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Images from the 'Skyfall island' - Michael Gakuran goes urban exploring

Nov 16, 2012 at 20:55:53 GMT

OTHER NEWS HASHIMA SKYFALL URBEX

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Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, is topping the box office charts around the world and wowing audiences with its cinematography. It includes a sequence set on a deserted island - modeled on Hashima, an abandoned former coal-mining island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. Dpreview member Michael Gakuran has written a blog post about his experiences on the island - filming for a Discovery Channel documentary and, earlier, being smuggled onto the island under cover of darkness to perform a little urban exploration (Urbex).

In the two blog posts, about the use of the Hashima in Skyfall, and his urbex visit to the island, he discusses the experience of visiting the islands, and illustrates them with the photographs he captured.

Click here to read Michael Gakuran's blog about Gunkanjima - Battleship Island

Michael Gakuran - Gakuranman.com

Comments

Total comments: 41

Maybe someone knows, why the buildings looks like demolishd and everything is broken up - is it by weather or was there a vandalism?

0 upvotes

Almost certainly the weather. The island experiences numerous typhoons and constant exposure to the harsh, salty sea air. A year or two ago the brand new walkway for visitors was damaged by a storm, so it's no wonder the old reinforced concrete buildings are bare skeletons of what they once were.

0 upvotes

Awesome job! I always wondered if that place existed for real, now I know!

1 upvote

me too.. !

0 upvotes

Very nice pictures, in special the TV beside the phone. Very very cool.

0 upvotes

Hey You iz now famous Gakuranman!
(Hope you make some dosh from this)

2 upvotes

Not from this post on Dpreview, but like most of us, I'm always interested in licensing my photography :).

0 upvotes

If you're really interested in Gunkanjima, you should try to find the book by Saiga Yuji who first photographed the island and introduced the iconic TV. It's an awesome set of images.

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Great photos. But I wonder why they bothered to go all that way. London contains many similar urban hellholes that are within a short distance of the Twickenham studios.

1 upvote

The grass is always greener on the other side... it's well known !

1 upvote

I wish Kowloon Walled City was "preserved" like this island.

4 upvotes

Homo Sapiens, the oversized locusts!

3 upvotes

You're always welcome to check out! I tend to look at the positive impact humanity has made in addition to our shortcomings. Remember, God made the world for mankind and gave us dominion over it. We have not messed it up too bad, despite what some radical environmentalists would have you believe!

2 upvotes

What positive impact would that be?

2 upvotes

What is "god"?

2 upvotes

Paul, can you back that up with facts, please?
Your condescending 'remember' is a nice touch.

0 upvotes

I guess if you know that God is real, it is not condescending. God is our Heavenly Father, and we lived with him before this life, and if we make a success of living right here, we will live back again with him in the next life. I am blessed or fortunate enough to know this. To find out, just live the commandments and pray to have him show you. Paul may have done this already. That knowledge is available to all, and is a vital part of life, really - most helpful. He keeps prompting us in our lives, and to listen to the promptings and so advance in knowledge is a sublime thing. Not everyone seems to understand this presently

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

The TV shot is really great.

0 upvotes

Great photo op. I just wish they would referain from "staging" things, like the chair or the telephone perfectly positioned next to the TV, as if these were natural occurances.

2 upvotes

True ! When one has the opportunity to deal with very good "photographic commodity" it's a pure waste to direct it in order to make it look sexier. Because sexier than sexy is often or gross or burlesque !

0 upvotes

As far as I am aware, the television set has been resting there for a long, long time. The telephone next to it is also found in pictures from at least 4 years ago in photos taken by a Japanese photographer.

0 upvotes

Fantastic read, thank you.

0 upvotes

Skyfall - best Bond movie ever..

4 upvotes

Another ad,
really, DPR ???

3 upvotes

what is it an ad for?

5 upvotes

Another Ad? What do you think this site is, not-for-profit? This is an Amazon-owned major portal. They can run all the ads and banner ads and promos that they please. This is a massively profitable and popular website with millions of visitors a month.

They have found a relevant human interest story that ties in with the current top box office movie. It's a very smart move.

6 upvotes

Hey Ron,
Since ads are so bad, are you going to pay for the hosting, web design, and professional reviews?

4 upvotes

Ron, as soon as I saw that island on Skyfall I thought it was a fascinating location and that it provided an intriguing place for photography. It may not interest you. You may perceive it as an ad. To me, and to others, it seems interesting, and that's what this website's for.

6 upvotes

It's an ad for a movie franchise, Simon.
No prizes for guessing which.
Yet another carefully targeted, seemingly innocent , cross platform product placement.
A technique which is starting to permeate pretty much any and every media product nowadays.
The issue is, when do we start not trusting the content and reviews here ?
Pay for an independent DPR ?
I wish. Would have been happy to.
But, that horse bolted a while ago.

0 upvotes

I have no idea what Dpreview's arrangement is regarding profiting from timely posts, but for reference Richard Butler contacted me to ask permission to link to my website and photos.

1 upvote

Ron, sites like dpreview do not seem to fullfill your expectations. There are pay sites you might want consider instead. Like Sean Reid's site. Weather an ad or not, I would not have missed this artile.

0 upvotes

As with ALL news on dpreview - we did not receive a single penny from anybody to run this post.

I saw the movie in question and thought the island was interesting. A friend I saw it with found Micheal's site and I thought it would be interesting to other people too. When I realised it was a blog by someone I'd seen contributing to our forums, that sealed it. That's why it's featured.

0 upvotes

Ron, I think that Skyfall as a film needs no advertising like this.

It's something of a mature piece, also, and you might like it.

Yes, there is too much advertising. And at the same time, maybe not enough of some better kinds. Art is advertising, for its own conceptions and ideas or ideals; have you considered this?

Comment edited 25 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Pickey, Ron - it just seems relevant to something happening now. I saw the film last week, and wondered where the place was. Now I find it is a real place, and where - I am very pleased this item came up. I would worry if this site did not 'advertise' cameras - It has saved me a lot of money by me reading up on various cameras, seeing the actual pix they take, and being able to compare. My last four cameras were chosen after some intense reading here. Personally, I hate Which? mag, because they won't sell just one magazine, but you have to susbscribe to it, and I am too poor to afford all the stuff it advertises. I suspect Ron, that you are becoming a jaundiced over-read consumer, but I am sure I have seen some great photos you have taken, though I would hesitate to class your work as product placement

0 upvotes

Looks like the dream of any Urban Explorer.
Sadly, it will now probably be run over by eager photographers anytime soon...
Roel

0 upvotes

This island IS the dream of Urban Explorers, thus most of them already know about it.
And, access is already forbidden except for tours (that don't really go deep on the island). Sadly I missed it when I was in Nagasaki in june.

0 upvotes

Yeah, plenty have tried through conventional means to explore and it's not easy. As for being run over you can find plenty of material already, and movie(s?) taken place here. It's not like there's really any place left on the planet that hasn't been "run over" by photographers too...

1 upvote

A bit strange how the Bond film told the audience that the island was kind of "just left" while everything obviously fell apart quite some time ago.

0 upvotes

Compared to the age of our planet a couple of decades might as well be 'just left' ;)

0 upvotes

Linguistic issue. The "just left" didn't refer to time in that context. It meant they "simply" or "merely" left, i.e. without thinking twice.

0 upvotes

I wish I could watch the series... I do not see it available to watch online or available for purchase anywhere :(

0 upvotes

Total comments: 41


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