Audience Report from LJ - Shooting of BB's final episode
I just came back from the filming of the final episode of Buzzer Beat at Yoyogi Gymnasium in Tokyo...
It was a pretty intense nine hours.
We
got to Tokyo earlier than expected, which was a good thing since we got
a mail on Sunday telling us that we would be able to enter the gym from
1pm instead of 2, so we figured we would get there early and hope u get
in by order of arrival, and not by the number you were given... The
first of the two was correct, and we were let in at around 1:45pm,
which was about an hour after we had been waiting outside... so a tan
and a few gallons of sweat later, we were lead in, given our tickets,
and had to find our seats.
We
were sitting in the 8th row of section N. It was pretty nice. More and
more girls came in, and they had already started filming. Diagonally
across from us, in the lower bleachers, I noticed a girl with a large
"poof" on her head.... it was MAI-chan!!!! She was wearing a yellow
sweater over a blue outfit. suuuuper cute... suuuuuper Mai. haha.
Naoki's sister and mom were sitting behind Mai. Shuji, Moriguchi and
Saga were the first players to come out. They were really good looking
in person, Shuji with his hair done up as always, was trying his hard
to practice, because he is going to be in the game!!!!!! Not for the
entire game, but for one play...
Because we were sitting in a place that had ZERO attention, I was able to sneak a pic in (its under the spoiler cut).
So basically the crowd was more than 2/3 Arcs fans, and the back court
side for the Harts was the only Harts cheering section. Kind of like
what a home game would be for sports back in America. All of the people
sitting in the Harts section were given white long balloons (we use
them back home to distract the players when shooting, but I guess that
would be pointless if the basket you were sitting behind was for the
team you were cheering for.), banners and boards with the player
numbers and team logo on them. The Arcs cheering section (basically the
rest of the arena minus my section) was given all sorts of Arcs merch.
to use to participate... but not to keep. They were given the Russ K x
Buzzer Beat shirts, player number boards, pink long balloons, tons of
banners, flags, noise makers, pink afro wigs with those pink ball
attenas, noise sticks, those noise maker cones (like at baseball games)
and towels. It was craaaazy how much merch they prepared, but they
still didnt give my section ANYTHING. I have the worse luck.
Aaaaaanyways, so there were two cheers for both teams... one for
offence, and one for defense. We were technically supposed to help
cheer for the Arcs, but a lot of the girls around me were disappointed
for not getting anything to cheer with, so they just kinda sat and
clapped. haha. we were a pretty lame section.
Arcs-?a-kusu
a-kusu? for offense, with a pause and two clap beat, and ?a-kusu
defense? with the same two clap at the end for defense.
Harts - ? Go Harts Go? for offense, and a simple generic ? defense? for defense.
YamaPi
came out after a few scenes were filmed, and he had a mic in hand. He
greeted us all, and after all of the screeming died down, he
appologized for worrying us and getting the flu. Told us that he was
all better now, and then told us to be careful not to catch it too. He
asked us to wash our hands well in the end. hahaha.
Now for the craaaaaaaaaaaaazy spoilers....
I think I'll write them in another post, in a dark box, so if you wanna read them, highlight the area.
DO
NOT click here if you don't want to know what happens... trust me...
this is going to be an important part of the story... and you MAY NOT
want to know the little details I do!!!! If you do, then click away to
get the summary and one more photo!!!!※note that this will be locked in two days until after the airing of the show.
So
yea, we were able to go walk to the bathroom and eat whie sitting
there. The first time I went to pee, i was kinda walking and waiting
for something to happen (all of the guys disappeared) and i looked down
into the stairwell of the J section, and was greeted by Mizobata Junpei
(Shuji) looking up at me, standing next to Moriguchi and Ren. It was
craaaaazy. Saga was facing his back to me, but sooo awesome! They were
only 20 steps away from me. I kinda freezed when Shuji and my eyes
locked, and then scurried away like a crazy girl. But yea, probably one
of the best moments of my life. haha.
The restrooms were located
just to the left of the backboard, so whenever they were filming on the
Arcs side, all of the girls would have to go to the bathroom just so
they could get a closer look at Naoki-kun. It was pretty crazy how
close we were to him. He didnt look up when people called his name
because he knew that it would cause hysteria... but even if he looked
up at all, even if it was to the ceiling, screams would resonate
through the crowd.
Mai would always wave whenever her name was
called (we were told to not call any of the actors by their real
names), and she was sooo cute.? Even Mamoru-kun (Moriguchi's son) was
loving the fan girls and waving and saying bye bye before he left the
stage.
After all of the filming and audio recording was over,
Yamapi came out in a dark grey screened t-shirt and khaki cargo pants
and slippers (flip flops for those of you NOT from Hawaii) and thanked
us again for coming out.? He teased us with the fact that he was in the
back watching tonight's episode of Buzzer Beat and that it is getting
reall good (yes, the filming day and airing day were the same... good
job Fuji TV! *awef;aiwef;aoie*).? I?tried to oneseg (cell phone
tv)?watch it with subtitles, but i think a lot of girls were trying to
do it, so i couldnt connect.? Then YamaPi came around to each area and
said thank you and bowed while all the girls screamed frantically.? He
said goodbye and disappeared behind the doors.
Like other girls
who went to previous game tapings mentioned, on our way out they were
checking bags for stolen merchandise, and they were also handing out
Buzzer Beat/JC?Arcs clear files.
?I will have to update later with Purikuras, because we have to do reenactment ones due to time constraints...
2
, so the actual recording.
Ok, so the actual recording. Like I had mentioned, Shuji gets to play
in the game. So he basically gets to steal the ball from the Harts
player that he is guarding and passes it off to Moriguchi. It was cute
because that play happened right in front of my seat. Heg ready at the
top of the
is a bit taller than YamaPi, and is a bit thicker than him as well.
Such a good looking 20year old!!!! I swear I was born either a bit too
early, or a bit too late. So after that scene was filmed, YamaPi
finally came out. After greeting and talking to all of us, he got right
into the scene walk through. I know that everything was kinda filmed
out of order, but I will let you all know what basically happens. There
are lots of random plays that got shot in the end, to make it look like
the game has progressed, but the first and last things they filmed (not
sure why they did it again in the end) was the Tip off. The Arcs get
the ball, and it gets off to a good start. But towards the end of the
game, the Harts are leading 87-84 with less than a minute left. The
Arcs have posession after one of the guys does a layup (i think... or
they may use one of the various shots they made, because those pro guys
were on it!) and Naoki gets passed the ball. He goes to take the shot,
and gets fouled by one of the Harts guys and gets one foul shot. As
Naoki is getting ready to take his shot, Riko comes runnind down the
stairs of the stands. Everyone's cheering has died down because Naoki
is gettin
key, and then Riko yells at him. Soko no hachi ban. She tells him that
she came here just for him so he better win the game.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaka.
This is when I was ab;e to take the
picture... He was standing there just be something for her to focus her
attetnion on in the scene, although he was clearly not anywhere near
the basket.? But everyone in the arena had their attention focused on
him more than her at that time, so it was pretty funny.? The entire
crowd followed him everywhere he went at all times. Especially because
more than 3/4 of us were You&J FC members, and the rest were Fuji
TV FC members (those that had the best seats and the most TV time).
?? He
makes it in (after four takes) and the crowd goes wild!!! The Harts now
have posession of the ball and advance to their side of the court.
Moriguchi steals the ball and passes it off to Yamapi (who was on our
side of the court *screams like a crazy japanese fan girl*) and he
stops at the 3-point line and shoots just in time for the buzzer to go
off! BUZZER BEAT!!!!!! The crowd goes crazy and Shuji leaps off of his
seat on the bench to go and hug Naoki! ??? He is followed by the rest
of the team and the cheerleaders... Even Kawasaki-san gives him a hug.
Shuji yells at Mai and she goes crazy. Moriguchi yells at his son
Mamoru in the crowd (who was soooooo adorable!) and during one of the
takes Utsunomiya lifts Natsuki up in the air too. The crowd is chanting
A-KU-SU, A-KU-SU and going crazy. And while all of this is going on,
Naoki runs up to Riko, which Mai and Naoki's Mom and sisters realize
and start staring. I have NO IDEA what he says to her... I think
something about BAAAAKA because thats the only thing I heard from my
seat all the way across the court (like literally, the farthest apart
we could have possibly been) but he hugs her, and she puts her arms
around him as well. *again with the crazy inner japanese fan girl
screams* They actually only had to do a few takes of this because the
first time all the girls were screaming (natural reaction to something
unexpected) and then the other time was because the crowd in the
background was staring up at Naoki and Riko instead of cheering with
the team that was down below on the court.