When you do a search for the word “creator” you find the following: God; founder; people involved in general production; ad designers. That is to say, photographers, designers, stylists and makeup artists are all creators. Musicians undoubtedly qualify.
Recently, my team shot a video of the 4-member band “Nakamura Parking”. Making music videos is the collaborative effort of a variety of “creators”. Striking a delicate balance between everyone’s creative input is a challenge. This can be a blast if everyone is on the same page, but if not, it can be a grueling process.
I produced another video a few days before the Nakamura Parking shoot. The artist is quite well-known and his entourage took control right from the start. Thanks to that, I think we put together an excellent video.
After that successful project, I was looking forward to the Nakamura Parking shooting.The rock band is a quartet from Nishio City in Aichi prefecture. They play regularly in Shimokitazawa and Yokohama. The origin of the band’s name remains a mystery as there is no special reason they chose “parking”, nor are any of the members named Nakamura.
During the shoot, the band members were split on how they wanted things to go. Under normal circumstances, the leader of the band makes the final decisions. If someone disagrees and makes a scene, the video producer usually blows his top. Without a true leader to make decisions my crew started to get anxious while watching from the sidelines.
While observing the scene, it struck me that these four were unmistakably professional “creators”. While they all were passionate in expressing their differing viewpoints, it was clear that there was a mutual respect and trust between the members. Creating something as a group is much more challenging than doing it on your own since there are many varying opinions. They clearly grasped that concept.
Each of the members has a strong personality and it appeared that they wouldn’t be able to reach a consensus. But there was an equilibrium that they were able to achieve almost unconsciously due to their relationship. All four have a high level of individuality in their art, but meld it together perfectly. The pleasant sound they create is clear evidence of this. I have filmed many music videos, but rarely do I run into a band that I want to root for as much as these guys.
The ideas of these four intense individuals are now wrapped up into one music video. Currently in the editing stage, Nakamura Parking’s music video, “Kaiso Rider” (Reminiscence Rider), will be released on January 26th.