Hello there! My name is Jakob Montrasio, and I am a freelance videographer / camera operator / director of photography in Shanghai, China. Enjoy my blog!
Once or twice per year I stumble upon a video or a film that captures me with it’s magic, that inspires me, that makes me want to become a filmmaker. Nuite Blanche is such a video.
I am speechless. This short deserves awards, lots of them. It’s perfectly smooth, everything about it is done well (the lighting! the costumes! the actors!) and it gives me goosebumps even the fourth time I watch it.
Well done, Mister Arev Manoukian, well done.
Update:
The Making Of. Now I’m even more blown away. Holy shit is this well produced.
I finally finished editing my showreel, now that I’m back from New York. I shot some stuff from the exhibition there for the reel. Actually, there’s no need to talk about what’s in it, just watch it!
On June 24 2009, The Skyscraper Museum in New York City opened China Prophecy: Shanghai, a multi-media exhibition that examines Shanghai’s evolving identity as a skyscraper metropolis. Featuring models of the major iconic structures, including Jin Mao, Tomorrow Square, Shanghai World Financial Center, and the new super-tall Shanghai Tower, as well as computer animations, film, drawings, and historic and contemporary photography of the city, the exhibition combines an in-depth look at the new generation of towers with an overview of the sweeping transformation of the city’s traditional low-rise landscape into a city of towers.
China Prophecy, which runs through March 2010, concludes the Museum’s three-show series FUTURE CITY: 20 | 21 that has examined parallels in the rapid urbanization of New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Shanghai today is a vast metropolis of 18 million residents–the largest city in the world’s most populous nation. In just three decades, its population has nearly doubled, and the city has been physically transformed by the twin emblems of modernity–high-rises and highways. Formerly a horizontal expanse of dense and sprawling lilong neighborhoods, Shanghai has grown vertically. Nearly 400 high-rises of twenty stories or more were built in the historic core, Puxi, since 1990, and colossal elevated roads fly over old neighborhoods. In the new business district of Pudong on the east side of the river, a master plan dictates taller towers rising from open green space, culminating in a pair–soon to be a trio–of the world’s ten tallest skyscrapers.
The exhibition documents this stupendous urban transformation through film and photographs of old and new Shanghai, including a 20-minute video odyssey traveling the city’s streets and highways filmed by resident director of photography Jakob Montrasio. Evoking the speed and ambition of the city’s futuristic focus are projected computer animations by the Chinese company Crystal CG that create spectacular flyovers of the city before circling the major skyscrapers that are their subjects.
The installation features large models of the major towers that now define–or will soon enhance– the Shanghai skyline. These include an architectural and wind-tunnel testing model of Jin Mao (88 stories; 1999); a presentation model of Tomorrow Square (55 stories; 2003); a massing model and structural engineering model of the Shanghai World Financial Center (101 stories; 2008); and an architectural model and structural computer models of Shanghai Tower (128 stories; 2014), now in development. Other renderings, sections, and construction photographs illustrate a range of technical issues that distinguish these towers, which are all designs of American–and mostly New-York based–architectural and engineering firms. Other major high-rise projects included in the exhibition are KPF’s Jing An complex and SOM’s White Magnolia Plaza, both in development. The issue of global design practice is explored in the exhibition and a related lecture series in fall 2009.
These new Shanghai super-skyscrapers are ambitious in their height and innovative engineering. At 1380 ft. (438 meters), Jin Mao, designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, is taller than the Empire State Building; the Shanghai World Financial Center, designed by New York-based architects KPF, is taller than any U.S. skyscraper at 1614 ft (492 meters); and Shanghai Tower, designed by the American firm Gensler, has an announced height of 2073 ft (632 meters), which will make it the tallest building in China and the second tallest in the world. Typical of these Shanghai towers, as well as those being built today throughout Asia and the Mideast, is a mixed-use program that includes a commercial base, zones of offices, residences or luxury hotels, and restaurants and observation desks on the top floors. The concept of the structure as a “vertical city” is often invoked–offering parallels to early twentieth-century visions of New York as the city of the future.
Sustainable skyscraper design seems an oxymoron to some, but as the exhibition argues, high-rises and high density–in conjunction with mass transit–is a logical strategy for greener cities. The city’s most advanced high-performance design planned to date is the double-glass curtain wall of the Shanghai Tower, which will encircle eight stacked 15-story segments with atrium spaces and sky gardens soaring the full height of the 128-story structure. “Better City, Better Life,” calls out Shanghai’s emphasis on sustainable design as the slogan for the 2010 Expo, which will open May 1, 2010. The exhibition illustrates the Expo in plans, photographs, and a Crystal CG animation of the site and pavilions that emphasizes Shanghai’s self-image as the city of the future.
Three major approaches to urban planning and design are evident in Shanghai today and illustrated in the exhibition. In the historic core Puxi, high-rise commercial and residential development proceeds by razing individual sites or whole low-rise neighborhoods in a patchwork process–either for single skyscrapers or for major mixed-use projects on a mega-block, such as Plaza 66 and the future Jing An complex. The second, radically different approach governs the growth of Pudong, the expansive new area of development on the east side of the Huangpu River, a district that extends to the East China Sea and covers 200 square miles (about half the size of New York’s five boroughs). The name Pudong is commonly used as shorthand for the concentrated skyscraper district, Lujiazui, the Finance and Trade Zone that has developed as Shanghai’s new center for international business. Stimulated by the government’s master plan in 1990, towers have grown as fast as bamboo on land that was principally agricultural or industrial waterfront. Lujiazui, an area the same size (and, indeed, shape) as lower Manhattan, now boasts more than three dozen skyscrapers of 40+ stories, including the 88-story Jin Mao and the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center. The premise of the Pudong master plan requires open green space surrounding the towers and broad axial avenues that privilege cars over pedestrians. The result is a tower-in-the-park approach that stands in stark contrast to the dense, street-oriented development of Puxi. Historic preservation and adaptive re-use is the third approach to urban planning and design now being practiced in Shanghai. Featured examples in the exhibition are Xintiandi and the North Bund development, Rockbund.
Futurism and Vertical Cities: New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai
The scale and speed of Shanghai’s rise reproduces and even surpasses Manhattan’s historic ascent in the early twentieth century. As the world’s largest city in 1930, New York boasted a population of 7 million and nearly 200 skyscrapers–more than all other cities combined at that time. Today, as high-rises proliferate everywhere, Hong Kong holds the title with 7,200. Still ascending, though, Shanghai is surely China’s prophecy of the urban future.
It is possible to buy prints from the exhibition’s Shanghai photographs here at ImageKind.
Discover Shanghai from a sideways look, seated in the side-car of a classic motorbike.
Enjoy an incredible cruise through the city and avoid traffic jams. We make you feel the pulse of this fast changing city and take you from modern Shanghais futuristic look to the heart of the 1920s French Concession. Tours follow a ready-made route or tailor-made to suit your interest.
With Shanghai Sideways, you enjoy the company of a foreign guide and driver who is a long term Shanghai resident. Although our classic motorbikes are antics, they all are perfectly maintained and monitored to guarantee your comfort and safety.
Version 0.3.
Shot with a Sony Cinealta PMW EX1 and edited in After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
When Ben commented to my last post about the pictures from the movie John Rabe, I just headed over to YouTube to see if anything had been released there - officially or not. Sadly, I found no trailer - but a little report! DW, Deutsche Welle, was on the set reporting and seemed to have been allowed to capture some stuff with their cameras.
Now the bad side: The video is almost half an hour long and over 60 megabyte big.
But I watched through it and the John Rabe part is right at the beginning! So just watch it until the report of John Rabe is finished, the rest has nothing to with it anymore.
Most of my friends know what I’ve been doing during the last three months: working with the VFX team on the german movie John Rabe. Sadly, no trailer has been officially released yet so I don’t really have anything to show. But! ‘Majestic Film Verleih’, the company who will bring the movie to german cinemas this year (or so I hope) released 8 official press pictures.
So here you go, a little something to feed your appetite in regards to this movie. 8 pictures!
Dr. Georg Rosen (Daniel Brühl), employee of the german embassy, tries to handle the threat in regard of the chinese civilians in diplomatic ways.
(Picture: Majestic / Ruggero Rossi)
Dr. Robert Wilson (Steve Buscemi), leader of Nanjing’s hospital, fights tireless for the survival of the people.
(Picture: Majestic / Tomoko Kikuchi)
Valérie Dupres (Anne Consigny), leader of the International Girls College, can’t enjoy the festivities - she’s worried about her students.
(Picture: Majestic / Tomoko Kikuchi)
Nazi Werner Fließ (Mathias Herrmann, 3.v.l.) is supposed to take John Rabe’s (Ulrich Tukur, 5.v.l.) place as the leader of the Siemens branch in Nanking.
(Picture: Majestic / Ruggero Rossi)
John Rabe (Ulrich Tukur) is desperate, the uncertain future worries him.
(Picture: Majestic / Jörg Gruber)
The members of the international committee for creating a safety zone (Ulrich Tukur, Anne Consigny, Steve Buscemi, Christian Rodska, Daniel Brühl, Shaun Lawton) don’t know how to handle the rush of 250.000 people at once.
(Picture: Majestic / Ruggero Rossi)
Dora Rabe (Dagmar Manzel) tries to convince her husband John (Ulrich Tukur) to leave Nanking.
(Picture: Majestic / Jörg Gruber)
Schoolgirl Langshu (Zhang Jingchu, 张静初), a student of Valérie Dupres, takes pictures of the japanese war crimes in Nanjing.
(Picture: Majestic / Tomoko Kikuchi)
Well, that’s it. As soon as Majestic releases more pictures and / or a trailer, I’ll post it.
Yesterday was the first official day of the german festival here in Nanjing. The first act on the big stage, where I got an job as a camera man, was a chinese orchestra which performed german classic songs. Was nice. But then came the main event: The german-nationally famous electronic pop band called ‘2raumwohnung’ and boy did they make the chinese people dance! The audience was kinda calm during the first songs but then switched to dancing and clapping and whatnot. Without any alcohol! Unbelievable, I’ve been to some concerts but I’ve never seen anything like this before. Just watch the video I uploaded to get an idea (so how was I able to shoot this while I had to do my real job as a camera man? 2raumwohnung didn’t need a live video stream, they had their own visuals for the background - so I was off work). YouTube is still blocked, I’ll try to make some more videos while being here.
Now that YouTube is blocked in China, I’ll try to keep you entertained with my own videos…
Nanjing is a city with a sad history. The japanese killed over 300.000 people here during their invasion, the famous ‘Nanking Massacre’. They also raped around and killed women and children. This makes my video even more confusing: I was in my hotel room in a four-star hotel when I accessed the television. You’d think that I’d get CCTV or HBO or something like that, but no, the first thing I see is a woman getting raped! What the hell? The hotel is trying really hard to sell their pay-per-view porn… See for yourself, just watch my video. Warning: Contains disturbing images and sound.
Last sunday was the ‘premiere’: I had my very first driving lesson in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, near Caobao road line one subway station. The license costs me about 4000 kuai and it will take ‘at least’ 3 months to get it, as the teacher said. No driving this christmas, too bad! Anyways, I had my Nokia N93i with me and decided spontaneously to document this driving license project as a vblog or video podcast for my other big website, mysan.de. So waste no time and head over to mysan.de to see what the first day was like. Since I speak german in the video, here are some facts: I have to take lessons once a week for three months. Taking more lessons every week wont speed that up. I will have to learn on a backyard for two months, only then I am allowed on a real street for the first time. We have to practice certain ‘moves’ over and over again, because we will have to do exactly these in the final test. So for the next two months, we are going to practice parking the car and other stuff in the mentioned backyard. Boring! Usually, we have to show up at the backyard at 9 in the morning and stay there until 5 in the afternoon, but we had a talk with our teacher and now we just need to spend the afternoon there. And the reason for that is because we share the car with two more people, and every 20 minutes or so we change the driver. Waste of time! So we told the teacher to teach the other two people in the morning and us in the afternoon. I really don’t want to spend the next three months every weekend in the back of a car, not driving myself for over one hour every time. That’s just stupid. Tomorrow we have our next lesson, expect the next episode next week or so.
Last sunday was the ‘premiere’: I had my very first driving lesson in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, near Caobao road line one subway station. The license costs me about 4000 kuai and it will take ‘at least’ 3 months to get it, as the teacher said. No driving this christmas, too bad! Anyways, I had my Nokia N93i with me and decided spontaneously to document this driving license project as a vblog or video podcast for my other big website, mysan.de. So waste no time and 
