This time, we spoke to Yamashita Makoto, who is involved in xAlice's PV production.

――Please introduce yourself.

I'm Yamashita Makoto.
I call myself a multi-aho (idiot) creator.
I mainly do whatever I can, such as video, pixel art, performance.
Recently, I have been working as an MC for a program called "Tsu-creators Atelier".

――What are some of your favorite pieces you have created so far?

• POP TEAM EPIC SP Pop team 8bit

This work fully utilizes what I learned from a work I produced when I was in college called "DOT BIT BEAT". It is one of my favorite works that I still look back on. I don't know how I didn't get angry with it from all sides.

• MOS Burger Web CM　Tom Brown "Super Combination Manzai"

This is one of those films that I still wonder how they allowed me to do it. It's an advertising video, this one. I brought the so-called "how to make sound MAD" to an advertisement. I had hoped to make a sound MAD ad someday, well, I never thought it would really come true......

• MOTHER/ - POLLYANNA (I BELIEVE IN YOU) / Inugami Korone(cover)

This is a music video of Korone Inugami's cover of one of MOTHER's most popular songs. It is the most memorable work I have produced recently, and I find myself watching it over and over again...... I have known Ness from Smash Bros. since I was in elementary school, but I never thought I would be the one to move him not with a controller but on the screen....

――Why did you choose to become an animated filmmaker? What do you think is the attraction of animation?

To be honest, it just happened lol.

I directed a dot picture video titled "DOT BIT BEAT" for a group project at art school. I entered that work into various competitions as instructed by the professor, and thankfully, I won several prizes. One of them was a student CG contest, and I was contacted by President Mizusaki of Kamikaze Animation, who was a judge at the time, who asked me if I would be interested in working on a dot-picture project. I was contacted by President Mizusaki of Kamikazedouga.co.,ltd, who was a judge at the time. That job was "POP TEAM EPIC", which would go on to become my masterpiece.

In parallel with this work, I was also looking for a job to fulfill my dream of becoming a "game planner," which I aspired to be at the time. I failed in all of them. ...... After that, a classmate of mine invited me to join an advertising video company and I was able to get a job offer. Thanks to POP TEAM EPIC, which was broadcasted before I joined the company, I started getting individual jobs after joining the company. I am really grateful for that. A year and a half later, I was looking for a new job, and a job transfer agent who saw my portfolio asked me, "Would you be interested in taking on their work as an individual?" I got a few offers from job agencies who saw my portfolio and asked me if I would take their jobs as an individual...... What was my mistake there? I thought, "I'll work freelance and if it doesn't work out, I'll join a company again." It has been 5 years since then lol.

I am now thankfully involved in a wide range of visual fields, not only animation, and from that perspective, I would say that it is "the fun of metamorphosis". It is the unique motion of animation that cannot be done in live-action, and that is why it is interesting, strange, and sad. Recently, "Sewing Love," which is a student's work, seems to be full of these qualities.

――What is the most difficult thing about creating a work of art? How do you deal with it?

It's about telling people, isn't it?
Video is a comprehensive art form, so there is a great deal of work to be done, and even freelancers like myself are sometimes forced to rely on others. When you ask someone to do something for you, it is difficult to achieve a perfect match with your ideals. In such cases, how can I convey my clear vision? How far can I go in terms of what I am willing to accept? Since you are asking someone to create something, you want to respect their sensibilities, and there are times when you want to see the chemical reaction.......

For myself, I have a few rules. The first is "Does it fit the theme of the work?" When I create a work, I decide on a theme. In the case of the aforementioned "POP TEAM EPIC SP: Pop team 8-bit part," the theme was to "just put game parodies all over the place. For my recent self-produced music video titled "HOMEYA," the theme is "a cheerful music video that uses a lot of low-polygon and synthesized images from the 90s and 2000s.

Deciding on this point will help you decide when to submit a retake. Is it in line with the theme or not? This is also a good way to avoid retakes for the vague reason that "something is different.

The second is "make your vision clear." This is related to the first one, but anyway, you should make clear what you are imagining.
For example, when creating a piece of artwork, you often say, "I want to do something like that scene in that piece of artwork! However, it may be difficult to find the scene, for example, if you cannot remember the name of the work or if there is no information about it on the web. In such cases, I try my best to convey what I want to do by going to shoot the scene myself, drawing a picture in a poor way, or making a collage......
Therefore, when we turn to the directing side, we often over-prepare references. The same goes for retakes.
"Make it more pleasant like this: ......!" I will prepare more references because I definitely want to avoid retakes that say, "。Try to do with your hands what you can reproduce to some extent by yourself. I will try to communicate what I want to do by all possible means.

As a special edition, there is also the idea that a score of 60 or higher is acceptable.
This is on the condition that it is when the budget is not so tight.
I am very particular about what I do, so if I want to do something, I can retake it as much as I want. However, I really don't want to burden creators with a budget that they don't have......
And even if you think it's subtle, others may think it's wonderful! It is important to understand that if your work exceeds a certain level of quality, it is up to the viewer to decide whether it is good or bad. The point is that as long as the quality is above a certain level, the rest is up to the viewer's sensibilities to decide whether it is good or bad, so I don't put in too much of my own particulars.

――What are your future goals? What directions or themes would you like to take on in the future?

I am a guy who wants to do everything, so I hope to be able to do various things such as music production, theater, camera, computer graphics, radio personality, programming, game production, and even figure making, which will have a positive synergistic effect on the video! Video is a comprehensive art form, so it's great that I can make use of my various knowledge.
I am a person who is not a professional in one thing, either in terms of ability or personality. There are many people who are more capable than I am, and I believe that in order to beat them, I must practice to use every weapon I have and combine them to fight.

――What would you like to say to the fans of the "I am xAlice" project?

In fact, we have been involved in this project since the start-up period! We are going to make it into Animation! Merch! A stage production! We are looking forward to various developments!

――Thank you for taking the time to answer in detail, and stay tuned for more developments at xAlice!