FILMS


AN INTRODUCTION

I began an interest in film (from the production point of view) while taking a Media Studies 'A' Level in Cardiff. The college had plenty of decent equipment, plus a dedicated studio and edit suites. Along with a classmate, I produced a series of Pythonesque shorts as we explored video production techniques and conventions together. I ended the course by completing a practical project - an 8-minute magazine-style feature on Kingmaker (an indie rock group I was listening to at the time). This was inspired by the type of features I watched on Snub TV, one of the few means of viewing non-mainstream music on British TV in the late 80's.

Having gained a taste for film-making, I naturally wanted to build on what I had learned at the next opportunity. My degree course at university had a proviso for including audio or visual material to supplement dissertation work, so with the agreement of my tutors, I decided to create a documentary film. In the absence of a crew or any significant budget, I took on most of the major roles (writing, editing, narrating, directing) and produced the final 60-minute work on a shoestring. Following university but still in Brighton, I moved from behind the camera to in front of it by taking the male lead in a short showreel film by an aspirant local filmmaker.

I then took a break from filmmaking as my creative work diversified into different forms and returned in post-digital times. None of these early works currently exist in a digital format, thus they have no online presence.

JAPANESE PICTURES

The 2003 move to Tokyo initiated a return and reinvigoration of my work with film (amongst other things).

I took on some extras gigs, appearing in a Sony Ericsson cinema commercial and playing a small speaking role in a Fuji TV/Disney Co. production for Japanese television. I also did some consulting work, such as helping the translation team producing the Japanese release of BBC TV's 'The Office', plus acting as the Japan Co-ordinator for an American documentary film crew. The resulting film ('The Listening Project') went on to win several awards at film festivals across the US and was profiled on BBC America. The trailer can be viewed on the right.

Finally, I got to work with a well-known Japanese pop promo director by performing in the clip that was produced for Shelf Life's 'Endgame' (viewable on this page).

 

 

Watch live streaming video from globalismtv at livestream.com

MOVING ONLINE

Being a relatively early adopter of such things, in 2007 I decided to start my own YouTube channel. Continuing with a theme that had begun by then, I dubbed the channel 'Globalism Films' and began creating or sourcing videos that would meet that outlook. Output so far has tended to fall into four main categories: 'artistic' shorts drawn from single ideas, films associated with my musical work, promotional clips for projects, and other people's content (where permission to share has been granted - TED Talks is one such example of rich content available for mining). 

Harnessing another example of fantastic free web technology, I have put the highlights of the channel together into a online linear TV station. Click on the play buttons on the player on the left to watch Globalism TV in this page.

SAMPLE WORKS

Below, you can see four examples of recent works. 'Station To Ocean' was created for the 'One Day On Earth' project, where people around the world filmed what they were doing on a single day (10/10/10). My contribution may also have made it into the final film. 'Makes The World Go Round' was shot (mostly) on a kaiten sushi conveyor belt in Tokyo and matched with a soundtrack that seemed to fit perfectly. I'd seen somebody else do something similar which they'd then put up on YouTube, so set about doing the same thing on a 2010 visit to Japan. '#uksnow BN3' takes its title from the hashtags that placed Hove on a Twitter-based, crowdsourced map of where it was snowing in the UK. The footage depicts parts of Brighton and Hove in the snow. The final clip is the promo video that I put together for my book 'Japan From The Inside'. Read more about the book here.

 

'Station To Ocean' (2011)

'Makes The World Go Round' (2010)

 

 '#uksnow BN3' (2010)

'Japan From The Inside promo' (2009)

 

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