Saturday, July 2, 2016

Tokyo Video Journal & MECHA REVIEW Updates!

Whew! Almost waiting an entire year before posting again, can't have that.

An insane amount of things in my life have changed, and it's taken a huge workload from 4 years ago and pushed it even further back...to oblivion. Whatever. Mecha Review is still going strong. Soon. Anyway...



I decided after finishing college in May of 2015 that I should quit my job and run away to Tokyo for five weeks and make a video journal of my experience. I took basic Japanese in college and I figured I could get around well enough and have myself one of those life experience like you have. Like...other people have. And I did! I had a wonderful time, I made over 20 short video journal entries of my experience, and I even got a renewed focus to work on MW. Yes, really.

I'd write more about my experiences there, but really, I made that whole video series thing to do that. So, if you'd like to learn about my trip and see some cool stuff, please check out the videos HERE. Anyway...so I moved to Tokyo six months later. Yes, I now live among the manga-ka's and the maid cafés.


Without further ado, here's the Mecha Review news!

 Before I talk about what I need and what's done, it's important to understand the format of the show.

It is basically a wacky stupid review show. The opening title sequence is a mixture of video I shot of myself in a cockpit that I built in a costume I made, and stop-motion animation of a custom robot model/puppet I made out of old Gundam model parts. The start of the show is live-action, where I introduce the topic, then the show kicks off into an edited presentation of my review of the topic, then it closes with more live action, and end title cards. That's it in a nutshell. It's a real love letter to MST3K and The Angry Video Game Nerd.

What's Done: As of June 26th 2016 all video is shot (for the entire first season), all sound is recorded for episode 1 and edited, backdrops are made, and most of the first video is actually edited together coherently. Since I last posted here, I finished an updated version of the set and the costume, and did reshoots of the first episode...and new footage for several new episodes as well as fun little interstitial pieces.

What's Not Done: When I shipped my PC here I did it in parts, and a few of those parts are still missing, so I can't edit anything until those arrive. I still need to finish the main edit of the show (IE finding the right stills and video to put to my voice-over), create title cards, photograph the stop-motion segments (which are thankfully VERY short), edit those, then do final audio master, and final video effects. I have no idea how long this will take, but what I have so far makes me very hopeful and excited. The most important missing piece to the puzzle is MUSIC. If you make or know someone who makes music, please let me know. I need an opening title theme most of all, something reminiscent of the horribly cheesey openings from the early 90's Gundam shows.


Next Update:
While I wait for the rest of my gear to arrive here in Tokyo, I will be updating this blog with some of the things I've been working on since last August. I'd like to principally show my progress on the set and helmet designs, as well as showcase how exactly I put my puppet/model together for the stop-motion pieces. That was a hell of a project all on it's own.

Till next time.

-Kris





2 comments:

  1. Whoooooa cool. You moved to Japan!

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    Replies
    1. Yup! It's hot as balls here, but every day the food is amazing.

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