This week’s blog post is about the plan that I want to create at the end of this semester. As I have noted before, I am going to focus on depression caused by Covid-19. This blog has 3 main contents.

The Outline

The project is about giving my voice to someone who is struggling to overcome depression caused by Covid-19.

The style of program:

video poem which includes aside style

The intended audience:

– someone who is struggling with depression, losing who you are, and others having any mental health issues.

– someone who had experienced any mental illness before

– everyone who meets this program

List of the main characters:

– anything that relates to circumstances

– both natural and artificial components such as sky, sea, highway, train…

– myself as the director

The Treatment

The Theme:

The topic is facing how you are feeling and then ready for the next. As it is mentioned above, the theme that I would like to work on is depression caused by Covid-19. Even though most people know what depression means, how many of them really understand how depression is? It has been a serious problem in the world but it is said the pandemic has accelerated the number of those people. In addition, I am also the one who had (have) experienced depression before so it is possible to imagine how depression is hard to control, how they may feel, and what they need to do. I am not going to emphasise I have (had) some mental challenges in this project. What I would like to highlight is the importance of understanding depression.

The main story

In the poem part, the video is going to be about how our current lifestyle looks. This means to show the audience how covid-19 has given many restrictions to our lives so subjects can be people who are wearing masks, social distance policy, and other related information. Also, the video includes some things that have not changed because of the pandemic such as nature. Shooting where we live in nature can provide the message that we still have places to heal ourselves.

With those videos, I am going to put my messages in poetic style. My messages are not only encouraging to overcome depression but also accepting what they feel/think. This accepting message is one of the most important components, which I have learned from my own experiences.

In an aside part, I am going to talk about why I have chosen this topic and how I have felt during creating. This part should be put in the end and this is for making sure the audience understands my motive. Depression and other similar issues are very sensitive and need to be handled appropriately so it is important to try to avoid any misunderstandings.

To sum up those plans, the story is going to show what the aspects of narrowed life are and how to escape those lives, and it can have a blurred beginning and ending.

The main characters

There are no specific people in this program. As it is mentioned in the outline, the captured subjects are going to be the materials that are related to covid-19 and both natural and artificial stuff. They will show the flow of how our life is spent, how we are stuck in the pandemic, and whether there is hope in this world. After the poem part, I am going to be the main character but it does not mean I act something. My role is like “director’s statement” but my voice is meant to show what I intend to say through the program.

The style

It is going to be a 3 – 5 min video poem + 1 – 2 min aside part. What I have to think about in terms of the style is how I shift to the aside part from the poem part. There are a couple of plans to combine the two parts so this part needs to be researched by other existing works. 

The Script

1. Start with nature view and then back to places where there are many people

2. From the crowded places, it turns to other areas that have not many subjects and shoots covid-19 information such as the

screen of laptop and TV

3. Capture anything that can imply isolation and how it (they) are

4. Back to nature view but it differs from the beginning view

5. Shift to aside part, show up myself, and then talk to the camera

From this week’s blog, I’d like to shift to the next topic, #WeUsedTo from My Helo.

#WeUsedTo is about putting my thoughts into words using “After the Pandemic…” and this first blog is talking about the script and one director that I want to follow to create my #WeUsedTo.

These are the first script:

After the pandemic, how are we able to spend our own lives like we used to before?

Now, we are under many limits and they are both physical and mental restriction.

How many years do we have to fight for invisible monsters?

Who knows what is the solution for that?

We have lost ourselves because of the Pandemic.

We did nothing wrong but we have no opportunities to feel, experience, and release.

We have to help the people who have lost who they are and have no vision and hope for the future.

Everyone needs to HELP to be alive because the time we are spending is never coming back again.

The script is not enough but it is the basis of what I want to say. So it is going to include other information to support my voice to be persuasive in two weeks. 

The director that I want to follow is Yukio Ninagawa who is a famous Japanese director.

Although I have talked about Ayumi Hamasaki as my hero before, he is also my hero. I like his framing style and poetic creation that enable the audience to see how the scenes are sad, isolated, and other emotions. So I am going to follow his style and use my own idea to produce my #WeUsedTo.

This week’s blog has 2 main contents which are updating my biography and research materials that are related to my works.

 After I published the first blog “My Hero – Ayumi Hamasaki, I have thought about what else I missed writing on it and I found some points to explain about myself. What I would like to add is another appearance on Instagram. What I mean by “another appearance” is using the creator name instead of my real name, Satomi. My creator name is Rui (榴唯) which means “be the only one and sparkling like a ruby” in Japanese. I chose this Kanji and put the meaning by myself and the reason why I am using the name is to be the person who I want to be in the future. So when I create lyrics or post photos on Instagram, I always use this name and I always have one theme “I was born by lyrics and I give birth to other lyrics as well” in my mind.

For the second part, the research materials that are related to my works, I would like to use one song, Moments from Ayumi Hamasaki.

This song was written by her and it has something like a blue mood or sadness with her lyrics, melody, and the music video. What I want to emphasise in this song is not only them but also her hidden messages behind lyrics. It is possible to analyse she used one Japanese proverb, Ka Cho Hu Ge Tsu (花鳥風月) whose meaning is the beauty of nature, and beauty of changes seasons in Japanese. She used four components and put her original meanings on each part. When I realised this strategic message, I was really surprised and moved by how she has a lot of vocabulary and talents. In addition to my personal thoughts about the song and her, I would like to reference one article that is about her to demonstrate there are many other people who have similar thoughts. The Japan Forum Newsletter (2002) introduced her as “Her songs speak of heartache, loneliness and despair, the importance of accepting and believing in ourselves just as we are, seeing failure in love as energy to go forward, and offering the encouragement that “I (ayu) am right here with you.”. These explanations show who Ayumi Hamasaki is and her works make me more influenced.

Reference

The Japan Forum Newsletter 2002, ‘浜崎あゆみ Hamasaki Ayumi—Source of strength for young people searching for a place of their own‘, The Japan Forum Newsletter, number 24, viewed 5 August 2021, <https://www.tjf.or.jp/newsletter/pdf_en/Nl24_JCN.pdf>

My hero is Ayumi Hamasaki who is a Japanese singer and she is mainly familiar with her lyrics and her fashion.

The reason why she is a hero to me is that I have been touched, encouraged, and fascinated due to her songs and the stories behind them. Also, I sometimes follow her style or learn from her because I like to write lyrics by myself. 

Although she has not revealed the style of her works and practice, I pick components that can be her messages to the audience from her songs, her published books as well as some TV programs that focus on herself. According to them, there are some facts that made her very famous in Japan, and they are her words that show up her songs and her fashionable styles. When she became popular among the audience, people said her lyrics always stayed by them and those lyrics were like what her fans wanted to say out loud. I personally strongly agree with this point because her songs and lyrics have so much power that can make people move even though her words are very simple. In addition to that, people like her lifestyle such as fashion, make-up, and her smile so she published some books that reveal her daily life to show who Ayumi Hamasaki is ( I am also her fan so of course I have her books).

It is possible to see how she has been a singer and what she feels, thinks, and works from those books. This is one example.

She put a short message on the picture “I really disliked any flowers because they need people who give water and cannot live their own lives by themself”. I guess these kinds of styles can represent her thoughts and it is important to realise her message as her fans.

To me, her contribution and methods are “her voice, messages, and words”, and I like the way of her thinking and she is like a signal that lights my way up.  So if someone asks me what is your vision or creative style, I will answer “be honest to my heart and just express myself with my own words”.

If you can tell your message through paintings, then take the pen and draw it.

If you can tell your message through conversation, then make a phone call.

I can do neither and that’s why I chose MUSIC.

Ayumi Hamasaki