All posts in “video production tokyo”

The Tokyo Olympics – 1964 News Reels

2015年2月10日 / No Comments

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are coming. I was searching for information on the subject when I stumbled upon some old video of newsreel footage that show the scenes and I thought you might like to go with me on a blast to the past.

These two are Universal News newsreels (Yes, Universal used to do the news also!) Probably a common denominator between these videos of 1964 and the 2020 Olympics will be that the USA is probably one of the top two medal winners. I expect that China, and not the Soviet Union, will be the ones to beat in 2020.

This first one is entitled, “The Olympics – U.S. Widens Tokyo Lead from Oct. 19, 1964. Here’s the description:  “(1) brief shot of Harold Wilson of Britain (2) Tokyo Olympics as Hirohito watches; Sharon Studer wins 3rd medal in butterfly swim race; platform diving won by Leslie Bush; track events include 100 meter spring won by Hayes – slow motion of finish; women’s 100 meter (partial newsreel).”

By the way, did you know that Japan came in third in medals in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics? Wow! What’s happened since then? It’s anybody’s guess, but Japan has been an also-ran in the Olympics in the last few decades.

Here’s a medal chart:

1964 Olympics medal countWikipedia has all the details:

The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan from October 10 to 24, 1964. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan’s invasion of China, before ultimately being canceled because of World War II. The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, and the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to its apartheid system in sports. (South Africa was, however, allowed to compete at the 1964 Summer Paralympics, also held in Tokyo, where it made its Paralympic Games debut.)

Tokyo was chosen as the host city during the 55th IOC Session in West Germany, on May 26, 1959. These games were also the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas as they were for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier. The games were telecast to the United States using Syncom 3, the firstgeostationary communication satellite, and from there to Europe using Relay 1. These were also the first Olympic Games to have color telecasts (partially). Certain events like the sumo wrestling and judo matches, sports huge in Japan, were tried out using Toshiba’s new color transmission system; but just for the domestic market, not for any international coverage. History surrounding the 1964 Olympics was chronicled in the 1965 documentary film Tokyo Olympiad, directed by Kon Ichikawa.

The second video is about the dawning of the Bullet Train. Check it!

I think there is one more thing though that might be common about the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; There’s going to be lots of foreigners from around the world coming to Tokyo so Japanese businesses need to up their game and promote their businesses to these wealthy foreigners while they can!

Web video and local productions in various languages will be key to growing your business.

If you need anything concerning video production in Tokyo and video production in the English language, please ask us at Robot55.

Video Tips! Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! Pt. 1〜ビジネス動画を自分で作ってみよう！その１〜

2015年2月9日 / No Comments

Making a video to place on Youtube and Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and other cool Social Media is a great way to get the word out about your business. Lots of people are now searching for videos on Youtube when they look for a restaurant or coffee shop or other businesses that are in the local area.

Here is a video for a local hairstyling shop. In just 30 Seconds, you know the staff and the interior and atmosphere of this small, friendly hair styling salon:

Think about it: You are at the train station waiting for your friends to go, say, drink some beer and eat Yakitori. But you don’t know any good places around. The usual way is to search Tabelog or Gurunavi, and that’s OK, but static photos don’t show you what kind of place or the atmosphere as well as we want. The new way people are doing the search is on Youtube. Why? Because a Youtube video can show customers your place and the food or products/services and the atmosphere much better than any still photos can.

Here is the screen capture of a web page for a fabulous bar in Shinjuku named Albatross:

Screen shot 2015-02-09 at 15.17.35

This is your typical web page today. It serves a purpose, but it doesn’t make people “want” to visit.

We went to Albatross the other day and shot the video for them that they need. Here is is. Compare this video with the webpage above and tell me which makes you want to go check the establishment out!

Watching the above video makes you want to visit Albatross. It looks like a very cool place to stop for a drink while visiting Tokyo. It’s very “Japanese”!

The plan for this video is to embed the video into the Albatross webpage above and to make the page “come alive.” A webpage shouldn’t just be a “digital poster,” it should offer the visitor a total multi-media experience that actually makes them want to visit for themselves. I will post the new page as soon as they embed the video. But I think you get my meaning here; the video makes the place “come alive” and shows you exactly what the interior is like and how warm and fun and what the staff are like; you needn’t be a stranger on your first visit!

Of course, the Albatross video above is made by the professionals at Robot55 and cost ¥80,000. It is classy and effective. If you use the video for, say, 5 years, that comes out to a price of only about ¥43 per day; there isn’t a cheaper, more effective way to increase your business today!

¥43 yen per day? Think about it!

But what about a guy who isn’t sure of spending the money and wants to make a video on their own just to “try it out”? Great! Good idea! We are here also to give you support. There are lots of people who we call “Youtubers” who are making their own videos and doing well at selling their product or service.

Here’s a funny one: Cooking With Dog!

cooking with dog

Cooking With Dog is one of the better homemade productions, but, I think you can see it is an amateur production. I think it is good enough for what they want to accomplish. Perhaps if they were a restaurant, they’d want better quality (and not have dogs in the kitchen! Ahem…)

I figure they spent a few days shooting and putting this together. Which might not be good for you, especially if you are trying to run a business. But, all in all, still pretty good for an establishment that hasn’t the money for a proper professionally made video; no matter how cheap it is!. Heck this is of a lot better than nothing! Depending on your goals, any presence on Youtube is better than no presence at all.

There are many small things that can be done to “up your game” when making a video to help increase your business.

Here, on Robot55, we will start this new series on “Making a homemade video” that can help your business; starting today. It will include tons of tips and tricks we’ve learned from over 30 years experience in the video business and we are giving this advice away for absolutely free.

Next week, I will help you out with the most basic problems of these homemade videos: Composition of images and making your sound better.

Hope to see you next week!

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For more free tips on how to better make your business video for free:

Video Tips! Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! Pt. 1 (www.robot55.jp/blog/video-tips-make-your-own-video-for-your-business-for-free-pt-1/)
Video Tips! Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! Part 2 (www.robot55.jp/blog/video-tips-make-your-own-video-for-your-business-for-free-part-2/)
Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! Part 3 – You Need a Map: How to Write a Script! (http://robot55.jp/blog/make-your-own-video-for-your-business-for-free-part-3-you-need-a-map-how-to-write-a-script/)
Video Tips! Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! Pt. 4(（www.robot55.jp/blog/video-tips-make-your-own-video-for-your-business-for-free-pt-4/)

 

Life is Short – Keep Learning! Day of Editing and Color Correction〜ビデオ編集講座カラーコレクション編

2015年2月8日 / No Comments

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” ― Isaac Asimov

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” ― Henry Ford

“I’m unpredictable, I never know where I’m going until I get there, I’m so random, I’m always growing, learning, changing, I’m never the same person twice. But one thing you can be sure of about me; is I will always do exactly what I want to do.” ― C. JoyBell C.

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Yesterday was a great day editing our Japanese Rock N Roll Ghost Story movie. It was fun.

I felt happy because of two important things:

1) We were creating our dream. I mean, it was me, us, we. We were creating our dreams by making the effort. There was nothing stopping us from making what we wanted to create and, therefore becoming who we are destined to be.

2) We were learning. We were all learning a new skill and how to become better at our craftsmanship. We learn by doing; by being; by making the effort. Isn’t this the way to live a fulfilled and happy life?

Today? I woke up happy and feeling good. It’s nice to be nearly sixty-years-old and wake up in the morning feeling good and thinking, “Gee! I learned something totally new yesterday.” No matter how old we get, we must continually keep learning and expanding ourselves and our universe.

There are quotes at the top of this page by the famous, but in my own Hollywwod, the quote might be:

“Life happens to people.”

Folks, keep learning! Live life to the fullest.

Yesterday, we had a day of editing and color correction on the Japanese Rock N Roll Ghost Story movie. It was the first time to have ever used Da Vinci software for color correction. I had never seen the software before. I now know why all the big Hollywood movies use it.

I mentioned before that we had finished the initial stages of video production and the trailer now looks set to be of “Hollywood” quality. I am expecting the trailer to be ready for your viewing within two weeks of this posting.

I look forward to more video editing, shooting, and post production in the next few days. I hope you do too.

We will keep you posted.

mr. pan 012615Mr. Pan, lead vocalist and guitar of the Neatbeats. Mr. Pan is starring in the film. (Photo by Osamu Arai)

To read more about: A Japanese Rock & Roll Ghost Story – click here: www.robot55.jp/rock-roll-ghost-story/

Multi-Media Marketing Concept and Keeping a Theme

2015年2月7日 / No Comments

(Image at top: Movie shoot before Jan. 26, Shin Nen Kai “New Year’s Party” event.)

This post is about keeping a constant theme throughout a marketing campaign regardless of the media. It involves print media, FM radio, and Digital Signage.

 

We held our annual “Shin Nen kai” (Rock and Roll New Year’s Party) on Jan. 26, 2014 at Milky Way in Shibuya, in Tokyo. It was a wonderful event and was “sold out” months in advance. When all was said and done and the concert/party over, I was told by the manager of Milky Way that this night had set the record for attendance (and alcohol and drink sales) at his establishment.

Sold out months in advance and setting a record for attendance? A promoters dream come true.

From November of 2014, the concept for the entire concert/party was established. This was the event poster:

Jan. 26, 2015 at Shibuya Milky Way

Jan. 26, 2015 at Shibuya Milky Way

I designed the poster concept based on an old Motown poster that I had always liked. I thought the red and yellow tones fit the image of a New Year’s party in Japan. So we went with this.

In order to keep the concept consistent and marketing all on the same theme, I made a FM radio commercial that ran on the radio station from Mid-December 2014 until the morning of the actual event on Jan. 26, 2015.

Using the radio commercial as the sound base we also made a Youtube commercial for the event. It was a commercial in Japanese and English. For the images for the Youtube commercial, we simply imported the data from the poster created in Photoshop (and a few images from a former Digital Signage work) and made a “moving poster” as seen here:

The poster was created on Photoshop. A radio commercial for the radio station was created. Then the elements from the poster were layered over the radio commercial to create the “TV Ad” (Digital Signage).

In this way, we can make an effective advertising campaign with an easily recognizable and consistent theme… And we can do it for very low costs.

Was this a successful campaign and event bringing the station several months worth of promotion for dirt cheap? The venue was “sold out” a month in advance and we set the record for attendance at that establishment; people are still talking about it now…

If the proof is in the eating, then I guess that’s proof of a smash success.

Oh, by the way, why are people still talking about this event (and I suspect they will be talking about it for a very long time)? Because all of February, we are giving away 7 posters signed by all the band members along with an official backstage pass.

Signed Poster

Signed Poster

Want a poster? Send an email to: wtf@interfm.jp by Feb. 22, 2015.

*Of course, in fact, this blog post is a continuation of that promotion!

ROBOT55は新しいバンドを応援します！

2015年2月6日 / No Comments

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…

Sex Pistols, Clash, Gen X, Sheila Rock and Why We Sometimes Make Videos for Free!

2015年2月6日 / 1 Comment

Today’s thoughts…I call this:  Sex Pistols, Clash, Gen X, Sheila Rock and Why We Sometimes Make Videos for Free!

Sometimes, my friend Ken and I make promotional music videos for young bands for free – no charge.

Why do we sometimes make rock band videos for free? That’s actually an easy question to answer. Both Ken and I have had a good life provided to us by music. Of course there is much more that we need to accomplish in our short time on this earth, but, until now, music has treated us well. I think we should keep doing work to live and eat (of course) but we also need to do things to nourish our heart, soul and mind.

The reason why I say that we should keep doing these sorts of things in our short time on this planet is because three things that happened to me in 2014:

1) I almost died in September. I wrote about that here in Near Death at the Hospital, Last Month! – Back in Humor, This Month! www.modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.jp/2014/11/where-did-i-go-to-hospital.html

2) I met Sheila Rock the world famous photographer. Sheila took many iconic photos of the SexPistols, the Clash and Generation X (plus a bunch of others that I can’t recall this early in the morning) back in the heyday of London Punk. Sheila told me that, in her youth, she never got paid to take those photos of the Clash, Sex Pistols, etc….She said she did it for fun and because she thought the subjects were “interesting.”

Mike, Sheila Rock (famous photographer) and Kato Madoka at Agnes B event

Mike, Sheila Rock (famous photographer) and Kato Madoka at Agnes B event

I told Sheila that my friend (Ken Nishikawa) and I often I make videos for young bands and don’t ask for money. Some notable ones were Shonen Knife, the Neatbeats, Glen Matlock (original bassist for the Sex Pistols), Bobby’s Bar, Moja, and so many more I can’t recall those either! (You can see several of them at the top of this page) I showed her some of them in the short time we had.

She seemed impressed. She’s a nice lady and a wonderful person.

She was very enthusiastic about us making those videos to help those people. I also told her the bit about how music has given us a wonderful life and, if we can, we wanna pay back and help some young people. Young people, who, if we don’t help them, they will never get a chance of ever having a video of their performance made; no matter if they are genius and talented musicians; luck plays a big part in everyone’s life.

If, after I die, if someone says, “I was lucky to meet Mike Rogers” (or Ken, or Ayumi, or?) then I will be one more person happier.

Sheila really complimented and supported us with her words. She said, “When I took those photos way back when, I never realized what sort of legacy I was recording and the legacy I was leaving for myself. It took many years later, when we went back and looked and saw all these photos I had taken…. It is my statement and reason for life….. Tell your friend that I said to ‘keep it up.'”

3) I think we all must keep making something everyday if we can; something new, fresh, fun and also for posterity’s sake….

We all do what we do to live but I think we also should try do what we do for ourselves and our legacy; “Posterity’s Sake” is a good thing. Let’s live to make something that people will remember you by. Even if you never become famous for it, but just because it is good and is makes someone happy.

Do it for yourself and do it for your loved ones.

Mike Rogers (Photo by Sheila Rock)

Mike Rogers (Photo by Sheila Rock)

OK! There’s three things that Johnny Rotten and I have in common: 1) We are in a photo together at the top of this page; 2) We both have been in punk bands; 3) Both of us have had their photo taken by Sheila Rock…. Thanks Sheila! You are Tops!

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There’s an old saying about regrets:

“Your regrets in life aren’t what you did, but what you didn’t do when you had the chance.” – Anonymous

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MORE! Like our Robot55 Mission Statement:

“We make wonderful productions; for a profit if we can, at a loss if we must. But no matter what, we make wonderful productions.”

As for me, every time I go do a shoot or edit with our team and some of the world-class professionals we work with, I learn something. I learn something on how to become a better artist and craftsman and I learn something about myself.

If we all can remember this everyday of our lives, then I think it helps us to become better. I really do.

I also believe in the Law of Attraction and know that if we keep our eye on it, then we will find those who will support us financially and spiritually.

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We’d like to let folks know who we are and what we do at Robot55. (That’s actually pronounced, “Robot Go Go” as “55” in Japanese can be pronounced as “Go Go.”)

Our Mission Statement says:

“We make wonderful video productions, at a profit if we can; at a loss if we must. But, no matter what, we make wonderful video productions.”

If we are not going to make something with all of our selves and our hearts aren’t it in, we don’t want to do it. Let’s live life to the fullest.

If you are an independent band about to come to Tokyo, won’t you contact us? Depending on our schedule and the type of music you do, maybe we can make some art together!

Endo Toshikatsu Exhibition at the Akiyama Gallery

2015年2月5日 / No Comments

Yesterday, Feb 4, 2015, after a day of editing video for the “Japanese Rock & Roll Ghost Story” movie, we decided to get outside and stretch the legs and the mind. A bit down the road and just across the street is a quaint little gallery that we always pass by named Akiyama Gallery. You can find Akiyama Gallery here: http://akiyama-g.com/

As we walked by I noticed a name of the front plaque. It said, artist “Endo Toshikatsu” (遠藤利克) and I thought, “Hey! I know this artist! In fact, I was just looking at his name card yesterday.”

toshikazu endo

It’s true! By sheer coincidence, I saw this name card and, because of the Kanji and the fact that this is an artist, I guess we must have met somewhere before. I am always looking for great places to use as sets for artist interviews, or great backdrops for video shoots or TV shows. And, I always try to find coincidence in my life and use it to my advantage, so, we decided to enter the gallery.

Entering the gallery was like entering another world; it was like entering another universe; not a heavenly or peaceful one like you’d see in the movies; it was a world of heaviness and, well, fear. There, in the middle of this large, empty white space, was a giant burnt out hull of what seems to be a giant bath or a washbasin. It reeked of the smell of tar. What kind of monstrosity was this? Is this the art exhibit?

We walked in and I signed my named on the guest list at the door. Soon, we were greeted by the lovely and most gracious Ms. Akiyama Tazuko  (秋山田津子）who gave us a short guided tour of the work of art that sat in the middle of the room. It was a giant burnt out wash basin. It looked as if it were the wash basin of colossal gods of tens of hundreds of thousand years ago, burnt out and now lifeless; the death of an ancient civilization in front of our eyes.

I peered over the edge of the work and into the pit at the bottom.

“What is that oil smell?”” It permeated everything in the room. It reeked like the smell of a construction crew laying asphalt on a road or an oil drilling site.

“It is tar.” Ms. Akiyama cooly answered.

I stood back. The sight and smell encapsulating my entire body and mind. It reminded me of the Tar Pits of La Brea where animals and plant life of the Pleistocene Garden of the Ice Age find they are preserved forever in the pits of tar.

As I stood there trying to take it all in and digest what I was seeing, it hit me, “This is scary,” I said. And I meant it.

This work of art made me feel a sense of fear. Of fear of what? I do not know. Death, perhaps? But I definitely felt fear. Perhaps it was the kind of fear that the saber toothed tigers felt when they were trapped in the tar pits of La Brea; struggling to get out. But the more they struggle, the deeper they sink… Or perhaps it was a fear that I had stumbled into another world; a world of the gods where I was not wanted nor welcomed. It was a place where those much greater than I had dwelt; and they were all dead. What does that mean for me if the immortal ones have long since died and their lives burned away? Was the a picture of our collective future?

We watched for a while. Watching what, I do not fully understand… and then we were off.

That was 24 hours ago; I can still smell that art display and imagine that, next time I smell tar or asphalt, the memory will come rushing back to me; even if I don’t want it to; like some pre-historic animal trapped in tar and sinking fast.

Endo Toshikazu art

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The Endo Toshikatsu exhibit runs from Feb. 2, 2015 ~ Feb. 28 from 12:00 ~ 19:00. Admission is free. Definitely bring a camera!　遠藤利克　２０１５年２月２２日（月）〜　２月２８日（土）１２：００〜１９：００ Closed Sundays and holidays

Akiyama Gallery is at: 3-7-6 Sendagaya, Shibuya Ku, Tokyo. 〒151-0051 E-mail information: info@akiyama-g.com (Akiyama Gallery is closest to Kita-Sando station on the Fukutoshin Line).

Edit the Movie? A “Rock N Roll Ghost Story”!

2015年2月4日 / 1 Comment

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.

shoot 012615Shooting 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!

7万円で家宝をゲット！孫の代まで自慢出来るお子様の演奏・パフォーマンス・ビデオを制作しませんか？

2015年2月3日 / No Comments

うちの息子は子供ピアノコンクールで大変いい成績を残しており、受賞も何度かしています。とても自慢の息子ですが、大きな夢を叶える迄の道のりはまだまだ長く、これからだと思います。とはいえピアノ教師である妻と努力を重ねて既に叶えた夢も幾つかありますし、父親である私と一緒に努力して実現した夢だってあるのです。例えば一生残るプロ品質のYouTubeビデオ – そんな素敵なものを欲しがらない子供なんているでしょうか？

Continue Reading…