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Behind the Scene - How We Made the Matcha Video

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You might have seen this video.

We made a fun stop-motion video that shows you How to Make Perfect Cup of Matcha.

In this blog post, I share with you how we made this amazing and fun video. There is really a lot of effort, tricks, and magic that went into this 30-second video.

The Effort of Perfection

The video was created with help from the team at GenDev Studio and Daniel from Lamp & Shadow.
This 30-second video took over weeks of planning, preparation, and three full days of shooting time. Yes, it took a lot of effort and dedication.

Here is the picture of the team who created this: from left to right: Wesley (President of GenDev Studio and my mentor through SCORE), Garrette and Jason (GenDev Studio, wizards of video making), Daniel (Lamp & Shadow, Motion Video Specialist), and me.

GenDev Team to create Matcha video

The Studio

Here are pictures of how the studio was setup to shoot this video.

GenDev studio for making matcha video

 Placing matcha for the video making

Lights and cameras are setup around the matcha.

Matcha placed on the stage for video

shooting matcha video

Matcha and objects are carefully placed on the stage.

Matcha on the stage

Matcha on the stage

Challenge #1 - How did Matcha Move By Itself?

In the video, the matcha is moving around by itself. How did we do it?

If you look at the picture above, you notice something... 

Yes, that is actually not the real matcha! Though in the video, the matcha looks like matcha, that is not what we used to shoot the video.

The challenge was that when using the actual matcha, the white background was smudged and made a big mess.

Jason and Garrett came up with the idea to use green clay instead of the actual matcha and adjust the video to make it look like matcha after shooting. That was a clever idea!

Here is a video of Garrette setting up the clay to mimic matcha.

 

Setting up matcha 

Challenge #2 - How did Tea Pot Fly? 

In the video, the teapot is magically floating by itself and pouring water.

How did we do this?

The trick is a green glove.

Green globe is used to lift the teapot

As you might have seen in the old studio trick for actors to stand in front of a green screen, green is used in video production to replace it with other images.

The same classic special-effect principal is used to lift the teapot and edit out the green hands in the post-production process.

Here is an image of Jason and Garrette carefully lifting the teapot and shooting the video.

 

Shooting matcha video

This video is a stop-motion video. It is made by taking hundreds of still images and making them into a movie. Each image is shot and carefully examined on the laptop before making another shot.

You can imagine the enormous effort of shooting each image carefully for hundreds of shots!

matcha video shooting setup

Here is the video of Garrette and Jason shooting the flying teapot. 

Challenge #3 - Self-moving Chasen Whisk

Unfortunately, Chasen whisk does not whisk itself in today's technology yet, but in the video it can happen. 

Here is the video of how the Chasen Whisk moved by itself. 

 

Chasen whisk is moved for matcha

Some more pictures from shooting day

Wesley shooting an image

Wesley

Daniel checking the light setting

Daniel

Jason and Garrette

Jason and Garrett

I am trying to help but more likely it probably disturbed more than helping :)

Kei

The team

team

The Video

Here is the 30-second stop-motion video of How to Make the Perfect Cup of Matcha.

The Pros

Here are contact information of GenDev and Daniel who made this amazing video possible.  Thank you!

Click to Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

The Matcha

Here is the matcha in the video (the real one, not clay).

This is the Global Tea Champion 2018 matcha, which has been extremely popular. Click here to get yours.

Matcha

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About the author

Kei Nishida

Author, CEO Dream of Japan

info@japanesegreenteain.com

Certification: PMP, BS in Computer Science

Education: Western Washington University

Kei Nishida is a Japanese green tea enthusiast, a writer, and the founder and CEO of Japanese Green Tea Co., a Dream of Japan Company. His passion for introducing America to the tea of his homeland was the catalyst for creating the only company that brings high-quality tea from Arahataen Green Tea Farms to the rest of the world. Learn more about Kei

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