Click here to view the embedded video.

In the next several days, I’ll post the newest issue of the magazine that I art direct, a few photo shoots that I have done, as well as some wonderful film work, in Washington, D.C., in Phoenix, and here in Los Angeles.

Source: Frugal dad

I’m a firm believer in Copyblogger’s usefulness. It’s one of the blogs that I read on an almost-daily basis. Unpaid plug…

First up is a prayer from Mori Sensei, a pastor living 30 minutes away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. His church wants to help rebuild an entire seaside community, hopefully relocating just a half-mile off the beach up into the hills, so that they can still have their livelihood, but be protected from the possibility of another tsunami:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The next video is a set of reflections from Eric Takamoto, an Asian Access missionary from the Kobe area who was one of the first responders up into the destroyed town of Ishinomaki. Eric’s family is going to relocate to Ishinomaki because they feel strongly that the rebuilding work is going to take time and committed effort, and they want to be part of that long-term process. Eric’s passion for the people he ministers to inspires me:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both of these pieces were filmed in January 2012 as part of my one-week trip to NE Japan for Hearken Creative client Asian Access. I was accompanied on the trip by Asian Access’ VP for Communications Jeff Johnston, good friend and colleague Joshua Clayton, Asian Access’ VP for Strategic Engagement Takeshi Takazawa, as well as translation and hosting and friendship by Asian Access’ Jeffrey Sonnenberg (oh, and new friend Mike McKay from Cypress Church here in California was with us for part of the week).

Video was shot with A2′s Sony HD Handycam and my Canon EOS 7D, with color correction done in Final Cut Pro with additional color work by Red Giant’s Mojo. Audio was recorded through my Zoom H4N using Sennheiser G2 wireless mics and an Audio Technica AT897. All data cards (CF for video, SD for audio) were captured onsite and backed up to multiple G-Raid Mini hard drives for redundant transport back to the U.S.

We filmed this last week in West Covina. Joe (president of Asian Access) is so smooth on camera. We interviewed him for 45 minutes for another project, and then he did just a few takes of this quick “thank you” before I had to run to another shoot in Downtown L.A.

Great time. Good video, good audio. Great message.

The Super Bowl is now over, but now we get to dissect everything that happened around the big event (I’m not a Monday Morning Quarterback, so I won’t get into analyzing the game, even though it had its exciting moments).

On Crazytown this week, I look at the music that shaped key moments during the broadcast — from commercials, to halftime, to the incredible National Anthem. Go check it out.

I was very happy with the work of our printer (The Dot Printer in Irvine, CA); they worked hard to capture my intent with each picture.

When I get a minute (kinda busy right now), a few people have asked for a “before/after” comparison: what we did in the redesign to give the magazine a new identity. I would like to do that, although I must say that the design firm who did the magazine before HCS did a tremendous job for decades, so any “improvements” that I made truly attempted to take what had worked for years in the old magazine and bring it up to date.

But that will have to be in another blog post. For now, check out these beautiful spreads…

Join the Planetary Society today and get this magazine in your mailbox four times a year, and know that your donation goes towards space research, education, and advocating space within the governments of the world!

I have only been back from my trip a few weeks, but I’m missing Japan already. So I broke out some Matcha Green Tea-flavored Kit Kat candies to take me back.

Candy is all over the place in Japan. Perhaps that is because omiyage are available in shops in every train station. Omiyage is a type of gift that you give someone — a souvenir from far-away lands — that you bring after you have been traveling. Omiyage oftentimes (I believe) has the connotation of being bought at the last minute, or even once you got home. But the sentiment is important, so they are bought often. And candy from different regions of the world is a popular gift. The variety of candy in Japan is much greater than that in the States — lots of different flavors, and some more (or much less) sweet than candy that I am used to. Really fun.

I really enjoyed visiting with pastors, missionaries, and community leaders who are working hard to bring hope and healing to some pretty devastated communities.

Late last week we had our first translating session — it’s going to take a while to translate all of the interviews. I’ll post links as they go live.

I am always inspired and intrigued by what modern science has to say about our brains. And this week, a bunch of new studies shed new light on how our creativity is affected by what we do to our brains. On CrazyTown, I wrote up my three favorite new science-and-creativity-related news stories from the past week. Hope you enjoy.

Building a new community center in Sendai

I just returned from a week-long trip filming relief and re-building work on the eastern coast of Japan. We traveled well over a thousand miles to capture stories of churches working amongst those who have been displaced by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. This trip was part of an ongoing video project for longtime client Asian Access. Previous trips with them have taken me to Sri Lanka (after the 2004 tsunami), Mongolia, Cambodia, and other countries throughout Asia.

Interviewing a pastor surrounded by donations for tsunami victims

Here’s a breakdown of our gear:

• Sony Handycam
• Canon EOS-7D with 4 batteries and 3 lenses (18-55mm, 55-200mm, and a 50mm fast lens)
• Zoom H4N for audio recording
• Sennheiser G2 wireless microphone
• Audio-Technica AT897 shotgun microphone
• Manfrotto tripods
• Kessler-Crane Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly (4-ft. slider)
• Lots of Compact Flash and SDHC cards
• MacBookPro laptop
• G-Raid Mini 750gb hard drive

Plots still being cleared right next to brand-new houses

I could have used more than one G-Raid. As it was, I had one set of captures on the laptop and one set on the G-Raid. I think I should have had both on separate external drives (I started to run out of space on the laptop’s internal drive).

The Kessler-Crane slider was great for getting really smooth motion for b-roll, and even during some of the interviews. I was worried that it was going to be a pain to carry around and get through security at airports, but it wasn’t (and it’s still under the weight restrictions, so bringing it along didn’t cost me any extra).

The water in some places has not sunk back to pre-tsunami levels

The rest of the team was Joshua Clayton, Jeff Johnston (of Asian Access), and Takeshi Takazawa (also of Asian Access). We were a good team — we have all worked together before — so we got a lot of footage and some great interviews.

One issue that came up very quickly was the challenge of language. I felt that we would honor the interview subjects best by conducting the entire interview in Japanese, and then figure out what they discussed later. I don’t understand Japanese, so I had to get a synopsis of the interview from Takeshi before determining what b-roll would be needed to tell the story for each interview. We’ll see how well that went as I cut the pieces together over the next week or so.

Joshua capturing a small shrine to honor those who died in the tsunami

But all in all a very productive trip. I was happy with the portability of my kit (both audio and video) and how well everything worked. Can’t wait to show you all the footage as it gets finished…

(photos by Joshua Clayton & Loren A. Roberts)