bossarica - NEON SIGN
My new music video for Japanese electro-bossa band bossarica.
This was a very ambitious project considering our low budget and limited resources, and a lot of sweat, tears and hours went into it (luckily no blood though). It combines 2D and 3D compositing with live-action projection mapping, which we were experimenting with for the first time.
The lyrics to the song are a kind of plea from Okika (the singer) to be seen, loved and understood. The main refrain is 見える聞こえる／私のネオンサイン (can you see / can you hear / my neon sign), and we used this idea as the basis for the video. The ‘sign’ we made emanates from Okika, and spreads from the underground deserted car parks to eventually take over the whole of Tokyo.
Rather than the traditional neon sign, we decided to create something warmer and more personal, more of a ‘Neon Nature’. The last part of the song is an instrumental segment from the leader and accordian-player, and we saw him as a catalyst, changing Okika’s organic neon world into something faster, sharper and bigger in scale.
Everything was shot guerilla-style in the dead of night, with a small crew and just a couple of studio lights. This allowed us to get most of what we needed before the car park attendants noticed and chased us away.
The video was made in collaboration with Robert L Brown and Gen Otsubo, both of whom I have collaborated previously with (on ‘Find A Way’, and ‘Supernova’ respectively). Masato Sagisaka once again provided excellent styling.
The video is being launched in Japan with bossarica’s new album in March, you can find more info at bossarica.jp. Hope you enjoy it, there will be some stills and production photos up soon!
1 year ago