abroadinjapan

TRAPPED in a 1980's Japanese Toy House: SNEAK Peek | Patreon Exclusive Video

Added 2020-06-16 15:04:53 +0000 UTC

It's not easy being stuck in a tiny retro Japanese house with salted egg flavour crisps.

So I'll admit, I never thought I'd still be doing this after 8 years and 200 videos, given my shocking attention span and given how quickly I get bored of doing the same thing in general.

But the secret that's kept me motivated and enthusiastic after all this time, is the constant thrill of challenging myself creatively, and finding new ways to try and surprise viewers.

Regardless of your chosen career, if you're not pushing yourself to try something new, learn something new, or go outside your comfort zone regularly, then in all likelihood your satisfaction and motivation will wane as the years drag on.

With that in mind in every video I produce, I consider it a disappointment if I've not acquired some sort of new skill along the way.

Whether that's learning how to fly a drone cinematically like in last year’s Fukushima documentary, producing a bizarre horror scene involving stuffing myself inside a bike shed, or discovering how to film an entire bullet train episode in 20 horrific and intense minutes (see this previous post for the explanation on that one: https://bit.ly/2Ay3I0l).

And continuing that theme of learning awkwardly specific new skills, in this week’s video I wanted to turn my long held dream into reality. A dream of converting my tiny 1980's retro Japanese living room into the swanky backdrop it so desperately deserved to be.

To make that happen, I needed to rediscover the magic (and utter frustration) of using a green screen; something I've never done in an Abroad in Japan video and something I haven't done since I was 18 years old at college. The main reason being, I hate green screens.

AND YET, to my surprise and delight, it wasn’t half as difficult or as nightmarish as I’d initially anticipated. The results came off better than I’d hoped.

The sequence you're about to watch (unless you've cheated by already clicking on it) has ended up becoming the perfect opening to this week’s new Abroad in Japan video; a long rant about how much I despise Japanese TV, both as a viewer and as a presenter (which I've begrudgingly done a few times over the years).

Trapped in a 1980’s Japanese Toy House | Patreon Exclusive Sneak Peek:
► https://youtu.be/dmgBIY5on7s

I’ve long dreamed of doing a video dedicated to the horrors of Japanese television, but to do it I needed to put a few years between the present, and my awkward TV experience I intend to talk about from 3 years ago. (I was also triggered by a ridiculous tv segment I saw a few weeks back, as you'll discover).

For those of you curious how the blue screen worked here’s a quick breakdown!
ALSO I wholeheartedly recommend using blue screen over green screen; it’s much easier to edit out the background and give a clean image. The colour green spills everywhere and makes keying out the background an unmitigated shit show.

***BEFORE / AFTER / GRADED***

I won't lie - I'm really looking forward to sharing this one with you all later this week. It’s half critique, half story time and A WHOLE lot of fun.

- Bloody hell, did I really type that.
Clearly it’s past my bed time.

Many thanks guys and I hope you're having a good week so far. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the opening!

P.S. Sure, I know it's not 100% perfect - the perspective could be better - but the sequence does what it's meant to. And I've been able to trick half a dozen people so far, who've assumed I was sitting inside some sort of weird set. It's a great starting point for future blue screen scene fun on the channel.