中の人の邦画放談⑪「聖地！西高学園祭」に行ってきた

*English translation below

音響課のtomocarlです。映画祭の秋ですね！

みなさんは映画祭に行かれたこと、ありますか？
沢山の映画を低価格で観られたり、監督やキャストのお話を伺えるイベントが開かれたりと、おトクなんですよ！

さて、今日レポートするのは、数ある映画祭の中でもちょっと変わった催し「あしかが映像まつり 聖地！西高学園祭」。
西高とは旧足利西高校のことで、足利市は2009年に統廃合により廃校になった校舎の跡地利用としてロケの誘致を始めました。以降、数多の映画、ドラマ、ミュージックビデオの撮影に使われている聖地なのです！

ということで、この日聖地を訪れた映像ファンは、なんと2,000人超！
ブログのトップ写真が開場前の様子です。あいにくの天気なのに、人の列が校庭まで伸びていたんですよ！
そしてしばらくして、爆音BGMとともに「西高学園祭」が始まりました！

校舎はいたるところに手作りの飾りつけ、ロータリーにはケータリングを再現した露店、教室には映画ポスターやキャストのサイン、衣装や小道具が展示され、あと、喫茶店があったり、体育館ではダンスパフォーマンス、それと２本の映画上映が行われて、まさに「学園祭」の雰囲気！

…って、校舎の飾りつけも、体育館のダンスも、写真とってないじゃん！ Σ(ﾟ□ﾟ

ホントごめんなさい！校内は人人人で撮影ままならず、ダンスは「ロケ地ガイドツアー（ちはやふるの回）」に申し込んだ都合、時間被りで撮れませんでした。

ということで、すみません、ロケ地ガイドツアーの話を。
映画ちはやふるは、教室も廊下も屋上も西高で撮影されています。その箇所箇所にまつわる秘話を、ガイドさん（足利市映像のまち推進課職員の方）が語ってくださいました。
瑞沢高校の桜のシーンはクランクインよりも先に別撮りしたとか、かるた部の壮行演奏シーンは市内にある高校のブラスバンド部にご出演と演奏をいただいた等、貴重なお話を沢山伺うことができました。

そしてこの「瑞沢高校かるた部部室」！
あかね荘というこの建物、もとは食堂だったそうですよ。

ツアーの終わりに質問コーナーがありましたので、学園祭の前に立ち寄った足利市内のちはやふる聖地「眼鏡橋」について尋ねてみました。
「眼鏡橋の周囲は草が生い茂っていて、映画の様子とはだいぶ違ったでしょう？実は、撮影のときは草を私たちが刈ったんですよ。」

うっ、感動した！+ﾟ｡*(*´∀｀*)*｡ﾟ+

感動のあまり、この後にもいくつかのご苦労話を伺っちゃいました。思えば、こうして学園祭を楽しめているのも、校舎の維持清掃に努めてくださったからなのですよね。

（tomocarl）

AMATA Staff Talk Japanese Film, No.11 I headed off to check out “Sacred Sites! Nishi-Ko School Festival”

Hey, it’s tomocarl from the Sound Department. It seems that fall is the season for film festivals!

Have you ever had the chance to go to a film festival before?
They give you a chance to see a ton of movies at a low cost, and they also host talks with film directors and cast members, which makes these festivals an awesome bargain.

So today, I decided to write about a particular festival that’s a little different from the rest. It’s called “Ashikaga Movie Festival – Sacred Sites! Nishi-Ko School Festival.”
“Nishi-Ko” refers to a former high school called “Ashikaga Nishi-Koko.” The high school closed down when the city of Ashikaga was consolidated in 2009, which made the school grounds an attractive location for movie and TV productions.
Along with that, the school has appeared in a number of movies, TV dramas, and music videos. This makes it a seichi, or “sacred site,” which is a term used for real-life film and anime locations that become tourist attractions for eager fans and tourists.

On the day that I visited, this sacred ground brought in over 2,000 movie fans!
The picture at the top of this blog post features the front entrance of the school. Despite the bad weather, there were lines of people going all the way out into the school yard.
A little after I took that picture, some explosive music turned on to kick off the Nishi-Ko School Festival!

The school had handmade decorations everywhere, and the traffic circle outside had food stalls for catering. The classrooms inside featured film posters and cast autographs, as well as props and costumes on display. After I checked them out,I stopped by at a cafe saw a dance performance over at the school gymnasium, then I went to catch two movie screenings. They truly captured the atmosphere of a school festival perfectly!

Though… I forgot to take photos of the school’s decorations, and the dance performance at the gymnasium as well!  Σ(ﾟ□ﾟ

I’m really sorry about that! There was so much people everywhere that I couldn’t take many good photos. I also signed up for the Chihayafuru guided tour which was going to start soon, so I couldn’t stay long to enjoy and photograph the rest of the dance performance.

Anyway, sorry about all of that. But I’m going to get into some of what I saw during the film location tour.The film version of Chihayafuru features scenes filmed at Nishi-Ko, including classrooms, hallways, and rooftops. All of these little insider film secrets about production locations at the school were divulged by our guide, who actually works with Ashikaga’s local film promotion bureau.
Our guide offered a lot of interesting tidbits about the movie throughout the tour. For instance, the opening scene with the cherry blossoms at Mizusawa High School was filmed beforehand at a different location. Also, that high-energy performance scene with the student club for karuta (a type of Japanese card game) showcased in the film, was performed with a brass band student club from one of the schools nearby.

Here’s the “Mizusawa High School Karuta Clubroom” shown in the movie!
The building is called Akane-so, and apparently it used to be a dining hall.

They had a Q&A as the tour came to an end, so I asked about a sacred site I visited in Ashikaga before the school festival got started. The site itself is an arched bridge that shows up in Chihayafuru.
I asked, “The area around the arched bridge had a lot of overgrown grass, isn’t it a lot different than what we see in the movie?”
The guide responded, “Actually, we came out here and cut all the grass during the film’s production.”

I thought, “Whoa! Now that’s impressive!” +ﾟ｡*(*´∀｀*)*｡ﾟ+

I was astonished by that bit of information, and after that the guide shared some other additional hardships that came up during the production. Now that I think about it, the way that they tended to the upkeep around the school grounds was an impressive sight to see, and I would say that it really added to my overall enjoyment of the school festival.

（tomocarl）