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| Movies & Specials Guide | The Archdjinn of the Rings,
Hoopa
Originally posted on April 17th, 2015
"The Location Scouting
Report" (ロケハンレポート)
is a series of articles posted on the movie's official
website that follow the production team's location scouting trip to
the United Arab Emirates. They took the trip in order to take
reference photos and other materials that would later help them shape
the look and feel of the main feature The
Archdjinn
of the Rings, Hoopa.
| Blog Post Title | Date Posted | |
| 01 |
"To
the Desert City!" (砂漠の街へ！) |
April 17th, 2015 |
| 02 |
"A
Baptism of Heat and the White Mosque" (暑さの洗礼と白亜のモスク) |
April 23rd, 2015 |
| 03 |
"The
Persian Gulf and Life in Arabia, Then and Now" (ペルシャ湾とアラビアの暮らし、今昔) |
April 30th, 2015 |
| 04 |
"Golden
Coffee and the Water of Life" (金コーヒーと命の水) |
May 7th, 2015 |
| 05 |
"To
Old Dubai!" (オールド・ドバイへ！) |
May 14th, 2015 |
| 06 |
"Arabian
Surprises" (アラビアのサプライズ) |
May 21st, 2015 |
| 07 |
"Souks!
Souks! Souks!" (スーク！スーク！スーク！) |
May 28th, 2015 |
| 08 |
"Worship
and Sunsets" (礼拝と日没) |
June 5th, 2015 |
| 09 |
"To the
Desert!" (砂漠へ！) |
June 11th, 2015 |
| 10 |
"The Red
Desert" (赤砂の砂漠) |
June 19th, 2015 |
| 11 |
"Burj
Khalifa and the World's Greatest" (ブルジュ・ハリファと世界一) |
June 25th, 2015 |
| 12 |
"The
Fjords of the Middle East" (中東のフィヨルド) |
July 2nd, 2015 |
| 13 |
"Palm
Jumeirah and the Valley of Buildings" (パーム・ジュメイラとビルの谷) |
July 9th, 2015 |
| 14 |
"The End
of the Location Scouting" (ロケハンを終えて) |
July 16th, 2015 |
| Episode
One: "To the Desert City!" |
Originally posted on April 17th, 2015
The second in the Pokemon the movie
XY series, "The Archdjinn of the
Rings, Hoopa," hits theaters this summer! The setting of the film
is "Dessert
City," a city in the desert. It'll have the look and feel of a
modern-day
city with all these huge skyscrapers in it while simultaneously being
surrounded on all sides by a vast desert.
The place that director Yuyama chose for this year's location scouting was Dubai, a huge city built on the flat desert surface facing the Persian Gulf. In addition to being the home to the famous Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, Dubai is also a global city lined with rows of skyscrapers and financial centers as well as the host to a number of tourist attractions.
So how's this trip going to go? If you try reading these reports while thinking of scenes from The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa then maybe you'll be able to enjoy the movie even more!
But before we get into the trip, let's take a moment to learn a little bit more about Dubai.
Dubai is one of the political territories ("emirates") that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a federation made up of seven emirates that include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah, among others.
And when you think of Dubai, you think of the the aforementioned Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building! Dubai also has the world's largest shopping mall, the world's biggest fountain, the world's largest man-made island...the list goes on and on! It really is home to a lot of the world's greatest things! Dubai takes advantage of these attractions to make itself a world-class tourist city and a huge resort.
Cool, isn't it? A metropolis in the middle of the desert!
Director Yuyama and his location scouting team went to Dubai around the middle of September while last year's movie The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie was still being shown in theaters back home. Their flight from Haneda Airport left at 30 minutes past midnight on Emirates Flight EK313 and lasted about eleven and a half hours.
The team arrived pretty much exactly on schedule at the Dubai International Airport at 6:15am local time.
The place that director Yuyama chose for this year's location scouting was Dubai, a huge city built on the flat desert surface facing the Persian Gulf. In addition to being the home to the famous Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, Dubai is also a global city lined with rows of skyscrapers and financial centers as well as the host to a number of tourist attractions.
So how's this trip going to go? If you try reading these reports while thinking of scenes from The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa then maybe you'll be able to enjoy the movie even more!
But before we get into the trip, let's take a moment to learn a little bit more about Dubai.
Dubai is one of the political territories ("emirates") that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a federation made up of seven emirates that include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah, among others.
And when you think of Dubai, you think of the the aforementioned Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building! Dubai also has the world's largest shopping mall, the world's biggest fountain, the world's largest man-made island...the list goes on and on! It really is home to a lot of the world's greatest things! Dubai takes advantage of these attractions to make itself a world-class tourist city and a huge resort.
"With
its dizzying rows of skyscrapers, this emirate has an excellent
reputation for being the most prosperous in the Middle East"
(from the
Japanese Wikipedia page for Dubai)
Cool, isn't it? A metropolis in the middle of the desert!
Director Yuyama and his location scouting team went to Dubai around the middle of September while last year's movie The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie was still being shown in theaters back home. Their flight from Haneda Airport left at 30 minutes past midnight on Emirates Flight EK313 and lasted about eleven and a half hours.
The team arrived pretty much exactly on schedule at the Dubai International Airport at 6:15am local time.
| Episode
Two: "A Baptism of Heat and the White Mosque" |
Originally
posted on
April 23rd, 2015
The location scouting team arrived in Dubai after an eleven and a half hour flight. It was 6:15am local time.
As soon as we set foot out of the airport our skin was scorched by the desert sun! Even though it was still early in the morning it felt so hot it was like we were sitting in the middle of a sauna! That's when the fact that we were desert nation really hit us. We took shelter in a large air-conditioned bus to escape the heat as soon as we could. This was the start of our first day of location scouting.
The bus got onto the highway and headed for the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi. As we peered out the windows of the bus we spotted the Burj Khalifa! The bus made a quick pass through Dubai and its row of skyscrapers before heading for an undeveloped "semi-desert." We passed through this semi-desert and arrived at the capital city of Abu Dhabi before too long.
Compared to Dubai, which has able to thrive thanks to its financial centers and tourism, Abu Dhabi became a rich nation thanks to its oil. We could see many trees that had been planted to help combat global warming through the bus windows. It was easy to forget that we were in a desert nation sitting there in an air-conditioned bus staring out at this scenery.
The location scouting team's first destination was the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. This world-class mosque is a completely white palace! As we admired the majesty of mosque we got off the bus and...yow! It's hot out here!
As soon as we got off the bus, our glasses fogged up and our thermometer gave us a reading of close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)! Even though it was still the morning it was much more humid than Japan is in the middle of the day during a heat wave. And it seemed as if the temperature was only going to get even higher as the day went on...
"Make absolutely sure you bring water with you." With our trip coordinator's words etched into our minds, we headed into the mosque's premises.
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is a mosque that's a mixture of traditional Islamic designs and more modern-day architecture techniques. It's a fairly new building that was completed in the 2000s. This world-class mosque is about as big as three soccer fields and has a maximum occupancy of 40,000 people! It's also one of the few mosques that allows non-Muslims onto its grounds and so it's become one of Abu Dhabi's most well-known tourist attractions as a result.
Be that as it may, it's still a house of worship. There's a rule that everyone has to take off their shoes and place them in a shoe box before they come in and women have to cover up their hair and skin and don traditional black robes known as abaya. The tour coordinator who was helping us out quickly threw on her abaya as if it was second nature to her.
It wasn't just the outside that was luxurious and gorgeous; you're greeted by a giant chandelier when you walk into the building. The mosque also boasted that it had the world's largest Persian rug! The carpet, which was laid out inside a giant hall, had a magnificent floral pattern on it!
If you take a closer look at the carpet you'll see a number of raised lines on which the Muslim salats, or prayers, are performed. Muslims line up on these lines and pray in the direction of Mecca, the Muslim Holy Land.
We wouldn't have been able to appreciate any of this if we didn't try it out for ourselves and so after having all this explained to us Mr. Yuyama decided to try doing a salat himself.
Originally posted on April 30th, 2015
The group left the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and got back on the bus. On the way to our next destination, the historical archive "Heritage Village," we got off at the coast near Breakwater Road to do some location scouting at the stores and houses there.
This is the park where you can look out into the Persian Gulf and admire the beauty of the blue sea. This sea separates us from Abu Dhabi and its rows of buildings on the other shore. One of the three buildings that stand out among this crowd of skyscrapers is the high-rise tower that we were planning to head to later that afternoon, Central Market.
At first glance the Central Market makes the other two buildings look small by comparison but all three buildings are actually incredibly tall. Abu Dhabi was a little bit more relaxed than the more flashy and vivid Dubai. As we looked out at the sea separating the two cities we felt like we were seeing a side of these desert cities you don't usually get to see.
And then there's the heat...
We didn't see anyone outside walking around other than those of us on the location scouting team. But we could admire the national flag that the UAE is so proud of fluttering calmly in the wind against a cloudless sky.
The location scouting team continued to observe the historical archive Heritage Village. You can learn about Abu Dhabi's history, cultural assets, and the way the people of Abu Dhabi used to live back in the old days. They had residential tents and souqs (markets) set up, blacksmiths and glass workers working, and leather goods all on display. You can learn about what life was like before the nation started mining oil and became the developed nation it is today.
We went from the blistering heat of the park to an indoor exhibit! We thought it'd be a nice and cool reprieve but the inside was just like a steam bath instead! We ate lunch at a restaurant on-site as we sweat bullets and started to become a little dizzy from the heat. The first meal the location scouting team had was a genuine Arabian buffet.
Originally posted on May 7th, 2015
After lunch we rested for a bit before hopping back on the bus! The next stop on our location scouting tour was the five-star hotel "Emirates Palace."
The Emirates Palace is a deluxe hotel that really is like a palace! It was exceptionally gorgeous inside! Everything had a gold shine to it, from the floors to the walls to the ceilings! If the Sheikh Zayed Mosque is the "White Palace" then this hotel is the "Gold Palace"!
Of course our team was going to spend the night at this hotel...is something that would have been really nice to say, but in reality we were just there to take as many notes as we could. After extensively documenting all the gorgeous furnishings around us we made sure to drop by the hotel's famous cafe.
This cafe's specialty is a somewhat glamorous cappuccino with golden leaf flakes sprinkled on it called "Gold Coffee." We sat there in this hotel of sparkling marble and gold tailoring while drinking our delicious golden cappuccino.
By the way, this hotel is said to have the world's first gold vending machine, "Gold to Go!" Since the market price of gold fluctuates so much this vending machine has a system set up where it displays the current price in real time! One of the members of the location scouting team was a newlywed and so everyone tried to push him into buying some of this gold as a present to his new wife. He started to think about buying some but after thinking it through rationally he decided not to buy any and we left the hotel.
After relaxing a bit longer in the air-conditioned Emirates Palace the location scouting resumed! We wanted to get a feel for what the streets would look like in "Dessert City," the setting of this year's movie, so we walked around a marketplace in Abu Dhabi. We checked out the scenery from Corniche Road, cut through the modern Lake Park, and headed toward the World Trade Center Souq.
We took notes on the condition and the construction of the buildings in the World Trade Center Souq and then headed to Etihad Square. Etihad Square is a strange park lined with these giant ivory-white monuments of things like coffee pots and incense burners. It seems like these monuments represent the sorts of gifts wealthy Arabs give out.
And then we headed to our final location scouting destination of the day, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. This huge stadium, which can hold approximately 50,000 people, hosts various events like soccer matches, concerts, and motor shows.
The grass on the field was all natural. In Japanese stadiums you're not allowed to actually step out onto the field but here in Dubai it was no problem. The members of the location scouting team from the art department were extremely happy and started taking pictures as soon as they set foot on the grass.
When we finished up at the stadium it was 5:00pm. Our first day of location scouting was finished and so we headed for our hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Even the slightest bit of activity had us all sweaty and worn out! Those of us in the location scouting team started to call mineral water "the water of life" and we really felt the importance of staying hydrated that day.
The location scouting team arrived in Dubai after an eleven and a half hour flight. It was 6:15am local time.
As soon as we set foot out of the airport our skin was scorched by the desert sun! Even though it was still early in the morning it felt so hot it was like we were sitting in the middle of a sauna! That's when the fact that we were desert nation really hit us. We took shelter in a large air-conditioned bus to escape the heat as soon as we could. This was the start of our first day of location scouting.
The bus got onto the highway and headed for the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi. As we peered out the windows of the bus we spotted the Burj Khalifa! The bus made a quick pass through Dubai and its row of skyscrapers before heading for an undeveloped "semi-desert." We passed through this semi-desert and arrived at the capital city of Abu Dhabi before too long.
Compared to Dubai, which has able to thrive thanks to its financial centers and tourism, Abu Dhabi became a rich nation thanks to its oil. We could see many trees that had been planted to help combat global warming through the bus windows. It was easy to forget that we were in a desert nation sitting there in an air-conditioned bus staring out at this scenery.
The location scouting team's first destination was the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. This world-class mosque is a completely white palace! As we admired the majesty of mosque we got off the bus and...yow! It's hot out here!
As soon as we got off the bus, our glasses fogged up and our thermometer gave us a reading of close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)! Even though it was still the morning it was much more humid than Japan is in the middle of the day during a heat wave. And it seemed as if the temperature was only going to get even higher as the day went on...
"Make absolutely sure you bring water with you." With our trip coordinator's words etched into our minds, we headed into the mosque's premises.
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is a mosque that's a mixture of traditional Islamic designs and more modern-day architecture techniques. It's a fairly new building that was completed in the 2000s. This world-class mosque is about as big as three soccer fields and has a maximum occupancy of 40,000 people! It's also one of the few mosques that allows non-Muslims onto its grounds and so it's become one of Abu Dhabi's most well-known tourist attractions as a result.
Be that as it may, it's still a house of worship. There's a rule that everyone has to take off their shoes and place them in a shoe box before they come in and women have to cover up their hair and skin and don traditional black robes known as abaya. The tour coordinator who was helping us out quickly threw on her abaya as if it was second nature to her.
It wasn't just the outside that was luxurious and gorgeous; you're greeted by a giant chandelier when you walk into the building. The mosque also boasted that it had the world's largest Persian rug! The carpet, which was laid out inside a giant hall, had a magnificent floral pattern on it!
If you take a closer look at the carpet you'll see a number of raised lines on which the Muslim salats, or prayers, are performed. Muslims line up on these lines and pray in the direction of Mecca, the Muslim Holy Land.
We wouldn't have been able to appreciate any of this if we didn't try it out for ourselves and so after having all this explained to us Mr. Yuyama decided to try doing a salat himself.
| Episode
Three: "The Persian Gulf and Life in Arabia, Then and Now" |
Originally posted on April 30th, 2015
The group left the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and got back on the bus. On the way to our next destination, the historical archive "Heritage Village," we got off at the coast near Breakwater Road to do some location scouting at the stores and houses there.
This is the park where you can look out into the Persian Gulf and admire the beauty of the blue sea. This sea separates us from Abu Dhabi and its rows of buildings on the other shore. One of the three buildings that stand out among this crowd of skyscrapers is the high-rise tower that we were planning to head to later that afternoon, Central Market.
At first glance the Central Market makes the other two buildings look small by comparison but all three buildings are actually incredibly tall. Abu Dhabi was a little bit more relaxed than the more flashy and vivid Dubai. As we looked out at the sea separating the two cities we felt like we were seeing a side of these desert cities you don't usually get to see.
And then there's the heat...
We didn't see anyone outside walking around other than those of us on the location scouting team. But we could admire the national flag that the UAE is so proud of fluttering calmly in the wind against a cloudless sky.
The location scouting team continued to observe the historical archive Heritage Village. You can learn about Abu Dhabi's history, cultural assets, and the way the people of Abu Dhabi used to live back in the old days. They had residential tents and souqs (markets) set up, blacksmiths and glass workers working, and leather goods all on display. You can learn about what life was like before the nation started mining oil and became the developed nation it is today.
We went from the blistering heat of the park to an indoor exhibit! We thought it'd be a nice and cool reprieve but the inside was just like a steam bath instead! We ate lunch at a restaurant on-site as we sweat bullets and started to become a little dizzy from the heat. The first meal the location scouting team had was a genuine Arabian buffet.
| Episode
Four "Golden Coffee and the Water of Life" |
Originally posted on May 7th, 2015
After lunch we rested for a bit before hopping back on the bus! The next stop on our location scouting tour was the five-star hotel "Emirates Palace."
The Emirates Palace is a deluxe hotel that really is like a palace! It was exceptionally gorgeous inside! Everything had a gold shine to it, from the floors to the walls to the ceilings! If the Sheikh Zayed Mosque is the "White Palace" then this hotel is the "Gold Palace"!
Of course our team was going to spend the night at this hotel...is something that would have been really nice to say, but in reality we were just there to take as many notes as we could. After extensively documenting all the gorgeous furnishings around us we made sure to drop by the hotel's famous cafe.
This cafe's specialty is a somewhat glamorous cappuccino with golden leaf flakes sprinkled on it called "Gold Coffee." We sat there in this hotel of sparkling marble and gold tailoring while drinking our delicious golden cappuccino.
By the way, this hotel is said to have the world's first gold vending machine, "Gold to Go!" Since the market price of gold fluctuates so much this vending machine has a system set up where it displays the current price in real time! One of the members of the location scouting team was a newlywed and so everyone tried to push him into buying some of this gold as a present to his new wife. He started to think about buying some but after thinking it through rationally he decided not to buy any and we left the hotel.
After relaxing a bit longer in the air-conditioned Emirates Palace the location scouting resumed! We wanted to get a feel for what the streets would look like in "Dessert City," the setting of this year's movie, so we walked around a marketplace in Abu Dhabi. We checked out the scenery from Corniche Road, cut through the modern Lake Park, and headed toward the World Trade Center Souq.
We took notes on the condition and the construction of the buildings in the World Trade Center Souq and then headed to Etihad Square. Etihad Square is a strange park lined with these giant ivory-white monuments of things like coffee pots and incense burners. It seems like these monuments represent the sorts of gifts wealthy Arabs give out.
And then we headed to our final location scouting destination of the day, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. This huge stadium, which can hold approximately 50,000 people, hosts various events like soccer matches, concerts, and motor shows.
The grass on the field was all natural. In Japanese stadiums you're not allowed to actually step out onto the field but here in Dubai it was no problem. The members of the location scouting team from the art department were extremely happy and started taking pictures as soon as they set foot on the grass.
When we finished up at the stadium it was 5:00pm. Our first day of location scouting was finished and so we headed for our hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Even the slightest bit of activity had us all sweaty and worn out! Those of us in the location scouting team started to call mineral water "the water of life" and we really felt the importance of staying hydrated that day.
Top
| Episode
Five "To Old Dubai!" |
Originally
posted on May 14th, 2015
It's the morning of our second day of location scouting. We checked out of our hotel at 9:00 and commenced our location scouting under the beautiful cloudless sky. It looks like today will be another day when the "water of life" will be absolutely essential.
Our team spent its first day collecting reference materials in Abu Dhabi, Dubai's neighbor, and so today we're heading into Dubai itself! This time, however, we focused on the older downtown part rather than the showy skyscraper part of the city. We're heading to Old Dubai, a place seeped in Middle Eastern culture.
The location scouting team headed for the Bastakiya Quarter, an area along the Dubai Creek which itself cuts through the center of Dubai. It's being preserved as a historical preservation site due to how much of Dubai's history it contains. You can walk around really get a feel of the exotic atmosphere of the Middle East.
The first place we headed to was the Dubai Museum. The building was completed in 1787 and is the oldest structure in Dubai. It used to be called the Al Fahidi Fort and was used to keep neighboring tribes out and it later served as the ruler's palace and as a prison before being converted into its current state as a museum in 1971.
Inside the museum were exhibits that included panels and realistic wax statues that detailed the history of Dubai's development. Outside was a house built with the trunks and leaves of date trees, a market, and a wooden cargo ship called a dhow. Hmm...maybe this could be useful for the movie...
The most striking thing about all of that, however, was the traditional Arabian house equipped with what's called a "Wind Tower." This uniquely built tower is built up along the side of the wall and allows a cool breeze to come into the inside of the house. It's like nature's air conditioner! When we entered the room we could really feel a nice little breeze coming in.
We left the Dubai Museum and walked around the rest of the Bastakiya Quarter. The area has been preserved as-is and so we got to see more of those real life wind towers up close. There were also replica wind towers located in the middle of town that gave off a vibe completely different from the rows of skyscrapers elsewhere in the city.
It's the morning of our second day of location scouting. We checked out of our hotel at 9:00 and commenced our location scouting under the beautiful cloudless sky. It looks like today will be another day when the "water of life" will be absolutely essential.
Our team spent its first day collecting reference materials in Abu Dhabi, Dubai's neighbor, and so today we're heading into Dubai itself! This time, however, we focused on the older downtown part rather than the showy skyscraper part of the city. We're heading to Old Dubai, a place seeped in Middle Eastern culture.
The location scouting team headed for the Bastakiya Quarter, an area along the Dubai Creek which itself cuts through the center of Dubai. It's being preserved as a historical preservation site due to how much of Dubai's history it contains. You can walk around really get a feel of the exotic atmosphere of the Middle East.
The first place we headed to was the Dubai Museum. The building was completed in 1787 and is the oldest structure in Dubai. It used to be called the Al Fahidi Fort and was used to keep neighboring tribes out and it later served as the ruler's palace and as a prison before being converted into its current state as a museum in 1971.
Inside the museum were exhibits that included panels and realistic wax statues that detailed the history of Dubai's development. Outside was a house built with the trunks and leaves of date trees, a market, and a wooden cargo ship called a dhow. Hmm...maybe this could be useful for the movie...
The most striking thing about all of that, however, was the traditional Arabian house equipped with what's called a "Wind Tower." This uniquely built tower is built up along the side of the wall and allows a cool breeze to come into the inside of the house. It's like nature's air conditioner! When we entered the room we could really feel a nice little breeze coming in.
We left the Dubai Museum and walked around the rest of the Bastakiya Quarter. The area has been preserved as-is and so we got to see more of those real life wind towers up close. There were also replica wind towers located in the middle of town that gave off a vibe completely different from the rows of skyscrapers elsewhere in the city.
| Episode
Six "Arabian Surprises" |
Originally
posted on May 21st, 2015
We finished up at the museum right at lunchtime. After looking at the streets filled with history we decided to enjoy some traditional Emarati food.
When the group of us entered the restaurant we went through the well ventilated second floor to a room with a rug laid out on the floor. Our waiters were a man wearing a white "condora" and a woman wearing a black "abaya."
The first thing we were given was a small sake cup-like container with arabic coffee extracted from saffron served together with dried dates. The reason they put the coffee in those small cups is so that you can order as many of them as you want. If you put out your cup after finishing your coffee then the male waiter would come over and fill it back up again, over and over! This seems to be the same sort of hospitality shown to travelers crossing through the desert.
The main course was rice topped with seasoned chicken and fish served together with curry. For dessert we had a pastry that was like a deep-fried donut without the hole in it. It was so delicious that Hoopa would definitely gobble it up!
When you eat food in the UAE, you mix the rice and the curry up together and then eat the whole thing with your hands, Arabian style. The location scouting staff wanted to try this as well! We were able to see that the flavors go well together and it's particularly delicious!
...
After finishing the first round of food we relaxed and had a nice chat. When we told the waitress that we were the Pokemon movie location scouting team she told us that she used to watch the Pokemon animated series when she was a kid! What a surprise to hear something like that so far away from home!
This got us all excited and so one of the members of the location scouting team offered some roasted green tea that we happened to have on us as a present. The tea was put in a glass with cold water and presented to her as we said "Japanese Tea!" in English, but it turns out they don't really seem to drink cold tea all that much in Arab countries. We inadvertently surprised each other for a moment there!
Regardless, she drank the green tea and seemed to like it!
We finished up at the museum right at lunchtime. After looking at the streets filled with history we decided to enjoy some traditional Emarati food.
When the group of us entered the restaurant we went through the well ventilated second floor to a room with a rug laid out on the floor. Our waiters were a man wearing a white "condora" and a woman wearing a black "abaya."
The first thing we were given was a small sake cup-like container with arabic coffee extracted from saffron served together with dried dates. The reason they put the coffee in those small cups is so that you can order as many of them as you want. If you put out your cup after finishing your coffee then the male waiter would come over and fill it back up again, over and over! This seems to be the same sort of hospitality shown to travelers crossing through the desert.
The main course was rice topped with seasoned chicken and fish served together with curry. For dessert we had a pastry that was like a deep-fried donut without the hole in it. It was so delicious that Hoopa would definitely gobble it up!
When you eat food in the UAE, you mix the rice and the curry up together and then eat the whole thing with your hands, Arabian style. The location scouting staff wanted to try this as well! We were able to see that the flavors go well together and it's particularly delicious!
...
After finishing the first round of food we relaxed and had a nice chat. When we told the waitress that we were the Pokemon movie location scouting team she told us that she used to watch the Pokemon animated series when she was a kid! What a surprise to hear something like that so far away from home!
This got us all excited and so one of the members of the location scouting team offered some roasted green tea that we happened to have on us as a present. The tea was put in a glass with cold water and presented to her as we said "Japanese Tea!" in English, but it turns out they don't really seem to drink cold tea all that much in Arab countries. We inadvertently surprised each other for a moment there!
Regardless, she drank the green tea and seemed to like it!
Top
| Episode
Seven "Souks! Souks! Souks!" |
Originally
posted on May 28th, 2015
That afternoon we crossed over to the other side of the Dubai Creek and took notes on the various souks there. "Souk" is another word for "market." We went to the World Trade Center Souk, one of the more modern-day souks, on our first day of location scouting but today we're going around to the more traditional ones that have been left untouched after all these years.
The first place we went to was the Old Souk! This line of markets that sell fabric is also known as the Textile Souk. We waded our way through the narrow streets, going around the numerous souvenir shops and doing our best to dodge the calls of tenacious shopkeepers as we made our way out of the arcade.
When you leave the arcade you come across a harbor. From there you cross the Dubai Creek over to the other side on these aquatic taxi-like ferries known as "abras." The ferries are these simple wooden boats with cockpits in the middle, a roof you can sit under to get some shade, and back-to-back benches. There's a bridge slightly upstream that you can't get across and so this ferry is what the locals use to get from place to place.
The ferry got us to the Deira Corniche on the other side of the creek. After cutting through Al Khor Street you get to the Spice Souk, a collection of markets that specialize in spices. The arcade was a dizzying place with an ethnic mood to it filled with spices, seasonings, herbs, and nuts.
The last place we went to was the Gold Souk! After passing through the arcade market we were soon greeted by a store with the "World's Largest Solid Gold Ring!" And since it was a shopping district the markets were also overflowing with a countless number of golden jewelry. Looking at all this golden treasure was just like something out of a cartoon! It was a scene that would make the Rocket trio overjoyed!
That afternoon we crossed over to the other side of the Dubai Creek and took notes on the various souks there. "Souk" is another word for "market." We went to the World Trade Center Souk, one of the more modern-day souks, on our first day of location scouting but today we're going around to the more traditional ones that have been left untouched after all these years.
The first place we went to was the Old Souk! This line of markets that sell fabric is also known as the Textile Souk. We waded our way through the narrow streets, going around the numerous souvenir shops and doing our best to dodge the calls of tenacious shopkeepers as we made our way out of the arcade.
When you leave the arcade you come across a harbor. From there you cross the Dubai Creek over to the other side on these aquatic taxi-like ferries known as "abras." The ferries are these simple wooden boats with cockpits in the middle, a roof you can sit under to get some shade, and back-to-back benches. There's a bridge slightly upstream that you can't get across and so this ferry is what the locals use to get from place to place.
The ferry got us to the Deira Corniche on the other side of the creek. After cutting through Al Khor Street you get to the Spice Souk, a collection of markets that specialize in spices. The arcade was a dizzying place with an ethnic mood to it filled with spices, seasonings, herbs, and nuts.
The last place we went to was the Gold Souk! After passing through the arcade market we were soon greeted by a store with the "World's Largest Solid Gold Ring!" And since it was a shopping district the markets were also overflowing with a countless number of golden jewelry. Looking at all this golden treasure was just like something out of a cartoon! It was a scene that would make the Rocket trio overjoyed!
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| Episode
Eight "Worship and Sunsets" |
Originally
posted on June 5th, 2015
As our second day of location scouting came to an end the team headed toward the hotel by the canal we were staying at that night. After checking in and resting there for a little bit we decided to head back into town to observe the sunset. Our trip coordinator recommended we go to the roof of this building on Baniyas Road along the canal to get the best view. From there we would be able to get a clear shot of both the canal and the city of Dubai on the other side.
When we looked down we could see the abra ferries we used to cross the Dubai Creek earlier in the day as well as a large number of those dhow wooden cargo ships we saw at the Dubai Museum, anchored at the shore. The scene of people busily loading and unloading cargo ships in this trade center here on the riverside is the same as it was back in the old days of Dubai. It gave us a feel for the daily routine and the power of the working man that's so different from the image we get of modern-day Dubai with its special economic zones and tourist attractions.
When we were up on the roof the sounds of praying Muslims echoed throughout the city as it was time to start the sunset religious service. There was this one person on one of the boats who glanced up at us during the service. As we gazed out into the Dubai sunset we listened attentively to the sounds of all the people praying.
After eating dinner we saw that it was already 10:00pm! And we were all supposed to meet the next morning at 4:00am! After double checking tomorrow's agenda the team was dismissed for the night.
For the third day of location scouting we'll be heading to the desert at long last!
TopAs our second day of location scouting came to an end the team headed toward the hotel by the canal we were staying at that night. After checking in and resting there for a little bit we decided to head back into town to observe the sunset. Our trip coordinator recommended we go to the roof of this building on Baniyas Road along the canal to get the best view. From there we would be able to get a clear shot of both the canal and the city of Dubai on the other side.
When we looked down we could see the abra ferries we used to cross the Dubai Creek earlier in the day as well as a large number of those dhow wooden cargo ships we saw at the Dubai Museum, anchored at the shore. The scene of people busily loading and unloading cargo ships in this trade center here on the riverside is the same as it was back in the old days of Dubai. It gave us a feel for the daily routine and the power of the working man that's so different from the image we get of modern-day Dubai with its special economic zones and tourist attractions.
When we were up on the roof the sounds of praying Muslims echoed throughout the city as it was time to start the sunset religious service. There was this one person on one of the boats who glanced up at us during the service. As we gazed out into the Dubai sunset we listened attentively to the sounds of all the people praying.
After eating dinner we saw that it was already 10:00pm! And we were all supposed to meet the next morning at 4:00am! After double checking tomorrow's agenda the team was dismissed for the night.
For the third day of location scouting we'll be heading to the desert at long last!
| Episode
Nine "To the Desert!" |
Originally
posted on June 11th, 2015
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It's the final day of location scouting. Yesterday we had finished all the location scouting we were scheduled to do so today we split off into teams and went around wherever we wanted.
Director Yuyama really wanted to go to the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina. Some people think of Dubai when they think of the Palm Jumeirah, right? It's an artificial archipelago that looks like a palm tree from above.
We headed toward the Palm Jumeirah on the Jumeirah Monorail, the first monorail in the Middle East. This monorail currently runs from Gateway Station, near the so-called "root of the coconut," to Atlantis Aquadventure Station, the "top of the coconut" and the final stop on the monorail.
Since so many people in Dubai drive cars to get around the monorail is hardly ever used. Our train car was mostly empty and so, since we had the whole monorail almost completely to ourselves, we were able to sit at the front of the front-most car and take lots of great pictures.
The monorail runs along the main portion of Palm Jumeirah and you can enjoy a view from the train car window that you can normally only see through maps or aerial photographs. As we got closer to the last stop we could see a hotel that looked like a palace called the Atlantis. The train went around the hotel and headed toward the final stop.
We got off the monorail and took a look around the streets as we made our way to where we could look out over the shore to see the Dubai Marina. As we looked out at the Marina we could see it surrounded by a number of buildings, each with its own unique style to it. We were surprised to learn that all of these Tokyo Tower-class bulidings were actually condominiums.
At any rate, the scale of the Palm Jumeirah is huge. We couldn't get a full grasp of the size of it just by walking around inside so we decided to also look at it from the Marina on the opposite side.
Our tour guide lead us to a restaurant on the 52nd floor of the Marriot Harbor Hotel in the Dubai Marina. We'll be able to look down at both the Palm Jumeirah and the Marina from up high. Being in the middle of this buliding was the first time on this trip we've felt like we were in a modern place with man-made skyscrapers. The background art staff all exclaimed that "This is what we've been wanting to see!" Maybe the battle between legendary pokemon can unfold in a place like this?
The next thing we wanted to do was look at this scenery from a boat instead so we got on a water taxi and took pictures of the Dubai Marina on the water channel. The boat passed under a large bridge and through a valley of buildings as the light of the sun reflected off them.
When we arrived at the dock the sun had started to go down and evening was on its way. And so, our extra day of location scouting came to an end.
We went back to the hotel where the staff all made it back safely after spending a productive day of sightseeing.
The movie is nine days away from hitting theaters! The next entry will be the final one.
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It's been about a year since our location scouting trip to the large Middle Eastern city of Dubai. The media likes to depict the Middle East as an unstable region but the places we went were peaceful and not at all like what we've seen on the news. But it's also a fact that this trip was a bit different from the countries we've visited in the past.
"It's different from what we've heard and what we've seen."
These are the words from Director Yuyama but I think the entire location scouting staff had this in mind as well. A desert that we had only seen through videos and pictures. Standing in the middle of it all, the feel of the heat and the air in the city as you imagined it'd be versus what it's like to really be there. We had seen the phrase "desert oasis" a lot in the past but it wasn't until this trip we really got a firm grasp of what that meant.
And then there's all the rows and rows of skyscrapers. Seeing this big city glittering in the sun in the middle of the desert feels almost like a mirage.
"The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa" is finally coming out soon. The story involves Hoopa, Satoshi and Pikachu, and the legendary pokemon all battling it out over the desert city Dessert City. Will you be able to see the results of our location scouting on the big screen!?
We think those of you who enjoyed this location scouting report will be able to enjoy the movie that much more.
"The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa" will hit theaters Saturday, July 18th!
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It's the third day of location scouting
and the team has gathered in the hotel's lobby at 4:00am! Our
goal was to leave before the sun came up so we could look at the
desert's sunrise
from the sky above. That's right, we signed up for a "hot air
balloon
tour" over the desert!
We took our breakfasts in the take-out bags we asked the hotel to put them in and left right away! We got on the highway and, after driving for a little bit, arrived in the desert area. Even though it was pitch black out when we got out of the car we could still feel the heat of the desert sand through our bodies.
The open flame from the hot air balloon's burner lit up the area around it as warm air was fed into the envelope, causing it to swell. It was soon time to take off so we all jumped into the gondola. that was about chest-high. If you include us members of the location scouting team there were 22 passengers altogether on this large sized hot air balloon. The balloon shot up into the sky and soon we got so high up that the people, cities, and roads down below all looked like tiny little dots and lines.
It was so amazing to be able to look out over the desert like this! We could hear "oohs!" and "aahs!" from the other passengers all throughout the gondola as we burned the image of the desert into our minds and took reference photos.
From the cockpit directly below us we would occasionally hear a voice say "Goooo~!" and then the sound of the burner would become so loud that we couldn't hear ourselves talking. The heat of the fire was being used to either raise the hot air balloon or lower it, you see; just as we thought we were diving in close to the ground we'd swoop right back up again. We were able to see both the sand dunes from up close and the wide expanse of the desert from up above as we felt the wind around us.
This happened over and over and then, before we knew it, it was already time for the sun to come up.
The sky was a gradation from indigo blue to madder red. We could see 360 degrees around us, from the sky tinged with the colors of the sunrise to the sight of the big wide desert. We were able to have a tranquil moment as we looked over the desert.
When we were riding the hot air balloon we really felt like we were the Rocket-Dan from the TV series!! The writer in charge of the main feature's script, Mr. Tomioka, expressed a newfound appreciation for how the Rocket trio is blown away by Pikachu's Thunderbolt almost every episode along with a hot air balloon just like the one we're riding in. Will we change the Rocket-Dan's role in the film after having this experience!?
By the time the hot air balloon landed the sun was blazing hot and was making the surrounding area shine brightly.
We took our breakfasts in the take-out bags we asked the hotel to put them in and left right away! We got on the highway and, after driving for a little bit, arrived in the desert area. Even though it was pitch black out when we got out of the car we could still feel the heat of the desert sand through our bodies.
The open flame from the hot air balloon's burner lit up the area around it as warm air was fed into the envelope, causing it to swell. It was soon time to take off so we all jumped into the gondola. that was about chest-high. If you include us members of the location scouting team there were 22 passengers altogether on this large sized hot air balloon. The balloon shot up into the sky and soon we got so high up that the people, cities, and roads down below all looked like tiny little dots and lines.
It was so amazing to be able to look out over the desert like this! We could hear "oohs!" and "aahs!" from the other passengers all throughout the gondola as we burned the image of the desert into our minds and took reference photos.
From the cockpit directly below us we would occasionally hear a voice say "Goooo~!" and then the sound of the burner would become so loud that we couldn't hear ourselves talking. The heat of the fire was being used to either raise the hot air balloon or lower it, you see; just as we thought we were diving in close to the ground we'd swoop right back up again. We were able to see both the sand dunes from up close and the wide expanse of the desert from up above as we felt the wind around us.
This happened over and over and then, before we knew it, it was already time for the sun to come up.
The sky was a gradation from indigo blue to madder red. We could see 360 degrees around us, from the sky tinged with the colors of the sunrise to the sight of the big wide desert. We were able to have a tranquil moment as we looked over the desert.
When we were riding the hot air balloon we really felt like we were the Rocket-Dan from the TV series!! The writer in charge of the main feature's script, Mr. Tomioka, expressed a newfound appreciation for how the Rocket trio is blown away by Pikachu's Thunderbolt almost every episode along with a hot air balloon just like the one we're riding in. Will we change the Rocket-Dan's role in the film after having this experience!?
By the time the hot air balloon landed the sun was blazing hot and was making the surrounding area shine brightly.
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| Episode
Ten "The Red Desert" |
Originally
posted on June 19th, 2015
Since we had gotten up so early we we went
back to the hotel after our hot air balloon adventure to spend the rest
of the morning
resting. That afternoon we were planning to go
to a red desert area in order to appreciate these badlands even
more.
Are we really spending the entire day in some desert??
We split up into five land cruisers and headed even further southeast from where our hot air balloon ride had begun earlier that morning. After riding for a while we could finally see the red desert off in the distance.
We stopped for a bit so the cars' drivers could prepare for the next stretch of our journey. That preparation included...deflating the cars' tires!? It turns out that they let some of the air out of the tires to prevent them from sinking into the soft sand and getting stuck!
We picked up some of this sand to feel it for ourselves and it really was quite soft and fine. It wasn't white-ish like the sand we saw when we were on the hot air balloon and instead had a red tint to it due to all the iron it contains.
As we waited for the preparations to finish, we wandered around and found a single "Sodom's Apple" flower growing at the entrance to the desert.
Once all five cars were ready we hopped back into the vehicles and took off! We drove off-road in all directions, going up and down as if we were on some kind of theme park ride or something. Our guide books had said that the ride was so bumpy that we should bring some kind of medicine to help with the motion sickness and we couldn't help but agree with them. We screamed (from excitement...?) so much that our bodies were shaking for a while.
The cars stopped and we climbed down from atop the sand dune to continue toward the horizon.
But then a strange feeling came over us. Our surroundings were so different from what we're used to in our daily lives that it felt like we had stepped into a painting with us in the middle of it.
We were in a world without sound. The soft sand flittered about a bit and started to get on our cameras. Even though we were worried that the sand would get into our cameras' lens we couldn't help but take pictures at the patterns it was making in the air as it danced along the wind. After a good while we decided to head back to the entrance of the desert so we could make it back in time to see the sun set.
The way back was just as bumpy and crazy as the trip there was! And then, right as the friendly and hospitable drivers were asking us if we were OK one of the other cars' tires got stuck in the sand! Luckily they managed to get out somehow only to get stuck again a little bit later! This time the entire car was stuck in a chasm between sand dunes! We had to end up having one of the other cars pull that car out with a rope. Meanwhile it was starting to get dark...
Once we got out of the desert and back onto the paved roads we breathed a sigh of relief. We were really thankful not to be left behind in the desert in the middle of the night! We felt like we had finally returned to the real world.
We split up into five land cruisers and headed even further southeast from where our hot air balloon ride had begun earlier that morning. After riding for a while we could finally see the red desert off in the distance.
We stopped for a bit so the cars' drivers could prepare for the next stretch of our journey. That preparation included...deflating the cars' tires!? It turns out that they let some of the air out of the tires to prevent them from sinking into the soft sand and getting stuck!
We picked up some of this sand to feel it for ourselves and it really was quite soft and fine. It wasn't white-ish like the sand we saw when we were on the hot air balloon and instead had a red tint to it due to all the iron it contains.
As we waited for the preparations to finish, we wandered around and found a single "Sodom's Apple" flower growing at the entrance to the desert.
Once all five cars were ready we hopped back into the vehicles and took off! We drove off-road in all directions, going up and down as if we were on some kind of theme park ride or something. Our guide books had said that the ride was so bumpy that we should bring some kind of medicine to help with the motion sickness and we couldn't help but agree with them. We screamed (from excitement...?) so much that our bodies were shaking for a while.
The cars stopped and we climbed down from atop the sand dune to continue toward the horizon.
But then a strange feeling came over us. Our surroundings were so different from what we're used to in our daily lives that it felt like we had stepped into a painting with us in the middle of it.
We were in a world without sound. The soft sand flittered about a bit and started to get on our cameras. Even though we were worried that the sand would get into our cameras' lens we couldn't help but take pictures at the patterns it was making in the air as it danced along the wind. After a good while we decided to head back to the entrance of the desert so we could make it back in time to see the sun set.
The way back was just as bumpy and crazy as the trip there was! And then, right as the friendly and hospitable drivers were asking us if we were OK one of the other cars' tires got stuck in the sand! Luckily they managed to get out somehow only to get stuck again a little bit later! This time the entire car was stuck in a chasm between sand dunes! We had to end up having one of the other cars pull that car out with a rope. Meanwhile it was starting to get dark...
Once we got out of the desert and back onto the paved roads we breathed a sigh of relief. We were really thankful not to be left behind in the desert in the middle of the night! We felt like we had finally returned to the real world.
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| Episode
Eleven "Burj Khalifa and the World's Greatest" |
Originally
posted on June 25th, 2015
It's the morning of the fourth day of
location scouting. Our first stop for the day was the
roof of an apartment complex near the hotel we were staying at.
This apartment building is the tallest building in the area and lets
you look out over the city of Dubai in all directions.
Click to view a larger
version.
If you look out toward the apartment buildings and commercial buildings you'll see a group of uniquely shaped skyscrapers. Out toward the ocean you'll see the man-made island Palm Jumeirah off the Arabian coast. On the other side of that are the Emirates Towers, and beyond that is the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
Today, at long last, we were going to go to the Burj Khalifa.
We got on an empty Dubai Metro train and got off at Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station. When we got back up to street level we were greeted by the sight of the Burj Khalifa reaching up to the heavens! The tower seemed really really tall and we were still about a kilometer away! This height really messed with our sense of distance.
We walked through the Dubai Mall, which had a roof over it, in order to avoid the blazing hot sun on our way to the Burj Khalifa.
The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world and is about 23 times the size of Tokyo Dome! On top of that, this mall is also home to the aquarium with the largest water tank in the world so far, the Dubai Aquarium! It's so big that even Kyogre would be able to swim around in it freely.
We wanted to know just how many of these "world's greatests" Dubai had. As we were wondering we walked into a book shop and saw "Guinness World Records" books right there at the entrance! It seems like everyone was thinking the same thing...
We got a little lost inside the giant Dubai Mall but were eventually able to make our way to the Burj Khalifa.
The Burj Khalifa: The Burj Khalifa is also known as the "Khalifa Tower." It has a height of 828 meters and is one of the symbols of Dubai. It was designed to look like a Hymenocallis desert flower.
The plan for today's location scouting was to record the sun setting over the city of Dubai, from the beginning of its descent until it sinks out of view, from the Burj Khalifa's observation deck. Since we knew this would be a lot of people there at the time we rushed to the observation deck to avoid missing the start of the sunset. How is the view from the world's tallest building!?
Unfortunately, Dubai was having a sandstorm that day and our view was all cloudy and white.
We had wanted to see the city being bathed in the light of the setting sun but seeing the buildings surrounded by a sandstorm gave them a bewitching and charming feel instead. Maybe we'll take this experience and use it for a scene in the movie...?
It started to get dark and just as the lights in the city were starting to turn on the sandstorm began to die down, giving us a wonderful view of the beautiful city of Dubai.
If you look out toward the apartment buildings and commercial buildings you'll see a group of uniquely shaped skyscrapers. Out toward the ocean you'll see the man-made island Palm Jumeirah off the Arabian coast. On the other side of that are the Emirates Towers, and beyond that is the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
Today, at long last, we were going to go to the Burj Khalifa.
We got on an empty Dubai Metro train and got off at Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station. When we got back up to street level we were greeted by the sight of the Burj Khalifa reaching up to the heavens! The tower seemed really really tall and we were still about a kilometer away! This height really messed with our sense of distance.
We walked through the Dubai Mall, which had a roof over it, in order to avoid the blazing hot sun on our way to the Burj Khalifa.
The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world and is about 23 times the size of Tokyo Dome! On top of that, this mall is also home to the aquarium with the largest water tank in the world so far, the Dubai Aquarium! It's so big that even Kyogre would be able to swim around in it freely.
We wanted to know just how many of these "world's greatests" Dubai had. As we were wondering we walked into a book shop and saw "Guinness World Records" books right there at the entrance! It seems like everyone was thinking the same thing...
We got a little lost inside the giant Dubai Mall but were eventually able to make our way to the Burj Khalifa.
The Burj Khalifa: The Burj Khalifa is also known as the "Khalifa Tower." It has a height of 828 meters and is one of the symbols of Dubai. It was designed to look like a Hymenocallis desert flower.
The plan for today's location scouting was to record the sun setting over the city of Dubai, from the beginning of its descent until it sinks out of view, from the Burj Khalifa's observation deck. Since we knew this would be a lot of people there at the time we rushed to the observation deck to avoid missing the start of the sunset. How is the view from the world's tallest building!?
Unfortunately, Dubai was having a sandstorm that day and our view was all cloudy and white.
We had wanted to see the city being bathed in the light of the setting sun but seeing the buildings surrounded by a sandstorm gave them a bewitching and charming feel instead. Maybe we'll take this experience and use it for a scene in the movie...?
It started to get dark and just as the lights in the city were starting to turn on the sandstorm began to die down, giving us a wonderful view of the beautiful city of Dubai.
Top
| Episode
Twelve "The Fjords of the Middle East" |
Originally
posted on July 2nd, 2015
It's the fifth day of our location
scouting trip. Today we're leaving the UAE to head into its
neighbor, Oman. We wanted to go to the Musandam Peninsula which
is an
area owned by Oman that juts out into the Strait of Hormuz.
The Musandam Peninsula is also known as the "Norway of Arabia." Our plan was to take reference photos of the cliffs that make up the coastline from out at sea.
We had heard earlier that the boat rocks violently and that we would need to bring some kind of medicine to help with motion sickness. We also made sure to eat a good breakfast that morning since riding on a boat on an empty stomach wouldn't have been a good idea either. We checked out of our hotel at 7:00am and headed for a port town called Diba.
We took a bus out of the city of Dubai and headed to the border between the UAE and Oman. From there we could see the Al Hajar Mountains. We drove along the rocky mountains at full speed but it still took us about two hours before we finally arrived at the border.
This is the first location scouting trip we've been on where we've crossed the border between two countries! But there seems to be something going on at the checkpoint? Apparently something had happened the night before and for a moment there we didn't know whether or not we'd have to give up on going to Oman altogether.
But each member of the movie's staff showed their passports to prove their identities and were all let in! We were able to make it into Oman and to the city of Diba without incident.
From there we hopped aboard a two-story dhow boat and headed toward the sparkling Arabian Sea. A song with a very local feel to it played in the background as huge waves rocked the ship. The staff braced themselves as best they could and took photos of the powerful fjords. Every now and then we could feel something coming up from the pits of our stomachs...
A few staff members got on a boat capable of maneuvering in tight areas and rode toward a cave on the seashore to take reference photos. They were able to get pictures of the bluffs and the ocean scenery.
After a while our material gathering ended and so our ship headed back to the port. The waves were beginning to calm down a bit... We were so excited earlier to go out and take pictures but now that our work was done we finally had a chance to relax. There were even some members of the staff who were so exhausted after being on the road for so many days of the staff that they, after being gently rocked by the waves as if we were in a large and comfy cradle, simply fell asleep.
The Musandam Peninsula is also known as the "Norway of Arabia." Our plan was to take reference photos of the cliffs that make up the coastline from out at sea.
We had heard earlier that the boat rocks violently and that we would need to bring some kind of medicine to help with motion sickness. We also made sure to eat a good breakfast that morning since riding on a boat on an empty stomach wouldn't have been a good idea either. We checked out of our hotel at 7:00am and headed for a port town called Diba.
We took a bus out of the city of Dubai and headed to the border between the UAE and Oman. From there we could see the Al Hajar Mountains. We drove along the rocky mountains at full speed but it still took us about two hours before we finally arrived at the border.
This is the first location scouting trip we've been on where we've crossed the border between two countries! But there seems to be something going on at the checkpoint? Apparently something had happened the night before and for a moment there we didn't know whether or not we'd have to give up on going to Oman altogether.
But each member of the movie's staff showed their passports to prove their identities and were all let in! We were able to make it into Oman and to the city of Diba without incident.
From there we hopped aboard a two-story dhow boat and headed toward the sparkling Arabian Sea. A song with a very local feel to it played in the background as huge waves rocked the ship. The staff braced themselves as best they could and took photos of the powerful fjords. Every now and then we could feel something coming up from the pits of our stomachs...
A few staff members got on a boat capable of maneuvering in tight areas and rode toward a cave on the seashore to take reference photos. They were able to get pictures of the bluffs and the ocean scenery.
After a while our material gathering ended and so our ship headed back to the port. The waves were beginning to calm down a bit... We were so excited earlier to go out and take pictures but now that our work was done we finally had a chance to relax. There were even some members of the staff who were so exhausted after being on the road for so many days of the staff that they, after being gently rocked by the waves as if we were in a large and comfy cradle, simply fell asleep.
Top
| Episode
Thirteen "Palm Jumeirah and the Valley of Buildings" |
Originally
posted on July 9th, 2015
It's the final day of location scouting. Yesterday we had finished all the location scouting we were scheduled to do so today we split off into teams and went around wherever we wanted.
Director Yuyama really wanted to go to the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina. Some people think of Dubai when they think of the Palm Jumeirah, right? It's an artificial archipelago that looks like a palm tree from above.
We headed toward the Palm Jumeirah on the Jumeirah Monorail, the first monorail in the Middle East. This monorail currently runs from Gateway Station, near the so-called "root of the coconut," to Atlantis Aquadventure Station, the "top of the coconut" and the final stop on the monorail.
Since so many people in Dubai drive cars to get around the monorail is hardly ever used. Our train car was mostly empty and so, since we had the whole monorail almost completely to ourselves, we were able to sit at the front of the front-most car and take lots of great pictures.
The monorail runs along the main portion of Palm Jumeirah and you can enjoy a view from the train car window that you can normally only see through maps or aerial photographs. As we got closer to the last stop we could see a hotel that looked like a palace called the Atlantis. The train went around the hotel and headed toward the final stop.
We got off the monorail and took a look around the streets as we made our way to where we could look out over the shore to see the Dubai Marina. As we looked out at the Marina we could see it surrounded by a number of buildings, each with its own unique style to it. We were surprised to learn that all of these Tokyo Tower-class bulidings were actually condominiums.
At any rate, the scale of the Palm Jumeirah is huge. We couldn't get a full grasp of the size of it just by walking around inside so we decided to also look at it from the Marina on the opposite side.
Our tour guide lead us to a restaurant on the 52nd floor of the Marriot Harbor Hotel in the Dubai Marina. We'll be able to look down at both the Palm Jumeirah and the Marina from up high. Being in the middle of this buliding was the first time on this trip we've felt like we were in a modern place with man-made skyscrapers. The background art staff all exclaimed that "This is what we've been wanting to see!" Maybe the battle between legendary pokemon can unfold in a place like this?
The next thing we wanted to do was look at this scenery from a boat instead so we got on a water taxi and took pictures of the Dubai Marina on the water channel. The boat passed under a large bridge and through a valley of buildings as the light of the sun reflected off them.
When we arrived at the dock the sun had started to go down and evening was on its way. And so, our extra day of location scouting came to an end.
We went back to the hotel where the staff all made it back safely after spending a productive day of sightseeing.
The movie is nine days away from hitting theaters! The next entry will be the final one.
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| Episode
Fourteen |
Originally
posted on July 16th, 2015
It's been about a year since our location scouting trip to the large Middle Eastern city of Dubai. The media likes to depict the Middle East as an unstable region but the places we went were peaceful and not at all like what we've seen on the news. But it's also a fact that this trip was a bit different from the countries we've visited in the past.
"It's different from what we've heard and what we've seen."
These are the words from Director Yuyama but I think the entire location scouting staff had this in mind as well. A desert that we had only seen through videos and pictures. Standing in the middle of it all, the feel of the heat and the air in the city as you imagined it'd be versus what it's like to really be there. We had seen the phrase "desert oasis" a lot in the past but it wasn't until this trip we really got a firm grasp of what that meant.
And then there's all the rows and rows of skyscrapers. Seeing this big city glittering in the sun in the middle of the desert feels almost like a mirage.
"The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa" is finally coming out soon. The story involves Hoopa, Satoshi and Pikachu, and the legendary pokemon all battling it out over the desert city Dessert City. Will you be able to see the results of our location scouting on the big screen!?
We think those of you who enjoyed this location scouting report will be able to enjoy the movie that much more.
"The Archdjinn of the Rings, Hoopa" will hit theaters Saturday, July 18th!
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