Track (2015)

I saw Tochka’s latest PiKA PiKA animation Track (2015) at Oberhausen 2015 as part of the MuVi Award international competition which celebrates music videos that are “trend-setting and visually exceptional.”  This year’s selection featured an eclectic mix of styles including the music videos for prominent artists such as Pussy Riot (I Can’t Breathe), Arcade Fire (We Exist) and Sia (Chandelier) and more off beat works such as Xiu Xiu’s Cinthya’s Unisex, Wang Rong’s Chick Chick, and a YouTube SmashUp of Wrecking Ball by Parag K. Mital.  Fellow Japanese animator Yoriko Mizushiri was also on the programme with her latest work Maku which features the music of Shuta Hasunuma.

Track made it into the MuVi selection because it features the music of Atsushi Yamaji (山路敦司), but I wouldn’t really call it a music video per se.  It is a collaborative stop motion animation made as a part of Smart Illumination Yokohama 2013 and was later reedited into a short film format for distribution.  At the core of Tochka are the co-directors Takeshi Nagata (ナガタタケシ) and Kazue Monno (モンノカヅエ) from Kyoto (Read about my visit to their new studio last summer).  They were assisted by a team of 28 animators (credited below) who draw in the air using penlights and are filmed at a slow framerate in order to pixilate the animators and their movements with light.  The animators in a nighttime PiKA PiKA animation film are visible onscreen usually as black shadows and remind me of the kuroko (黒子) stagehands in kabuki or bunraku.

The film was shot under the promenade connecting Zō-no-hana Park (象の鼻パーク,literally: “Elephant Trunk Park”) to the YokohamaRed Brick Warehouse.  The park gets its name from the Zō-no-hana breakwater which people say is shaped like the trunk of an elephant.  Renovated into a public space for cultural activity in recent years, Zō-no-hana is celebrated as the birthplace of the port of Yokohama.  Commodore Matthew Perry’s Black Ships (Kurofune) landed here on their second visit in 1859.  Yokohama quickly became the gateway of foreign goods into Japan, with freight trains departing from the port for Tokyo.

This is an inspired location for a nighttime shoot because the illuminated row of plinths running parallel to the promenade and the iconic Yokohama skyline with the illuminated giant Ferris wheel Cosmo Clock 21 make a perfect backdrop to the film.  In a nod to the history of trains departing the port of Yokohama, the animation takes place on a track built under the promenade. 

With every film that they make, Tochka seem to be widening the possibilities of animating with light.  This is one of their most complex uses of light with scenes depicting fish in the ocean, dinosaurs next to an erupting volcano, circus performances and a mural like those drawn by prehistoric man on the walls of caves.    

The synopsis of the film in the Oberhausen catalogue reads: “Humans invented tools, discovered fire, and drew pictures in dark caves.  Then murals were born with a mission to hand down everything to posterity.  In these murals, you can find dreams and the joy connected with the discovery of fire.  When I trace the history of the ancient peoples and imagine their lifestyle, I always feel grateful for modern civilization.” 

Indeed, as with all of Tochka’s PiKA PiKA collaborative works, Track is an uplifting film that celebrates life and the human imagination. 

Credits:

Photography by LittleGrayT

展示風景（LittleGrayTさんが撮影）：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agE7-lqJA5I

Animators  /  アニメーター

Ivan Lee  /  アイバン　リイ

https://vimeo.com/ivs

http://le-iv.tumblr.com/

Chihori Muro  /  室ちほり

https://www.youtube.com/user/laugh2and2flat

Miyu Nakao  /  中尾 美愉 

Natsumi Fukunaga  /  福永奈都美         

Minayo Yamanaka  /  山中美奈代 

Ryota Iwasaki  /  岩崎亮太 

Yuka Mizutani  /  水谷友香

Masaaki Nakasone  /  仲宗根まさあき

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/masaaki-nakasone/29/427/7a2

Toshiyuki Tsurumi  /  鶴見利之 

Airi Komiyama  /  込山愛里

Yuki Masuya  /  桝矢由貴

Souta Tamura /  田村聡大

http://sota-ta.jp/

Kaito Otsu /  大津かいと

Akari Kawabata  /  川端明里    

Atsuko Miyake  /  三宅敦子     

http://q.cyworld.com/55403503

Kim Yewon  /  キム　イエウォン        

https://vimeo.com/yewonkim

https://vimeo.com/onionskin

http://weareonionskin.tumblr.com/

Nobuyuki Hanabusa /  ハナブサ ノブユキ

http://hana-busa.jp/

Kota Tsujimura  /  辻村洪太

https://picasaweb.google.com/112103137516146447401

Asami Sekiguchi  /  関口亜紗美              

Yasunori Kishimoto  /  岸本泰之             

Yoichi Inada /  稲田陽一             

http://www.puppet-labo.com/

Isao Shoganji /  正願地勲          

Ayaka Kibata  /  Ayaka Kibata                                     

Kumi Kono  /  kumi kono

Kanoko Yamaguchi  /  山口華乃子

http://www.studiobingo.co.jp/animation2010.html

Midoriko Hayashi  /  林みどり子

http://www.k5.dion.ne.jp/~mimicry/

https://www.facebook.com/nagoya.theatercafe

Music / 音楽

Atsushi Yamaji /山路敦司

 

Percussion /  パーカッション            

Satoko Ono  /  小野聡子                                            

Nozomi Nishizono  /  西園望    

Recording  /   録音

Koji Morita  /  森田浩司

Support  /  協力

Epson Sales Japan Corp.  /  エプソン販売株式会社

SMART ILLUMINATION YOKOHAMA 2013, 2014  /  スマートイルミネーション横浜2012, 2013

ZOU-NO-HANA TERRACE  /  象の鼻テラス       

The City of Yokohama /  横浜市                                              

  JIAMS (Joint Institute for Advanced Multimedia Studies)  /  JIAMS（先端マルチメディア合同研究所）

                                 

Directors /  監督

Takeshi Nagata / ナガタタケシ                                            

Kazue Monno  /  モンノカヅエ

Copyright  /  著作制作              

TOCHKA  /トーチカ

http://tochka.jp/

http://tochka.jp/video/track/

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Yokohama Tale (ヨコハマテイル, 2011)

This animated short is an homage to the port of Yokohama by three artists who love the city: the stop motion animator Yūichi Itō (I.TOON), the photographer Hideo Mori (amano studio), and the composer Miyuki Onitake (onitake).  The film consists of three vignettes: “Chat”, “Once Upon a Time in Red Brick Warehouse”, and “The White Seamew”.

“Chat”

With his animated short Harbor Tale (2011), Yūichi Itō brought the buildings of Yokohama to life with his unique mixture of stop motion and computer animation, a technique he dubs Neo Craft Animation.  This follow-up film features the star of Harbor Tale, Mr. Brick, and some of Yokohama’s most famous architectural landmarks.  The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse (横浜赤レンガ倉庫) historical landmark site is comprised of two red brick warehouses built in 1911 and 1913.  In this first vignette, Mr. Brick watches as the two warehouse anthropomorphise, with windows for eyes, and greet each other. 

“Once Upon a Time in Red Brick Warehouse”

This vignette opens with an aerial shot of the pier with the red brick warehouses.  As in Harbor Tale, the ships in the harbour anthropomorphise and greet each other as the pass by.  A red brick motif acts as a break between short montages of Mori’s photographs of Yokohama.  Itō’s animation adds surreal touches to the urban seaside landscape such as a shipping container who opens his eyes to look at a passerby and a fish that flies through a rainy sky.  Onitake’s jaunty music keeps the atmosphere light and playful.  Mr. Brick runs through the puddles outside Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse past “K”LINE shipping containers, and inside the warehouse buildings. 

“The White Seamew”

Seamew (also spelled sea mew) is another name for the common gull or mew gull – what the Japanese call kamome.  In Harbor Tale, such a gull played an important role in rescuing Mr. Brick from a precarious situation.   This vignette opens with a wide shot of Yokohama Marine Tower (横浜マリンタワー).  As a gull flies towards the tower, the tower comes to life.  A flock of gulls flies by the tower, transforming from clay figures into white, transparent shapes.    A lone gull flies over the cityscape of Yokohama and them through beautiful photographs by Mori of the harbourfront area.  Onitake’s lyrical music combined with the repeated close up on the “face” of the anthropomorphised Yokohama Marine Tower suggest that this is the tower’s dreamy, romantic vision his surroundings.  Fireworks appear in the skyline and the film ends with a beautiful shot of Yokohama at night.

The screening of this film at Nippon Connection 2015 was sponsored by the Yokohama City Frankfurt Representative Office, with additional support from the Department of International Affairs of the City of Frankfurt, JFE Engineering Europe GmbH and the ramen restaurant Muku in Frankfurt.

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Impro. (インプロ, 2015)

In the heart of Tokyo, a crew is setting up for this unusual shoot.  Gear is unpacked from the back of a car, and a kitchen space with a hardwood floor is temporarily cleared of its clutter.  Meanwhile, microphones and cameras are set up outside.  Make-up is applied to the dancer (Masumi Endo).  Traffic noise and the sounds of nature are caught on the microphones outside. 

With the space clear, and the performer ready, the sound of a dripping tap (shown in close-up) gives the opening beat for the improvisational dance performance to begin.  The sounds of Tokyo: crickets, jungle crows, whirring of a Japan post motorcycle, latches and windows opening, a gas stove-top being lit, footprints, become the soundtrack to which the dancer dances.

Although the film is called Impro. (short from improvisation), and gives the impression that the dancer is responding to live sounds (cars starting, traffic signals, shop workers’ greetings, trains, etc.) as the sound crew travels the city streets, this is clearly a planned and edited production.  It gives the impression of the dancer responding spontaneously to the sounds of the city, but this is a carefully woven illusion.  The result is an ode to a day in the life of Tokyo, from dawn to dusk, with the dancer working herself up into a crescendo of as the sounds of night life increase.  Finally, a moment’s respite.  A new day dawns on the green space next to a river, the dancer pauses to catch her breath.  A living, breathing member of this vibrant community. 

Impro. was co-directed by Keisuke Nishizaki (西崎啓介) and Tomomi Okamura (岡村知美) of Tokyo Eizo Brig. (東京映像旅団).  Both graduates of the College of Art at Nihon University, Nishizaki is a director, illustrator and animator while Okamura calls herself an independent motion graphic director.  Learn more about them on tumblr.

This film screened at Oberhausen 2015.

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes