Cover Video: Reflexive Essay
Initially, I was familiar with the complications of making a K-pop music video but this project taught me some valuable lessons; despite covering a song with no choreography. In this essay I will argue that the hardest part about making this video was coordinating every aspect together in a way that it would result in an overall quality project.
For the project, our group decided to cover “Gold” by offonoff. As the director, I was in charge of editing and filming the music video. Throughout the process I found myself struggling with the organization of different segments and had trouble filming in a way that was exactly like the original music video. Since the original video was shot in three frames, it was quite challenging to do the same without making any mistakes without having to start over. Also, the main focus of the video was following the actors who were riding a bike. To do that, I had to shoot the plot from a moving car, making it extremely difficult to stabilize the camera and yielding to a few shaky shots.
This further led us to think about the budget that is set for producing these high quality videos. While we used a decent camera and had a car to follow the bikers with, the overall quality of the video would have been incomparably better if we had a few accessories such as a stabilizer, or even a more professional and better quality camera.
While editing the video was not as challenging as filming, I still learned specific valuable techniques such as making a GIF logo. More specifically I tried my absolute hardest to get the saturation and colors of the video to be as similar as possible to the original video; but again, I found myself being limited to a few tools and my lack of professional experience.
Overall, this project pushed every member of the group to cooperate with others, and it taught me useful techniques, that I would not have been able to learn with any other project.
-Yalda
Cover Video Reflection Essay
I have never quite understood why people never stop raving about music videos in K-pop. But after my experience of covering a video, I have come to understand how K-pop videos have rightfully earned all the praise around the globe through their high production value as well as high production standards.
We aimed to recreate the “GOLD” music video as close to the original as possible. From the costume, to the filming setting, and even the passers-by in the video, we tried to match everything to the original. The original video looked fairly simple, but it was not until our shooting did we realize how hard it was to get the subtle details right. Sometimes a car would interrupt the shot, and we would have to do everything over again, since most of the video was filmed in one take. After the shoot, I was thoroughly impressed by the production quality of the seemingly simple “GOLD” video. From the lighting, to the smooth camera work, every nuance makes a difference. The unique aesthetic experience justifies K-pop videos’ high production value.
For the post-production part, I was in charge of the editing of the singing cover audio, which was totally new for me. I went through tutorials online on sound mixing and equalizing and tried my best to tune the cover audio as close to the original as possible. Not only did I gain a new skill through the experience, I also came to an understanding that it really takes professionals to achieve such a high quality of a song. This justifies the high production value of K-pop, which in turn explains why K-pop music videos are deserving of their wide popularity.
After this experience, my main takeaway was that with such high production value and huge effort put into K-pop music videos, they are certainly well-deserved of their fame. I have also learnt to appreciate the cover artists online, who spend the time to make quality covers to pay homage to the artists. Most of all, I have learnt to appreciate the importance of team coordination, where different people work on what they are best at to create synergy. I am glad that I took on this challenge and I am very grateful for the experience.
-Hallie
cover Video Reflection Essay
When I heard about covering this MV, I was excited because I always listened and watched k-pop. But I did not know how much effort producers put on each MV. So this was a great opportunity to experience of producing. The MV “Gold” had reasonable length for us to prepare, and I really liked the mood of this MV. Because the member of Offonoff in on the bicycle. He is riding around villages, and there are pretty houses on the film. For me, it seemed so peaceful and relaxed. Compare to other groups, we did not have to practice dancing, or the MV itself did not contain such a huge impact. Thus, we focused on the quality of the MV. We all agreed to film it exactly same as the original MV.
Each member prepared stuffs such as bicycle, cars, camera and etc. We set the filming day on sunny day to match the nice weather. Although it was such a cold day, we met on a quiet but pretty place near Langara College. We filmed approximately 3 hours on this harsh weather. If our video and original one did not match each other, we started from the beginning. Unfortunately. I was driving the whole time, so I could not show up on our video. And, I felt so sorry to my members because they were shivering outside to film while I was driving in a comfortable car. After finished the filming, I learned that filming requires a lot of effort to make it perfect.
On the following weekend, our male members known as F5 met in order to record our voices. I was pleased by seeing that these guys who do not know how to speak Korean were practicing Korean lyrics so hard. Thus, I did my best to help those guys to fix pronunciation, and I was glad that I am Korean. Overall, this project made our members close to each other, and I was happy that I am part of this awesome group.
-Pete
Cover Video Reflection Essay
Our group decided to cover "Gold" by Korean hip-hop duo offonoff. Since there was no dance choreography to go with the song, we decided to cover the song and replicate the music video. A challenge we encountered in this process was with regards to finding a suitable location for filming. This proved to be a challenge because of the recent snowfall that took place; we had to ensure that our filming area was properly shoveled in addition to fulfilling aesthetic requirements which approximated those found in the music video. In addition to finding a suitable time for all group members, weather reports forecasted the possibility of further snowfall; the days in which we could film outdoors were further limited. This obstacle in particular provided a better perspective on the challenges that Korean performers and idols might encounter, considering that many of them juggle music video shootings, modeling, and promotional shoots within limited time frames. As well, our struggle with weather conditions provided me with a better perspective on the struggles that producers and artists, especially those who are independent or up-and-coming, might have to go through. Specifically, in the case of smaller groups and artists, many do not have the leverage to demand or request specific days for recording or demand re-scheduling. As well, they may not have the same access to resources as larger groups, such as made-to-order backdrops and recording venues.
Further expanding on the issue of recording venues, a challenge we encountered was dealing with incoming traffic; although we were filming in a quiet residential neighbourhood, there were instances where we had to yield for cars passing by. As a result of these outside factors, we were forced to re-take certain scenes. Larger groups and performers may be permitted to block off or reserve certain areas for recording due to their influence, but smaller artists may not necessarily have the same privileges.
Finally, the sound recording process presented what I would describe as an unexpected challenge. Having little to no experience speaking Korean, I found it difficult to properly pronounce certain words, despite being provided with Romanized lyrics. During this process, I feel that I have a more nuanced perspective on the challenges that non-Korean K-pop performers such as Amber of f(x) might encounter; in addition to learning a whole new language, many of these artists must also develop the technical skills that come with rapping in said language. As well, this experience made me more understanding of the mispronunciations of English words that sometimes appear in Korean pop and hip-hop songs; similar to our group’s limited experience with the Korean language, many of these performers lack extensive experience with speaking and writing in English.
-Chris
Cover Video Reflection Essay
Through the collaborative effort with our group to make a cover video of ‘Gold’ by Offonoff, I deepened my understanding of video production process, discovered the joy of performing and creating a cover as a group, and most importantly learned the merit of teamwork. I argue that one of the most important aspects of producing quality work is the clear understanding of each member’s role in executing the project.
Initially we decided to cover ‘이밤의끝을잡고’ by Solid. However, after receiving feedback from Dr.Saeji on our song choices, we thought more about our focus. Our group has diverse background and different level of exposure to K-Pop so even choosing an artist/song was not a simple decision. Eventually we decided to cover a rap song ‘Gold’ which frankly I wasn't too happy with at first.
I thought making this cover would be a difficult process due to our group’s varying opinions. However, once we had a clear understanding of our tasks and parts, things started to flow.
Recording the video/audio and coordinating the settings and assigning the roles of each member required extensive and thorough planning. We focused on creating a cover video that’s exactly like the original. The original video was relatively simple and featured only one main actor. However, we were group of seven people, so I divided the parts into three main segments. By doing this, every member was able to contribute to the video in various ways. We had a clear division of our roles in filming, editing, acting, rapping/singing, planning, and providing equipment. In recording audio process, non-Korean speakers of our group covered most of the verses. Rapping with accurate pronunciation was much more difficult than singing so we all worked and helped each other on improving pronunciation.
Never have I ever thought of doing a cover video and Korean hip-hop/rap music certainly wasn’t my interest. However, this project was rewarding as much as it was challenging. It taught me that collaborating with people from diverse background, interests and ideas work well once each of us can bring and contribute their unique skills and talents.
-Alex
Cover Video Reflection Essay
Participating in filming a Korean popular music video has offered me a deeper and more insightful understanding to acknowledge the K-pop idols' hard works behind their production scenes. I was mostly learnt these facts through facing the set-up related issues and imitating the main character's gestures in the video.
The music video is originally done by two non-stop shots. For my part, I basically had to finish the whole shooting in one cut. It was quite difficult for us to make sure that we have captured nearly every detail from the original video and to perform it without making any mistakes, in order to produce a mimic version. My role is the main singer, who rides a bike and poses gestures that would project a figure with a sense of hip-pop culture for the audience. We chose a residential area to shoot according to the original video’s background set-up. The roads were slippery and still partially covered by snow. To present the original singer’s outfit, I only worn a yellow hoodie and ripped jeans under the freezing cold, which hurt my hands when it was coldly windy to ride a bike. The fact of the background setup and weather condition reveals that the K-pop Idols have to encounter various kinds of obstacles and face them behind the scenes.
Also, It was dangerous to ride the bike on the slippery roads and sometimes I have to let my hands go for posing gestures. I had to act that I was enjoying it as it is about freedom with a style of hip-pop. On the other hand, I still had to remember the Korean lyrics in my head as a non-Korean and lip-sync it. It was tough to perform all these duties, with knowing mistakes was not allowed. This process indicates that much effort and hardship K-pop idols have to put in and encounter when they film a music video. Those perfect K-pop music videos are pleasant to watch and normally four minutes long, while it might take up to few weeks or longer for them to produce and reach the perfection they want.
To conclude, dealing with the filming difficulties and imitation of K-pop idols help understand better of the effort behind producing arts for the K-pop artists.
-ERIC
cover Video Reflection Essay
As someone who is not very familiar with K-pop, I felt kind of stressed about this project. In the beginning, this pressure made me question that in what ways I could do something to contribute to our project. Throughout the process and by our efforts, we successfully managed to cover the song “Gold” by offonoff. In this essay, I am going to argue that such a group project might not be as difficult as we thought initially, as long as we divide the work to match each member’s strength and specialty, so that we can all maximize our contribution to the project.
Filming the MV was our first challenging task, and probably the most difficult one as well. We found it hard to perfectly imitate all the details in the original version, plus we did not have those professional equipments that they had. Under such circumstances, all we could do was to try again and again in order to get the best shot in the end. Fortunately, we had several very dedicated actors and a thorough director to make it happen.
Recording the singing part was a fun task, I could not grasp the Korean pronunciation when I listened to the song alone before the sound recording. With the help of our two Korean groupmates, I improved my Korean pronunciation a lot within a short amount of time. This process also made me realize the difficulty of singing Hip-Hop songs, it is absolutely not just fast reading some lyrics with a rhythm. There are many melodic parts that change a bit in each verse, which is not easy to memorize and sing it accurately. It was my first time singsing a Hip-Hop song and a Korean song.
It was a fun challenge to cover this song and its MV, and we collaborated well to produce this cover “Gold”. Learning more Korean and knowing more about Hip-Hop is what I gained the most from this valuable experience.
- Terrence