BABY KING

let it ring
DIRECTOR
NICHOLAS LAM
GAME OVER
You’ve found the right director. I’ve followed K-pop since the days of H.O.T., Shinhwa and Big Bang. I know the aesthetic as well as any hardcore
EXO-L or ARMY stan. I even directed Monsta X’s first video on U.S. soil the first time they stepped foot here last year.

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STYLE
We’re presenting Baby King to the world – his domain, what he’s about. All the
rules, norms and expectations of what a male popstar is – we’ll flip them upside
down and suckerpunch through em. This is what K-pop has mastered. They
know that real men can be both tough and sensitive. Delicate yet masculine.
Loud as fuck but also genuinely introspective. It’s about serving face and being
deadly. We’ll keep jumping between an aggressive graffiti aesthetic to one
that’s pastel and ethereal – there are no rights or wrongs, there is only the
kingdom of Baby King.

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You even said it: outrageous…shocking…something never
before done. The key tenet of a K-pop performance video is to
keep switching up the sets as the track goes on – it’s a never-
ending candy train for the brain. And that’s what we’ll be doing.
Western audiences will say, “what the fuck?” but follow it up
with, “holy shit I’m into this!”

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Buckle up. Here we go.

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Inspired by these images…

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1ST VERSE
…but with the kind of attitude seen here, we open big and provocative right out the gate. I love the idea of seeing Reiley on a huge throne of
flowers. Fur on the ground and draped all over the place, interspersed with black and gold metal. Technicolor ferns. Dancers frozen in black all
around him. As the track begins, he rises and the dancers come to life, forming gracefully around him.

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As the verse progresses, Reiley appears in a colorful tagged and graffiti’d hallway with a bunch of old rotary phones attached to the wall. He walks
over to pick one up, performing into it while another Reiley appears to answer the next phone. Then another Reiley, then another, all while the
camera keeps tracking backwards down the long hallway.

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PRE-CHORUS
Back in the “throne room,” Reiley starts dancing with his crew, the camera punching in and out, snapping side-to-side in perfect lockstep with the
choreo. We’ll also catch moments of a solo performance here too.

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1ST CHORUS
In a room filled with TV screens, we jump to Reiley’s master choreo scene with full backup
dancer squad. Each TV screen flashes different images that keep changing – words,
pictures, maps, anything goes! (TV’s are greenscreens during filming) This is where we
can plant a ton of easter eggs.

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this master choreo number will seamlessly intercut mid-move
with the same choreo from the “throne room.”

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2ND VERSE
Reiley performs walking down a bright flight of stairs that intersect with others within a multi-leveled set. Suddenly, another Reiley appears
elsewhere, sitting down and performing. Then another appears, jumping off. Then another, and another, all performing with different emotions and
body language as we zoom out to reveal all the “personalities” of Reiley.

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PRE-CHORUS
Up-close beauty shots of Reiley against a white void, with pink petals cascading down sensually around him. It’s androgynous and it’s damn
gorgeous — seductive, provocative yet tender.

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a dramatic, high-speed shot of a pink flower blooming
suddenly launches us into—

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2ND CHORUS
Our Pink World. It’s the same set as the stairs/platforms earlier, but transformed into a glowing, vibrant pink and flooded by smoke hovering at
ground level. The smoke pulses in crazy colors. Another master choreo sequence drops, with all the dancers wearing white and Reiley in pink and
gold. This scene intercuts seamlessly with the same choreo from earlier setups while the camera flies around in ridiculously cool ways.

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BRIDGE
Blasted into the opposite spectrum, Reiley and his crew are hanging in a back alley — same area-ish as the hallway — but is now violent with
blacklight as they’re spray graffiti. Playing to his badass side, Reiley performs loose and irreverent, his dancers hyping up around him like this:
https://youtu.be/Dab4EENTW5I?t=205.

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CHORUS REPRISE
Reiley now leads his dancers in a final, jaw-dropping master choreo scene in the alley that layers and builds effortlessly with every other choreo
scene from the video.

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as the track ends, REILEY grins coyly at us BACK in
the GRAFFITI hallway, then turns and STRUTS away.

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THE MOVES
The visual energy of this piece rides or dies on the choreo. So needless to say, we’ll cast an amazing team of young male dancers and arm Reiley
with one of the best choreographers in the business. Maybe someone from The Bloc Agency.

We’re also going to use a Bolt Arm (robotic high-speed articulating arm) for the choreo scenes, allowing us to edit the illusion of seamlessly jumping
into different locations while the exact framing and beat of the choreo remains tack sharp. The Bolt Arm also gives us motion control, which enables
us to shoot Reiley multiple times and composite him into the same moving shot, creating clones of him everywhere.

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CHOREO
Private link: https://vimeo.com/441462925
Password: baby

Check out this 30-sec mood film I cut to “Let It Ring” as a demo of what K-pop cinematography and editing is all about – how it works in lockstep
with the choreo: seamless cuts mid-dance to a sudden new location without breaking the beat. Staying glued to Reiley – his movement motivating
the camera to glide with him and in doing so, revealing new dancers sliding into frame. Using the Bolt Arm to create impossibly fast camera moves
to match the big dance bits. Keeping it fresh by slamming into different aspect ratios. Manipulating footage speed and fast cuts.

It’s also an example of how I’ll juxtapose big group choreo scenes with solo setups of Reiley. It’s about kicking the aesthetic pendulum from one
end to the other – we go from rebellious and edgy to angelic and soft, then back again. Diving between an aggressively bold art direction to
suddenly one of pastels and florals will delight the senses and show the world that Baby King subscribes to no labels – he is who he is,

unapologetically.

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COLOR PALETTE
Baby blues, powder pinks, dustings of peach, lilac and
gold are colors that inform our pastel vocabulary.
Contrasting this will be saturated primary and
secondary neons that combine with backlight to
create our aggressive vocabulary. We’ll of course also
dip into the shades in between.

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REILEY’S LOOK
His wardrobe is just as important as the locations
themselves. The clothes make the man, the sets make
the kingdom. We won’t saddle Reiley with any stylist
less than the best. Two that I really love:

Catherine Hahn
https://www.catherinemhahn.com

Morgan Pinney (it’s worth noting she styles for Kris Wu)
http://www.morganpinney.com

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I’m totally into this. I know K-pop, I know what Reiley is going for,
and I’d be thrilled to create something beautiful and badass
together.

THANK YOU
- Nick
www.nicholaslam.com
REF VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o45hUReYpA — drop-dead stunning example of how a beautiful male can toe
the line between androgyny and utter badass, with visuals that leap from aggressive/edgy to sensual/provocative.
The setups and costumes keep changing, making this the perfect example of a video that demands repeat
viewings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foHejoV20bc — the video I directed for Monsta X. We had the same idea – to hit
a new location for every verse or chorus – though ours will be way more colorful and purely art/set design driven.

https://vimeo.com/371560705 — for the changing up of aspect ratios, the jumping between more natural and softer
lighting to deep and saturated colors, and I love how his different outfits and hairstyles make him look so different!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFlceOv8LMU — digging all the beautiful “hero” moments aka the soft, tender
and sensual solo shots of members performing. Also a great juxtaposition of deep colors and floral pastels.

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