Tilt-Shifting Saigon

Just had to share this lil piece. I snatched it fr an acquaintance's blog.

Here's what he had to say abt it:
"It was only recently that I stumbled upon tilt-shift photography. While the process requires a special lens, you can create this effect in the post-production stage with digital photographs using Photoshop. The mesmerizing aspect of tilt-shift formats is that it distorts the focus and scale of the subject, making them appear to be miniature figurines.

Using a Canon A540, "Evil Penguin" created a time-lapse video of Saigon applying a tilt-shift aspect -- the short reel was posted on You Tube..."

2 months of peace and music (and filmmaking)

Hi everyone!

So I've emailed some of you individually, but realized it's been a long time since I've done a post and given all that has happened in the last month I figured it's time to report. It turns out that the guy that I met at the end of June, Masa Mukasa, one of the rare breed of Japanese combo hippie-musician-activists, has become an incredible subject but more importantly, friend. From the beginning I got along very well with him (and his girlfriend, Nobue, more commonly Non-Chan, who is almost always with him), and despite the language barrier (his English is basic), we were able to mostly bond over shared music taste and a karaoke session that convinced him that I am a very talented rapper and singer (and a night out at a club that made him think I'm a very talented dancer haha). I've been going to the bookstore that he rents out on Mondays (largely to help out the owner, as the bookstore's regular business is not doing very well) as well as the home that his union opened up to provide cheap housing for disadvantaged youth. A few weeks ago I hit a bit of a wall, feeling that a lot of my footage was too similar (granted I I can't understand conversations, but a lot of it was in the same few rooms), and not knowing how to proceed in an interesting and productive way. Luckily the answer came quite easily as Masa started inviting me to more and more of his activities, and I ended up shooting a lot of stuff that is both visually interesting and has good content. Firstly, a protest/musical performance in Miyashta Park, which the government has sold to Nike so they can make it a pay to enter skate and theme park despite the fact that the park is home to about 30 otherwise homeless people and has a very important history as the center of protest and counterculture in Japan. I also filmed a few meetings regarding the future of the protesting there that Masa organized. One of Masa's bands recorded a few songs in a studio and then performed them in a club outside of Tokyo in Urawa, all of which I shot. He also performed with another group at Never Never Land, the owner of which is the head of the Save Shimokitazawa movement to protect the neighborhood from government redevelopment and gentrification (an organization of which Masa is a member). Masa invited me to rap during this performance (he told everyone I was a famous rapper from Cali), and his friend who is a video journalist shot me while I was on stage "performing"--Masa also has an MP3 of what he thinks is a beautiful performance and I think is a bit of a fiasco. My sister actually visited Tokyo for a week and helped me out a bit during the show. Her presence turned out to be very productive, not only because she helped to reinvigorate my perspective (I'm an outsider, but she REALLY was an outsider, and pointed out some things about Masa that she thought were really interesting that I had gotten used to), but also because Masa thought she was cool (she's dating a world-famous DJ and traveling a bunch) which helped add to my cred. Last weekend, I went to a hippie Music and art festival with Masa, Non-Chan and some of their friends I had met before for two days in a mountain town called Fujino, at which Masa performed (with Adachi and Ralph, two guys who I've filmed performing at the bookstore before). These two days were probably the highlight of my summer, since it was basically like living Monterey Pop. I'd been hanging out with Japanese alternative people for over a month and I still couldn't believe what I saw. Sitar players, tie-dye, fire dancing, live painting, overtone singing, pot smoking (albeit hidden in darkness), didgeridoo, flower dresses, crack of dawn dance parties, jam sessions, it really had it all, and I got a lot of really cool footage. Finally, I went on a beach trip this week with Masa and Non-Chan and some of the 'friends' of his union (called Indy Union PS) for three days, and got some beautiful sunset over the ocean stuff etc. This week I'm going to his home for the first time--apparently it's very small and messy--but he finally invited me to hang out for a bit on Tuesday.

Sorry that was so long, but I wanted to give you an idea of what I've been keeping myself busy with. I feel really really really lucky that I was able to access these people and culture so quickly and got such good access to what they do, not only based on the language barrier and time constraints, but also because of what I've heard of difficulties many people have had and do have making films in Japan and especially Tokyo. I've been spending so much time with them that it's going to be really weird coming back to the hippie-less land of Harvard, I'll really miss them.

I have about 10 days left in Tokyo, and in addition to the stuff at Masa's house, I plan on shooting interviews of Masa and Non-chan (not sure if I will use it, but I think it will be good to have in case), as well as some more establishing tripod stuff around Tokyo and Shibuya, again just to have in case I want something like it.

The only thing I would ask of you is if you have any suggestions of things I should do or try to shoot before I leave. In terms of my presence in the film, I do want to include something that acknowledges my foreign perspective just because it seems silly not to (especially since I did this whole thing with very little knowledge of Japanese language and culture). I also think it could be interesting to acknowledge the reasons why I was able to get such good and quick access. I've filmed some conversations I've had with Masa about music, as well as some of the introductions he's given of me to new people, but these things are pretty hard to do properly in a way that looks good. I also have my appearance ('rap') in one of his performances, which could say a lot haha. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing really well and good luck in wrapping things up if you haven't already. Excited to see you in a few weeks!!

--Lucas

PS Thanks to my internship at Yamagata Documentary Film Festival (which again, is a very, very low time commitment, chill deal), I just had dinner with Kidlat Tahimik (director of Perfumed Nightmare) and a group of Filipino tribespeople that he brought to Japan for an installation project in the rice fields of a small village about 5 hours from Tokyo.

Peace and Love!!