A Behind the Scenes of the 30th Anniversary Video - A Memorable Narration Created from Pictures

The 8-minute video celebrating the history of Sound House that was unveiled at the company’s 30th anniversary party has now become a big hit! The video was at first created to show to all our employees, but we decided to release it to the public on April 4th because the video was fairly straightforward and explained our history well. Since then, the video has been viewed over 10,000 times every day and has received nearly 50,000 views in just five days. The number of likes reached nearly 2,000 and more than 120 supportive comments have been posted. I couldn’t be happier.

It all started when I decided to create a video to help all of our staff members learn about the humble beginnings of Sound House. Through the video, I was also hoping for them to gain more appreciation for the company by watching the video at the party. Unfortunately, our problem was that the company has a long history of three decades and we could barely find any pictures. It couldn’t be helped, but I was stuck by the fact that there were almost no photos that were taken right before and after the company’s founding. Oh well. It was the era where I only had part-time employees and a dog by my side, and there were no smartphones with cameras back then. We made it through those days getting by in an office with only two desks, calculators, papers, and pens. The thought of taking pictures had never even crossed my mind.

This is why we used the picture of the Yamada Taylor Shop at the beginning of the video since it was taken when it had just opened. By the time Sound House took over this prefab shack decades later, it was already worn down. I regret that we have no pictures to show how it really was back then but at least we could use the picture to give you a clue to how it really looked like. I then sat down to really think hard and remember significant events from the company’s history and collected pictures from those moments, to give them to our movie team.

It was then that I got the chance to present my bold idea that would save time in production. As the company’s founder, I made decisions on my own, but there was no scene writing or production plan for this project. So yes, I wrote absolutely nothing. No theme, no message, and no meetings! I have no excuse for doing nothing for this production. All I asked our movie team to do was to arrange the pictures from chronological order so I could then add narration to the video. I told the team that I would watch the video and I, who touted myself as a professional narrator, was going to add the impromptu narration in one take to complete the video.

The work our video production team gave me was even better than I had ever imagined. The edit for the second half of the video was particularly perfectly done because it was not only well-designed, but it also had a strong message that our company truly cares for all our employees. I repeatedly stopped and played back the video several times from the beginning, wrote the script, and recorded the narration with my smartphone in one take that took less than two hours. I recorded my real voice with my iPhone 14 without trying to edit it. I knew that it could have sounded better if I had edited it more, but I felt it was okay enough to finish the narration raw and unedited. I decided to add it to the video as it was.

I’m not praising myself, but I don’t think it was a coincidence that the narration and the picture at the end of the video fit together perfectly. The last three captions, “We are growing everyone’s dreams”, “We are giving a brighter future to children”, and “Revitalizing Japan with the Power of Music. That’s our only wish”, still moves me when I hear them. What is this strange feeling?

One last thing I want to tell you is that I had to omit many events from the video that I really wanted to include because this project was only meant to be a short video. So, I’m going to talk about some of them here. One is the Petra Club, a live music venue in Waseda, Tokyo, which was the main catalyst to Sound House’s founding. Without the Petra Club, Sound House would not be what it is today. The next event was starting a daycare center called Kohitsuji Club (Little Lamb Club) for the children of our employees in the first year of Sound House. We were only a small company back then, but it was a breakthrough idea. I can’t forget my beloved golden retriever Mitchie roaming around the office, making everyone happy wherever he went. It’s not a small thing to say that Sound House would not be where it is without him in our founding times. I also would have liked to introduce our Tokyo office, but alas there was no time in the video.

Nevertheless, we were able to complete a wonderful short video. Not only does it bring back many fond memories, but my warm message to all my employees is, if I do say so myself, just wonderful. The messages of hope for the next generation shines beautifully in mother nature. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the staff members who were involved in the production of this wonderful video, to the many staff members who appeared in the video, and to the many viewers who watched and shared the same excitement as I did watching this video. Thank you so much.