From July 29th (Wednesday), the "ART UP" section on the 2nd floor of Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building will be hosting "Bird's Eye View," a photo exhibition by Yudai Goto, a video photographer, photographer, and sound creator. The exhibition will showcase photographs taken using drones. In addition to behind-the-scenes stories about the shoots, we also asked him about basic drone-related information that many people don't know, as well as the unique appeal and challenges of drone photography.

Inspired by overseas music and film, I embarked on a career as a creator.

—You've fully demonstrated your talent as a creator in various fields, but what was the starting point for all of this?


"I've been involved in music (classical piano) for a long time, and I've been doing things like DJing and music production since I was a university student, but I vaguely thought that I wanted to create a work that combined music and visuals, and that was the beginning. For people of my generation, Warp Records and Ninja Tune (both club music record labels) were in their heyday, and after seeing the visuals of people like Chris Cunningham (a British filmmaker), I thought I wanted to create visuals like that to match the music, and that's what got me started in video production."

At the time, I was studying chemistry at university, but I became fascinated by the world of music and film, so I attended animation school and even studied abroad in London. Then, in 2015, I met one of the members of my current video team, and I've been based in Tokyo ever since."

—But even if you decided to pursue a career as a creator, things probably didn't go as planned from the start, right?

"That's right. At first, I mainly focused on music production, or rather, as a trackmaker, and added videos to it, but video production was only a secondary aspect. However, as I continued creating works, I had various encounters, and those encounters led me to start taking photographs. Furthermore, I wanted to do video in addition to my music activities, so I took action to learn various things, and it gradually took shape. As for photography, I was self-taught at first, but because of my work at the time, there were many people around me who were taking photographs, so I learned by asking them various questions."


—You moved to Tokyo in 2015, but back then, the job of a movie director wasn't very well known to the public, was it?

"Back then, it felt like there were very few drones. I didn't know anyone using one. But around that time, I started talking with the person I'm now working with on a team about seriously pursuing photography and videography. He and I both had a background in music, so we had similar sensibilities. Then, one day, the 'Mavic Pro,' a device that could take professional-quality photos and videos, was released, so we decided to buy it and started aerial photography."

—After that, you started using drones and became completely captivated by the allure of aerial photography.


"I'm just an average person, but I developed a strong desire to capture things from a perspective that no one has ever seen before. Drones make that possible, don't they? Those kinds of perspectives aren't that difficult now, but back then there were absolutely no means to do so. At that time, there was a trend of photographers standing on rooftops to take pictures, or climbing to high places themselves to take photos, all focused on how to capture perspectives that had never been seen before."

—When you're shooting, is there a difference in your feelings when you're shooting video versus still photography?

"I feel more motivated to take photos, but the sense of accomplishment when a project is finished is greater with video. Compared to still photography, video projects are often produced by a team. Also, for me, photography is more of an extension of my hobby, while video is my job."