Japanese Music Video Features 250 Flashing, Synchronized Canon Cameras

In this new music video from emerging Japanese pop band Androp, directors Masashi Kawamura, Qanta Shimizu and Masatsugu Nagasoe have created an animated strobe effect by programming 250 Canon EOS 60Ds to flash like synchronized pixels in a crude Jumbo Tron behind the band. No CG was used to finish the video.

The band also has an interactive feature on its special “Bright Siren” site (the song will be included on the band’s first full album coming this fall) that lets you type in your own LED-style message and embed it at the end of the original music video. Shots of the band on stage run filmstrip-style beneath the video in Androp’s full-screen player.

So why all the cameras when the flashes alone would suffice? This is a music video from a country that holds camera technology very close to its heart. Says the band on its site,”When we listened to the ‘Bright Siren’, we envisioned bright lights flickering in the darkness, and the lyrics ‘not to make it a memory’ has stuck in our minds. From these inspirations, we came up with the idea of using camera strobes as pixels to create an animation out of light.” With so many cameras on set, Canon Marketing Japan also got involved, and there’s no mistaking which brand of camera is controlling the action. It’s still a pretty cool example of lighting technique either way.

Watch how they brought it all together, below: