Week 9_Response_William

     For this response, I have chosen "By Your Side", with music by Sade and animation by ZAPUNI.  

                                                                   Link -->  By Your Side   

     Now, the initial question you have might be, "Who the heck is ZAPUNI? That studio does not sound familiar to me." Well, you are somewhat right in that regard. 

     ZAPUNI is not a studio, but rather a charity project. It was formed in 2012 as a response to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Also known as the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, it was a vicious triple-threat, where the magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan, while also hitting the ocean and generating a tsunami, and then also became the lead cause of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The whole thing led to around 230,000 people being uprooted from their homes.

    ZAPUNI made three music videos to help bring awareness to the people affected and linked places to donate within their video descriptions. In 2013, they made "Psychedelic Afternoon" and "Blossom", but for this response, our focus is their last video, "By Your Side", posted on the third year anniversary of the earthquake. The video itself was stop-motion animated by the studio Dwarf. They are most famous for the Domo-kun character, but most of their work is low-key and quality stuff. 

    The music video itself has a story that I will not spoil here, but I can say it handles the disaster topic with a lot of grace and a calm sense of empathy. 

    For the animation, the frame count is fantastic here. I believe it's around 24 frames a second or so. It feels more like a 3D kid's cartoon rather than the jittery style of more independant short films. A lot of budget and time certainly went into it.

    While the entire music video takes place inside and outside of one house, the prop design within the set is wonderfully believable. The biggest factor to me when it comes to making a realistic residence is to give that sense of clutter to it. We as people keep lots of mementos, and they are not always organized in a way that other people understand. That clutter is intricately crafted into the house, and I love it for that. 

    The outside set is effective as well. It mainly consists of tall grass and a simple tree line, but the ever present breeze is constantly blowing against the grass. This prevents a static image, of course, but it also becomes a central part of the peaceful and rural atmosphere that the whole music video provides. 

    The final bits I want to admire here are the side effects. The subtle clear droplets for sweat, the fake water poured out of pots, and the sunset effect later on. All of these are easy for us to do, but in a miniature, manmade set, these details are trickier to pull off. I'm glad they did.

    Although the video is seven years old by this point, I would say the music video still holds up. It is an emotional watch, but with a soothing uplift to the whole experience. This music video is without a doubt worth your time.