Alone in Tokyo By Philip Bloom On ExposureRoom

	Philip Bloom England Friends: 281 Focused on : 46	Home Videos / Assets Journals Favorites Friends Profile Videos Photos Music Scripts Albums
Contact Member

Alone in Tokyo	25votes
	Views:59005 Favorited:14 Reviews:0 Comments: 25

Play the HD Version (High Bandwidth Required)

Mdsize: 43.32MBwxh: 640x272

Filmed in Tokyo in April/ May 2008 using the Sony EX1 and the Letus Extreme/ Letus Ultimate and some shots just using the EX1.

Music is by Air called "Alone in Kyoto"

Edited on a 17" MBP using FCP 6 and graded with Magic Bullet looks.

Thanks to Alex and Dean for their help.

Updated: 10 months ago

Short

Duration: 00:06:07

Definition: This Video is a High Definition (HD) Video

Dimensions: 1280 x 720

Size: 339.79MB

File Type:.mp4

Download Original

Share It

Send Link by Email

Embed Tags

Credits

All Production Elements: Philip Bloom Rating: 4.64

Tags: 35mm Bloom japan philip tokyo

Equipment: Letus 35 Extreme Letus Ultimate Nikon 17-35 mm f/2.8 Nikon 80-200 mm f/2.8 Zeiss ZF - Nikon Mount SLR Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks miller DS20 miller solo carbon fibre Sony PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX Apple Final Cut Pro

See Recent Videos By Philip

Room with a view: Dubai test DSLR timelapses

Comments

Shiv Kumar

May 04, 2008 03:32 PM

Phil,
I’m not sure if what we see in this short is how things are, but it seems like what you were trying to portray was a bustling, modern city, then a flea market kind of thing going on and then the homeless, all happening in the same place. I’m no alien to this kind of thing myself, but I haven’t really seen this kind of thing portrayed in such stark contract before. Makes it very real (for me).

I would have loved to see more of the cultural stuff you captured juxtaposed with the modern city life and the homeless. But you’ve obviously spent a lot of time in the inner city and getting up close and personal with the homeless and getting some great shots and time lapses too.

I loved the panning time lapses merging from one to the next and the one with the homeless guy sleeping in the thick of things or so it seemed until the wider shot.

Was that you @5:02?

Great end credits as well. I did feel that the time lapse was too fast but I guess it was fitting.

Marco Menestrina

May 04, 2008 03:40 PM

Phil,
I've been looking forward for a new short from you! Needless to say, this was fantastic: especially the night shots, those fluorescent lights sure look beautiful... It almost look like Blade Runner at times! I have a question about the motorized mount for you: apparently it looks really good and doesn't suffer the camera-lex-lens weight for panning, but how is it for tilting? Does it manage to raise all that gear and still be that fluid?

Philip Bloom

May 04, 2008 03:43 PM

hi marco

the tilting was fine, but felt quite fast due to less travel the the horizonal pans

Marco Menestrina

May 04, 2008 03:45 PM

I see, thank you

Mark Dawson

May 04, 2008 03:45 PM

Phil, I thought this piece was really good, and with its touching portraits...Your editing was spot on and great choice of music...Liked the Hitchcock moment and the treatment of the credits. Well done...Mark

Alberto Llaurador

May 04, 2008 08:25 PM

Tico

Pretty darn good, Phil. Excellent effort. Obvious hard work.

Reminded me a bit of "Dodes’ Ka-Den" at the end.

Kudos...

T

Dave Morrison

May 04, 2008 09:40 PM

Beautiful work as usual, Philip. Here's a couple questions for you:
1. How do you decide which of the EX1's size/quality settings to shoot with?
2. Since this short had SO many timelapse shots, did THAT determine which size/quality setting you had to use?
3. Did you have any problems setting up a tripod on those busy streets? Restrictions?
4. How much is the motorized head you were using and where can we buy them in the U.S.?
Thanks,
Dave

Peter Klaassen

May 05, 2008 12:33 AM

As always: great photography. I wonder about the "look" though. Fits perfectly for the night shots but a bit too saturated for the daylight shots, IMO. For me the "strange" colors kind of distract from the gap between rich and poor and the other issues you show.

I find it amazing that you make such high quality productions in such a short period of time.

Daniel Hidalgo

May 05, 2008 12:50 AM

Just beautiful...

Excellent piece Philip!
I was actually trying to figure out which parts were with the LEX or Ultimate, hard to tell, but you website cleared it up for me.
This was extremely touching, especially the shots of the homeless, and in time-lapse it makes a very powerful statement to me, how the world passes them by as if a non-entity. Just the feeling I got, and is very prevalent in life. Spoke volumes as a reflection of society.
Brilliant piece!

Peace and Blessings,
Hidalgo

jack r

May 05, 2008 05:08 AM

Hi Phil,

Can you enable or check whatever the box is to "Download Original" for this and Shibuya? I like to sit back with a bevvy and admire your work on the big screen...

Cheers. I really like what you're doing.

Jack R

Philip Bloom

May 05, 2008 05:12 AM

it is available Jack. What message are you getting?

jack r

May 05, 2008 05:21 AM

Hi Phil...

The download link just appeared after your message, and I refreshed the page.It wasn't there when I first viewed?

BTW, Shiv and I had a back and forth about Death Valley...turns out it had something to do with MIME types, gaps in the file name and browser vagaries. The good news is, I now have a version to watch!

Cheers,

Jack R

Philip Bloom

May 05, 2008 05:24 AM

yeah it was because it was .mov.mp4 in the file type and it had to be .mp4 i think!
yeah it seems it defaults to not letting you download original so have fixed it. thanks for letting me know!

jack r

May 05, 2008 05:39 AM

Thanks Phil...sweet...

I'm interested in your Japan stuff, because I was on a doco series shoot in Japan back in 2001, and we would've killed for an EX1, Letus Extreme and P. Bloom!They couldn't spring for DigiBeta, so we used a PD-150...

The series went OK...but man....the production value in the three items I listed would've killed.

What are you up to next?

Jack

Philip Bloom

May 05, 2008 06:06 AM

not sure...couple of things in London, then 10 days in Siberia hopefully lae June

Dave Morrison

May 05, 2008 10:39 AM

Any help with my questions above, Phil?

Shiv Kumar

May 05, 2008 12:41 PM

Sorry guys. It was supposed to default to "Allow" downloading original. This will be fixed.

Philip Bloom

May 05, 2008 02:11 PM

I always shoot 1080p apart from overcrank

The Japanese were much more aware of knocking my tripod than in other places. Must be a spacial awareness thing!

The tripod thing I believe is japan only but the guy on my blog is an American and he will ship it anywhere. Cost is around 150 bucks

Will Mahoney

May 06, 2008 12:04 PM

You silly S.O.B.

Phillip, you silly, British S.O.B. This was beautiful!

Chris Bishop

December 10, 2008 08:11 AM

Sad reality and extreams

I'm familiar with most of Philip's online creative visuals, most are outstanding because Philip goes the next step by taking interesting visuals and turning them into creative visual art.
The process starts with the videography/photography (which is always excellent) then he knows how to make these visuals work in the editing room, he also knows how important music is in helping tell the story.

`Alone in Tokyo` is a perfect example of how Philip can swing your emotions as he allows us to see the sad reality and extreams of modern City life.

Chris Bishop

Jim Layes

April 11, 2009 07:45 PM

Nice

I loved this video.. I was stationed in Japan back in 1973 for 2.5 years. I know that Japan is a very clean place, but what's strange is that the "down and out" just go wherever they want to go, and the rest of the people don't pay any attention to them at all. I remember once when I was in a shopping mall I saw this guy just take a link right there, and nobody did anything, not even the mall police. But anyways.. Great JOB!..

Jim

matthias hoffmann

June 02, 2009 09:38 AM

cool piece, gives you the feeling you right there and air makes the whole thing complete,
would just like to know what compression do you use for your uploads?

alex sasu

August 14, 2009 03:19 AM

Hey, I love your works, and I always come here and see this video. I just sign in this web cause your videos, just to express my gratitude. Thanks man.