Finally Finished!

It has been a stressful week, trying to organise the last of my interviews, editing and trying to finish my project. It was my first time to edit a documentary, and my second time on Final cut pro, so everything was incredibly stressful.
It was very difficult to finish it, but I'm glad I was patient with it, and stuck to my original idea for the movie.
The project also taught me more about the final cut pro program, which is a fantastic program to use when editing. All the interviews with the girls allowed me to meet many new people, and also to understand how to communicate more effectively.
I really hope the exhibition goes well and I look forward to seeing everyone else's projects!

Final Project

Our class has been getting organized with our own individual final projects, and also co-ordinating other tasks to do for the gallery. Our work will be presented in a art gallery in Omotesando, which we visited a couple of weeks ago.
Omotesando is a nice area, with the prominent main road that is lined with lots of famous boutiques and also the beautiful Omotesando Hills building. Our gallery is behind all the glitz of the main street, in the very artistic-young-hip area of Harajyuku/Omotesando. The outside of the gallery was covered with draped material when we arrived there, and the inside was also colorful and lively.
It is very exciting that we have such an appropriate little place to exhibit our work. But now, I'm getting nervous about putting my whole project together, with all my ideas and footage all over the place.
I'm making a documentary for the first time in my life, and it is a little nerve-racking, but it will be a great challenge for me.
I do hope everything comes together, and I don't leave editing to the last minute!!!

Tsugaru-Shamisen music

For the international project, I decided to use garage band to merge three shamisen songs into one. Shamisen is a Japanese instrument that looks slightly like a banjo, and this particular shamisen-group is famous for their modern arrangement of traditional music.
I mixed the songs, and I was surprised to find that it actually had a good beat to it.

Listen now!!!

International Project

Initially, So, we have been working in groups of three with people from Philadelphia, London and here in Tokyo. My groups picked the topic of architecture, so I went out to look for traditional Japanese architecture, which was actually harder to find than I expected. Coincidentally, there was a historical house that has been preserved near my house that was built in the traditional Japanese style of architecture. It was the house of a rich landlord (the Toyama family) in the countryside, so there are a lot of bedrooms, sitting rooms, lounges, powder rooms and a beautiful Japanese garden. Initially, I was planning to take one photo there, and then go on to taking photos in a very futuristic area in Shinjuku, however I changed my mind. I thought that there are enough of those high-rise metallic buildings in all the main cities of the world, and I really wanted to show something a little bit more unique to Japan. I even found a kimono given to me when I was younger, a traditional bingata from Okinawa. I was wearing a kimono for the first time in 9 years, so it was very awkward to walk and breathe in it. The bingata is a very special kimono, because each pattern is hand painted by a special craftsmen. Even though it was difficult at the beginning, wearing a kimono became almost normal after a while. It makes every movement seem a lot more graceful and it straightened out my posture.

It was difficult to co-ordinate this project with people in two different countries, but I'm really looking forward to how we all interpreted the project. Also, wearing the kimono and visiting the house was important for me, because it helped me to understand more about my own culture and my family. It also made my mum very happy!