Although I will have nothing to with uploading content about recent stuff, I will probably help him upload stuff about Alumni of those schools. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about English speaking Asian media creators. One of my core interests is co-productions between Japan and the United States but I also have a deep interest in what English speaking Asian media creators are doing.
The English speaking Media has traditionally been filled with white, caucasian artists, but recently, after the advent of Youtube, it appears that English speaking Asian (referred in this article as “Asian-American” even if they’re not American) media creators are making a mark on Youtube. No, they’re not getting attention like white Youtube artists like Justin Beiber, who was originally found on Youtube, and then signed by Usher, but they’re gaining popularity.
If you’re an Asian-American, Wong Fu Productions is a name you most likely have heard of. For those of you who don’t know, Wong Fu Productions is a independent media company, that primarily makes videos from an Asian-American perspective and has become extremely popular amongst Asian-Americans. They’ve collaborated with other Asian-American Youtube artists, such as KevJumba, DavidChoiMusic, NigaHiga.
Take a look at CNN’s piece about WongFu Productions
It’s not only Asian-American production companies which have been gaining popularity amongst Asian-American audiences. There are also musician groups that have high popularity. I posted two renditions of the same song: Justin Bieber’s Baby (Posted below)
The first artist, J.Reyez, is a Asian-American artist from Ontario, Canada. He gets close to 100 thousand hits per video. J.Reyez does both Re-mixes and originals.
This next artist is a graduate of St. Mary’s International School. I especially support him and his music because he is a International School graduate.
A little over a year ago, I interned for a film, “Memiors of a Teenage Amnesiac”. It was a great experience. I’m going to blog a little about my experience below, but before you go on and read it, check out the trailer, posted below! – Also, check out our Facebook Group
This was an article I wrote for the American School in Japan’s Ambassador Magazine in Spring 2009
Production trucks are lined up in front of ASIJ, waiting for the guards to let them in. It is 6:00am, December 20th 2008, and the beginning of my first full 22-hour day on the set of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac.
It all started in November, when Matt Wilce, ASIJ’s Communications Director, asked me, via Facebook, if I could recruit some extras for a feature film involving, the Second Unit Director, Michael Sanders (’87). As a film production major at Emerson College, I knew couldn’t miss the chance to get my hands dirty in a professional production— and so I immediately emailed Michael to find out the details. He emailed me back, we got to talking, and the rails got set.
Two Different Production Cultures, One International School Production The most interesting cultural experience on set was the dichotomy of Japanese and American production procedures and values. In many respects, the film is a Japanese production: Japanese script, support crew, and meals. Yet the story was based on an American novel by Gabriel Zevin, then adapted to an international school setting. Furthermore, the director, Hans Canosa, is a director from the United States (with international experience in Singapore).
It was strange being on a movie set about an international school, made primarily by non-international school people.
“Honban! We’re going up for a take”— both Japanese and English flew about the set. It felt like I was walking down the hallways of ASIJ. But there was no chanpon, even in the dialogue: no one was mixing languages, there was only the translation and relaying of single-language messages, back and forth— a distinct separation of the two. This was not the ASIJ I remembered.– It was so mono-language people can understand the movie without having partial subtitles
An interesting aspect of this production, Hans spoke no Japanese. He had two translators: one, who translated his conversations, and another, who translated the dialogue during a take.
Recruiting Extras My part in the film actually started before I went back to Tokyo for winter vacation — I was in contact with the casting associate, Mr. Azumi, and actively involved in recruiting extras.
The main difficulty we faced in our recruitment was getting high schoolers that were non-Asian. Our main filming days were over the weekend, right after all the international schools had broken for winter recess. Thus, we had to turn to more creative methods.
The key component in this process was the use of social networking sites— Facebook and Mixi (the Japanese equivalent of Myspace), were both critical to our success. By the end of the process, I’d sent about 4,000 messages in total, while still in Boston.
Unfortunately, the process was not without its challenges. I had to give non-Japanese students reasons for being on the set — this was harder than expected. The stars of the production were not stars to them, and no money was involved — not a lot of incentive. The production starred Horikita Maki and Matsuyama Kenichi, both popular Japanese film and TV actors, but relatively unknown to those outside the Japanese entertainment world. As far as compensation — Japanese productions have much smaller budgets than those in Hollywood and are thus unable to pay their extras.
A Typical Day The life of a film set intern is not as glamorous as you might think. I was up and drinking Red Bulls (or Lipovitan D’s) early each morning, and on my way to the location (depending on the day) or to meet the crew in Shibuya or Shinjuku. Luckily we were served a breakfast of onigiri or sandwiches and cold fried chicken (many of the non-Japanese crew ate this simply to stave off hunger). After breakfast, we were ready to start shooting.
Although I mainly assisted the camera and production departments, I was lucky enough to be able to stick my head into various departments when asked. A jack-of-all-trades, I helped wherever they needed me, setting up shots and ensuring that everything ran smoothly.
A majority of each day consisted of waiting. Once a shot was setup, there were minimal changes that took place. During this time I had the opportunity to get to know the rest of the crew.
It’s All About the People The crew and cast on the set was incredible. On a film set, there’s a certain hierarchy that has to be respected— it’s extremely unprofessional to fail to maintain this. Luckily for me, even the higher-ups were always willing to teach and talk.
One of the local crew members I got to know well was Mr. Yuji Wada, the gaffer (head of the lighting department). Wada-san had previously gaffed feature films such as Lost in Translation and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, so it was a great experience to be able to see him in action and learn his techniques.
Wada-san was only one of the many professionals I got to meet during my tenure as a set intern. This was remarkable, as the most important skill one can have in the film industry— what can possibly make or break your career— is the ability and the resources to network with cast and crew.
A Fantastic Experience What made this experience particularly special was being able to work alongside fellow ASIJ-ers on a professional set. David Neale, my former mentor from my middle-and-high school years, was on set during the two days we shot at ASIJ, and former ASIJ student Michael is now an industry professional. I also worked with many current ASIJ students who were cast as extras. The entire experience was astounding—The entire experience was fantastic—but what made it stand out was working with the ASIJ community
One of my best friends from high school, Adrian Chih, was recently featured in a Commercial for ZelenShoes.com!
I’m really excited for this– If he ends up in the entertainment industry, I look forward in working with him!! But furthermore, just a really fun commercial to watch. Congratulations Adrian!
Disclaimer: I am currently enrolled in a class called “Digital Media and Culture” and recently, we had the opportunity to explore Second Life and read and watch videos about other Virtual Communities. This is merely an opinion, like all the other posts on this blog and my statements are not backed with evidence- merely observations.
Visiting these virtual realities was an extremely interesting experience. The experience both concerned and intrigued me. Specifically, that the members of these Virtual Communities have a strong connection with the “community”. It appears that they invest great numbers of hours into the community. They spend great effort into perfecting their Avatar (appearance) as people would in “RL” (Real Life). They to either a) reflect their own appearance or what seems to be more common, b)create an appearance that they wish they could achieve in RL. Furthermore, there seems to be an emotional connection between the users and their avatars.
In class, we watched a video of people “raiding” a funeral in the game, “World of Warcraft”. Allegedly, a girl who played the game had passed away in real life, so her “guild” (team) members got together to have a funeral for her. But, another guild arranged and put forth an attack on the funeral. This caused great controversy amongst the members of the “WoW” (World of Warcraft) community. The video is attached below:
The great anger caused by this “raid” (attack) shows how passionate these people are towards these virtual communities. It is extremely hard for me to see why you get so passionate and making friends with these “virtual friends”. Yes, there are real people on the other end, but you are meeting people you don’t know through this virtual community. When you become friends with an Avatar, are you becoming friends with the Avatar? or Are you becoming friends with the person at the other end of the Fiber Optic (or copper) cable?
We also read an article called “A Rape in Cyberspace” which talked about the original form of Virtual Reality: LambdaMoo. The article discussed a controversy in which one person raped another person online– mind you, LambdaMoo is a text based virtual room. This caused an uproar in the community. This enraged people, and eventually, the man who committed the rape was banned from the community.
Lastly, we explored the community of Second Life. The most shocking and disturbing was that people had virtual sex in these communities. What is the point? What pleasure do you get from watching poorly animated avatars having sex? I Tweeted about this and got the reply:
Then why not just masturbate anyways? Why look at poorly animated characters? If you need visual stimulation, why not (non virtual) pornography? Isn’t that what pornography is for? What makes animated pornography as stimulating as real? Would real pornography turn off someone who is into animated porn?
This is exactly what concerns me about Virtual Reality games. Not only are people creating non-interpersonal communities in these virtual worlds, but are getting sexual gratification off of pixels off of a screen. If people become more and more engraved into these communities, these people will become unable to create real human relationships. They will be stuck to their computers and not have a life.
There are several examples of these social issues all over the world. For instance, in Japan, “NEET’s are becoming a problem. NEET’s are people who are Not in Employment, Education or in Training. It is true that not all of these people become a NEET because of virtual reality games, etc. but it is still a topic of great concern.
(Videos Displayed below are in Japanese)
In part two, he says doesn’t want to work because “I don’t like people. It’s a pain to related to people…” He doesn’t like people. His parents say that there wasn’t anything in particular that made him this way…Although he wasn’t that popular in school, he wasn’t bullied or anything…
Why do people become NEET’s? Why do people become obsessed with Virtual Reality?
As that man in part 3 said… “What’s the point of living?”
