Who is Real? Who is not Real!?

Mar 11, 2017
4 min read

A question we all heard a hundred times.

Yes! When recording a song or filming a video you have to listen to it over and over and over again. You notice all the little details, sounds and nuances. You start to dissect parts from other parts. You isolate every little thing and focus in on it, and hear it over and over again. Sounds like torture? Well.... it wasn't easy. Filming a music video, that is.

Game Over Humans has started the hard work of filming it's first music video for the soon-to-be released single, Who is Real?. From the volley of emails and phone calls to the 2am bike ride home, let me tell you my story.

I won't bore you with the all the text mails... Let's start from the morning of the shoot.

My day started at 9am on a warmer than usual Sunday morning (March 5th 2017). Jumping on my scooter to check the location for any possible issues and weather conditions, the first thing I noticed was there were many people around. Of course there would be! It's a Sunday and it was warm. The location was adjacent to a couple baseball and soccer fields. The spot we settled on was on a plot of dirt and trees that the local dirt bike club had made into a mini dirt track. Were there dirt bikes on a Sunday? Yes, and they looked like they weren't going anywhere. But I thought... we're not filming until sunset, so maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be gone.

The next step was to get the rental van, go back to my place and load drums, pick up Rob (bass) at Nagoya station, and swing by and grab Luke (lead guitar) at his place. Then, the three of us would go to GCLive to pick up amps, drive across town to pick up Nick (videographer) and finally drive back to the location (which is just a few minutes from where it all started).

The time now is just after 3pm. There's still a shit ton of people playing sports and a few dirt bikers. We parked the van and started to unload. Now, from our parking spot to the location was about a 200 meter walk. We had a small hand truck and a skateboard. With has much as we could strap to our bodies, and stacking amps and what not on the skateboard to the point of snapping, we made the many trips back and forth until all the gear scattered the path to the final area for the shoot. At this time, we were getting a lot of strange looks from the bikers. We, being gaijin, just started setting up drums and lights. Finally, a couple dudes rode over and asked what we were up to. After a quick explanation, they were like "That's cool. We'll let you guys have it (the track)." SWEET! That was easy.

By this time is was nearing 5pm so I jumped back in the van and met Pete (singer/guitar) and our friend Jake, who was with his wife at the station. We grabbed a few pizzas and drove back to the location.

Now the fun begins.

Nick is running around setting up lights, I'm trying to setup my drum kit, the guys are placing amps and gear where it needed to go. We were racing the sun. Things needed to be ready so we could catch a bit of the sky glow and we just managed to do it.

Once everything was in place, the filming could begin and we would hear our song for the first time that night. A few adjustments and we were rolling.

I'll fast forward to around 10:45pm. After taking what felt like 100+ takes with different cameras and different angles, hearing the song over and over again, back hurting, cold, windy and dark, we finally heard the words, "THAT'S A WRAP!" Thank god we all said. Fully fatigued and thirsty for beer, we all gave high-fives and hugged knowing we did something great. BUT.... we weren't done yet. All the stuff needed to go home.

Lucky for Pete, Rob, Jake and his wife, they had to catch last trains. So we grabbed what we could and got in the van. Driving like I was being chanced by the Yakuza, I got to the station with just a couple minutes to spare. Bye guys! Don't worry! Luke and I will do all the work!

Break down, load, clean, drive, unload, drive, unload, walk up stairs, drive, unload, walk up stairs, drive, pay for the van..... What time is it? 2am and I'm riding my bike home. It's a bit blurry from this point, but I do remember waking up the next morning feeling like I got hit by a truck.

Who is Real?

We've seen a few sample clips and it's looking great. With just a few more shoots for the story portion of the video scheduled, we are hoping to release the video and song in Spring. CAN'T WAIT!!