The music video for the song Building 650 features three directors participating in a multifaceted portrait of Tokyo life and culture.
The new bachelor of the Warp Squid musical group, Building 650, is animated through Ryū Murakami’s 1997 novel, In the Miso Soup, which offers a mysterious and disturbing adventure in the Japanese night. The band was tasked with creating a music video for the Bachelor with Felix Geen, who in the past had directed the music video for his bachelor Narrator. This played out in a variety of three-dimensional images with faults. worlds, leveraging the director’s experience in CG and VFX. However, for his new bachelor, Geen was willing to anchor the video in real spaces.
“I promptly bought a copy of Ryū Murakami’s In the Miso Soup and read it all in one sitting. I knew right away that this video was going to take place in Tokyo,” says Geen. To bring it to life, he turned to local director Daisuke Hasegawa, whom Geen met on a trip to the city, and who in turn brought his own crew, adding Kuya Tatsujo as another co-director.
After discussing the assignment with Geen, Hasegawa read the e-book and started thinking about concepts. “Subsequently, Félix and I worked together on the structure, integrating his experience in dynamic and fun visual effects, as well as elements of Japanese experimental cinema from the 70s,” he explains.
The video mixes virtual and analog material, combining Geen’s elaborate “deconstructed city shots,” which he says are “based on the raw, natural 8mm film work” of Hasegawa and Tatsujo.
Tatsujo was keen to draw on the book while also incorporating “scenes from contemporary Japan”, namely the struggles that young people face in modern life. “The wave of technology is overwhelming, and an intense sense of fear, driven by the need to interact with others, envelops the city,” Tatsujo says.
This is also on Hasegawa’s mind: the construction of the electronic book in Tokyo in the 90s and its evolution for today. “One of the most striking phrases in the novel stuck with me: “Most prostitutes do it for money, but the deeper explanation is that they do it to fill the void of their own loneliness. ” impact. about me, and I tried hard to explain the truth of Tokyo, of Japanese society, and of the other people who live there today, as a reaction to the novel.
The script was rewritten on both levels with a new director involved, the collaborators did not shy away from this and instead embraced an evolution. The paintings have become even richer, combining the internal and external perspectives of Tokyo’s culture in a unique way.
“In the end, I believe we were able to depict the complex and chaotic nature of Tokyo as Felix perceives it, while also considering how we, as Japanese people, respond to it,” says Hasegawa. “The result is a piece that touches on the deeper layers of society, much like the chaotic world portrayed in In the Miso Soup.”
Working with other administrators also allowed Geen to embrace another way of working, which left a lasting impression on him. “As someone who didn’t come from a classical film background, I was hesitant to do things with actors, scripts, lighting props and big cameras, but this was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever had the opportunity to be a part of. “
Cowards by Squid is out via Warp on February 7; squidband.uk
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