人類の皆様こにゃにゃちわ！ROBOT55（ロボット・ゴー・ゴー）です！
2015年4月16日（木）23:00〜 ニコニコ動画他にて全世界配信開始される『ニンジャスレイヤー・フロム・アニメイション』のコーナー的番組『ザ・TV・ショウ』（パーソナリティー：古川タロヲ、白川未奈）をROBOT55が制作することになりました！ Continue Reading…
人類の皆様、ご機嫌麗しゅう！ROBOT55（ロボット・ゴー・ゴー）です！
「志は高いが予算は低い」方々がスマホを使ってDIYでウェブ動画、特にお店・商品紹介動画やビジネス動画を制作する上で、少しでもお役に立てればとROBOT55が不定期に行なっているのがこの「上手な動画撮影のコツ」シリーズ。
しかし折角素敵な動画を作っても、誰の目にも止まらなかったらビジネスの役には立ちませんし、フツーに切ないですよね…
そんな訳で本日は若干嗜好を変えまして「バズる動画の傾向と対策」と称し、一般的にどんな動画が広まりやすいのかを短く簡潔にまとめてみました！ Continue Reading…
Many friends in the west ask me about YouTube in Japan. Well, YouTube is popular in Japan, but when it comes to junior and high school students and the youth market in this country, YouTube has stiff competition and may even be lagging. Arguably the biggest and most popular video sharing platform in this country is Niconico. So this short article is a primer on Niconico, which used to be called Nico Nico Douga. But, even today, just about everyone still calls it “Nico Nico Douga” – even people I know who work there!
“Niko Niko” in Japanese means “Smile.” So, I guess the creators of Niconico wanted to make a play off that word and hence, “Nico Nico”…. Smile!
Alexa lists Niconico as the 8th most visited site in Japan. And here is a list of The Top 10 Most Visited Sites in Japan:
#1 Yahoo.co.jp (Japanese version of portal site) Yes, Yahoo is huge in Japan!
#2 Google.co.jp (Japanese version of portal site)
#3 Amazon.co.jp (Japanese version of portal site)
#4 Fc2.com (a free blog service)
#5 Google.com
#6 YouTube.com
#7 Rakuten.co.jp (Online retail shopping)
#8 Nicovideo.jp
#9 Facebook.com
#10 Twitter.com
Did I just hear your jaw drop to the table? Yeah, that’s right; Niconico is more popular here than Facebook or Twitter!
Niconico started out as Nico Nico Douga; a sort of hi-bred mix of YouTube and Japan’s Denpa 2 Channel. Denpa 2 Channel is a bulletin board system (BBS) that is hugely popular in Japan; especially amongst young people.
While YouTube allows viewers to add comments below the videos, Niconico allows viewers to chat and comment on the video they are watching while they are watching it! It’s pretty neat and definitely a “Japanese Thing.” The comments appear on the screen as viewers watch and they can chat back and forth while watching.
For me, I find the comments on the screen as an interference, but the Japanese kids like to watch and chat at the same time…. It’s somewhat similar to today’s games like Minecraft where one can play while chatting with friends at the same time.
The curious thing, I reckon, about Niconico is that you must sign up to view it, yet it is still hugely popular. I hate signing up for anything! At Niconico , there are two types of registered accounts at Niconico ; Free membership (that’s me!) and Premium-membership. The Premium-membership fee is ¥540 yen a month.
You’d think, though, that few would actually pay to watch videos. Think about it; would you pay about $5 (USD) a month to watch YouTube or use Facebook? Nope? Neither would I. But, in Japan it is different! As of January 2012, Niconico had surpassed 1,500,000 premium members! As of October 31, 2011, Niconico had over 23,690,000 registered users, 6,870,000 mobile users!
Another interesting thing about Niconico is that almost everything on it is User Generated Content whereas YouTube has tons of content that are old TV shows, etc. In fact, due to very strict copyright laws in Japan, it is forbidden to upload TV shows on Niconico.
Niconico users are often making music or remixing existing items with their friends and uploading the finished songs to the website.
Have you ever heard of Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid? Well, she, uh, her, uh…it? Hatsune Miku became big in Japan through Nico Nico Douga. She is still huge on the site.
Niconico has a huge fan base of “Nico Chuus” (Nico Nico Douga junkies). Kids who watch a huge volume of content on Niconico everyday.
The service is now available in Japanese, English and Chinese so it might seem the company has its expansion plans set up for Asia where BBS is much more popular than in the west. Anyway, next year will be Niconico’s 10th year and she is still going strong. When it comes to a user generated video sharing platform, then I doubt that Niconico is going to be crushed by the competition anytime soon; especially since Niconico has a tight grip on the Japanese youth market.
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Here is a Hatsune Miku video that I captured from Nico Nico Douga for you a while back (it is on YouTube because I figure if you are reading this (in English) then you don’t have access to Niconico!)
ビデオ制作、格安ビデオ制作、ROBOT55, ロボット・ゴー・ゴー,
Everyone knows the language of love. Everyone knows the language of happiness. Those feeling go past man made languages and borders.
I’ve been talking about the Olympics a lot recently as those will be bringing Japan back into the international spotlight (for good and bad) once again. It will be bringing lots of foreign tourists here too.
I think lots of people will be very surprised when they come to Japan and see just how popular American cartoon stars are in Japan. In fact, some of them are much more popular in Japan than they are in the USA?
The president of TV Tokyo (they own the rights to the Peanuts cartoons and characters) once told me that sales of Snoopy in Japan surpass those of the entire United States and Europe put together. Did you also know that Winnie the Pooh massively outsells Mickey Mouse in Japan too?
Winnie and Snoopy truly are superstars in Japan!
Of course, though, everyone already knows that Japan loves Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, but did you know that Betty Boop was popular in Japan before any of them? It’s true. And Betty Boop was popular in japan in the 1930s!
I think it is because Betty Boop could speak Japanese… No. Really. I’m not making it up. Watch this cartoon and see for yourself. In it, she sings in Japanese and dances. Her Japanese is pretty darned good too!
Here is a 1935 Max Fleischer produced Betty Boop cartoon called “A Language All My Own.” Max Fleischer was famous for Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Superman and Popeye.
Wikipedia says about this cartoon:
The studio produced this short after discovering that Betty was very popular in Japan. Animator Myron Waldman, worried that Betty’s gestures might offend the conservative Japanese audience, asked a group of Japanese college students to review his work. Having Betty sing in Japanese also allowed her to slip a racy comment past the Hays Office: one of the lyrics in the Japanese song translates to “Come to bed with me and we’ll boop-oop-a-doop!” “Come to bed with me and we’ll boop-oop-a-doop”
Indeed! Please enjoy this 5 minute cartoon from a simpler time from yesteryear! This is so charming. You don’t get any more eclectic than this!(Betty starts singing in Japanese at about 3:45!)
Betty Boop? You kidding me? I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating rice crackers!
I think it is interesting the date of this cartoon; it is a mere 5 years before the 1940 Tokyo Olympics were scheduled to start! Just like today, 5 years until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics! This just shows that a good film or video production in English or Japanese truly does speak a million words!
Oh, and here’s one more thing that will blow your mind, Betty Boop is STILL popular in Japan! I see her image on girl’s bags and accessories and see her image on posters around Tokyo to this very day… I’d bet that, in 2015, Betty Boop is much more popular in Japan than in the States.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. And we all agree with that, right?
Well, if a mere photo speaks a thousand words, then a video speaks millions. Here is a video that I found while searching for images for a client. Actually, I cried at about 1:40 of the video where the mom is serving food to the two kids and the song, Shojyoji no Tanuki Bayashi 「証城寺の狸囃子」（しょうじょうじのたぬきばやし) , is played. My mother used to sing that song for me at bedtime when I was a little boy.
This video shows the life of a typical Japanese family in 1966. It was filmed by a German TV crew. This is quite enjoyable as it shows the family and their daily life; waking in the morning; going to work and school; the day’s events and coming home at night.
Please pay attention because there are many very cool shots of Tokyo intersections, the train stations, an old TV and much more. But one thing really struck me about life in Japan: Basically, things haven’t changed all that much since 1966 to today: kids still wear uniforms, the family unit is still strong, the train stations look the same. It’s wonderful. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Here is the video:
1966 Japanese Family Life (if the video doesn’t play, click here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvoZjbp9R1w)
I watched the entire film and enjoyed it immensely so I thought we should share it with you.
Having a film like this immortalizes this family and this slice of time.
Having videos of the family is great and it is wonderful to see everyone prosperous and healthy.
When it comes to family videos, the cameras nowadays make great videos for the family. But for the business, and those special occasions, you want to show customers and potential customers your dedication to quality and care, then a professionally made video from the Tokyo production team of Robot55 could be the answer you are looking for.
The video above is 45 years old and is still very cool and cost several tens of thousands of dollars to create. But, a top-quality professional 60-second video showing people your shop, restaurant or business done by Robot55 can be made as low as ¥70,000!
Let’s do the math, the Tokyo Olympics is coming in 5 years, so your video can help your business greatly in that time and beyond. 5 years x 365 days a year = 1,825. ¥70,000 / ¥1,825 is ¥38 yen a day. (¥4 a day if we are looking at it from a 45-year calculation!)
Could there be any better, cheaper, more effective way to drive customers using a smart phone or other device to find your business than a video on Youtube or your webpage? Contact us at Robot55! email:contact@robot55.jp
ROBOT55設立前から僕たちは好きなバンドのPVを格安、場合によっては友達割引（＝無料）で制作してきました。理由は簡単です – 僕らは音楽のおかげで素晴らしい人生を生きてこられたから、そして好きな音楽のために映像を作ることは僕たちにも幸せを与えてくれるからです。
食べていく為にはこのような活動以外の色々な事をやらなくてはいけないのは事実ですが、こうやって自分たちの心や魂にも栄養を与えてあげないといけませんよね。
「仕事の為」と割り切って心ときめかない事ばかり毎日やっていくには人生は短すぎます。「予定帳には載っていない一番確実な予定」である「死」はいつやってくるか分かりませんから。 Continue Reading…
本日より遂に巷で噂の（？）今年一番熱い短編映画「ロックンロール・ゴースト・ストーリー（仮題）」の編集が開始しました！
かの巨匠、黒澤明も「編集」こそ「作品」に命が吹き込まれる瞬間と言っているくらい大事なプロセスです。 Continue Reading…
Yes. Today is the big day! The day of the first edit session for that movie or video project you’ve been thinking about.
We are doing that too for our “Rock N Roll Ghost Story” movie today too.
Shooting session at Shibuya Milky Way Jan. 26, 2015. Bottom right, clockwise: Ken Nishikawa, Enrico Ciccu, Bogie, Dori, Danny (The 50回転ズ）Tatsuji Nobuhara (The Privates), Taro Furukawa (famous DeeJay), Tomomi Hiraiwa (actress) and Mike Rogers (playing dead guy).
The entire video production team got together two times in Tokyo. The first day was Jan. 23, in Komazawa in Setagaya-Ku in Tokyo; the second shoot was Jan. 26th in Tokyo’s famous Shibuya area.
The Robot55 team had everything together to make a perfect shoot; lighting, professional video team, director, professional actors and, of course, a screenplay.
The screenplay is a sort of “map.” We have to have a screenplay; don’t know where you are going to without a map, right?
I plan on posting some early edits here for your pleasure!
Stay tuned!
“Don’t dream it. Be it.” – Tim Curry as ‘Dr. Frankenfurter’ from the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Last year, when I had a close call with death (please refer to: Near Death at the Hospital, Last Month! – Back in Humor, This Month!) I realized that I needed to start doing the things in my life that I have been dreaming about. So, I decided that I had to get my talented friends together and make a short feature film. I think there is a chance for us to build a Rock & Roll Cult movement that is famous around the world between now and the 2020 Olympics.
I want to be in the center of that movement. The movement involves Japanese culture, past and present, rock and roll music and animation.
To make things easier to grasp, I think it might be good to tell you, dear reader, the 4 key words (images) that I always want to keep in mind for all the films and projects we make: 1) 1950s Science Fiction, 2) Rock and Roll, 3) Horror/Ghost movies, 4) Tarantino.
I think if I can keep my mind, and my staff’s mind, on these images, then we will succeed in making the kinds of things that will be perfect to put 2015 ~ 2020 Tokyo into the minds of the fans of cult films and music… Because the Olympics and big money cash-ins amongst the politically well connected ARE NOT what we, nor Japanese people are about… At least I hope so.
Our story is about a struggling Rock and Roll musician who finds the tortured spirit of an old blues musician living in his studio. At night, when they are all alone, the two together make music that is unworldly in its brilliance, yet no one can hear it except the struggling rocker and the dead blues musician. It doesn’t have a happy ending… Or does it?
I wanted to make this movie on the level of quality of something like Quentin Tarrantino makes. Yes. Laugh now, if you wish; it is a ridiculous goal for us. Ridiculous or not, that is the heights we aim for.
To be the director of the movie, I asked Enrico Ciccu who has written and directed for some very fine cult movie productions in Italy. He has agreed to direct. Enrico is a difficult person to work with; but that’s the way I like it. Great artists are never easy people to deal with. Enrico wrote the screenplay and had a large hand in the making for this short film which was accepted at the Sapporo Film Festival: “Julie – Johnny Guitar.”
I think “Julie – Johnny Guitar” captures the essence of what we want to accomplish in the Rock & Roll Ghost Story: A Tarantino style full of cinematic allusions and pop culture references.
In any quality film, not only is the director a critical issue, but lighting is also something that makes or breaks the visuals – and therefore the suspension of disbelief – in a film. For the lighting of our movie, I recruited a guy who has been a good friend for nearly twenty years. He was my next door neighbor for ten years and he is now my lighting director. His name is Yuji Wada…
Oh, yeah, I guess I should also mention that Yuji Wada was the lighting director for many Sophie Coppola films, one of my favorites was the Hollywood smash hit, Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray.
The lighting in this scene is the feel of what I want. Yuji is the perfect guy for that. Need proof? Here, below, is a shot from our session on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. This is EXACTLY what I wanted.
For our cameraman, I asked Ken Nishikawa who is a former BBC staff as well as director at TBS. Ken has worked on TV and film productions for just about every major TV station in Japan. He is a superb cameraman and brilliant artist. He also wrote the screenplay and is directing production for another Robot55 production entitled: Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha, which we will be going into serious production this spring. Here is the short trailer for that:
Finally, to put it all together, I needed actors who can actually perform and have a strong Rock and Roll image. Who better than one of Japan’s best rock and roll bands, “The Neatbeats”? Mr. Pan, lead singer of the Neatbeats, will play the part of our struggling musician. He is the hero, and failure, of our movie. He is the guy sitting on the right of the sofa in the photo above. The guy is just overflowing with Rock and Roll. He’s perfect!
Besides Mr. Pan, we also have several other famous Japanese rock stars acting in our movie. I am also in one scene acting as a guy who is drunk and almost dead from boredom. Here is that scene that was shot night before last on Jan. 26, 2015:
Robot55 movie shoot. On stage is the Privates. Table in front is Furukawa Taro and Tomomi Hiraiwa. Table behind (guy sleeping) is me, Mike Rogers (Brilliant acting, right?) Camera (far right) Enrico Ciccu (Director). Photo by Arai Osamu.
The editing for this film starts next week. As we progress, we will post updates. I may be acting dead in this photo, but I am going to die a happy man when this production is finished and it is world-quality and as good as anything Hollywood makes. It is one thing, a first of many, that all of us; Ken Nishikawa, Enrico Ciccu and me, have dreamt about all our lives.
Like the good doctor, said, “Don’t dream it. Be it.”
Photo from the set of “A Japanese Rock & Roll Ghost Story” Left to right: Mike Rogers (sitting in front), Enrico Enrico Wtmm Ciccu (standing), Ken Nishikawa (kneeling in middle), Mr. Pan (sitting on sofa laughing). (photo by Osamu Arai)
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There is also a boom of English language videos and productions coming to Japan and Robot55 aims to be a key player in making viral videos for the foreign market that comes to Japan. Why not? We have people who live and work professionally in this market in TV and video production as well as guys who have made many commercials and smash hit (and cult) TV and radio shows.
I am confident that there is no other company in Japan who can touch us for that market; making viral videos in English for the foreigners coming to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics. There is a cult and cutlure boom coming to Japan in the next 5 years.