paying for the contract says, "This is good enough!", then the work will go ahead even if it's boring. There may not be a next time though (laughs). On the other hand, when you create your own work, you start from a place where there is no one who says, "This is good enough!" That's what makes it interesting and difficult.

Q: How do you integrate what you want to do into what the director wants to create?

Matsumoto: I don't overlap what I want to do with what the director wants to do. I overlap how well it will be received by the public. That's why I can easily say things like, "No one will watch such a long movie" (laughs). That's something I was trained to do because I worked in advertising. In advertising, the client (advertiser) is our customer, but behind the client there is a customer called the consumer. As my customer, I need to look at not only the client but also the consumer. At that time, I was a client-possessed producer, so I often said things that commercial directors hated, like "I won't give you the OK unless you extend the length of the product" (laughs). And all of that was because I was thinking about the consumers beyond the client. Now that I'm making entertainment works, that experience is very useful.

For example, when I was designing a character for a certain work, I was asked to make a proposal for an older man's character, and I said, "This kind of character won't be popular, make him more handsome." (laughs) What I meant was, "Please make him a character that will attract fans." I'm always open to opinions that don't ruin the work, and this is to make the work more appealing to more viewers. It's also to make it easier for movie companies and distribution companies to buy.

Q: That stance seems like it would cause conflict with the director, so how do you communicate with him?

Matsumoto: We talk about it thoroughly. That's the only way. If we have a relationship where we get upset over things like that, we won't be able to overcome difficulties together (laughs), and I think we both understand very well that that's our jobs. Of course, there are times when my opinion doesn't get through. Anyway, we talk about it in detail.

Q: Finally, please give a Arrival to the audience.

Matsumoto: Niigata has a wide variety of films and programs, and I think it's a film festival aimed at a wide range of people, from movie fans and anime fans, to producers and students. I hope you'll come and experience the atmosphere of the festival. In particular, if you live in Niigata, you can easily come, so please come.

Noriko Matsumoto

He started his career in the advertising video industry. His turning point came with the release of "Domo-kun" in 1998 and "Komaneko" in 2003, and he participated in the launch of Dwarf. He was one of the first Japanese studios to work with global distribution platforms by producing high-quality stop-motion content that can be enjoyed timelessly. His Netflix series "Rilakkuma and Kaoru-san" (2019) and "Rilakkuma and the Amusement Park" (2022) have become a hot topic. While his strengths lie in stop-motion animation and characters, he is currently planning works that go beyond conventional wisdom, using new talents and techniques that are not bound by the boundaries of methods and companies, and even aiming to produce works that go beyond the boundaries of Japan. His latest works are the short film "Bottle George" directed by Daisuke Tsutsumi (formerly of Pixar) and "HIDARI" (feature film project in progress), which stunned the industry with its pilot episode.

Interview and text: Fumio Koda

Editorial staff and writer for CINEMORE. My favorite movies are ``The Goonies'' and ``Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.'' My recent favorites are 4K digitally remastered classics by Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu.

The 3rd Niigata International Animation Film Festival

3rd NIIGATA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FILM

Organized by: Niigata International Animation Film Festival Executive Committee Planning and Production: Eurospace + Genco

Dates: Saturday, March 15, 2025 - Thursday, March 20, 2025

Official website: https://niigata-iaff.net/

Official X: @NIAFF_animation