With the digital revolution and the advancement in smartphones today, people without expensive equipment and expert knowledge can become creative artist. This has taken hold particularly in the field of photography with Instagram and other social platforms where we see many actively working as professional photographers. In contrast, videography requires more expert knowledge and skills in shoot and edit which makes it more challenging for people to take on the art form.

With the belief of “infinite ability to imagine for all,” Adobe supports creators with software to create images, edit videos, and produce designs. To this end, they have developed and are promoting the video app, Premiere Rush, which is a great way for anyone to easily edit video on their smartphones.

“MUSIC VIDEO FOR ALL” is a project to liberate people’s creativity where Adobe, creator of the video editing software, Premiere, has teamed up with a charismatic hip-hop star in Japan, KOHH.

The data for the new single and over 50 types of video images shot for KOHH’s music video were made available for free to anyone, regardless of experience or skill, with a smartphone to create their own version of the music video, using the free Adobe editing app. It was a first and a bold concept where a top artist would offer the music and video image data without charge.

The work they create can be uploaded on to their own SNS accounts as their directorial work, including YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. The best work became the official music video for the song, making this an opportunity for new creators to step into the limelight.

The challenges to realize the mission to offer video production opportunity for all were many. For one, in order to shoot quality video images, one would need a certain level of skill and experience. Then, there were the copyright issues in releasing professionally-shot video images for the general public to edit freely for their work.

In addition, what puts many people off from creating video work is the need to come up with a theme and story which is the reason why the video creative population is far limited than photography. We believed that removing these challenges by offering ‘quality video images’ and the ‘theme’ will entice people to embrace this opportunity to create their own video work.

A professional director shot over 50 different types of video images with varying settings, including KOHH himself lip-synching to the music. This also included images shot on a greenback for further composite possibilities. All users have to do is to download the video images and the Adobe edit app for free to start creating a music video right on their smartphones without any specialist knowledge.

They were also provided with tutorial videos where professional directors explained various editing techniques such as fixed position, transition, color grading, etc. They can also add video images they shot themselves and share the finished work as their own on YouTube and other SNS platforms. The fans were given free reigns to create as they saw fit, without any official music video to live up to. It was an entirely new music video experience where the artist and the music fans collaborated.

The news of a top artist offering his new single data and the music video for free for anyone to create a video work sent shock waves across the Japanese music scene, winning over ¥63,955,000 of earned media with articles in all major music media.

Many took part to upload their work on SNS. In the end, over 315 full 3-minute music videos were uploaded onto YouTube which resulted in a total of 4,681,000 impressions. Despite working off of the same music, each video had their unique expression, truly embodying the concept, “EVERYONE, CREATOR.” The edit app download soared, successfully opening up the path for many new video artists.