Masters of the one-take viral music video, OK Go teamed up with creative director Morihiro Harano to create yet another eye-popping, people-powered (well, mostly) music video. Mouthing the lyrics to “I Won’t Let You Down,” the band rides about on Honda UNI-CUB scooters while filmed by an expertly piloted multi-copter drone over Japan’s Chiba prefecture.
The elaborate choreography involved would have made Busby Berkeley squeal with joy. According to Billboard, the entire video was shot in double-time, allowing for heavy use of time-remapping to fine-tune movement in post:
To capture all those Japanese schoolgirls flashing colored umbrellas in the shapes of lyrics and OK Go members’ faces in perfect synchronicity, Harano used a specialized drone camera controlled both by GPS and by hand from an altitude of nearly half a mile.
Credits
Creative Director: Morihiro Harano
Art Director: Jun Nishida
Director: Kazuaki Seki and Damian Kulash, Jr.
Choreographer: furitsukekagyou air:man
Cameraman: Makoto Okuguchi
Lighting: Akiyoshi Irio
GRIP: Takashi Taniguchi
DIT: Taito Oyama
Multi-Copter Pilot: Kenji Yasuda
Stylist: Kazuki Yunoki
Hair Make: Asuka Fujio
Sound Operator: Isao Yoshida
Location Coordinator: Kyohei Kitamura
Online Editor: Shunsuke Kakuuchi, Takashi Tanaka
Colorist: Shigeyuki Toriumi
Translator: Aiko Ishikawa, Ryuzo Tsutsui, Sumire Matsumura
UNI-CUB: Kazuyuki Iwata, Hirokazu Hara, Shinichiro Kobashi, Makoto Hasegawa
Mass Games Design + Previsualization: Daisuke Sasaki, David Robert, Munechika Inudo, Yoshifumi Sadahara, Gilles Brossard
Interactive: Ryo Tsukiji, Kousei Motoyoshi, Nobuaki Arikata, Kenshiro Nakashima, Junichi Arakawa, Masanobu Ishii, Yusuke Kitani
Making-of: Makoto Kubota
Assistant-director: Hideaki Jinbo
Production Manager: Satoshi Miyata
Agency Producer: Shiro Miyamoto, Naoyuki Masuda, Misato Tachibana
Producer: Mitsuru Yamamori
Cast: OK Go
Cameo: Perfume
Special thanks to: the school girl dancers and Honda
Creative Agency: Mori Inc.