Hoku Uchiyama

Hoku Uchiyama

Director of spooky, silly and fun things

Lead Director / Video Editor / 14 yrs

Los Angeles, CA

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Director

Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley - "Electric Blanket"

Co-Director

FedEx - "Small Business"

co-director

The A-Z of YouTube: Celebrating 10 Years

co-director

Lowe's Hardware - "Hypermade"

co-director

Wilkinson Sword - "Manscaping in Motion"

Director

Plaza Francia - "Cada Vez"

Co-Directed

They Might Be Giants - "You're On Fire"

Co-Director

National Geographic Channel - "The 80s: The Decade That Made Us"

Co-Director

Starbucks, "The Perfect Latte"

Director

Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley - "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn"

Cannes Young Director Award winner Hoku Uchiyama is a lover of fantasy films, horror and animation. His directing work has garnered tens of millions of online views and has been screened in festivals in the US, Europe and Asia. The work has also been featured at the LA County Museum of Art and in a series produced by the Modern Art museum Centre Pompidou of Paris.

Hoku broke ground with his award winning music video for Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer’s “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?” He and his sometimes directing partner, Adam Bolt have made a name crafting high energy, fun, technical commercials under the moniker “Hoku & Adam.” Their clients include Starbucks, Google, Lenovo and FedEx. They’ve also created award winning spots for National Geographic, Wilkinson Sword (by animating facial hair) and YouTube (using 18 styles of animation in one film).

Hoku also directed the 2014 documentary "Upaj: Improvise" which was broadcast nationally in the US on the PBS World Channel.

Currently he’s developing "Third Floor"; a horror series, "Tether"; a fantasy feature and "Vicarious"; a sci-fi feature.
Work History

  • Director

    Partizan

    January 2012 - Present

    Directing commercials and music videos with Adam Bolt under the team name "Hoku & Adam". Clients include:

    Google, YouTube, Starbucks, National Geographic, They Might Be Giants, Wilkinson Sword, Lenovo, Plaza Francia (the Gotan Project and Catherine Ringer),

  • After Effects Artist

    Vanishing Angle

    June 2014 - June 2014

    Animated a logo for a promotional video for YOLA/The LA Philharmonic

  • Director/Editor

    Vanishing Angle

    January 2013 - January 2013

    Internal video for the Los Angeles Philharmonic

  • Director

    Upaj: Improvise (film)

    2007 - 2013

    Directing a one-hour long television documentary about Kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das and tap star Jason Samuels Smith. Production took place in Mumbai, Kolkata, California and New York in addition to other locations.
    The film screened on National US television several times in 2014 on the World Network.

  • Director

    "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn" (music video)

    2010 - 2011

    Directed a Webby nominated music video for the group Evelyn Evelyn (Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer). The video was written up in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek (The Daily Beast), Shoot Magazine, Film School Rejects and 1.4.

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Education

  • Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Film

    Art Center College of Design

    January 2001 - August 2004