By the restless efforts and dedication over the past 4 years, BLACKPINK has now grown
to the brightest stardom of the world. They’re now not only recognized for the badass music
but also for the well-invested music videos. Ever since day one, BLACKPINK has never failed
to impress viewers with high-quality and monumental scenes. That’s why it’s nothing new to
see the view-counting tools on Youtube literally went out of order every time BLACKPINK released
a new MV.
Recently, the topic of why BLACKPINK’s MVs always receive so much love and anticipation
suddenly went viral on K-net. Of all the opinions, the one that got the most likes said that
since YG’s production team has always tried to limit the use of CGI and enhance the use
of real background, that’s what makes fans satisfied with a real visual party.
Seo Hyun Seung, the director that has participated in producing most of BLACKPINK’s MVs, believed
that such an approach would generate the maximum attractiveness for the MVs. To prove how spectacular
the sets used in the MVs are, a netizen had collected all the photos of some settings
and instruments used in some scenes that just lasted for a few seconds. From what she posted,
it’s clear that all the surreal settings that many have thought to be made out of CGI
were actually manually constructed, despite being costlier.
For example, in the Ddu-du Ddu-du MV, YG decided to build a spectacular, powerful platform
just to have them on screen for some seconds. To give out the powerful vibe, the platform
was made of a special material that mimics the texture of cement, but it still had to
be tough enough to safely carry the girls at a height of 2 meters from the ground, so
it was for sure very expensive to build.
And, you remember the chessboard and bling-bling tank of Jennie? They were also what exists
in real life instead of just some computer generated images.
Firstly, for the chessboard scene, of course YG could just build that jet black stairs
for Jennie and let technologies take on the rest. Yet, since they want to give out the
most authentic vibe possible, and also maybe since they want to “burn money”, the company
decided to build everything from scratch. Moreover, if you look closely, you will see
that the chess pieces were made with high sophistication. Not only were the details
carefully crafted, but the material was also chosen to mimic that of real pieces. And look
at that chessboard! There is no way it only costs a penny or two because the surface looks
expensively shiny.
For the bling-bling tank scene, the investment was brought to another level because this
tank not only required a huge budget but also tons of manual work. To build such a piece
of art, YG needed to create a safe, solid frame first to carry Jennie. Since she was
quite slim and light, which meant that the instrument wouldn’t take too many materials
to build, it still consumed tons of money because this tank needed to function as well
with the help of real engineers. If you watch the MV, you must have seen how smoothly the
tank operated, from the way the wheels roll and the turret rotate back and forth. As if
building such a realistic tank was not impressive enough, YG took a step further to turn it
into a moving disco ball. Since such a thing could hardly be done by machines, the production
team must have spent hours to glue each of those blings on the tank’s surface.
Ending the MV, BLACKPINK not only impressed people when having a powerful dance-break
but also with the glorious settings. Since the girls didn’t have any interaction with
the background, literally, everyone believed that it was CGI. However, since YG’s hobby
is to send out that authentic vibe in every single MV, they again opted to actually construct
this colorful, sophisticated entrance.
Coming to the Kill This Love MV, literally, all jaws dropped when seeing the love trap
was actually built in real life.
From this point of view, it’s clear that the scale of this set was really no joke.
The love trap we see here was not only massive but also made with high precision. It’s
certain that the team must have put in so much effort, because to move such a huge instrument
around the studio and to easily dispose of it after the MV, they needed to look for light
enough materials like polymer or foam. However, since traps are often made of irons, which
create sharpness, the team then had to make such a light-weight material like foam look
sharp too. Another impressive thing about this set was the dusty, rocky ground. To have
such a realistic look indoor, lots of money and labor were poured into just building the
ground. In fact, though barely anyone would pay attention to that bottom part, because
of course, they were busy admiring the girls’ visuals, but still, YG is a perfectionist
and always wanted to give out the best possible product.
The second-most-impressive scene in this MV was when the entrance was blown up right behind
BLACKPINK.
Though the background is often recorded multiple times because of spontaneous errors, the fact
that this scene was related to the destruction of instruments and YG still decided to conduct
it had a huge implication about their perfectionism. Not just blowing up the entrance, YG also
built a huge statue of a head just to lay it on the ground. Never accepting the half-way
type of work, YG invested in everything to help them best convey the message. Many fans
agree that YG has made everything as sophisticated as in a Hollywood movie.
As the meaning of “Kill This Love” was about the courage to end what hurts you when
the lyrics went “Let’s kill this love,” YG blew up the entrance to portray the disposing
of a toxic relationship. Instead of using CGI to both reduce cost and ensure the safety
of BLACKPINK, YG opted for the other choice for the sake of expressing the authenticity
of each scene. It’s not enough to say that YG only invested lots of money in the MVs
because in fact, the company also invested tons of labor, time, and took on lots of risks
to lay out the perfect music products.
Another setting that converged all of these investments was the opening scene of Jennie.
For the dreamy, light-dim background, the production team had to use a super high-quality
projector to mimic the real sky instead of using a green screen for that. For the pair
of yin and yang swans, those smooth, realistic feathers are crafted detailedly. Plus, to
convey the message that love has made Jennie fall down from heaven, she had to truly hang
herself up high instead of using CGI to complete the scene. Again, YG proves they only take
the hardest options to create the best results.
All the later MVs of BLACKPINK like How You Like That and Ice Cream were also heavily
invested by YG. For example, this winter set has absolutely nothing to do with CGI, everything
was real, even the movement of those mechanics behind.
The same effort was also poured to the Ice Cream MV. The production team literally created
a whole neighborhood for BLACKPINK. Not only everything is real, you can also see YG really
paid attention to small details. Look at those ice-cream shaped windows!
Not just having only houses, the surroundings were also built with high sophistication.
There were well-cared lawns, flower gardens, pathways and the sky with clouds.
So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this video, since BLACKPINK’s MVs were often
directed by Seo Hyun Seung, the director of many other creative MVs like “Fantastic
Baby”, “I Am The Best”, the fact that there are real constructed sets and instruments
in the girls’ MVs is no longer something new to fans. Yet, since BLACKPINK always leveled
up their MV in each comeback, no one has ever gotten bored of watching and discussing.
That’s the end of this video. Oh, and if you know where those instruments were brought
after everything is wrapped, please comment down below to let us know. Do you think YG
should build a museum and put all the instruments in there and then have fans coming to visit?
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this video to help motivate us to
create more great content. Thank you for watching!