Shinosaka to Tokyo




I came across this video on Reddit tonight and was pretty much blown away by the concept, but not necessarily the execution. Then I read the comments where someone had linked to the above video and I was absolutely mesmerized. Visually the whole thing is very reminiscent of Michel Gondry’s video for Star Guitar. Now if the whole thing would just sync up the same.

The video was made using a simple mirror filter and an HD video camera, shot from a train. I use a lot of mirroring effects for live visuals, but never on material shot from a moving vehicle. Something about it feels so fluid; almost CGI. I wonder if this effect will become the video equivalent of tilt-shift, popping up everywhere all of the sudden.

Oh and if you haven’t had your videos-shot-from-a-train fill yet, here’s one shot using a high speed camera from a high speed train, in slow motion.

And here are a couple more from Tokyo, this time shot from a car. The vertical movement of the car (shocks) really accentuate the effect: One | Two

24 Comments

  1. greg says:

    van she makes you want to shove a pencil in your ear? thats some reaaally questionable taste.

  2. dabatsun says:

    make me think about this one as well :

    http://www.vimeo.com/7794030

    great song !

  3. Scott says:

    Greg-
    you’re right, edited… I had about 18 windows open when I first watched that and some horrible trance song was playing. Although still would prefer something else for this vid, this seems a bit light.

  4. Clayton says:

    I never thought about you being a Redditor. It’s a great site and a great way to stay up on the news (and weird Internet memes).

    Anyway, I definitely agree, a nice concept and a pretty mesmerizing outcome.

  5. Tyler says:

    This is definitely a nice dose of vintage/minimal-expressionist to keep the revitalization going, a boon for artists like you especially, Scott. Didn’t know you were a reddit’r either, awesome!

  6. crstntnc says:

    Hi Scott, this is a great post, as usual.
    One remark — the link to the video taken from the train with the high speed camera is broken — http// instead of http://

  7. Mike J says:

    Another one for your interest, Tokyo skyline at night.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpTI3W9dPtc

  8. waxamillion says:

    This reminds me of the Jemapur video from W+K tokyo…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHzKjCYWOI
    It blew my mind when I first saw it

  9. Anonymous says:

    I had this idea while on the train! >:0
    you snooze you lose, I guess…

  10. Nathanael says:

    cat2525jp on youtube has uploaded about 20+ videos of this same exact type of video. He rides various light rails and monorails around Japan while recording the entire ride. He even drives sometimes around downtown Tokyo at night. About 1/3 of his videos are done in the same “mirror sky” style (he refers to is as a sky drive), but the rest are done with no editing.

    Guy has good taste in music too!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNka5saiVrc&feature=related

    One of my favorites.

  11. Nathanael says:

    Guess I should read the entire post before I respond. I see you’ve already found cat2525jp. ^^;

    失礼しました。

  12. Steven says:

    That video is mesmerizing. At first, I was looking at it very analytically, seeing the various buildings for what they were. Round ’bout the middle of the video, my imagination started taking over. By the end, I couldn’t see the buildings at all; just wonderful shapes and textures. What an experience!

  13. Jorgen Jensen says:

    What’s the score…WHAT SONG IS PLAYED HERE? Love that sound

  14. Melvin Ho says:

    Thank You, is like we’re in a zero G atmosphere planet of floating continents. Inspirational!

  15. make me think about this one as well :

  16. Todd Neilson says:

    This video is wicked. The reason it looks CG is because the camera is on progressive scan. This takes the blur out of the motion. Scott, lets make a video like this with your graphics. Would be sick.

  17. Jarson says:

    This song kinda rips off “In The Air Tonight” hahaha

  18. Rob says:

    It’s funny, I was watching the beginning of the video without sound at work, and The Going Price for Home by The Prize Fighter Inferno came on Pandora. It synced up pretty neat with the vid and I chuckled.

  19. Chase says:

    I love that the rolling shutter, for possibly the first time ever, has worked for good and not evil. It creates a nice little point in the middle that I fancy.

  20. joana says:

    reminds me of this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kAqjtRCfsM&feature=related

    i prefer this video but four tet’s song is better

  21. hawken king says:

    bit of a fresh look at Japan!

  22. Dom says:

    Some more of that style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_nx__3d0-A from film maker Ian Emes.

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