This is the original introductory sequence for my Pacific Resistance project (a collection of about 40 short films). I want to revisit this project and re-edit it sometime soon, since I really didn’t know how to use the editing tools at the time I made this.
Here is my studio setup in my Donam-dong apartment, a cozy little area not too far from central Seoul. My place is a tiny one-room place on the 2nd floor. At bedtime, I wheel away two of these stands to make place for my futon. I love buying furniture in Korea. In the Shindang area, there are quite a few furniture stores where the stuff is either made right on side, or else can be customized. For one of these floor-desks, the shop guy put wheels on the bottom by my request within minutes of my suggestion. I’ve bought three red aluminum shelves so far. Love the look of them.
In terms of audiovisual equipment, you should see the Korg Entrancer (the video version of the Kaoss pad), the Korg Krossfour video mixer, a Kaoss Pad audio mixer (has headphones on it in this picture), a Pioneer EFX-500 DJ effector, a Roland EF-300 groove effector, a midi keyboard, Evolution midi controller, portable DVD player, iPod, hard drives, Samsung monitor, imac, Powerbook 12 Inch, mini TV used for monitoring …
Indeed, a lot of equipment … being projected is a still from “Ocean Color Resist”, part of my soon-to-be finished Pacific Resistance collection of videos, inspired by and made from the footage I gathered while living in Okinawa.
A photo remix by DoAn Forest. My friend Youki Cropas had taken a series of photos of birds in a harbor in Istanbul. The photos hypnotized when played in a slideshow. I asked for permission to remix them and this is the result. My concept was of a lonely merchant sailor watching TV in a Korean harbor, different thoughts going through his head. The music is a distorted remix of Billie Holiday’s “I’m A Fool To Want You.”
I filmed several minutes of water textures and surfaces in the Hiroshima Peace Garden. It’s been a few years, and I can no longer recall the exact significance of the water works. I love these textures, and I might try to do something more elaborate with them at some point. For now, I’ve just spent 45 minutes or so trying different combinations in Final Cut Pro, but don’t yet have a specific work in mind.
The individual water sequence clips should also be really good for VJ footage.
the Sadako Sasaki statue near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Here is the Genbaku Dome at night. It was over this building that the atom bomb detonated in Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, killing over 70,000 people instantly. While the surrounding area was completely devastated, this building remained standing. The building does have such a spooky feel. A hollowed out shell that looks ancient. The moon looks on indifferently.
This electronic sign was filmed in front of the Shimane prefectural office. The basic message is: “Takeshima Island belongs to Japan.” The island is known as Dokdo in Korea. Koreans insist the islands belong to them. In the weeks and months leading up to the day when I filmed this (March 2005), the issue had been in the international news. Here’s a link here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4352923.stm
Since I’ve lived in Japan and now live in South Korea, I have to admit the dispute interests me. Both sides have convincing arguments. And considering the country’s are relatively small (more so Korea, not so much Japan) and have fishing cultures, it’s no wonder this is a hot-button issue. For its part, my own country, Canada, has its own island disputes with some of its Northern neighbors.
In the above film, we see again this controversial sign, as well as the home and a statue of Lafcadio Hearn. One of Matsue’s (the capital of Shimane prefecture) claims to fame is that it was the home of Lafcadio Hearn, one of the most celebrated non-Japanese to have ever lived in Japan. In the 19th century, he translated numerous Japanese works into English, and did much to spread Japanese culture to the world beyond.
Lafcadio Hearn with his wife, Koizumi Setsu
Somewhere on a mountain above Osaka. The moonlit night. The white glow of the city.
The moon follows me everywhere on this trip. I love the tree. It somehow makes it clear I’m in an Asian city. Canadian cities don’t look like this from above.
A 5 X 5 (five scenes, five seconds) arrangement of scenes from Kamakura, Japan, filmed in March 2005. It starts with a camera pan through a sakura tree, a view of the giant Buddha, and then scenes of surfers. Kamakura is one of the most popular surf spots near Tokyo, and can be legendarily crowded on certain days.
It’s also famous as the hometown of celebrated Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu.
Hazakura extended
I hear it said that Tokyo looks like the moon. I think the reason this gets said is its abundant silver lighting. Walking through central Tokyo in the semi-quiet middle of the night makes me think of walking through a moonlit forest.
In contrast, Seoul, where I live now, is much more lit by orange lighting. Contrast the Tokyo scene above with the Seoul scene below. I think many people don’t consciously think of it, but it is both the way the city is artificially lit at night and the way the sun lights it (or not) during the day that contributes to each city’s own visual look – but it seems the lighting scheme crosses most of the cities of a particular country.