Since October, I have been working on and off with Luis Mora on a film he’s wanted to make since he came to Japan for the first time earlier this year. We had planned to try and shoot it in a few weekends, but that drastically changed into all weekends and many weekdays/weeknights. Even with a lot of planning, this was a challenge to get done by his deadline. We only got to see a small part of Tokyo but it still came out huge.

Luis’s goal was to tell his story with Japan as a backdrop. I have done plenty of “Tokyo” videos in the past, so I already knew how to deal with that part. The first real challenge for me was filming skating for the first time. I had watched plenty of skating videos over the years, but never had a chance to film any skating. Luis was very specific as to how he wanted the skating filmed, so I had a lot to learn. I’m still filming with him while he is here, so I want to get even more practice.

I have a lot of experience with “new media consulting” but I have never worked with a “new generation vlogger” before. I learned a lot about how youtube works now for people who do it for a living, and I helped him with old school outreach planning and culture gaps. It was a very fulfilling experience overall.

As for the film itself, the GH5 performed wonderfully. We shot most of the film on the Panasonic Leica 42.5mm Nocticron at f/1.2 with a variable ND. We did a few during the day in tight spaces with the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8, and a few of the last shots were done with the Voightlander 17.5mm f/0.95. The 4K 60fps along with V-Log did a great job capturing the city colors. I’m super happy with the regular 4K 60fps. Another thing… the GH5 Dual IS and IS Video Lock are INCREDIBLE. I’m willing to bet you can’t tell which shots were on a gimbal and which were not. I mean, the gimbal was amazing in it’s own right, but I had no idea hw good the IS is until I was using it constantly. I used my Beholder DS2A with the DS2 arms when I could, though. Because of the GH5’s IS, even at 42.5mm, I could walk with it and get super smooth video with the Beholder. The only time I had small shakes was in high wind, but Warp Stabilizer smoothed them out to a point where I’m pretty sure you’ll have no idea where I used it. (Except for two shots, which absolutely had to be in the film)

Lastly, I’m a firm believer in the message of the film. I may not be where I want to be in life overall, but I have never given up doing what I want to do. As long as you don’t stop trying, no matter how little or how long it takes, you never know what you’ll accomplish.

I look forward to working with Luis more and have a lot of my own projects coming as well! Stay tuned!