Photography & Interviewing Harry McFann

Originally, this Wednesday’s stream was gonna be reviewing the Evangelion burgers at McDonald’s but I encountered an interesting person at the bar so I thought it would be a more unique stream to get to know him.

Today’s guest is Harry McFann, a videographer from New York City! But having a guest by himself is no fun right? 🤔 So I thought of a challenge for us to do together.

Today’s challenge, does photography require skills or expensive equipment? Harry has to take pictures of me with his Pixel phone and then edit them and I will upload them on my IG for everyone to judge if the photos were professional or if they needed a better camera.

While discussing the challenge and walking around, we came across some Osaka cultural icons so I stopped to explain them to him and to chat.

Osaka cultural icons

A large display of Ebisu, the God of business and fishermen.

This is a stage dedicated to Ebisu, the God of business. He’s one of the Seven Lucky Gods and is a God you want to pray to every year for the success of your business. I got distracted by this point because HappyTodd supported the stream and I left without explaining.

A sign of the iconic Dotonbori Glico man.

This sign here is the Glico running man in Dotonbori. It’s a sign that has been around since 1935 but previously it was neon. I didn’t know that when Harry asked if it was from the the 1964 Olympics but I agreed too soon because he knew a bit better than me the local… 😞

One special thing about the sign is that in the late hours, they turn off the brightness in a way that the screen looks like a billboard.

As Tacit was not here, I had to stop and promote 2 mods just in case some trolls came in. 🙄

Enjoying my Christmas gift

Hazu holding up the water bottle she got for Christmas.

While we were stopped for me to mod Schizoid and Darknite, I took the chance to thank Oobe for gifting me the insulated water bottle I wanted for Christmas. I used it for the first time that day and it was perfect! It kept my tea warm the whole time.

I’m so happy for that because it’s so nice to have warm drinks now that it’s getting cold.

Taihen happened to ask if there was an issue with tipping the bottle too hard as the directions said to be careful but I hadn’t tried yet. It didn’t spill yet so I think it was perfect.

Finding out about Harry

As we were walking, chat kept asking him if he was a time traveler and if he owned a typewriter because of his unusual fashion… But Harry mentioned that his brother actually used to work at a typewriter store in Manhattan and one of the people he sold a typewriter to was Tom Hanks! 😮

He also started telling us about the time he was the videographer for a veteran’s event and got to meet him and his wife and he got to reference the typewriter he bought before.

We started talking about Tom Hanks movies a bit after that conversation and a big dilemma occurred…

Breaking the oath

Hazu and Harry having Strong Zeros

January was supposed to be a dry month as I’m trying to challenge myself to stop drinking for my health. Normally when I ask if I should drink, everyone votes for soda or water for my health but when it’s banned suddenly everyone wants me to drink. 😒

Taihen asked me how much to break the oath and drink with Harry, I said $100 as I felt it was a good

Hazu's reaction to Taihen's generous gift.
Taihen’s gift for Soju broke my oath for dry January

I said what I said so now I had to do it… But failing dry month after 8 days feels kinda sad. 😞

While I was gone to buy the drinks, chat asked him a lot of questions and he mentioned that he has been in New York for 14 years from when he went to school at Columbia University and apparently Osaka is currently colder than New York. 🤔

Although the gift was for soju, I couldn’t find any at the Lawson so I got Strong Zero instead.

AspectSojuStrong Zero
TypeLiquorChuhai
Alcohol content16-25%7-9%
Base ingredientRice, barley, sweet potatoes or wheatShochu and fruits
FlavorsPlain, peach, apple, grapefruit, plum, lychee, apple mango, pineapple, blueberry & moreLemon, grapefruit, shikuwasa & plum
OriginKoreaJapan
TasteStrong but betterStrong but bad
So it’s basically the same right? 😇

As I’ve said many times, Strong Zero is the worst drink in all of Japan but it’s cheap and strong so a lot of people love it regardless.

Back to content corner

We got to our usual Wednesday podcast discussion spot and started talking. Luckily the motorcycle guys weren’t out making noise this time.

Harry McFann showing his technique to twist the can's tab at a different angle after opening it so he doesn't mistake someone else's can for his.
Harry’s technique to spot his can

Do any of you do this? What happens if someone else does the same thing? Does it become confusing again?

At that point I had to stop and remind him that the photography challenge was still going.

We had a short conversation about photography skills and how much maids get paid as I used to be a maid also. I explained that the maids standing out in the cold weren’t being paid to stand there and weren’t forced to be unlike with some hostess clubs. Unless the maid café is part of an idol group where they’re trying to fish for a following, it’s completely voluntary to stand outside to find customers.

We also talked a bit about his living situation in New York City because I don’t understand how expensive or affordable New York City is and how much videographers make as I assume any creative role is usually a lot of struggling for most.

He mentioned that most people are not so fortunate as to be able to live alone in New York. And people who make $100k a year don’t feel rich there because you can spend $80-100 on dinner and a drink at the bar is $20.

I was curious about why he lived in New York instead of Los Angeles since he wants to work on movie sets but he mentions it’s mostly a culture and quality of work difference for him. Everything feels too slow for him as a New Yorker.

The conversation kept veering left and right afterwards and I finally understood how you guys feel when I’m talking and I don’t stay on subject. 😖

After I got a bit difficult, we got to hear Harry’s career plans where he wants to build up his company and then sell it someday while moving from the theatre community to the film community.

I asked him the question I’ve been curious with a lot of people recently is “do you think you can rebuild the same thing to where you are now if you started over?”

His answer was a bit surprising to me as he said his career took off because of one lucky moment and he’s always been aware of how lucky his career has been to this point. In fact he mentioned that he would be more likely to succeed in theatre than as a videographer if he were to start over.

I felt a bit of kinship with him because most people I ask this to are confident they can grow their accounts or careers back to where they are if they started over but I feel that my success has been a lot of luck and contributions from the community that couldn’t happen if I started again on my own.

Tokee710 asked us what are the must-watch Japanese and American movies in our opinions.

For Harry, he says you can go by the director and suggests for Japanese movies:

He immediately proved that he was a professional videographer right? For me, it wasn’t so much an amazing movie but more of a shock was Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. I watched it when I was 14 and it made me question what I valued at the time. For a Japanese movie, I’m more of a novel person so it was hard for me, Harry asked my book recommendations so I mentioned the ones you guys are already familiar with by Fuminori Nakamura:

At that point we got derailed by multiple other topics but when the topic of Strong Zero overseas came up, I taught everyone how to make a Strong Zero from home:

  1. Get the shittiest vodka you can get
  2. Pour some lemon juice and syrup
  3. Put tonic water

It’s supposed to be made from Shochu because Strong Zero is originally a Chuhai but that’s probably not available overseas so use shitty vodka.

Afterwards we started to get distracted again by “health” talk and stayed there for too long. I was worried that I might have scared him off like I did with Joe Allam… 😨

After a lot of derailing, Harry mentioned Enter the Void being a good movie about drugs and I asked him about Beautiful Boy which he hadn’t watched.

After this, we started getting a bit too cold so it was time to go to Don Quijote and get him a power adapter.

On our way there we talked about safety as a tourist in New York and how I wanted to visit the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

Quick photoshoot

Finally it was time for the original challenge! I thought he forgot about the photoshoot to be honest.

Hazu posing without her winter coat for the photoshoot.
Don’t worry I wore safety pants underneath, I didn’t wanna be banned 💢

I was shocked how good the pictures came out from his phone. You’ll have to check them on Instagram later because it was beyond my expectations.

Don Quijote time

After that we went inside to look for the power converter and a heat patch for Harry.

We found what we needed without issues and got a raid by yuriyuri20‘s community on our way to the cash register.

After we left, he taped his foot and showed me more pictures he took and I was blown away.

As we were talking, the topic of dating apps came up and we talked about how different dating app profiles are in Japan compared to New York.

Back to the original content

Hazu posing near the Dotonbori bridge for her photoshoot challenge with Harry McFann.

We got to the river under the Dotonbori bridge and started the photoshoot and he immediately proved that photography takes skills more than equipment. His photos blew me away, I didn’t know it was possible on a phone.

For the next part, he was considerate and let me keep my jacket on. 🤭

Hazu posing next to some signs for the lighting with Harry coaching her on the poses.

The photos were great and gave me a huge ego boost not gonna lie. I don’t usually see myself this cute when I take pictures. 👉👈

Hazu posing next to the sign without her jacket.

We tried again, this time without the jacket to see if it would look better. He told me to make an “I wanna fuck you” face as a joke but that’s when the photoshoot stopped being shockingly good… What does that mean hmm? Is my “I wanna fuck you” face that bad? 😒

Ice cream time and winding down

Hazu having her regular McDonald's soft serve while Harry is eating fries.

After that hard work, it was time to go to McDonald’s and get some food and ice cream.

We talked about certain words I have trouble pronouncing such as “lactose intolerant” or “Aussie” and “Orgy” sounds the same when I say it to other people so it can make some embarrassing situations.

Then I had the idea that we should take one silly picture at least.

Hazu posing with an ice cream cone in her mouth being silly.

We talked about his plans for the rest of his trip but he said he didn’t have any set plans and was booking stays as he was going.

Of course I had to do a bit of ice cream ASMR to keep the tradition.

I mentioned I was getting sleepy so I would end stream soon but he said he wanted to keep going so I recommended him Colors, 7up and The Drunken clam.

Before wrapping up, Harry gave us a quick rundown of what it’s like to live in Japan. I mentioned that he was interesting enough to be a streamer but he mentioned he was too insecure. I told him we’re almost all insecure with certain things as streamers.

It was one of my most fun streams with a stranger so I hope we have a chance to meet again.

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