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.

A music video for a song produced to promote the roadside station “Yotte Michi no Eki Nishi-Tosa” in Shimanto City, Kochi Prefecture. The director and illustrator were different people, and I was solely responsible for the animation and editing. Released on YouTube. The production period was about one month.

The music video for “Koukai,” a track from Satoko Shibata’s Love Holiday The idea of filming Shibata-san’s face in an extreme close-up as she leaned out of a car window hadn’t even been conceived until the day of the shoot. In fact, on the day itself, we were filming scenes of her singing while playing guitar in a park. However, when I asked Shibata-san what image she had for the song, one of the things she mentioned was “an image like riding in a car and feeling the wind,” so we decided to also shoot that cut while traveling by car. And when we actually tried it... it was amazing. So I asked Shibata-san and her manager right then and there, “...Can we just go with this for everything...?” They kindly agreed, so after that we kept shooting car scenes nonstop. Then after the shoot ended and I went home to check the footage we had captured, since I had been filming handheld, the image was shaking all over the place (crying) So I immediately bought a gimbal to reduce camera shake, and we were able to reshoot two days later. When Shibata-san told me she imagined “riding in a car and feeling the wind,” the specific image that came to mind was the refreshingly great scene in The Dark Knight where the Joker escapes in a police car he stole from the police. I decided to film it in that mood, so from the very beginning I shot it as an extreme close-up of her face. Luckily, the weather on the day of the reshoot was incredibly nice. When it came time to do the grading, I aimed for a vivid, light-filled, refreshing feeling. It’s a video where it would not be an exaggeration to say that all you see is her face the whole time, and yet it never feels boring to watch because of Shibata-san’s humor, her cute charm as a woman, and her expressive power—or rather, her sheer humanity. I think this MV was born because Shibata-san herself takes responsibility for her own expression and carries it through to the end.