Lo-fi magic - the video for Sour’s ‘Hibi No Neiro’
2nd July 09
Posted in creativity, culture, music
It’s turning into an unexpected week of musical delights here at BBH Labs. After the success of BBH New York’s work on the new Oasis LP launch, awarded Titanium at Cannes last weekend, comes something equally close to home.
Just launched today is some work for the band Sour, directed and produced by Hal Kirkland, Masa Kawamura (BBH New York), & their buddies Magico Nakamura & Masayoshi Nakamura.
We caught up with Hal & Masa (in between all their awesome work on paying client briefs) & they explained how the project came together. We we’re particularly struck by the challenge of starting with a budget of $0. Makes you think differently.
The project initially had a few challenges. The first was the nonexistent budget. The second involved the inability of the directors to film the band members LIVE, due to the band living in Tokyo and the Directors living in New York. On top of this they had their day jobs at BBH to contend with.
Rather than hinder the ideas, this ironically provided the framework from which the idea was born. Webcams as a medium were chosen because these days everyone has seems to have one. Sour also had a relatively strong fan base that paid constant visits to their fan site.
A message was sent out from there to ask fans to volunteer for the new music video. The production was inundated with responses from people all over the world the most surprising being a fan from a small town in Portugal.
The next few months were spent choreographing the performance. This was primarily done by the directors literally acting out and filming every part themselves so as to a detailed animatic, that in-turn would make it easier for their friends online to follow.
Once that was buttoned down the filming of over 80 people began. The directors wanted the action to be created from timed choreography to give it a more realistic feel and to make it more human. Relying on editing alone would have taken away the charm and from the spectacle of the coordination of so many individuals.
In case you’re curious, the song is about discovering your own color or voice in this world. It speaks of embracing your individuality in order to embrace what the rest of the world has to offer. So the use of the webcam and the idea of capturing people’s individual expressions as they collaborate to make a greater whole, made a lot of sense. We love it - the perfect way to start a long, sunny Independence Day weekend.
About Sour
Sour is a Japanese post-rock band formed in spring 2002 by hoshijima (gut guitar/voice), Sohey (eub/bass), KENNNNN (drums/toys). They have released 3 albums to date, and the track used in this video is called ‘Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everyday)’ which is the lead single to their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’ released on July 24 2009. For more information about the band, please visit their website: http://sour-web.com/
Here are some previous music videos that Hal & Masa have done for them:
‘Hangetsu (Half Moon)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMGSH0J0dUU
‘Omokage no Saki (Beyond your memory)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vVWb1M_rQk
Contact
Masa Kawamura - mercyk1015@gmail.com
Hal Kirkland - halkirkland@yahoo.co.uk
Magico Nakamura - magicobullet@gmail.com
Masayoshi Nakamura
17 comments on “Lo-fi magic - the video for Sour’s ‘Hibi No Neiro’”
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Ben Malbon
Congratulations to all from Paris ! This video has a magical feeling, it reunites all the positive powers of the Internet. The webcam idea is smart and simple. Love it ! Seb
Thanks amigo. As hard as it was to make, we’re really happy that people are responding to as positively as we feel about it. It’s been cool to see the reaction of the people that appeared in the film, especially as they see the images they eventually contributed to.
[...] update: here is background on how they did it. [...]
Absolutely love the video - very unique, and fits with the music so well. Great job!
Love this video!
Reminds you that creativity doesn’t start with a big budget.
Magic.
Love the music too - when will it be on Spotify?)
Hayley
[...] make stories Penguin kids site to encourage kids to learn about story telling: Creativity doesn’t need a big budget Made on a $0 budget with the directors in one country and the band in another this music video is [...]
I was looking for the story behind the making of this, thank you graciously for sharing. Shared it with Boing Boing too.
It’s so… human.
SUCH A BIG SMILE ON MY FACE.
Torley, thanks for spreading. It’s amazing how this has grown in scale in just 24 hours. Best, Ben
I LOVE this. Well done guys.
Thats a DOPE video. Very relevant.
Brilliant.
The more I show it to people, the more it spreads. So good to see an innovative use of a very common medium.
The story is top stuff.
Cheers for your comments and kind feedback Sully. Ben
wow, I’m speechless, such a brilliant idea.
wow~ I love your idea, vision, execution. So which of those three came first in your mind?
Hi everyone,
Masa and I just wanted to extend our sincere gratitude for your kind words. We’re really happy it’s getting the response that it is.
Thanks also for the people who have gone to the trouble of passing it on. It’s been amazing to see how far it has spread. The entire team is blown away on a daily basis. Certainly not a bad thing.
We’re also very happy for the band. Hopefully it’ll get them a few concerts out of Japan. They’re very talented and genuinely great guys. They deserve for good things to happen.
Magic. Thank you.
so cool!