A documentary collaboration that bridged two sides of the world.

Places + Perspectives was a remote collaboration between University of California, San Diego undergraduates and graduate students at Keio University in Tokyo. The two groups of volunteer students used emerging teleconferencing technology to plan and execute a documentary exploring the experiences of recent immigrants in both the United States and Japan.

One of the major challenges of the project was to effectively plan production to create a cohesive story across two teams on different sides of the world. With one team based in the United States and the other in Japan, we leveraged new technologies from NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, Calit2 at UCSD and PIX Systems.

Over the course of a semester, our teams communicated ideas, shared videos and decided on revisions between San Diego and Tokyo. As the project lead for the UCSD students, I worked first-hand with colleagues in sharing, producing, and editing the documentary in parallel with the Keio University team.

Despite the unique challenges of the project, our cutting-edge tools helped to facilitate the success of the many talented participants. We presented our documentary, and the processes we used to achieve it, as a part of the Cinegrid Exchange in cooperation with Calit2 and Jacobs School of Engineering. The work was also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival and displayed at the NAB show the following year.

My roles and responsibilities:

• Was a leading developer of the volunteer project, working to get it off the ground under a fast-moving timeline and modest budget.
• Cooperated closely with academic advisors and technology partners to facilitate the goals of the project.
• As project lead on the UCSD side, I was directly involved with planning, production, editing and presentation.
• Created motion graphics and titles and worked with musicians to source original music for the project.