Week 1

For my advanced portfolio, I chose music production, since I’m very interested in the entertainment industry and music production; especially, K-POP.  Their music, fashion, style and visuals are very inspiring, and the beautiful mise-en-scene and designs give me lots of ideas for my artworks.

I started by watching some music videos and tried to identify which genre and style of music video inspire me. At first, I wanted to use an electronic music or a music with strong beat, so that I can use lots of conventions, to look it professional. I was thinking of an experimental and arty video with surreal visuals, that is cut to the beat. I thought it will be easier to achieve the high production value. However, I realised I’m not very passionate for those kinds of videos.

So, I returned to what I like and enjoy and started to watch the music videos of my favourite artists: Sekai no owari, BTS, MONSTA X and other K-POP artists. As I was watching, I was very interested for the high-quality props and setting of the video, rather than crazy special effects, which lead me to think of making a set for my music video. As a drama student, who design the costumes and set, I thought it will be a way to utilise my art skills.

One of the music video that really inspired me was ‘Hey Ho’ ,‘炎と森のカーニバル’ by SEKAI NO OWARI, the Japanese band I love, and ‘Nap of a Star’ by TXT, the K-POP boy band. Both of their music videos are fantastical and have lots of connotations of fairy tale. They’re quite theatrical in some extent; in SEKAI NO OWAR’s music videos, it takes place in an imaginative background and the actors and the band themselves often wear animal masks.

For ‘Nap of a Star’ music video, it’s inspired by George Melies’s ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’, which is regarded as the first special effect video. It’s a quite unconventional K-POP music video, with no performance footage and used the elements of theatre (setting) and animation (stop motion).

Another common feature is that their music is lyrical and the lyrics are the base of the narrative of the video. For example, there’s a part ‘ Memories of childhood dancing in the sky Even if it’s fading away now I wish we would stay in my dreams clearly’, and the video starts with children observing the star with a telescope and the automatic star, which represents their dreams/memories of childhood turns off and when they got to meet each other again, the star turns on; this metaphorically shows the narrative of the lyric of the song.

As an A level drama student, I will be participating for the school production as a set/costume designer. I came up with an idea of using the cast and the set of the production, and asked my drama teacher straight away, and I got a permission to use it. I suggested to use my footages for the music video make a promotional video for the production.

Our school production is ‘Into the Woods’, which is based in the forest and features various fairy tales. So, I will build a dreamy and fantastical set with trees, and the music video will can have a narrative; it could be very simple, for example, the characters (cast of the production) can play hide-and-seek. I wanted to use a music that has a meaningful lyric, so that I can make an interpretative music video. I selected a song that matches the concept of our school production, which is ‘Mikrokosmos’ by BTS.

To avoid any copyright claims from YouTube, I uploaded the song on YouTube as a test, and it wasn’t blocked.

For the digipak, again, I will use my art skills and draw an illustration or photoshop on top of the footage of the music video. To maintain the concept of ‘fairy tale’, I could do a pen illustration like an old children’s book.

The website’s menu will be consist of home, profile of the members (with their pictures), discography, schedule, tour and merch. There’ll be a logo of the band, links for social media and listen on the main page of the website.

Proposal

For my advanced portfolio, I want to do a music production; the music will be ‘Mikrokosmos’ by BTS, which is a K-POP boy band. As the song’s lyric is quite philosophical, I will make an interpretative music video that uses the narrative of the song. Conventionally, K-POP music videos have beautiful mise-en-scene, with high production value. I’m also a drama student who’s participating for school production ‘Into the Woods’, as a set/costume designer, therefore, I’m going to utilize my art skills and use the setting and the cast of the production for my music video. I’ll focus on the visual, the concept and the narrative of the video, since they are conventional for a K-POP music video. The set will be quite imaginative and fantastical- the whole concept of the music video is ‘theatre/fairy tale’. For the digipak, again, I will use my art skills and draw an illustration or photoshop on top of the footage of the music video. To maintain the concept of ‘fairy tale’, I could do a pen illustration like an old children book. I’ll use WiX for the website and the menu will be consist of home, profile of the members (with their pictures), discography, schedule, tour and merch. There’ll be a logo of the band, links for social media and listen on the main page of the website.

Music Video: interpretative/narrative

-Music: ‘Mikrokosmos’- BTS

-Genre: K-POP

-Cast: school production ‘Into the Woods’ cast

Equiptment:

-camera (Sony mirrorless a5100), reflector, production set

Research:

– target audience (K-POP fandom)

– K-POP

– music video style/director: e.g. Michel Gondry

– fairy tale book/children book – musician/band websites

Week 2

My idea of the concept of ‘fairytale’, scene led music video became clear after the analysis of SEKAI NO OWARI’s ‘Hey Ho’ music video. As they are inspired and used an intertextual reference of ‘Town Musicians of Bremen’, I came up with an idea of having an intertextual reference of fairytales- our school production ‘Into the Woods’ involves lots of traditional fairytale characters like Cinderella, the witch, Little Red Ridding Hood etc. I could relate the characters with the narrative of the lyrics.

Also, the fantastical sets of SEKAI NO OWARI’s music video inspired me to make a scenery focused music video with a style of ‘studio performance’.

Week 3

After watching and analysing f(x)’s ‘Pink Tape’, The 2nd Album Art Film. I found an interesting technique, which is using a projector. This technique creates a surreal image, which matches with my concept of fairytale.

Also, this video doesn’t have an narrative, it’s suggestive with some footages of the members of the band. This allowed me to have a thought of a suggestive, surreal music video. I could still use some intertextual references from ‘Into the Woods’, however, without an exact, clear narrative. The mysterious narrative will create an enigma, which attracts active audience. Nowadays, audience are more active, than passive and they tries to find and identify the meaning behind the media product. Especially, K-POP audience is very active, and analysing the narrative and meanings of the music videos is a common culture-there’s even some fan accounts on YouTube that analyse music videos, with lots of background research.

Week 4

I started to build the set for the music video. I made a small scale model of a tree, before I make the actual one.

Week 5

I changed my music for the music video- I tried to write a shot list for the music video and construct a narrative. However, it was hard to think of a narrative that is long enough to run all the way through the whole song. So, I came up with the idea of using intertextual reference. I thought of the song ‘Magic Shop’, by BTS- this song has a reference of a book, ‘Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart’.

Week 6-10

I finished making the set for the music video and all the props/costumes and filming equipments were ready to start filming.

I sent an email to the whole cast of the school production, and selected some cast for the music video. I gave out consent form to fill out, as most of them were under 18 and to upload the video on YouTube, I need their parent’s permission.

I did some experiment with a green screen that I created to use it for the music video. The music video will be about fairy tale characters having a journey to another world. Also, I did a practise shoot for my digipak and used the image to do the illustration for it.

I scanned my illustration and started to edit it on the photoshop.

Week 11-12

I made a shot list and story board for the music video and booked the filing location (drama room) and made a schedule for the crew and the cast.

Week 13

I started filming in the drama room and struggled to use the gimbal. However, I practised holding it and how to control it during my free time, which resulted as some good quality footages.

I also took some pictures for the booklet of the digipak- as one of the conventions of K-POP is to have a photo book in the album.

Week 14

After taking some footages of the forest setting, I thought I need more footages in different location as it could look tedious, which will not interest the audience. Also, I wasn’t very satisfied with my footages. So, I started filming with a projector and green screen and started to practise After Effects. I watched some tutorials and try to apply various effects on my footages.