If you’ve ever been left feeling slightly perplexed as to what your response should be when that special lady in your life declares “Treat Me Right“, Ohji has riddled out the solution and added a touch of intergalactic flare in his promo for Keys N Krates:
“The development happened when I tried to interpret what the female vocalist in the song meant when she sang “treat me right”, combined with my fondness towards other videos like the Justice DVNO video, and of course, the opening sounds in the music track evoked images of space. All of that combined resulted in the idea of romance novels covers and how mysteriously ridiculous they are.”
With the concept nailed, Ohji sourced a wide selection of pulpy romance covers from the internet as well as taking a trip to the thrift store, armed with a scanner and his laptop. Once all the images were digitised, the majority of work took place in a combination of Photoshop and After Effects – Final Cut Pro putting in a brief appearance to create rough outlines and map timing.
“It all took about an entire month of intense sitting in front of a computer. Part way through when I knew wasn’t going to make the deadline on my own, I enlisted the help of my roommate, Jeremy, who is an animation graduate, to help me with some Photoshop work.”