Media, Events, Experiments
hfour
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Posts by hfour
Shinagawa, Tokyo, 2007 品川、東京
Jun 24th
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A digitally manipulated image of the crowds of commuters in Shinagawa station was recently retrieved from my digital archives, readjusted and submitted to a photographic competition. Whether or not it wins, I still like the photo.
Japan is arguably the world’s most technologically driven society. Common assumptions of society in Japan are that salarymen are all the similar in thought and mind, yet this is not the case. My photograph depicts a man resisting the surge and heading upstream, possibly to forge ahead and conquer unknown goals. A part of a greater whole, yet as individual as anyone on earth.
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Dream Sequences
Jun 22nd
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It’s the end of term one at Vancouver Film School, and a short video project has been completed, titled Dream Sequences.
The subject matter is dreams and reality.
Here’s a little background story:
I was traveling in China a few years ago seeing some of the sights off the main tourist routes. My path merged with a wonderful lady from Australia, and we journeyed together for several days. We had interesting discussions about the sites we visited, and had non-stop laughter and emotional connection throughout our time together… and then I woke up. The entire experience was a dream. Does the fact that this chance encounter in Asia was not ‘real’ in this world make the experience any less valid? The lessons learned from the dream are the same as they would be if it were real. I wonder if one day, I’ll meet the lady, perhaps somewhere else in the world, and she’ll have a shared memory of the dream? Would we recognize each other?
The subject matter of the film asks questions about the relative meaning of being awake versus the meaning of being in a dream state. At what point are we fully awake? What are the intermediary states? Wikipedia might have factual answers, but at this moment, I prefer the questions.
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Returning to study for one year is turning out to be a positive experience, not only for technical skill development, but also for the open opportunities to produce more theoretically and conceptually based design and art work.
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Underwater Filming
Jun 22nd
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I shot some underwater video for a student project which will be released shortly.
Here are some pointers for filming underwater video more successfully for the unexperienced.
1. Weight your camera so it is neutrally buoyant when filming underwater. If the case makes the camera float, holding a steady shot underwater is much more difficult.
2. Wear swim fins for mobility. I didn’t do this the first time around. I’ll definitely do it next time.
3. Larger goggles are better than smaller goggles for visibility.
4. A weight belt would also be helpful, to keep your own body neutrally buoyant. Just make sure that you can swim well enough.
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Oil Siren: we need you, we love you.
Jun 22nd
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I developed an oil monster character illustration over the past week. The initial concept came from what has been happening recently in the Gulf of Mexico. Initially, the intent was to create a dark and evil menace which was killing everything in its path, except the process of drawing, digitization and coloring left the character decidedly ‘beautiful’. Years of being inspired by Mucha must have left a mark on my style. Instead of changing the drawing, I decided to amend the concept to suggest that our unquenchable addiction to oil turns the oil monster into a thing of beauty. It is an Oil Siren. We need her, we love her, we cannot stop burning her or forming her into plastics. We are powerless to her siren calls. The Oil Siren is so entrenched in our society that we cannot break our addiction and will destroy ourselves in the process. She could be a contemporary version of the legendary siren myths from antiquity.
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Pixel Paintings
Jun 5th
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I just found a couple digital images of paintings I did back in my university days.
A discussion of technologically mediated communication, the paintings depict digital communication systems overlayed on pixelated imagery of found webcam screenshots. The overlay style, painted in a definitely analog method, reference the digital layer opacity workflow found in applications such as Photoshop.
It cannot be denied that communication methods have changed as a result of technology. Just over a century ago, communication across oceans took months, and now, real time HD video can stream. Speaking over the phone is different from speaking through connected computers. Video chat and web cam communication has changed our conceptual size of the real world, bringing people closer together, yet there is an increased psychological distance between humans emerging related to digital mediation. Do the benefits outweigh the detriments? Only time will tell.
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SLS AMG Event Proposal Content
May 31st
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I was approached by a client about producing content for an event for the Japan release of the new Mercedes Benz SLS AMG supercar. There were three components to the proposal which required visual media content produced by Hfour.
First was an animation for the release of the car which wouldn’t actually show the car, presented on a screen above the car immediately prior to its unveiling. The tunnel theme which has been a dominant trend in the global advertising campaign was also to be included. Making an automotive theme without showing images or video of the car proved to be a creative challenge which was met with motion lines tracing key elements and shapes.
Second was a LED tunnel at the entrance of the event space. The plan was to use large LED panels built into a tunnel shape, and to create an atmospheric tunnel experience with more references to the natural elements than a vehicle.
Third was a large scale video mapping project on the surface of the Kaigakan, the National Picture Museum in Tokyo, featuring photographs from early 20th Century Japan.
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Sakura and Kimono
May 31st
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A quick short film made from stock footage I shot in Tokyo in the spring of 2010. Colour graded and vfx added in May 2010. Cliche or Archetypical? You be the judge.
It is an interesting cultural aside to mention that the lady in the video has only worn a kimono twice in her life. This is a common phenomenon in Japan: the first time a young lady usually wears a kimono is for ‘Coming of Age’ day, when she is 20, and the second time is frequently her wedding or university graduation.
Older ladies find more occasions to wear a kimono, including tea ceremony and other traditional cultural affairs. Does this mean that the cultural heritage of Japan is in decline, and that young people are turning more towards an international style? Hardly so: I remember seeing photographs of a temple’s ladies’ club spanning through several decades, and the members were consistently over 50. Perhaps the keen interest in traditions only grows with maturity over the years.
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NYE 2010 in Tokyo
Jan 20th
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Hfour collaborated with 5, Tokyo’s hottest event team to produce a truly spectacular new year’s eve party for about 350 people at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo.
Stage concept and design and video performance by Hfour.
Two thematic concepts were used for this event:
The first theme was 2010: A Bass Odyssey. (Some motion design content courtesy of vjvault.)
The second theme was NeoTraditionalisme: the fusion of traditional Japanese styles with a countdown party, including champagne and house music.
Three projectors were used: a 7000 lumen for the screen and 2 x 2200 lumen projectors to cover parts of the walls and ceiling with star effects and other illuminating shapes.
The audio coming into the camera’s mic was frightfully distorted, so I’ve uploaded two versions.
Here is one of the videos:
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Ancient Tranquility
Dec 1st
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In the summer of 2009, I traveled to Yakushima, an island in the southern archipelago of Japan, to watch the total solar eclipse. Unfortunately, due to cloudy weather, I was unable to see or film my first eclipse. However, despite the clouds and rain, I journeyed deep into the ancient forests of the island to see the famous Yaku-sugi, (giant cedar) and the gaze upon the landscape which inspire scenes from Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke).
The island has no large predators, hunting has been forbidden for several decades, and the visitors to the island come with a deep respect for nature. Thus the animals have little fear of humans and wander through the deep forests with relative comfort and tranquility.
Music composed by Only Music. Davy Bergier “Flooting” . Published by Only Music. © 2008 onlymusic.fr
Filmed in HD with a Canon HF-S10
UPDATE: The video has been re-uploaded with new color correction.
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Bathysphere Video Installation @ Mariana Tokyo
Oct 26th
Mariana is THE deep techno music event in Tokyo.
On August 15, 1934, Barton and Beebe made a world record descent to a depth of 3,028 feet (923 m), the record remaining unbroken for 15 years.[2]
What Beebe saw on that trip—and reported with such vividness—was a glowing world of creatures so astonishing that for decades many doubted his veracity. The clear sea stretched endlessly, and was so full of luminescence that it sparkled like the night sky. Cavalcades of black shrimps, transparent eels, and bizarre fish approached the descending sphere, and when Beebe used his spotlight to see them, great shadows and shifting patches of light hovered just out of view, leading him to postulate the existence of giants in the Bermudan depths. And below the bathysphere? There, said Beebe, lay a world that “looked like the black pit-mouth of hell itself.”
Hfour collaborated with Mariana’s key organizer to create an ambient ‘back wall’ video installation showcasing found footage of deep sea life and exploration.
Visit mariana-jp.com/ for information about upcoming events.