Shinya Tsukamoto (born January 1, 1960) is a Japanese film director and actor who has twice worked with Nine Inch Nails.
Trent Reznor stated in an interview[1] that the idea for the metaphor of a person becoming a machine on the song "The Becoming" was inspired by Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Tsukamoto was also the original choice to direct the music video for "Happiness In Slavery".
Work with NIN
TOH (Top Of The Hour)
Reznor had previously contacted Tsukamoto with a request to make a music video, which due to label difficulties had never been achieved. However, Tsukamoto was approached to create a TV spot for MTV Japan, and so he was able to collaborate with Reznor on the 50 second piece.
About:
Made by Tsukamoto Shinya as the first-ever station ID for MTV Japan, this video was called "TOH (Top of the Hour)". It was used from September 1993 til August 1994.
So far, a number of famous film-makers have made the TOH in the US. This time - exclusively for MTV Japan - Nine Inch Nails, who had been asking Tsukamoto to do their promotional video, penned the music. With this familiar melody [sic] by NIN, the video almost feels like a scene from the movie Tetsuo.
The film won the Station/Network ID award at New York Festival 1994. [The copywriter fails to mention "who", but somebody] attended the ceremony and got tumultuous applause.
MTV Europe started using this TOH video in February 1994 for the opening title of the Rock Block programme.
The NIN Hotline was able to acquire the trailer in September 2010, and posted it to YouTube [2].
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
In 2009, Reznor and Tsukamoto once again were able to work together, this time with Reznor creating the theme to the third in Tsukamoto's epic cult series Tetsuo, entitled Tetsuo: The Bullet Man.