The Rising Suns

January 3, 2007 9:35 PM

The Rising Suns PVI found this techno PV (Japanese for 'promotion video') by Takkyu Ishino (of the band Denki Groove) to be pretty impressive (assuming the people are real & not CG). [youtube]
posted by Heywood Mogroot (11 comments total)

Might as well smoke 'em while we still got 'em. Japan Inc. quite rightfully doesn't like youtube that much... [1], [2], [3], [5], [6]

After the FPP video, check out the Hikenai Guitar wo Hikundaze link.

(Japanese spoilers: at 0:22 the sign says "[School] Cultural Festival", the sign at 0:30 says "Tokyo Station", and at 1:42 is a Class Reunion postcard, which is initially checked 'Not Attend' then changed to 'Attend')
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 9:36 PM on January 3, 2007

Well, it's obviously CG. This sort of "Crowd simulation" has been really popular in advertising lately (See the sharpova powershot ad, there was a coke ad), it was developed for the Lord of the rings and is really cheap to do. I can't imagine the video would be shot with real people.
posted by delmoi at 9:42 PM on January 3, 2007

Ooops, that's Sharapova. Here is the ad I was talking about, it's for Canon.
posted by delmoi at 9:44 PM on January 3, 2007

bummer. The National Diet bldg segment was a bit unbelievable, but I thought mebbe in the Koizumi era they'd go for that.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 10:20 PM on January 3, 2007

Interesting idea, just poorly executed. The makers of the video should have done a better job of making this into a sort of oscillator where the crowd moves/simulates to the music. They kind of seem do that at first, but gets more random towards the end.
posted by j-urb at 11:07 PM on January 3, 2007

The package was called MASSIVE, and each actor had a field of view and a basic imperative package, then allowed effectively free reign. The problem was, that in the early tests for the very first battle scene featuring Sauron, the vast majority of orcs would break and run...
posted by Samizdata at 11:08 PM on January 3, 2007

I hope the people aren't real. One gets clipped by a car at 0:28.
posted by ardgedee at 3:00 AM on January 4, 2007

j-urb:
A similar idea to what you mention (and handled a bit better, I think) shows up in the Chemical Brothers video for "Star Guitar."
posted by beaucoupkevin at 5:37 AM on January 4, 2007

I have to confess, I don't get it.
posted by empath at 6:12 AM on January 4, 2007

That Hikenai Guitar wo Hikundaze video is great.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:44 PM on January 4, 2007

the denki guys are also responsible for two obscure collections of minigames.
posted by progosk at 2:39 PM on January 4, 2007