Japan Wizards Video

Overview

As part of the Japan Wizards competition, a state-wide competition on Japanese language and culture, my team was required to shoot a minute-long video displaying the concept of “もったいない (mottainai)”: a way of thinking that discourages wastefulness of resources. We decided to emphasize this message by contrasting two roles: one encompassing Western culture, and the other, the Japanese mottainai way of thinking.

Role and Responsibilities

The video footage itself was shot by my brother, but a surprising amount of the work lay in splicing it all together into one cohesive narrative while keeping it under a minute in length. My teammates and I worked together to create a script, and we all took part in acting it out. Here’s a few shots from the video, where I’m playing the part of the wasteful Westerner taking about 20 sheets of paper towel just to wipe their hands.

The Takeaways

I definitely learned about the challenges of acting. And also not to underestimate the task of video editing. It proved surprisingly difficult to keep things within a time limit without looking forced or choppy. I also learned how to use video editing software as well as what transitions to use to change between scenes smoothly. Most importantly, though, I was reacquainted with the power of persistence. As with any new skill, there is a bit of a learning curve involved. It turns out for something like video editing, depending on your program, that learning curve can be quite high.

That being said, my hard work was not in vain, as we ended up getting full points for the video and winning the competition.