I recently finished a video for Daedelus for his track "Just Briefly" its up at
http://www.dadakingz.com/movies/daedelus_justbriefly_S.mov
hopefully it will be released as CD-extra content or put on a Ninjatune DVD one of these years. the character-design is by LA's kozyndan (kozyndan.com).
the dadakingz site also hosts some movies of recent VJ activity. the VJ stuff is kind of nice, a blend of live collage and live drawing. we'd like to expand this into including dancers and performers as well if we can connect with the right kind of show.
http://www.dadakingz.com/movies/daedelus_justbriefly_S.mov
hopefully it will be released as CD-extra content or put on a Ninjatune DVD one of these years. the character-design is by LA's kozyndan (kozyndan.com).
the dadakingz site also hosts some movies of recent VJ activity. the VJ stuff is kind of nice, a blend of live collage and live drawing. we'd like to expand this into including dancers and performers as well if we can connect with the right kind of show.
I started this new club video project with some friends. Some samples of the fruits of our labors are on www.chromafresh.com/DADAKINGZ/index.html
Its been six months since my last confession...
We're doing a music video for electronic musician Daedelus this month so we leave for LA tomorrow for a few days. I had a chance to see him perform when he was in Tokyo last, and I was impressed by his very "live" performance style, "live" to the point of being unusual for an electronic musician. I was pretty impressed, and I don't impress easily. The new album is nice too. Its being released by Plug Research in the states and Ninja Tune everywhere else, and its called "Exquisite Corpse."
Things are moving fairly well but its been a bumpy ride so far. Low budget production is always a challenge. I've heard that big budgets are worse, but, well, the grass is always greener...
I'm looking into getting into VJing again after discovering "Modul8" a real-time compositing software that allows for some very intricate manipulation of movie files "live" and "on the fly." One can composite up to 8 layers of graphics real-time. One can also pipe in and manipulate a video image via Firewire as well. Its pretty tight. VJing is another field where I am not easily impressed, but I see some incredible potential there for improvised, expressive performance.
DADA KINGS is the name of the VJ unit we're doing.
We're doing a show on February 11th at the new Liquid Room in Ebisu with Joseph Nothing, an artist who releases on Planet Mu. Between this and the Daedelus video, I'm flat out through February.
We're doing a music video for electronic musician Daedelus this month so we leave for LA tomorrow for a few days. I had a chance to see him perform when he was in Tokyo last, and I was impressed by his very "live" performance style, "live" to the point of being unusual for an electronic musician. I was pretty impressed, and I don't impress easily. The new album is nice too. Its being released by Plug Research in the states and Ninja Tune everywhere else, and its called "Exquisite Corpse."
Things are moving fairly well but its been a bumpy ride so far. Low budget production is always a challenge. I've heard that big budgets are worse, but, well, the grass is always greener...
I'm looking into getting into VJing again after discovering "Modul8" a real-time compositing software that allows for some very intricate manipulation of movie files "live" and "on the fly." One can composite up to 8 layers of graphics real-time. One can also pipe in and manipulate a video image via Firewire as well. Its pretty tight. VJing is another field where I am not easily impressed, but I see some incredible potential there for improvised, expressive performance.
DADA KINGS is the name of the VJ unit we're doing.
We're doing a show on February 11th at the new Liquid Room in Ebisu with Joseph Nothing, an artist who releases on Planet Mu. Between this and the Daedelus video, I'm flat out through February.
Its been a half a year again. Here I am avoiding work again.
I have think up some visuals for a local singer for the last stop on her concert tour. They want visuals for a three-song block and the trick is that the budget is super-low and theres very little time to do the job, but its 1) 12 minutes worth of material and 2) has to be done in blue/red 3D.
The concert isn't until the 24th, but I've got to go to the states from the 16th to the 26th for LA, Vegas and the Comic-con in San Diego... so I've got about 10 days to do the job.
For concert visuals we usually like to be "tricky" and catch viewers off-guard. For this same artist a few years we did a lovely opening that disguised itself as a photo slide show for the first 30 minutes and then deformed and animated itself in an accelerating climax... a bit hard to explain, but the reaction was quite nice.
I'm still not settled on what to do this time around.
For those that know what this is about: the stalker faded away. The best advice I got was to block the dude's calls and that apparently discourages 90% of people like this one... he was far enough away that "coming by" and stalking directly isn't really an option anyway, but its a relief that its over anyhow.
I saw the Harry Potter movie and thought it was brilliant. Also got the "Freaks and Geeks" series on DVD. I hadn't really had a proper chance to see that one, but man... fucking brilliant... I think I knew half the characters in that show...
Also bought a bunch of documentary DVDs for reference at the company... All I can say is Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" is mind-knumbing in the best possible way.
Can't afford FujiRock. 3 days @ Y36,000...
Ah yes, I put a piece up on my site, part of a collaboration I'm doing with a graffiti artist. Interested parties can fish around at www.chromafresh.com/SENSE/ its in there somewhere.
Anyway cheers to those who wandered by, please say hello!
I have think up some visuals for a local singer for the last stop on her concert tour. They want visuals for a three-song block and the trick is that the budget is super-low and theres very little time to do the job, but its 1) 12 minutes worth of material and 2) has to be done in blue/red 3D.
The concert isn't until the 24th, but I've got to go to the states from the 16th to the 26th for LA, Vegas and the Comic-con in San Diego... so I've got about 10 days to do the job.
For concert visuals we usually like to be "tricky" and catch viewers off-guard. For this same artist a few years we did a lovely opening that disguised itself as a photo slide show for the first 30 minutes and then deformed and animated itself in an accelerating climax... a bit hard to explain, but the reaction was quite nice.
I'm still not settled on what to do this time around.
For those that know what this is about: the stalker faded away. The best advice I got was to block the dude's calls and that apparently discourages 90% of people like this one... he was far enough away that "coming by" and stalking directly isn't really an option anyway, but its a relief that its over anyhow.
I saw the Harry Potter movie and thought it was brilliant. Also got the "Freaks and Geeks" series on DVD. I hadn't really had a proper chance to see that one, but man... fucking brilliant... I think I knew half the characters in that show...
Also bought a bunch of documentary DVDs for reference at the company... All I can say is Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" is mind-knumbing in the best possible way.
Can't afford FujiRock. 3 days @ Y36,000...
Ah yes, I put a piece up on my site, part of a collaboration I'm doing with a graffiti artist. Interested parties can fish around at www.chromafresh.com/SENSE/ its in there somewhere.
Anyway cheers to those who wandered by, please say hello!
Once again, the ever so rare journal entry, directed at no one in particular. Hi there!
I've got my first stalker. I can't recommend it.
Some dude I met at a show last year decided that he wants to be friends and won't take no for an answer, and now resorts to ranting and raving and threatening to come around and fuck up my life. I actually went to the police in Shibuya today to get some advice. Their advice is to set my portable to refuse his calls, and arrange with the phone company to do the same at work, and very little else. At least I know his number so this is possible. I hate to be rude, but being too nice has dragged this out too long and its starting to ripple into home life and the work environment.
According to the police, officially he isn't a stalker until he actually comes to my place of business or home, but he's been very threatening and slightly insane on the phone so far, so something must be done!!!
Ah man, I really am too fucking weak-willed for most interpersonal relationships much less strong enough to deal with the wackos...
frankly I'd like to think this experience has been a character-builder but more likely its just highlighting my weaknesses.
By the way, "Fantasia 2000" was short (at about 70minutes) but first sequence in that is pretty fucking insanely good! and ah yes, its hip hop, but the Non-Prophets album is great! Yes yes.
No matter how fucked up you all may think your life is, pray that you never give your phone number/address to an insane person. Your look on life and society will change instantly...
Wait wait, thats not right, I forgot what it was like to live in a hightened degree of caution like one does in the States, or LA at least. I think Tokyo has made me soft. Anyway, take care all. I must get back to work... (2:40 am Sunday night *sigh*)
I've got my first stalker. I can't recommend it.
Some dude I met at a show last year decided that he wants to be friends and won't take no for an answer, and now resorts to ranting and raving and threatening to come around and fuck up my life. I actually went to the police in Shibuya today to get some advice. Their advice is to set my portable to refuse his calls, and arrange with the phone company to do the same at work, and very little else. At least I know his number so this is possible. I hate to be rude, but being too nice has dragged this out too long and its starting to ripple into home life and the work environment.
According to the police, officially he isn't a stalker until he actually comes to my place of business or home, but he's been very threatening and slightly insane on the phone so far, so something must be done!!!
Ah man, I really am too fucking weak-willed for most interpersonal relationships much less strong enough to deal with the wackos...
frankly I'd like to think this experience has been a character-builder but more likely its just highlighting my weaknesses.
By the way, "Fantasia 2000" was short (at about 70minutes) but first sequence in that is pretty fucking insanely good! and ah yes, its hip hop, but the Non-Prophets album is great! Yes yes.
No matter how fucked up you all may think your life is, pray that you never give your phone number/address to an insane person. Your look on life and society will change instantly...
Wait wait, thats not right, I forgot what it was like to live in a hightened degree of caution like one does in the States, or LA at least. I think Tokyo has made me soft. Anyway, take care all. I must get back to work... (2:40 am Sunday night *sigh*)
Ah.... the journal. Yes, I was about to forget that it existed. Here we are one year later, and I suddenly realize that several people, some who have even left SG since then, were responding to my journal entry about working in Tokyo. Sorry all for the lack of response!!! I wasn't accessing my journal! Anyway, I'll try to follow up with all of you in some way or the other ASAP.
...and see if I can make an effort to do this journal thing on more of a regular basis.
I am avoiding work today.
I must have two vector graphic renderings of "seafood curry" and "cream stew" ready for a meeting tomorrow, but have been ignoring this one for the last week. What a hassle.
We just finished an animation for an educational video featuring a family of viruses and mama virus is quizzing her children on the how they are expected to attack the bodies of little children, what the function of a fever is, and so forth. It features three "heros" who appear and fend off the viruses when the virus family enters the child's body... in the mouth, for example, we have "Cough Ranger" fending off viruses, and in the nose, we have "Snot Ranger" does his business. I thought the color coding of the Ranger characters was kind of interesting... of course Snot Ranger has a yellow costume.
I managed to spend most of sunday with my girlfriend. She's a vocalist working with an amatuer producer on producing material and yesterday the producer had some time, so by default, it was producing day. It was interesting watching them work, and I'm constantly surprised how similar the process is to what I do with design and animation.
At this stage its still hard to imagine things coming together, but that seems to be just the nature of the process. Still she's been trying to get her demo going for, gawd, it must be three years now, but doesn't have musician friends who can really devote serious time to it, and so things have really been at a standstill for the longest time.
...and see if I can make an effort to do this journal thing on more of a regular basis.
I am avoiding work today.
I must have two vector graphic renderings of "seafood curry" and "cream stew" ready for a meeting tomorrow, but have been ignoring this one for the last week. What a hassle.
We just finished an animation for an educational video featuring a family of viruses and mama virus is quizzing her children on the how they are expected to attack the bodies of little children, what the function of a fever is, and so forth. It features three "heros" who appear and fend off the viruses when the virus family enters the child's body... in the mouth, for example, we have "Cough Ranger" fending off viruses, and in the nose, we have "Snot Ranger" does his business. I thought the color coding of the Ranger characters was kind of interesting... of course Snot Ranger has a yellow costume.
I managed to spend most of sunday with my girlfriend. She's a vocalist working with an amatuer producer on producing material and yesterday the producer had some time, so by default, it was producing day. It was interesting watching them work, and I'm constantly surprised how similar the process is to what I do with design and animation.
At this stage its still hard to imagine things coming together, but that seems to be just the nature of the process. Still she's been trying to get her demo going for, gawd, it must be three years now, but doesn't have musician friends who can really devote serious time to it, and so things have really been at a standstill for the longest time.
I really like my job. Just not at the expense of my time with my girlfriend, friends, personal time, time to be creatively expressive and so forth. Its now 11am, I haven't slept after another all-nighter while I try to beat a monday deadline.
I need help! Anyone with artistic skills and sense looking for an excuse to come live in Tokyo?
Correspondance welcomed, please say hello!
