Extra notes from Suzuki book

Here are a few miscellaneous tidbits from Toshio Suzuki's book that didn't fit into larger paragraphs.

* Each Ghibli film is broken into 20-minute chunks for the sake of production. I haven't checked but I wonder if these start/end points are purely technical or if they sync up to anything story-wise, like "episodes"? Ghibli films do often feel episodic although not in a bad way.

* On a related note, when Miyazaki struggled with the story on Princess Mononoke, the solution he took was to think of it as an open-ended serialized manga as he worked on it.

*Above, a quote from Isao Takahata about his "objective" style of filmmaking. I love this concept, although I also love the hyper-subjective style of Masaaki Yuasa's older work. Polar opposites, but both good.

*On p.158 Suzuki explains that Ghibli's 4th building is a rented house on the literal "wrong side of the tracks" where they send the problem employees who are chronically late for work. Isolating them where you can't supervise them seems like a weird solution, but whatever!

 *Suzuki claims that the above photo, from when Miyazaki announced his retirement following The Wind Rises, is the first time they ever shook hands.