Media, Events, Experiments
Posts tagged Tokyo
Blacklist Tokyo 5th Anniversary Pt.2
Dec 9th
Congratulations to Cedric and Beno, founders of Blacklist Tokyo. Celebrating 5 years of great events.
Blacklist Tokyo 5th Anniversary pt.1
Dec 9th
Hfour was asked to produce a content dvd for the 5th Anniversary party of Blacklist Tokyo, featuring photographs of the event over the years. Having been involved since the second anniversary party took place at the Crystal Lounge, Hfour has grown with blacklist over the years, constantly improving content and style. What started out as a ‘VJ gig’ turned into a long term professional and personal relationship; although the video aspects of a party are not integral to its success, if the screens aren’t being used at a Blacklist party, the organizers and attendees agree that something seems missing. Congratulations to Beno and Cedric at Blacklist for rising to the pinnacle of nightlife entertainment in Tokyo, and remaining at the top for five years.
The video shown below is a different look at creating a slideshow, with inspiration from Michal, the missing partner of the Blacklist VJ duo.
Blacklist Tokyo + TLC exclusive concert invitation
Jul 2nd
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Just a quick text animation from the video commercial for Blacklist Tokyo’s exclusive event featuring TLC. (Yes, that band you thought was gone forever.) Wish I could be at the event, but it didn’t work out that way. The total commercial is 30 seconds long, but I’ve decided only to show the first few seconds.
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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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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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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.
SPC Japan Hair Congress 2009
Aug 3rd
Hfour worked with Six Inch Inc. to produce a video of S-Feh Night at Womb, June 30th 2009.
In addition to live camera mixing during the event, Hfour also produced some of the motion graphic content for the show, supplied a camera crew and edited two final versions of the promotional video.
Tokyo Women’s Bunka University Fashion Show
Jul 7th
Hfour produced the video for the annual Tokyo Women’s Cultural University fashion show which was held on June 6th 2009 on the Kokubunji campus. The full edit is just over an hour long and is unavailable for public release. This version is approximately twenty minutes shorter but still contains the show in its entirety.