The scene they shot involved a plot intended to draw Godzilla’s attention to the flying invader Ghidorah and prevent the latter from destroying the city. This effort was led in part by Kenji Noda, the bespectacled scientist who led the attempt to subdue Godzilla in the previous film. The human characters were about to be subjected to the concussive blast of Godzilla’s fiery breath; players had to simulate the effects of the explosion, which would later be added digitally along with Godzilla.
The first director to create Godzilla entirely with CGI rather than a proper actor was Roland Emmerich, who did so in his 1998 Hollywood reboot. Anno and Higuchi’s “Shin Godzilla” was the first Japanese production to do the same. Yamazaki told me he “never once considered” using an actor in a suit. “The fun thing about suits is that the person in them can use them to express themselves,” he said. “And Godzilla moves right in front of you on set, in front of the camera, which is another plus. But I wanted to do more complex things.” He explained that digital effects can pull off many tricks that would be impossible with a physical suit, such as subtly changing the proportions of a monster’s head or feet to emphasize its size, or precisely calibrating the waves and flow of water around an underwater creature.
In the studio, Yamazaki strode toward the clock tower through Styrofoam carved to resemble rubble, then climbed a ladder to survey the scene. A crew member handed him a tablet. On the screen, Yamazaki could see an image of the room on which was placed a meticulously drawn model of Tokyo in 1949. He could point anywhere in the studio and see both the virtual city and where Godzilla would appear there, as if he were playing a giant version of Pokémon Go. Yamazaki told me that using augmented reality is a crucial part of adjusting sight lines and camera angles.
Yamazaki’s process involved a physical version of Godzilla: On the far wall, a stagehand held up a tall pole with a color printout of the monster’s face taped to one end. Yamazaki made adjustments (higher, lower, slightly to the left) until the CGI matched Godzilla’s location on screen. The players had line of sight and Yamazaki returned to his chair. The crew turned on spotlights to mimic the glow of the explosion. Then the wind machines roared into action. Behind the clock tower, players ducked and cowered as wind and dust blew down on them, smoothing their hair and sending papers flying.
Yamazaki is a meticulous filmmaker. His cast and crew are often full of people he has worked with frequently, and he has a keen sense of budgeting. As a result, his shots are unusually efficient. This simple approach also attracted great attention abroad; Hollywood studios reportedly spent one hundred and sixty million dollars on 2014’s “Godzilla.” Compared, according to Hollywood Reporter“Godzilla Minus One” cost “only $15 million.” Neither Yamazaki nor Toho confirmed this figure, but in a 2024 interview with Japan House Los Angeles, he explained: “I learned strategies for saving money.”
In American visual effects, single shots are often the work of many individual specialists—”freezers” who create digital skeletons of models, “lighters” who handle lighting, and animators. Their work moves through a so-called pipeline, and an expert’s delay or director’s dissatisfaction can ripple down the line. “In my company, one person handles multiple tasks,” Yamazaki continued. “Maybe only one or two people do a finished shot. No waiting for others to finish, no blaming others.”
I asked Yamazaki if that meant Oscar had a bigger budget this time around. He smiled as he often did, looking like a child who had just received a coveted toy. In a way, that’s what happened. On set, I often caught him waving, imitating serpentine monster heads or making explosion noises while watching the camera feed on his monitors.
“A little bit,” he admitted.