Circumnavigation
2001
Around the World and a 9/11 Fax
Who would have thought that the concept of around-the-world travel would come up when planning a video production in Milwaukee? However, when we realized that - for one project - we’d need to fly to Osaka, then back home and then days later do a round trip to Germany, we started thinking about circling the globe. That’s when we called the airlines and they referred us to their “Around the World” desk. The agent guided us through the process and the next thing we knew we were shooting some scenes in Japan and then preparing to fly over Siberia to Europe. (Those are the “Japanese Alps” above.
Mr. Okada (front right.)
The shoot was for an 80th Anniversary video we produced for Hollister Incorporated. Here’s the open including Mr. Okada’s story.
Shooting a WIDE shot of Mr. Okada’s futon store.
While the travel was fascinating during that shoot in spring of 2001, the person I’ll always remember from that trip is Mr. Okada, an older cancer survivor we interviewed in a town near Kobe, Japan. On September 12, 2001 (several months after the shoot) a fax arrived at Midland Video. It was from Mr. Okada who wanted to express his concerns for our safety and condolences on the events of the previous day at the World Trade Center. I’ve always been impressed by the work he went through to find someone to translate his thoughts into English, locate our fax number and then send his best wishes.
