We’ve built an experienced team of cameraman, editors, graphic designers, animators, writers, and producers, offering clients a totally comprehensive production experience.
This includes complete concept and script development as well as physical production, motion graphics/animation design, post-production, web streaming and DVD distribution.
WRITER
Steve Ross reports, produces, shoots and edits for SGK Studios. Steve previously reported for CBS affiliate station KOLN-TV in Nebraska’s capital city, for Turkish-owned Ebru News in New York City, and has also worked at stations WSOC-TV (ABC) and WTLV-TV (NBC). Steve received the first place Gold Award in the 2013 Stanford University US-Asia Technology Management Center’s “Untold Story in Innovation” journalism award competition. He was a Donald T. Sheehan International Fellow to the 2011 Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists. From 1994 to 1997, he was a “JET” (Japan Exchange & Teaching Program Fellow, formerly titled Monbusho Fellowship). Steve wields a complete, rapidly deployable HD video kit including interview lighting and wireless microphones for total multimedia, extending to still photos, print, and voice-overs. Steve is a 1986 graduate of Columbia University. He can be contacted at scr2101@columbia.edu
Music Composer
Slavomir Stanislaw Kowalewski (Slavek) is an award-winning Polish composer and pianist based in Tokyo. His work on major film and broadcast productions includes original scores for NHK, Fuji Television, TV Tokyo, and TBS networks, as well as Japan’s top pop act, AKB48, and covers a wide range of musical genre, ranging from full classical orchestral scores to Japanese traditional, piano solo, jazz, electronic, minimal, and avant-garde.
Slavek began playing piano at five, but his family’s move from Communist Poland to Western Germany when he was ten was the key factor in expanding his musical horizons beyond the conventional: Slavek played in bands (alternating guitar, drums, and bass), studied the sitar from Shalil Shankar, and produced punk albums, all while continuing to win prizes for his piano playing. On the strength of a single audition, he was accepted into the Conservatory van Amsterdam, where he received a rigorous education in classical music under the tutelage of the great pianist Håkon Austbø. Later, he went on to study counterpoint, orchestration, and scoring for film, from multiple-award-winning composer Jurre Haanstra.
Slavek’s original score for Edmund Yeo’s “Kingyo” was celebrated at the Venice Bianalle in 2009; and in 2013 the Brooklyn Film Festival honored him with the award for best score for his inventive work on the quirky sci-fi feature “Sado Tempest.” Both of these projects are ideal examples of Slavek’s skill at synthesizing cross-cultural hybrids, moving freely between classical and contemporary modes, and fusing organic and electronic textures.
Slavek is repped in Japan by major agency Legato Music, and his productions and recordings exceed the highest international standards.
Slavek speaks fluent English, German, Polish, Japanese, French and Dutch.
Director Of Photography
1998- 2000 Work at Post production facility at Jup
iter
2000- 2001 Work at Interscreen Japan Inc. as ENG
cameraman/assistant/coordinator
2001-2003 Work at Chiyoda video Inc. as Camera
2003 – today Freelance Lighting Cameraman for
various clients and subject. Multi camera operator.
TV documentaries, Promos, corporate videos to
Extreme Sports. Starting on narrative short film an
d
feature films as well.
Business Anthropologist
Mary is a professional anthropologist specializing in Japanese culture and its unique ways of conducting business. She’s been living and working in Tokyo since 2000, balancing an academic career with ethnographic research and business anthropology.
Mary’s team provides all the research and background knwoedge required for any production and research conducted in Japan. The group will be happy to meet you and to offer a tailored plan designed to match your specific desires and needs. Mary has worked with many brands and businesses in market research, consumer psychology, and the codes of aesthetics in South-East Asian cultures which are crucial for understand the impact of the visual image on different viewers.
Videographer / Editor / Producer
Sharon Gidon: Videographer / Editor / Producer
Sharon started video production in 2000 at the beginning of the millennium, and has produced more than 20 music and documentary DVDs for all of the major music festivals in Japan.
Sharon has many talents and a unique professional experience that covers a wide range of genres, including music videos, documentaries, live concerts, news reports, fashion shows, and commercial films. He has been living in Japan for over 20 years and has an extensive knowledge of Japanese values of aesthetics.
Director, Director of Photography, Editor
Ivan Kovac: Director, Director of Photography, Editor
Trained in Film Production and a graduate of the Sydney Film School, Ivan specializes in RED digital camera technology and digital image capturing on a wider scale.
Ivan has worked consistently with RED One cameras since their release and for the past three years has been amongst the very first to adopt and master the technology in Japan. Always at the forefront of digital image capturing advancements using these technologies to further creative and artistic development in the projects he collaborates in. Ivan plans to continue with his passion for RED technology into the next generation of cameras and will once again be amongst the very first to adopt this technology and bring it to Japan.
Additionally Ivan is a seasoned editor fluent in FCP and Premiere CS6 and has utilized his skills to provide high quality edits to his clientele no matter the medium, format or time intensive environment.
Ivan has directed, shot and edited numerous projects since arriving in Japan. Some of his recent work includes Xu Jing Lei promoting Glamour Sales (in Beijing), Red Bull, Reebok, Chanel, Sanofi Aventis and the Discovery Channel (“Atlas Next Japan”, featuring renowned designer of the Enzo Ferrari, Ken Okuyama).
Specialties:
RED One Digital Cinematography, Digital Cinematography, Post Production Data Management, Colour Correction, On-Set Data Management, Digital Imaging Technician, NLE (CS6, FCP), Digital Production Workflow Consultation.
ability
Film Director
Kaetsu Motomitsu: Director
嘉悦基光
日本大学芸術学部映画学科監督コース卒業、日本大学大学院映像芸術専攻終了、修士（芸術学）
映画学科在学中より16mm/35mmフィルムの映像作品を制作、国内／海外の映画祭で受賞歴を持つ。
2005年 Apple入社、トレーナーとして3年間に渡りすべてのアプリケーションのトレーニングに従事する。
2009年 独立。撮影から監督、編集、合成ほか ムービー／フォト／デザインにおけるクリエイティブ業務全般を担当する。
またApple認定トレーナーとして国際支援ODAプロジェクトに参加。
ブータン王国、アフリカ・ジブチにおいて、現地テレビ局スタッフへのFinal Cut Proトレーニングを行っている。
Kaetsu Motomitsu is an award-winning Film Director with significant experience in Digital and 16mm/35mm Film format. Highly educated and skilled in Cinematography, Directing, Editing, and Producing for film productions.
Certified trainer on Apple Pro applications including Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio, Shake and Aperture.
Significant teaching skills in Mac OSX and all Apple consumer applications.
Advanced knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft office, File Maker and other third parties applications.
3 years of working experience in Apple as a Creative trainer.
Education
Nihon University Graduate School of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Master of Arts in Image Arts, 2001
Nihon University College of Art, Department of Cinema, Tokyo, Japan
Bachelor of Arts in Film Directing, 1998
Director Of Photography
Chris Shepherd: Director Of Photography
Chris has worked in the TV broadcast & production industry for 20 years. With experience in Documentaries, Lifestyle, Reality, Sports,
News & Current affairs .
He prides himself on high production values and a professional work ethic to deliver the best images possible.
