柳川智之

We developed the idea while exploring a method of adapting the “visual experience that traverses fiction and reality,” which the artist collective Yofu has long valued in its work, to the filmmaking process itself—from shooting to post-production. In practice, the piece was created through a one-take long shot and time-axis manipulation in post-production. During the one-take shoot, the condition for realizing the concept of this music video was that, throughout the chorus as confetti fell through the air, only Satoko Shibata would remain perfectly still. By applying detailed time-axis adjustments to specific sections in post-production, the confetti alone—falling around the motionless Shibata—could be made to move in various ways, such as reversing direction, being drawn toward the center of the screen, or becoming extremely compressed and transformed into a noise-like texture, even though Shibata herself showed no change. The contrast between stillness and motion creates a distortion of reality that forms the basis of the direction. In the middle section as well, by moving the camera while keeping Shibata’s framing fixed, even the background is warped and distorted, and the shimmering paper fragments drifting down in time with the song’s progression create a striking scene that gives the impression of an unreal world, somewhere at the edge of the galaxy. Yofu also created “Behind the scenes of Satoko Shibata ‘Understood’ Music Video” (https://youtu.be/xOK0IlVjdH8), which captures the behind-the-scenes process of the one-take shoot.

While exploring a method of adapting the “visual experience of traversing between reality and fiction,” which the artist collective Yof has prioritized in its work, to the filmmaking process itself—from shooting to post-production—we developed the concept. In practice, the video was made through a one-take long shot and manipulation of the time axis in post-production. In the one-take shoot, during the chorus, confetti falls all around while only Satoko Shibata remains completely still, which became the key condition for realizing the idea behind this music video. By applying detailed time-axis adjustments to each section in post-production, the stillness of Shibata remains unchanged, while the confetti falling around her displays a variety of behaviors: only the confetti moves in reverse, it is drawn inward toward the center of the frame, or it becomes extremely compressed and transforms into something like noise. This contrast between stillness and motion serves as the foundation for creating a distorted sense of reality. Later in the middle section, by moving the camera while keeping Shibata’s framing fixed, even the background is warped and distorted, and the sparkling paper fragments drifting down, combined with the progression of the song, create a striking scene that evokes an otherworldly atmosphere, almost as if at the far reaches of the galaxy.