Producing a live performance, the Johnny’s way - Nikkei Entertainment Jul 2012 [1/2]

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

I've always found Nikkei Entertainment articles to be rather insightful. In this particular issue, check out Jun's thoughts on how Arashi's concerts are conceptualized. He gives quite a bit of detail on what goes on behind the scenes!




Matsumoto Jun (Arashi)

His thoughts on how to create a “period of joy” with 70,000 people

Producing a live performance, the Johnny’s way

In 2008, Arashi became the 3rd group to perform in the National Olympic Stadium of Tokyo, after artistes SMAP and Dreams Come True. Since then, their yearly concerts have become a summer entertainment staple. In a place which definitely can’t be easily used as a repeat concert venue, they have tailor-made it into an euphoric dimension. As their concerts earn a name for themselves, you also see a number of foreign fans there.

How do those fascinating Kokuritsu concerts come about? We asked Matsumoto Jun, who’s known as the “Man with the Ideas” within the members, about the secrets behind their stage production.

Each year, whenever the time comes for the tour, we first think about the theme. The desire to create something which is entertaining and elaborate has never changed; based on the previous year’s concerts, the members and the staff hold a discussion about what they would like to accomplish this year.

Preparation meetings take place 3 months before the concert.

To put it specifically, meetings to discuss the set and song order are held 3 months before the first day of the tour, and a springboard for discussion is set up. About 1 to 1 and a half months before the tour, we begin learning the choreography. At that time, the set list would have been determined, so we hold meetings with the associated section leader. This is the time where we cram in discussions about the kind of visuals we want, and also our opinions about the costumes and lighting.

As we do that, I wonder how long that would take… Recently, since our schedules hardly match, it’s been difficult to hold rehearsals with the 5 of us; so we begin the rough run-throughs around 7 to 10 days before, and make minor amendments then.

Every year, in order to run the concert production alongside the album production, it was harder than expected to regulate the volume of information traffic which goes on behind the scenes.

Although the music production staff are different from the staff who produce our concerts, there are times where we’ve had to set out the direction of the tour while we’re at the stage where we can’t see the album in its entirety. The only people who straddle between the staff from both sides are the members ourselves, so we often take on the role of communicating what we want to the various staff members.

Recently we’ve had the privilege to open our tour at the Kokuritsu, then proceed to hold our concerts at the Domes, but the spatial dimensions of the Domes and Kokuritsu are different. I mean, there’s a whole soccer field, in addition, there would be the left and right hand sides of the stage on the outer tracks, and that’s just… (laughs) There’s a huge difference in height between the platform which bears the Olympic flame and [the regular stage], so the slope was much steeper than it looked. 

In the expanse known as the outdoors, they’ve made a point to make the “passage of time” a comrade in their stage production.

The concert begins in the evening, so whilst it’s still bright, you can really feel the passage of time. In an outdoor venue, we can’t use most of the lighting whilst it’s still bright, so the performance is restricted to the songs and our movements. Then as the skies gradually darken, we start to turn on the lights. That’s why all the more, it feels as if we’re spending time together. We value that flow and atmosphere as we conceptualize the concerts. 

Furthermore, even though we may feel the same breeze, the atmosphere isn’t the same. We don’t usually go for firework festivals, so it’s become somewhat of a summer staple for us to be able to view fireworks (during our concerts). Although the amount of usable gunpowder is fixed, we’re able to set up huge firework launchers outdoors.

The scenery which is seen only by the five of us

Personally speaking, I like the part where we get to see a view that only the five of us can see. As we look down at the main set from the Olympic flame platform, we can also see the high rise buildings of Shinjuku in the distance. The Kokuritsu stadium was more of a mortar-shape and higher than we thought it would be; and overlooking the stadium from above makes the sky seem wider, there were many discoveries like that. 

The massive fountains are made possible due to the grass fields which line the ground of Kokuritsu. Moreover, we could spout the water as high as we wanted without being concerned about the height. The fountains can go as high as 20 meters, and the device which we call the “Water Canon” can spout water up to a height of 30 meters, I think. This is something unthinkable for a Dome concert. (laughs)

For an indoor performance, we generally drop balloons from the ceiling, but in the Kokuritsu, we’re able to release the balloons into the sky, so the impression changes quite a bit. At the higher end of the spectrum, we release around 50,000 balloons. Incidentally, we change the colors of the balloons and the location from which they’re released bit by bit each year.

Although I do like the stage effects which we do every year, such as the fountains and the balloons, but I also loved it when we flew across the stadium, from the main stage right towards the Olympic flame platform, during 5x10. We wouldn’t be able to do something so dynamic if it weren’t for Kokuritsu. (laughs) 

Although we value the devices and mechanisms, the thing which we treasure the most is how we spend our time together with the people who came for the concert. It’s not just an unilateral exhibition from the performers, but something which is brought to completion when the people who come to see us are in the audience stands; that’s the thing which we sought to create. That’s why during the rehearsals, we really feel this sense of emptiness. It’s not because the seats are empty, rather, a concert is truly complete once the live performance begins.

Click HERE for part 2.

scans: littlewinds

Comments

[detfanny.livejournal.com]

50k ballons?!
sugoi ne~~
i love this kind of backstage story...
thanks for translating!
i enjoy it so much... :D