Dezeen Magazine

Golden Touch music video revolves around the viewer's fingertip

Music: by placing a finger in the centre of the computer screen, the viewer appears to control the colourful imagery in this music video for Namie Amuro's single Golden Touch.

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Japanese directors Masashi Kawamura, founder of creative lab PARTY, and Kenji Yamashita, director of LOGAN were asked by the singer to be part of a three-month project based on virtual optical illusion techniques.

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"Namie Amuro and the record label reached out to me, to create something more than just her singing and performing in front of camera, which is the case for most of her videos," Kawamura told Dezeen.

"She gave our team the complete freedom, which was amazing. She and the label immediately grasped the ideas when we presented to them, and gave us full autonomy of the project."

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At the start of the video, viewers are advised to place their finger on a specific point marked by a dot on their computer screen. Their fingertip then becomes the focal point for the bold-coloured scenes that unfold.

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The finger appears to shatter mirrors, pop gum bubbles and press buttons, along with a variety of other effects throughout the video.

Sequences are designed to make it look as if the viewer is pushing, pulling and swiping different scenes, although their finger remains still.

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"We wanted something pop and graphical that matches well with the music," said Kawamura. "The vibrant colours and contrast also help to emphasise the 'touch effect' as it is easy to track what you are touching in the film."

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For the project, Kawamura and his team spent two days shooting the video at the Logan studios in New York. Beforehand, the team conducted tests to work out how much camera action to include for the best virtual touch effects.

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The main inspiration for the project came from prominent YouTube user zefrank, who was arguably the first to highlight this style of filmmaking on the internet. A Canadian advert for Skittles sweets also used a similar technique.

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"We felt that we could evolve this method and create more different types of actions that the finger plays," Kawamura said.

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Golden Touch features on Namie Amuro's seventh solo-album _genic, which was released 10 June 2015.