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Works: With low budget equipments, he captures a style of filming called "Image Video" in which there are no plots, characters nor story but just the visual beauty of nature, people, city and etc. In other projects he also worked on several short films such as "Smoke Break" starring Lilia Ijiri, "My Suicide Blueprint" starring Yuki Hashimoto and "Eternal Lover" which is an adaptation from the novel by Taro Shimazu. The first project was the "D90 Short Film" (a homage to the Chinese director Wong Kar-wai) showed the possibilities of film making with just the DSLR camera. He often works with Hiroyuki Toshida (TOAO, ZeroIvis Films) and Yuki Hashimoto (Gekidan Hattori) and is currently working on several projects using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH-1. |
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"shotahirama [unhappy American lost in Tokyo] album trailer" (10): about: coming soon... kenhirama his real brother, shotahirama. His new CDR album "Unhappy American Lost in Tokyo" is now available. Released on May 4th, 2010 from Re-Records (Hongkong). Further information on this release can be found at re-records.com and shotahirama's official website www.signaldada.com. |
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"2009 Short Films Directed by Ken Hirama" (09): about: Camera: Nikon D90. Panasonic GH-1 Edited by: Imovie 09, Final cut express 4, Final cut pro 5. this year I have created close to 20 films. some are bad ones and most are horrible. next year I hope to create a better film. in this video... D90 Short FIlm- (Imovie and D90)(Spring)(Pieces of Nature)(Summer)(Smoke Break)(Time) GH-1 Short FIlms (Black and White test)(Soft Autum)(Empty)(Blue)(Waiting)( My Suicide BluePrint...)(Blind Dictator)(Low Light) |
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"Blue" (09): about: Ken Hirama Films Shot with the Lumix GH-1 shot with 720p 60fps and slowed it down 50% Edited with the Imovie09 This was shot in Chiba, about two hours away form Tokyo. I went there for personal reason and had my camera with me, so i thought I would make a little short film. I have a phobia towards sea and was not comfortable filming this but overall it was not too bad. Like the last film (Empty) this one was also less than two minutes..I do not like how short my films are lately but I am currently working on a new short story...which hopefully be finished this year. |
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"Empty" (09): about: Directed by Ken Hirama This was shot at Shinjuku. Left my house at 4:30am to shinjuku with Yuki Hashimoto (GekidanHattori/Debugons). Initially we went there for my film "A Cliche Love Story" but due to my lack of sleep, it was hard for me to concentrate on this film. Instead of filming the movie I decided to make a little video using the song that was stuck in my head. Once again due to my lack of sleep, I forgot to set up the ISO to Shutter speed and everything so it caused noise all over the video. this video might be my worst video yet. |
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"Low Light Test" (09): about: Ken Hirama Films Shot with the New Panasonic Lumix GH-1 14mm~140mm used This was shot in Ginza, Tokyo. One of the biggest luxury town in Tokyo and every time I visit Ginza,I feel alienated by the rich people. The reason I like this place is because of the colors of the neon that makes you feel like your in a Wong Kar Wai film. The first short film I shot with the Nikon D90 was also shot in the same area. My initial Plan was to do a little sequal to the D90 Short film but it didnt work out, and here are the reasons.I wanted to make it almost exactly like the D90 Short film so I took a similar shots and smoking my smoke in the exact same spot as half a year ago. Once I got into the editing, I found out that I was making an identical D90 short film instead it was GH1...It was just boring, But i finished it and compressed it and was ready to upload it on youtube (even though it was pretty bad footage, I felt the need to upload somthing)....than my computer suddenly crashed and half of the footage disappeared. so with the footages that were left, I made this finished version which I thought was way better than the otherone but..still not satisfied. haha well I hope you like this one. |
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"Smoke Break" (08): about: Directed By Ken Hirama Starring Lilia Ijiri and Ken Hirama The Idea for this short film came from actual break at my work. as usual I went outside for a smoke with a baseball (gift from one of my students). just throwing it around and accidentally threw it on the second floor. thats how i got the idea...simple. but the hard part was finding the actress, my group consists of three guys and it wouldnt be entertaining to watch when a guy is crying upstairs. I decided to ask one of my student, Lilia Ijiri to take part in this project. We shot my scene the day before hers but the next day it was slightly raining and it is clear to see a bit of rain in the finished project. The shoot went smoothly with my Assistant Director Yuki Hashimoto. |
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"Untitle" (08): about: Directed By Ken Hirama D90 Short Film I had no intention of filming that day but strangely it snowed in Tokyo. My friend just purchased the Nikon D90 so we went out near my house to film. We had our little towel on top of our D90 and a tripod. My friend Hiroyuki Toshida was taking some snap shots of snow while I stood there in the cold thinking what i should do. I decided to just get a footage of the snow but it was too boring of a picture, so i decided that i should walk...lol with no clue in my mind what im doing I just took several shots of myself walking through the Park. After a hour or so, we headed back and uploaded my footage to my Imovie 09. I used the song from Norah Jones, since im a big fan of hers and thought it would match the clips....it was boring. nothing special, just me walking. I thought i would give it a different look using the "Effect" on the Imovie 09. I used the "Cartoon" effect and it was somewhat better. I havent seen the video since. Its not my personal favorite. haha |
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