Kazuma Kitada's video for Japanese hiphop artist Kojoe is a seamless one-shot like no other. In fact, this impressionistic portrait of domestic life is a groundbreaking achievement, employing the use of motion control drones for the first time.

Kazuma layers different timelines within a single space, focussing on the family life of a interesting, possibly underworld character, and reflecting on the numerous different possibilities that everyone is faced with.

The extremely fluid camera movements in the piece were achieved by combining a drone and camera with the OptiTrack motion control system, a process that took eight months to perfect. The result is a stunning achievement. 
 

YUTA UENO (PRODUCER):

"In Day n Nite, we challenged the boundaries of filming norms by using leading edge shooting techniques, to visualize the possibilities and perplexities of the 'what if?' moments we all have when making choices in life. The concept of this
film is “choices”. Our daily lives are the accumulation of an infinite number of choices we’ve made along the way. The choices we make shape our values and the courses of our lives. There are no right or wrongs to these choices, life simply goes on.

"The film was shot with the world’s first drone motion control system. Combining drone + camera + OptiTrack (motion capture system), enabled us to achieve intricate yet organic movements, such as navigating narrow spaces, traveling long distances and 360 turns."

KAZUMA KITADA (DIRECTOR):

“To capture the notion of parallel worlds with reality, none of the existing shooting methods felt sufficient. So I came up with the idea of utilizing drones as a motion control camera. 

"But the challenge was, how? I teamed up with technical professionals to develop a drone control program from scratch. It has been a long trial and error process over the course of 8 months. As a result, we succeeded in depicting the emotions of a man lost in the maze of dimensions of his life with dynamic camera work and multiple overlays.”

• Behind The Scenes of the Day n Nite video here