We helped with the feature story of a Singaporean TV network, CNA (Channel News Asia) Money Mind, about Vinyl Revival in Japan. We personally have never bought an analogue record, and we have probably only heard it on a player a handful of times. However, they are becoming increasingly popular in Japan, especially amongst Generation Z. We have covered the secrets behind this.
Watch the programme here.
The first person we filmed was DJ Shinichi, who is not from Generation Z, but from the millennium generation, but collects a huge amount of vinyl records. He is the main character in this story and currently owns around 500 vinyl records. We visited him at his home, where he showed us his collection and told us about the differences in sound between analogue records and digital sources. It was Automatic by Utada Hikaru, which we always listen to, but we felt it sounded kind of gentle.
Afterwards, we moved to Shibuya and filmed at HMV record shop Shibuya. Both the first and second floors are lined with records, and both new and used records are said to be extremely popular. We are really grateful to Hirama-san, who responded to our interview in English and was very flexible to help us with various scenes in the shop and interviews with customers. The last record collector we interviewed, who was from Australia, asked us if there were any Dev Large records. We got a bit excited to hear the name of a legendary Japanese beat maker.
Finally we went to film a dance competition for university students in Kichijoji. Our main objectives were to see DJ Shinichi playing there and to interview some Generation Z people who collect analogue records. DJ Shinichi had a quiet image when we interviewed him at his home, but at this event he was super cool. As it was a dance event, he was playing extremely intense.
We were completely unfamiliar with the Locking dance, but there were more than 100 students competing in a packed hall to show how cool they were. It was great to feel the energy of the young people! Thank you to everyone who showed us their amazing dance moves and to all the interviewees.
This time, again filming and sound were done by a technology company called 104 coLtd like our previous story about 4-day work week in Japan. Videographer was also Atsuki Tokuyama but to have clear sound at the dance event, we asked a sound engineer Ashihan to join the team on that day. We will continue to ask them for help in the future. Those two technical people were reliable as usual and with the produce of CNA, Chubby, we belived that a great story was completed!
CueRio staff with a partner videographer plan like what we did with this story, allows you to film without actually coming to Japan, so I highly recommend this option to everyone interested in covering a story in Japan.
