Tokyo 2000 [video]

[mr. sparkle]

t2k
This was the first digital media piece I ever made.
I started collecting material in late '97 and pieced it
together in about a month in Feb. '98.
I was re-training as an editor in Digital Non-Linear Editing &
this was my project piece for the school I went to in LA.
Mostly stuff ripped from J-TV and 8mm vacation vids from
the Pongi Hutch Tour in '95.

Tools used besides my noggin':
Apple Quadra 900
Avid Media Composer 5.5
Photoshop 4.0
Illustrator 6
After Effects 3.1

It's called Tokyo 2000


please-very enjoy!

[mr. sparkle]

Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is some serious heavyweight pro video editing. Please join me in a round of applause for the one and only Mr. Sparkle:




Bravo!

Arigato Pongi-sama!
That was a lot of fun making that piece.

You know that your ex-gal pal Mikako-san
shows up at least twice in that piece?

In the Ginza comp and in a mirror effect comp.

I still have the video from '95 on VHS. Maybe I should
blast that? It's pre-Pongi era Pongi!

[kamome]

Hey Mr. Sparkle,

I kind of digged the soundtrack for your video. Can you tell us what the group/song is?

[mr. sparkle]

Hey Mr. Sparkle,

I kind of digged the soundtrack for your video. Can you tell us what the group/song is?

It's from Talvin Singh. "New Sounds Of the Asian Underground". I dig it too. Tablas and drum and bass go together pretty well.

[kamome]

Hey Mr. Sparkle,

I kind of digged the soundtrack for your video. Can you tell us what the group/song is?

It's from Talvin Singh. "New Sounds Of the Asian Underground". I dig it too. Tablas and drum and bass go together pretty well.

Thanks, Sparks. I've been avoiding Talvin Singh's stuff for a while, but maybe I should give it a chance...

[mr. sparkle]

Hey Guys,
Is tokyo 2000 racist?
the crew at pya!! seem to think so.
Babblefish is just babble, so I have no idea what they are saying. Are these guys saying that my work is racist?

Cliche? Sexist? sure. But racist? don't make me laugh!

Sounds like another case of lost in translation!

[gomichild]

Well I thought it quite fabulous - cliche yes but that's part of the fun?

Sexist??? No showing a few pictures of Japanese girls in bikinis does not rate as sexist.

As for rascist - um not it any way shape or form.

At it's most basic it was a perfect summary of what you feel like when you first arrive here as a foreigner. All the images rushing past you, the old traditional images and the new, the icons of popculture such as Ultraman and Hello Kitty - which an outsider can relate to (I had Hello Kitty stuff when I was a kid) yet set in this context brings them back into the Japanese fold.

It would be interesting to see this as a video version as I felt that some of the images didn't translate too well in the net medium - that baby must have needed some brutal compression. No-one can deny that it must have taken you HOURS.

otsukare!

[kamome]

I read most of the comments there. I think they're being a bit too harsh. The Japanese, as you probably know, are very sensitive about how their country is perceived by others. Image is key here.

So a short film with a retro feel and images of the Edo period strikes them as an attempt by some foreigner to create a visual representation of every stereotype of Japan that is in his mind. Of course, we know that's not what your intention was. When I viewed it, I thought you were just trying to put together cool visual images with a Japan theme, backed by a cool soundtrack.

Perhaps some of the posters over there were also thrown off by the fact that you titled it Tokyo 2000 but then showed Edo period images and retro 60's TV, as if that stuff still existed in 2000.

No worries. The racism comment was way off. There was nothing remotely racist about your video.

[mr. sparkle]

I read most of the comments there. I think they're being a bit too harsh. The Japanese, as you probably know, are very sensitive about how their country is perceived by others. Image is key here.

So a short film with a retro feel and images of the Edo period strikes them as an attempt by some foreigner to create a visual representation of every stereotype of Japan that is in his mind. Of course, we know that's not what your intention was. When I viewed it, I thought you were just trying to put together cool visual images with a Japan theme, backed by a cool soundtrack.

Perhaps some of the posters over there were also thrown off by the fact that you titled it Tokyo 2000 but then showed Edo period images and retro 60's TV, as if that stuff still existed in 2000.

No worries. The racism comment was way off. There was nothing remotely racist about your video.

Your comments are appreciated Kamome. Your observations are dead on, I think. The mistake is the misinterpretation of the title. Note that I made the piece in 1997 when we were looking forward to the year 2000. The piece was not represent 2000, but to represent 1900-2000.

G-child, you're right. It's how I felt in 1995 when I first visited Rob-- with that grand mix of images of the new and the old rushing by you. That was the intention.

Thanks guys. As Rob says, "Who cares what they say, as long as they are watchin'!"

[mr. sparkle]

[bejiita]

Damn, never saw that pic before. Now the eternal question is which came first: Ultraman or the Silver Surfer?