After the production team at Studio Ghibli disbanded, cinematographer Atsushi Okui worked as a freelance artist for a while.
But when director Hayao Miyazaki began working on The Boy and the Heron, Okui was excited to be called back to the team. In his most personal work to date, Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron follows the story of a young boy named Mahito, who has recently lost his mother.
Along with a cunning and deceptive gray heron, he journeys to a mysterious world outside of time where the dead and the living coexist.
To emulate the darker aspects of the story, Okui suggested that they should darken the colors of the animation as well. DEADLINE: When you began, what did Miyazaki have in mind for the cinematography of the movie? ATSUSHI OKUI: There weren’t any specific directions that Miyazaki-san gave to me for this film in particular.
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