Hi from London (soon: from Japan)

[Ben Nicholson]

Hi all,

I came to this forum courtesy of this thread over on Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=2530919165

I currently use a Canon FV100, FCE and iDVD 3 to make movies of my daughter growing up. My in-laws are in Osaka, Japan, and I send them DVDs every couple of months so they can monitor the growing-up progress. ;-)

I first got into DV editing in 1999, when I set up a couple of Internet Cafes in London with my brother-in-law. We had Wi-Fi hot-spots, and had a 'Video Postcard' service - people (e.g. tourists or foreign students) could come in, and we'd video their 4-5 min. message to the folks back home. We'd edit it, put it up on the web (using iMovie & the predecessor of .Mac), and then e-mail the recipients for notification.

I'm moving to Japan later on this year, so I'm looking forward to getting into the DV/Mac NLE scene there (don't know if its Kansai or Tokyo yet though).

[John Locke]

Welcome to the boards, Ben! I hope you found the info you needed as was being discussed in the Ars Video thread.

I live in Tokyo...so when you get to Japan don't hesitate to contact me.

[K. Forman]

Hello Ben, and welcome! That was a cool idea, creating Video Postcards. I do have a question for you... When creating the DVDs for your In-Laws, did you run into any compatability issues? What DVD burner are you using?

[Frank Granovski]

Keith, there are many multi-stystem / multi-code DVD players available. Here's a Vancouver store that sells them:

Foreign Electronics
http://www.multi-system.com
E-mail: foreign@telus.net

[Ben Nicholson]

John - thanks for the welcome!

Keith - the camera I'm using was bought in Japan, so its automatically set to NTSC. My editing software (Final Cut Express) recognizes it as such, and so I end up burning NTSC-compatible DVDs.

The hardware for this is a Pioneer DVR-104 fitted into an Apple Mac dual-proc G4 (2x450Mhz).

I've found that its not difficult to find DVD players with dual (NTSC+PAL) compatibility.

[Rik Sanchez]

Ben,
welcome, irrashai, maido...

I'm down here in Osaka, if you make it over here look me up, I don't know if John will agree, but Osaka is a lot more liveable than Tokyo, even though there's a lot more happening up there. Things are more up and coming over here.

Let us know where you end up.

[Ben Nicholson]

Hi Rik,

I'll be starting off in Osaka (that's where my mother-in-law lives.....), but where I end up really depends on where the jobs are. So somewhere in Kansai would be ideal, but Tokyo's a distinct possibility.

I taught English for a couple of years in Hyogo-ken no inaka, and had a great time; I could teach again, but ideally I'd like to continue selling opto-electronics, which is what I do now.

Actually, I'd love to get into TV or film-making, but its probably just a dream. My wife's sister works for Kansai TV, and I met some of her colleagues (editors, camera crew) last year; pretty cool bunch.

I like Osaka; I know Shinsaibashi & Namba pretty well (especially the bars!).

[Rik Sanchez]

Ben,
yeah, Osaka is the shit, I like going up to Tokyo sometimes for events/work but Osaka has a nicer feel to it.

When you get here, send me an email, I'll introduce you to my homeboys and you can see what we are doing.

I spend most of my time in the Shinsaibashi/Amerika Mura area, although I was up in Umeda tonight seeing a friend at the club he runs. If you are around June 21st, we are showing the short 30 min. film we made, we are having a premier party in Umeda, a cool japanese band will play, several DJ's will spin, maybe some freaky video art inbetween the entertainment.

Check out www.mandy.com for video jobs, they might have some stuff up in Tokyo, Osaka is kinda tight with those kinds of jobs, everyone seems to go up to Tokyo for the work, we are all sticking it out in Kansai, making our own scene.

Also try this, maybe you can get in with this company, or at least try to intern or something: http://approd.com/index.html

I had a friend who did some video work for Kyoto TV, from his horror stories I don't know if I would want to work in Japanese TV.

when you get here, send me an email and I'll email you my cell phone number.

[Ben Nicholson]

Hi Rik,

Thanks for your reply & links. Sounds like fun on the 21st!

I'm aiming to be in Japan some time after Christmas; gotta sell my flat, improve my Nihongo & do some job-hunting first.

[Rik Sanchez]

Christmas, that's seems like a lifetime away, have fun studying japanese, I could never sit down with a book and study, although when I first got here, I right away learned(memorized more like it) hiragana and katakana so I could read the basics.

I also try to learn how to say things in Osaka Ben(slang), it trips people out in Tokyo when I start speaking in Osaka slang, Osaka is a lot like the Mac, it's not the big popular city that Tokyo is but we love it and are fiercely loyal to it.

get in touch with us when you do come out here, in the mean time, we'll see you on the boards.

[Ed Smith]

Hi from Hampsire, about 1 hour drive from London. Hope you have fun with what you do. Most importantly enjoy your self.

Did you know that creating an NTSC DVD is the same as creating a region 1 DVD which is the most compatibale throughout the world!!!

All the best,

Ed Smith