"On Your Mark" - A Look At Hayao Miyazaki's Venture Into Music Videos

Even the likes of Hayao Miyazaki ventured into music video making at some point, sowe're glad to have finally found a high quality version of his animated music video for On Your Mark to share with you guys. Created in 1995 as an animated accompaniment to the Japanese rock single by Chage & Ashka, On Your Mark represented a side project that came at an opportune time for Miyazaki, who was dealing with a serious case of writer's block during the writing phase of Princess Mononoke.

A curious aspect about this music video had to do with the lyrics of the song, which Miyazaki intentionally misinterpreted as an opportunity to share his lingering opinions about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. We're clued into this at the beginning of the music video, a pristine outdoor scene until we notice passengers driving through the countryside in a protective vehicle with a nuclear symbol on it and a structure resembling the infamous Chernobyl 'Sarcophagus' (The makeshift protective casing built to contain the radiation) in the background. Eventually we transition into a futuristic subterranean city where humanity now resides.

The duration of the music video is non-linear, presenting us with multiple reiterative scenes to depict the plot. The story follows two policemen tasked with raiding a religious cult, only to find an angelic being held within it's premises. When she's taken away by a group of mysterious men, the two friends eventually hatch a plan to free her once and for all..on the surface. In the grand finale, which is hinted at towards the beginning of the music video the police men eventually exit into the dangerously irradiated outside world to give this angel a fresh start, perhaps at the cost of their own lives. We're left to wonder what their fate is.

Regarding the production of On Your Mark, Miyazaki was fortunate enough to use this side project as a chance to get experimental and incorporate computer animation techniques into the traditional hand drawn cell process, which he would eventually incorporate into the Princess Mononoke pipeline at a later point. It's cool to think that something as inopportune as writer's block would eventually contribute to helping Miyazaki improve one of the studio's most epic animated films, but it's the beauty of the artistic learning process. Taking your eyes off a project that you've been focusing too much on for a wheel can typically be the remedy to any roadblock you might encounter. Loved the message of the music video as well.

The Spielberg "Oner" - One Scene, One Shot

While Steven Spielberg's reputation as a fantastic director has somewhat diminished over time (Thanks Lucas), it's hard to deny that he's had one hell of a career. Tony Zhou's Oner is a really cool tribute to Spielberg's knack of using long takes to drive the story, while never drawing attention to his extensive usage of the shot throughout the course of his career.

While other directors sometimes use this as a gimmick, Zhou does a great job analyzing how Spielberg always added a lot of complexity and intention into his long takes in movies like Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Jaws and many others. Zhou also throws in quite a few interesting tidbits about the origins of the long take, which will appeal to any lover of cinema.

There Will Be Blood - Through Numbers

Created by Ali Shirazi as a study of one of Paul Thomas Anderson's finest period pieces to date, Through Numbers is a really interesting study on the types of compositional rules he applied to any tracking shots with one point perspective specifically. If you're unfamiliar with the rule of thirds, or the golden ratio, it's a universally used compositional device that is typically used in a subliminal fashion by artists, directors, photographers and beyond to create balance (Or a lack thereof) in their work.

While the piece incorporates some nonsensical math at parts that doesn't correlate with what's on screen, (More of a stylistic touch imo) it's a good reminder of how well these rules work when planning out shots or pieces of art.

Kids Review Radiohead: Paranoid Android

The folks at Noisey decided to pit a variety of very cute, clever British children against various genres of music and iconic tracks like Paranoid Android. The resulting, unfiltered opinions about Thom Yorke are pretty damn hilarious and garnered quite a few laughs from me. Bottom line, whoever came up with the idea to let kids review Radiohead songs is an absolute genius.

Everything Is A Remix: System Failure

Kirby Ferguson has been working on his 'Everything Is A Remix' series for over a year now, simply trying to showcase how creativity on the most part, is a derivative process. One inspiration leads to a new creation, and that creation goes on to inspire yet another creation. Kirby's formula is as follows for techniques related to invention: Copying, transforming, and combining to create something new. Its a fascinating look at how people regards ideas as property, even though they were probably derived from something else at some point. You can check out part 1-3 of the series after the break if its your first time hearing of this series.