VIDEOS

EXCERPT: Hello Tokyo’s had a facelift, new voiceovers and some updated details. I ended up doing the voiceovers for the transportation section while I was still stuffy. I did my best, but my voice sounds a little strange. If you’d like to see it, all 11 minutes are available now for

EXCERPT: On location at Narita I’m involved in a film project but this time in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes. It’s really difficult not to compose the shots in my head and think about how everything will be edited together. But all I have to do

EXCERPT: This week I’ve been reworking Hello Tokyo for a presentation that I’m giving later this month at Tokyo Here and Now, the twice-a-year orientation program hosted by the Tokyo American Club. It was high time for a Hello Tokyo update as a few things have changed since the original version.

EXCERPT: In preparation for next week’s recipe—a Japanese winter stew—here’s a video to show you how to do some of the decorative cuts that make nabe as lovely to look at as it is delicious to eat. Simple Japanese Decorative Cutting 3.7 MB 1’41” MP4

EXCERPT: A slideshow with audio captured on a brief visit to the shore of Lake Michigan in Evanston, IL. Evanston Lakeshore 2.5 MB 24” MP4

EXCERPT: I’m working on a film project now that represents the entire world’s population - 1 pixel per person - in just under 10 and a half minutes. To fill the time and make the pixels more interesting, I’m creating brief mini-features of facts on world population, growth, development, density and

EXCERPT: Pretty flakes all morning long. It’s such a rare event that I ran around filming it and set it to music. The snow is still falling—if it keeps this up we may see a centimeter or two on the ground by nighttime. I’ll have to go out to shoot snow

EXCERPT: Last week’s Gingerbread CPU post was noticed by popgadget, then engadget then Boing Boing. It’s funny how these things get passed around. I even made the Daypop Top 40: Then it got translated by a number of non-English website in Japan, Iceland, Hungary and Sweden. The number of visits increased

EXCERPT: Rhythm Train 0’18” (2.3 MB MP4) I shot this froma Tokaido line train heading towards Tokyo. I love the syncopation of the windows, doors and travellers’ heads going past. I attempted to score it in Soundtrack, but didn’t get the effect that I wanted—creating music is yet another area for

EXCERPT: Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata festival 2’20” (14.1 MB MP4) Altair and Vega get together in the Milky Way and I catch it all on video. OK, maybe not, but I did document the matsuri in Kanagawa.

EXCERPT: Let’s Make Ume Shu 4’38” (28.7 MB MP4) …starring Tracey Northcott as the barkeep… As promised, here’s a how to video with everything you need to know to make ume shu (Japanese plum wine). Learn how to choose plums, wash and dry them, sterilse the bottles, layer the fruit with

EXCERPT: The ume shu video is taking longer than I expected, but to tide you over, here’s a set of out-takes featuring Tracey’s cat, Tutu. Tutu 0’33” (3.4 MB MP4)

EXCERPT: I walked to Shinjuku to buy a book and brought my video camera along for the first time in quite a while. I condensed 90 minutes of travel into a 2 minute short. Not my most inspired work ever, but there are a few interesting things to see along the

EXCERPT: For those of you who missed last Friday’s Marshmallow Spike gig (that would be everyone except me and J-ster), here’s a first glimpse at MJ, Yoshi and their new drummer, Kei-san doing Stolen Umbrella, an original with lyrics by MJ, music by Yoshi. The camerawork is crap, I know. I

EXCERPT: Traffic. 0’40” (4 MB MP4) Shot last night with my lo-res Fuji Finepix 4500 digital still camera from the window of Tampooya restaurant in Ueno. Cars, pedestrians, and a pink-coated night worker, too.

EXCERPT: Fish Story. 0’21” (2.3 MB MP4) Another super-short. This one features many pretty fish and one wet child. I shot it at the Itabashi Freshwater Fish Museum, a municipal aquarium, on January 18th. Music courtesy of Freeplay Music.

EXCERPT: I created a super-short short yesterday and submitted it to WeeklyDV. You may recognize the footage from Hello Tokyo and the music from the Toilet Paper Inspirations last March—this is DKM Redux. Scramble. 0’31” (3.2 MB MP4) I was inspired by WeeklyDV.com, which posts a topic and a deadline and

EXCERPT: Puzzles of Daily Life Life can be confusing as a functional illiterate; let me help you figure things out fast. Puzzles of Daily Life is a 14 minute video shot on location in train stations, shops, and on the streets—the perfect thing to give you a glimpse of sights and

EXCERPT: Design Festa vol 18. 0’50” (5.4 MB MP4) The weekend was exhausting but exhilarating, too. I sold 3 DVDs, was interviewed three times, and met a lot of people, including a handful of filmmakers and a bunch of new supporters with great marketing ideas and connections. I learned how

EXCERPT: Hello Tokyo’s audio is the stuff of nightmares. It’s a mix of narration recorded in my more-or-less quiet apartment and shots taken on the streets of Tokyo with all the usual traffic and background noises and in restaurants and shops with BGM and chatting customers. I spent days banging my

EXCERPT: Well, I’ve managed to recreate the title sequence in Final Cut. Hello Tokyo title sequence. 0’46” (4.2 MB QT) In terms of fancy editing, this is certainly the most challenging of the seven segments. It incorporates superimpose edits with image masks, super track fades, scrolling text and some other trickery.

EXCERPT: Output Two minutes after Tod walked out the door towards Zurich, I was at my computer working on Hello Tokyo. The first task at hand was to review what I’ve done so far. There are 8 sections in the video: 1. Title Sequence - Complete 2. Phrases - rough edits

EXCERPT: Here’s a first edit of the “getting around” section of Hello Tokyo. It conveys information and tells the story, but it’s not yet elegant…or even close to being finished. I’ve taken the clips and put them into order—story-boarding with the video instead of paper. It’s missing the overlays, music, transitions

EXCERPT: Summer fireworks festivals are a tradition dating back hundreds of years. Originally for the powerful elite, there were public fireworks along the banks of Sumidagawa in 1733. These days summer fireworks are an excuse for everyone to get dressed up in their yukata and spend some time outdoors. Over the

EXCERPT: At long last, another edition of Video Saturday. This time, I’ve got the title sequence. The plan with Hello Tokyo is that it will be a series of videos on different aspects of life in Japan so this sequence will be reused in several videos. Getting the right pace and

EXCERPT: OK, it’s back to tasks completed on the Hello Tokyo project. This week, I’ve added in those missing fruit and convenience store bits from the previous edition of Video Saturday and I’ve added short segments on department stores and my favorite goofy shopping venue—the 100 yen shop. This is still

EXCERPT: It’s very much a work in progress this week but “in progress” is better than nothing. I think Video Saturday deadlines will get this project done. Thanks for all the nice comments and support. You’ve renewed my enthusiasm that this video is worthwhile. I managed to drop four minutes of

EXCERPT: Since I can’t really have a pajama party to finish Hello, Tokyo, I will resort to method number 2 (take that as you will) for getting this project finished: fear of public humiliation. From now until it’s done, you can expect to see a clip of work in progress every

EXCERPT: Cartesian Coordinates. hi-bandwidth (5 MB Quicktime) Cartesian Coordinates. lo-bandwidth (1.2 MB Quicktime) Cartesian Coordinates is four minute film class project I shot and edited in 1997 on 8mm. But 8mm projectors were as uncommon then as now, so I transferred it to VHS by projecting it onto a translucent

EXCERPT: I love a nice bridge. Bounce. 56K version (190 KB Quicktime) Bounce. Broadband version (742 KB Quicktime)

EXCERPT: Donna Burke. (Quicktime. 3.9 MB) Music is in the air. Today I edited together a short medley of live concert footage for a friend-of-a-friend. Unfortunately, the footage was shot by (choose one) A) an amateur B) an epileptic C) a drunken monkey D) all of the above That’s not