Shooting report of 1st single『Infaded』
Some twenty days have passed since 50 HEARTS appeared on the scene.
Have you had a chance to listen to “Infaded,” the first single brought out by 50 HEARTS, a band that made its debut on March 4th, 2016?
You can watch the “Infaded” PV on this website or on YouTube, and you can buy the song on music download sites like Amazon or RecoChoku.
50 HEARTS
The 50 HEARTS project is based on a world view conceived by vocalist Josuke Sato. Bringing together members who are clued up on videos, graphics, texts, photos, and the Web, the 50 HEARTS project creates a single work of art.
For the release of this first single, “Infaded,” we shot 50 HEARTS’ first promotional video in December 2015.
1st Single「Infaded」
The song that we will be shooting for is “Infaded.”
The word “fade” implies that something (youth, freshness, beauty, or strength) is dying away or subsiding. Adding “In” at the start of the word gives it a negative meaning, so the new word, “infaded,” has the meaning of revival.
This PV will paint the story of an angel who has lost one of her wings reviving her hopes to fly in the sky once again.
Starting several months before the shoot, we had numerous team meetings where we talked about things like how we share the world view that was going to be expressed in “Infaded,” and the story development.
Then came the day of the shoot. The band members assembled at the location, each with a tense look on his face.
After everyone had assembled, each member took his turn to talk about how enthusiastic he felt, which boosted the morale at the location.
Matsushita, who had introduced the model to us, acted as the mood-maker and helped liven things up. The oppressive mood gradually became more relaxed.
Photography studio 『BRICK YARD』
BRICK YARD, which is in Shin’ei in Nagoya, is a shooting studio that has the feel of a former factory. It’s well-known as the studio that was used by the musician Motohiro Hata when he shot his PV for “Himawari no Yakusoku” (Promise of the Sunflower).
This is a really atmospheric studio, like the underground warehouses that you see in American movies.
In addition to its usual role as a studio, the space is also used to hold different events, such as workshops or exhibitions.
Project members
Josuke Sato
Singer–songwriter and producer of the 50 HEARTS project. The storyline for the PV that we will shoot for “Infaded” was created based in his first idea.
Masaki Furuichi
Masaki Furuichi worked on the musical performance and the graphic production for the 50 HEARTS project. He brought along his much-loved guitar for his appearance as guitarist in the video clip and gave it his all.
Toru Nozaki
Toru Nozaki was mainly in charge of the guitar part and the piano in producing the track. In the video, he appears as the second guitarist, beside Masaki Furuichi.
Hiroki Koide
As the Video Creator of the 50 HEARTS project, Hiroki Koide was responsible for the production of the PV for "Infaded."
Tetsuro Gamo
Tetsuro Gamo is a writer who puts the 50 HEARTS project activities into writing. He creates texts that tell the world about the project’s concept and the world view expressed in the songs.
All the members share the world view of “Infaded” deep down in their hearts, and the shooting took place based on the roles of each of the members.
Shooting landscape
Even Toru Nozaki, who has been playing the guitar for 15 years, commented that playing the guitar for the video was difficult, as it was different to how he normally plays. We set up a mirror in front of him so that he could keep an eye on his movements as we shot the video.
We lit up lanterns and checked the angle of the light over and over in pursuit of the best shot.
YUNA, the model.
In the video, Yuna does an exquisite job of performing minute, feminine gestures and delicate expressions.
Foreign models are often hired for music videos in Japan these days, but we feel that Japanese are possibly the best at acting out the detailed variations in the individual actions and produce an attractive result.
The subject is not only a person. A variety of objects appear in the “Infaded” video clip and add color to the story.
The shooting took six hours, but all the members were able to act as a single unit and carry on with the shoot, having fun, right until the very end.
The movie of 『INFADED』
This was our first time shooing a promotional video, but because we spent a long time on preparations, the day of the shoot went smoothly.
“We want to present our work to the world. We want a lot of people to see it.”
Bringing together the sentiments of each of the members, the first song, expressing the 50 HEARTS world view, has been completed.
◆Promotion video of 『INFADED』
While we were shooting for this song, we got lots of new ideas, so we’d like to reflect these in the PV for our second single.
Future work
We are currently getting down to work on the musical production for our second single and preparing for the PV shoot.
◆ 2nd single notice video
Each of the works created by 50 HEARTS is a piece of the whole picture of the story. Each time we give birth to a new work, the story gets bigger.
We are planning to vastly expand the world view that's in the mind of 50 HEARTS through the music that we create into the future, so make sure to stay tuned.
written by Tetsuro Gamo
