Archive for the “Entertainment Industry” Category

Today I received a call from KCAL 9, a local TV station in Los Angeles.

They were looking for businesses they could feature in their TV program called Best Deals.

So I had to explain to them that we no longer have a retail store, nor do we offer services that would be beneficial to consumers since we’re a publisher.

I recommended he contact Anime Jungle, and the guy on the other end of the line told me that they had already emailed them the forms… so hopefully we’ll get to see Anime Jungle store manager Tetsu on local TV!

I recently got on Facebook, and all of my friends are addicted to the various games there.

All of us gave up beating freelancer Dee in Word Challenge, but we do compete on our weekly scores. Since those games are free, we are asked to watch a few seconds of their sponsors’ ads… and we started noticing the Naruto game ads on there.

I still tend to think anime is a niche market product, so it’s always amusing (delightful?) to see anime related ads in mainstream places.

It’s like the time we saw the One Piece Anime Expo poster in Hollywood & Highland (okay, maybe not quite…)

Broccoli USA president Kaname was invited by the Japanese Consulate General to attend a kimono demonstration event being held at his official residence in Los Angeles.

Since Kaname was going to be out of town, he asked me to go on his behalf.
So I went last night.

The kimono demonstration was being held by Nobuaki Tomita, a kimono designer & stylist who works w/ a lot of TV shows. The Japanese Consulate office had invited various people within the fashion industry… and we were invited for unknown reasons *laugh*

They had light refreshments & snacks for the attendees.

I drove myself to the event, so I didn’t have any wine.
They had invited a few kimono teachers & their pupils to attend the event as well, so there were a few women dressed up in kimono.

First, designer Tomita-sensei showed us how long a roll of kimono cloth is. He unraveled 12 meters worth of cloth. And then had to re-roll it back up. Heh heh.

And he demo’d how he would take the roll of cloth and make a mock-up kimono to show the TV producers, since they would have a hard time imagining how a kimono would look just by looking at the cloth. Some costume designer who works in Hollywood shouted out that it’s the same in their industry too.

And then he showed us different designs he’s made from various inspirations.

A kimono design inspired by Hollywood. Using camera, film reel, clap board and the Hollywood sign. It’s hard to see in this photo, but let’s pretend it’s all in there.

A mountain range like this…

…turns into an obi like this

And so forth.

He was commissioned by the Boston Museum of Arts to recreate an ukiyoe art that they have on display. So he made three different kimono (red, blue & purple), and recreated the art in 3D form.

The screen in the back shows the original ukiyoe art.

The presentation was around 2 hours, and designer Tomita-sensei’s two assistants did a whole lot of costume changes throughout the event. They even had three American women model other kimono he made to imitate the Taisho period or using kabuki theater motif.

It was an interesting presentation. One of the staffers told me that this was the first time they held an event that invited professionals from all sorts of fields, and they may do more entertainment field related things in the future.

Oh, I guess it was to present a Japanese designer to the US entertainment industry… I’m not a movie producer or anything, but maybe my blog entry will be of use. Naaaah.

We occasionally get free movie screening passes from various studios (and their marketing agencies).

Usually the passes are for movies I never heard of, although many many years ago we did get passes for the bleacher seats for the red carpet premiere of Lord of the Rings. It was the second or third movie. I don’t really remember, since I didn’t go. But former Broccoli USA sales manager Ardith went w/ few of the staff. I have yet to see any of the movies, but I haven’t seen the third Star Wars movie either (Return of the Jedi?), so give me another 20 years to catch up.

Yesterday, I found an envelope I hadn’t opened yet. The envelope said “Alliance” so I thought it was a payment from Alliance Game, which is a distribution company that’s a sister-company to Diamond.

No, it wasn’t a payment.

It was a screening pass for Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

The last pass we got was for Choke (by the writer of Fight Club), so I was getting used to receiving passes for movies that I haven’t heard about before. But this one (= Nick & Norah), I’ve actually heard about.

So I decided to leave work 30 mins early to get in line.

The advance screening was at the Landmark Theaters in Westside Pavilion. I believe Choke was also being screened there, so they probably schedule one advance screening every Thursday at 7:30pm. It seems like you don’t need to have the “pass” to get a ticket, so if you just want to see free movies on a Thursday night, you might be able to go there around 6:00pm and get the “wait tickets.”

Of course I missed the VP debate to go watch this… I only got to hear the first 15 mins of it on NPR. I guess I’ll just have to wait until Saturday to watch it get spoofed on SNL.

Anyhoo, if you’re a college-aged person, this movie is pretty cute.
For 30-something old folks like me, I can’t watch a 90 minute movie from the 5th row from front (which has nothing to do w/ the content of the movie). I get carsick watching someone play Lego Indiana Jones game on the PS3, so I was feeling pretty sick by the end of the movie.

But I think I had no problem chewing other people’s gum when I was in high school.
Ewwww!
Heck, I think I could still do it now.
Ewwww!

And it’s sad that I only recognized one song from the movie… which was a Cure song (Nick’s ringtone). Isn’t Nick (supposedly a HS senior) too young to know the Cure?

I heard from freelancer Saki that the actress who plays Norah (Kat Dennings) is a shoujo manga fan. Although I haven’t worked on any traditional shoujo manga (I grew up as a Ribbon-kko), I thought I should support her work now. What else has she been in?

I posted this in Broccoli Books production blog, but I went to the Virgin Megastore last night because I had to use up $25 worth of coupons before September 30.

I received these coupons when I went shopping with the Circus people during Anime Expo. They were buying a lot of stuff, so we decided to sign up for the Virgin VIP membership thingie… or what they would call in Japan, a point card.

VIP cards are a lot like the Japanese point cards where the silver part gets reprinted with the current points accumulated. Plus a little bit of advertisement on the bottom (like the Blu-Ray logo on the bottom).

I guess you get a point for every dollar spent, and when you reach $100 points, they print a gift coupon for $5 off. I had 5 of these coupons from Anime Expo, so that means we spent $500 last time. But then again, we also used 3 coupons on that same day we bought all the stuff…

They only let you use $15 worth of coupons at a time. So I split up my 5 coupons into two — $10 and $15. I bought a DVD and a Super Mario Brothers tote bag. I really wanted to get the Nightmare Before Christmas tote bag, but it was $50! Some things are getting Japanese priced these days.

Oh, and I was excited to see COSMODE USA being sold at the Virgin Megastore.

Displayed next to tokidoki apparel and accessories. I hope it’s selling at their store.

Whoops, one more thing.
I saw this geeky car in the Hollywood & Highland parking lot.

It had tiger stripes on both sides of the car body, so it was a tad bit ugly.

I usually hate people who send links to random websites… especially if there is no explanation before or after the link.

“I thought this is funny (lol)” is NOT an explanation of the link, people!

With that said, I followed a link from a Japanese blogger (she included screencaps). Normally her blog is about her very complicated & drama-like life… but she was so impressed with this dude, she needed to spread the word, I guess.

And I’m following the buzz by bringing it up here.

This is the original image/video that was linked. The image is of Tamori, a Japanese comedian & TV show host of “Waratte Iitomo.”

iPod ad parody featuring Goku & Bulma

Osaka from Azumanga. Sneezing?

Slime from Dragon Quest

He’s good, even for a guy who’s drawing using a tablet. And possibly tracing.
I heard the Tamori sketch was even featured on TV in Japan.

Yes, I’m frantically looking for material to write about here… and adding the links here, so I don’t have to bookmark the site on my computer.

I had arranged a mini field trip to go to the John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend with a few friends. Well, I only have friends in the anime/manga industry… so sad.

Anyway, we get to the Hollywood Bowl and there are people with lightsabers. And some are in costume.

It seemed almost Comic-Con like *laugh*

And when the Star Wars theme played (near the end), all the lightsabers lit up. It was pretty neat.

The photo is a group that was in the middle of the seating area. It looks like they bought tickets together & planned on bringing their lightsabers.

There were other lightsabers scattered about, but only in groups of 2 or 3. Nothing like this group of 20.

Former Broccoli USA sales manager Ardith was laughing her head off, but I think she really wanted to join them.

I took several video clips with my camera, but the music doesn’t start/end in good spots, so I decided not to post them. I need to find a video editing software to crop these clips…