Sunday Night Ghost Island

By Michael Gakuran | | Haikyo / Ruins | 6 Comments |

A documentary I coordinated and helped to film on Hashima Island (Gunkanjima) is airing on Sunday Night, an Australian television show, March 9th 2014 as we speak. Reporter PJ Madam shows us Japan’s ‘Ghost Island‘.

The best source I have found so far to watch the video online is this one by movingentity:

If that’s down:

If anyone has a copy of the HD footage, please drop me an email!

hashima-gunkanjima-gakuranman9

My story of urban exploration on Gunkanjima is here. You’ll definitely want to have a read if you enjoyed Sunday Night’s ‘Ghost Island’ :).

I’ll try to do a writeup of the filming behind this show. There is so much material we shot that never made it to the final cut, including an amazing interview with a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bomb whom also lived on Hashima for a period of time. The crew worked tirelessly across several days getting all manner of shots, using aerial drones, jibs and dollys and carrying heavy equipment back on forth among the rubble and deserve special mention: producer Richard Andrews, reporter P.J Madam, cameraman Leigh Hubner and soundman Dustin Eddo – fantastic job!

Any questions, contact Michael Gakuran here.

Update: My photos were also featured on Yahoo! Travel

6 comments on “Sunday Night Ghost Island
  1. I feel like I’m qualified to comment, since I’ve explored the same sections of Hashima Island that you’ve explored. The footage was beautiful, but I feel like the whole thing would be better watched with the sound off, because I’ve never been a fan of the kind of ratings oriented storytelling these sorts of shows do. I would have preferred to see the raw interview footage and their beautiful panoramas of the island. I feel like they did a disservice to the island in how they edited their version of the story together. I’d like to see Thomas Nordanstad come back to Hashima, shoot more footage, and do a round of interviews. My opinion is that he’s captured the story of the island better than anyone thus far.

    • Hey Chris! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s interesting the way they decided to cut the documentary. Everything that was filmed was full of background information, intense personal stories and breathtaking visuals, with far more depth than the Nordanstad documentary due to the fact they interviewed 3 former residents and dug up a lot of archival footage (although I think Nordanstrad’s is one of the best, aside from the grating piano chords that plague the documentary.) I’d love to see them do the footage justice though, re-cut it and edit it into a full-length documentary explaining the true history of the island and its significance today.

  2. Amazing story, wanted to see more. Photography incredibly well executed. I can only imagine the tension in carefully moving that equipment around that rubble. My only gripe lies with SN’s promo lead-up, making it sound like “5,000 people mysteriously disappeared overnight without a trace” (something to that effect), they must’ve been trying to attract the alien-lovers crowd… and of course we discover it was a corporate issue and occupants had three months to leave.
    I hope you are able to release more footage as time goes on, several days on location is a massive undertaking, well done to all crew. TS

    • Thanks for the comment! I didn’t hear the promo for the show, but it doesn’t surprise me. The average viewer needs something sensational to entice them. The short documentary was not without its mistakes, but overall I felt it was well done, at least for its brevity.

  3. kimble says:

    Watched it last night, some great footage, wish the whole hour was about Gunkanjima, have always followed your adventures, was quite excited when i realized you were involved with the program. Cheers Kim

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