I was in filming for Elevator to the Gallows today too.

In the to-and-fro with director Ogata during today's filming,
there were two things that really stuck to my mind.

The first was what the director asked after several repeats of a test,
"Hasn't your acting changed from earlier? Did you add a small pause?".
When I answered,
"I'm sorry, I can't remember how I acted at all now.",
he said to me,
"That you can't remember it is no good.
Actors must always have precise control over their acting."

I've always had the habit of acting as the mood takes me,
I'm bad at acting in exactly the same way one more time,
or to remember how I did my acting after I hear "cut",
and I'm always self-consciously thinking, "that's my bad habit, isn't it?",
so to have it pointed out was a moment of shock.

"Have control over your acting"...?
I still don't rightly know how I should do that,
but somehow I know that I heard something great.
It would be cool if I can do that!
I want to try and keep that in mind from now on.

The other thing was when we filmed a scene that had to be super emotional.
"This scene is KitaKei's biggest highlight", said the director,
(By the way, on this set the director is calling me KitaKei. 笑)
so when I asked him, "In what way shall I do it?", he replied,
"The movie is the director's, but the acting is of the actors.
Actors should show me the acting that they think is best",
and without a test we abruptly started filming for real.
The result was that I got the "okay" after only one try,
but more impressive than getting the "okay" after only one try,
was hearing, "the acting is of the actors",
which still remained in my mind after the filming was done.

I'm still unable to comprehend the true meaning of it,
but having found many challenges for me this time
I feel that this was a day in which I learned a great deal.

While Ogata's group has their careful discussions with the director,
I get the sense that this is a group that fortifies one's acting,
and I'm in a teacher-student relationship with the director as the acting coach and me as his pupil.
I enjoy the day to day filming as a training in acting.
Filming will end real soon, but I want to enjoy it till the end!

It was truly a great day today!
I have to get up early tomorrow too, so I'll take a bath and go to bed already.
Good night, everyone～