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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.
I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.
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title: 押井守 in ポーランド ―『アヴァロン』撮影現場記録―
(Mamoru Oshii in Poland: "Avalon" shooting diary)
release: 02/14/2001
publisher: Kinema Junposha
[contents]
summary of shooting in Poland
Mamoru Oshii's essay
interview with Jun Kubo, Katsuhiro Ogawa, and Masato Araki
interview with Nobuaki Koga, Isao Kaneko, and Makoto Kamiya
summary of production
shooting calendar
shooting diary: preparation
shooting diary: Warsaw
talk session by staff during the shooting
shooting diary: Wrocław
shooting diary: Kraków
commentary by Koji Morimoto, Hideo Kojima, Hisayuki Toriumi, Yoichi Shibuya, and Hideaki Sena
afterword by Mamoru Oshii
[review]
This is a shooting diary of Avalon.
Unlike the making book, it doesn't include analysis nor explanation about the post-production process. It's a book purely about the shooting. It shows what kinds of problems they confronted, and how they handled those problems. The same problems and events are included in a making video called "Days of Avalon", but the book includes a more detailed explanation.
For example, Oshii felt some pain in his foot, and he had to use a wheelchair in the end. While Oshii just says it's some sort of neuralgia in the video, the book reveals that it was gout. Later, Oshii said it is unfair because other fatter staff had no problems.
This book mentions some differences between Polish film production and Japanese film production. For example, the Japanese staff was so shocked by the fact that the Polish staff "eats breakfast every day". In most Japanese films, the staff starts shooting immediately after arriving at the site because their schedule is so tight. Japanese staff enjoyed yummy breakfasts in Poland.
They were also surprised by the freedom Polish staff has. Polish staff could easily restrict traffic in a city, and they could even move unnecessary cars. That is very difficult in Japanese cities. Japanese staff envied Polish film creators' environment.
The staff had a lot of difficulties in shooting visual effect materials. Green screen shooting didn't work well in the early phase.
They also confronted cultural differences. '90s Polish film creators didn't know much about video games, so Oshii had to give basic lectures about video games and Avalon's world.
(Later, Oshii explained that it might be caused by the class differences in Poland. Many film creators were educated classes, so that might be one of the reasons why they knew little about gaming, he says.)
