Hello guys, this is Jun Areia.
I'm an artist producer, songwriter and film maker based in Seoul, South Korea.
I've been in Korea since the Kpop boom back in 2009 and have been working in various projects
in the Kpop industry.
With Kpop Nerd, I not only review and explain what's going on in your favorite Kpop songs
but I also attempt to give you an insight on the production perspective of those works.
So, Jennieeeee….
When Blackpink's DDU-DU DDU-DU came out last summer, I was really obsessed with the second
verse of the song.
It was such a display of Jenny's rap skills and at the same time her body language and
expressions in the music video were really intriguing.
5 months later she gets her own single song and music video.
Jennie has debuted with girlgroup Blackpink under YG Entertainment back in 2016.
Blackpink was YG's attempt to slowly fadeout girlgroup 2NE1 that had already conquered
the Kpop scene for 7 years.
The expectations were really high but Blackpink surprised us by delivering releases that to
most people felt like a worthy continuation of 2NE1's legacy and at the same time they
differentiated themselves with their own unique style.
Jennie is the main rapper and a vocalist for Blackpink.
She was born in Korea in 1996 and she has spent 5 years in New Zealand when she was
younger.
It took 6 years of training under YG to get prepared for her debut in Blackpink.
Before her debut she was actually featured in various YG Entertainment's songs and
music videos like Lee Hi's Special and G-Dragon's That XX. Jennie is something between the cool
kid and a queen when it comes to BlackPink with strong line deliveries but always in
a classy way.
Many people find her sexy and more attractive than the other members but of course, those
things are always up to debate especially in a group like Black Pink that each of the
girls are top of the range idols.
It took several releases with Blackpink but finally here we have the opportunity to enjoy
her first solo release, which is conveniently titled "Solo".
In this breakup song Jennie is struggling with her current relationship.
Just the previous night she found out her lover is cheating on her and she had a really
rough time.
Then she realizes that all this time she has been pretending and lying to herself about
this relationship, when in reality she seems quite uncomfortable and not living the romantic
and intense kind of love story she wishes for.
So she decides to break up with the guy, going solo and emerging stronger and independent.
The music video is mixed up time-wise, as it starts with the result and then we are
slowly exposed to the story that caused this result.
At the intro of the music video Jennie is seen at a palace just coming back at what
it seems a very early time in the morning.
She is seen taking off a band from her wrist.
This is actually a wristband they put on you when you are going clubbing so you can freely
come and go in the club at any time.
She seems disappointed and as we will find out later this is because of what happened
at the club that she went to in the previous night.
The palace shows how she has been feeling lately, a vulnerable and lonely princess.
Somebody that she is being treated nicely but at the same time that's not enough to
satisfy her.
At the next scene, we can see her taking off an innocent looking dress revealing her badass
side.
That dress represents her past relationship and memories.
She puts that dress to the washing machine expressing that she is ready to wash off her
memories, forget and move on.
We are seeing all these memories cleaning up and flying around as soap bubbles.
Jennie decides to actually leave the dress behind as she thinks it's a thing of the
past and it's not a useful part of herself anymore.
Then we are introduced to what actually happened the previous night.
We can see Jennie at a club surrounded by people dancing and having fun and we can see
her ex-boyfriend fooling around with another girl and her finding out about it.
She obviously didn't take it very well and she going through some very strong emotions
at a back alley crying and feeling very hurt.
Then Jennie is seen on a wings outfit representing her rebirth and escape from the bad feelings.
It's the time of thinking and re-evaluating her choices to finally emerge as a strong
shinning solo.
Although all these scenes are presented as an one night story, you can see a different
wardrobe choice for each scene.
I believe this is done intentionally to show that these things in a relationship don't
necessarily happen in one night but rather a longer period of time.
The song is a trap and pop hybrid, featuring typical trap elements like rhythmic snares
and the famous 808 sub kick bass.
A sound originally made popular with the introduction of Roland's TR-808 drum machine all the way back in 1982.
The melodic flute-like sound is also typical of trap music softened down a bit to fit the pop genre.
At the same time the song is presented with a typical pop form with two verses and pre-chorures,
three hooks and a bridge.
The instrumental has a very simple soundset with no more than a few sounds playing at
the same time.
It's those kind of instrumentals though that need very precise sound design as it's
very easy to end up with single sounds that overwhelm the total mix.
It's also very tricky to create sounds soft enough for pop music and at the same time
being able to deliver a powerful song.
The vocal melody at both verses has a lot of rap elements, with really nice rhythm but
at the same time the character and attitude required for a pop song.
The whole second verse actually is exclusively in English.
During the prechorus we can hear some really nice background vocals that are answered with
high pitched well defined vocals.
At the chorus part Jennie delivers the catchy hook, extending the "lo" sound from the
word "solo" into a melodic riff.
Finally during the bridge we can hear how although the words have a nice rap-like rhythm
they are delivered melodically and with plenty of energy to lift the song and Jennie out
of the relashionship's sad feelings.
During the first verse Jennie is stuck in the typical relationship routine with her
lover asking her the same things every day, something that doesn't really touches her.
Then at the prechorus it's made clear that Jennie is not really feeling the relationship
and she is expecting much more.
Finally at the bridge just before the final hook and at the song's most energetic point,
Jennie shows us where exactly she wants herself to be.
The music video was filmed in a variety of locations including internal and external.
It was entirely filmed in London in 3 full days or… was it really?
The first location is the palace, that is used for different parts of the video.
This palace of course is in London as unless built for some tourist attraction it's very
unlikely you will find this kind of building in Korea with that large space with gardens
and an impressive pool.
It's used at the first half of the song where we can see Jennie coming back from the
club, then in her room waking up, hanging around the pool and the garden.
But we can also see this palace themed shots in three dance routines.
The first chorus where she dances alone in a large room, then during the second chorus
that she dances in front of the carousel and fireworks explode in the background.
Finally during the last chorus where she dances with a large group of back-up dancers.
I believe that this last scene with the dance team was not actually shot in London but rather
back in Korea, something that I am going to explain later.
At the beginning of the music video we can see Jennie coming back to her home wearing
a velvety blue dress and a pair of black high heels.
A wide drone shot introduces us to the foreign environment with the villa's impressive
large gate and a late 90s Aston Martin sports car.
She still has the wristbands from her clubbing the previous night which she takes off while
being obviously fed up.
Then she pets her dog.
Is this Jennie's actual dog Kai that we have seen in Blackpink's live broadcasts
and they brought him all the way to UK?
Judging by the ears and the fur it's rather unlikely.
Then we can see her on her princess bed waking up not feeling really happy, just hanging
around on the sofa with many teddy bears and finally on a chair.
Although she drinks in a tea cup, there is a flask there usually used for alcohol which
shows she is not doing really well, drinking in daytime.
Also these shots are pretty tight not showing so much of the environment but instead fitting
her from the top to the bottom of the frame almost like squeezing her and that's to
express the suffocating feelings.
In some of the shots extra uncertainty is added by the use of unstable handheld camera
movement that can aid into expressing emotional situations like this.
During these shots she changes clothes three times.
This is to show that all these situations have been her ongoing life in the past and
not just one single day.
All these clothes are warm and homey that show how Jennie is spending her time in, waiting
for something interesting to happen.
All those shots fit the lyrics perfectly where she describes her boring and disappointing
relationship.
As we get to the prechorus we can see Jennie siting on a chair inside a pool reading "Love
Stories", a book featuring 19 romantic stories from different writers.
The pool which is filled up with vibrating water, represents her inner emotions and sensitivity.
She's tearing a page from the book throwing it into the pool showing how she is tired
of all that theoretical romance and at the same time wishing something nice would happen
to her.
The next scene takes place at a garden, with Jennie siting at a throne-like chair and surrounded
by roses.
We can see the garden walls behind her trapping her into the endless but worthless romance.
The roses represent failed relationships and the big clock shows how the time has been
passing while Jennie is waiting for something great to happen.
We can also see some other chairs, some of them fallen which show a progress, how she
has rejected her past failures and tried to move on to better things.
Then she can be seen dancing around some larger pools in front of the palace in an orange
dress showing she is ready to shine and take control of her emotions.
Finally, she decides that all this is not worth it and she is going solo.
You will notice that there were no lipsync shots throughout the first part until this
moment.
This was done on purpose to make us feel like we are the 3rd party watching from far and
listening to Jennie's story, starting to feel sorry about her.
But then boom, she is preparing us for the energetic and emphatic hook by making a declaration
" I'm a shining Solo" or if you rather the more wild version "*&%@$ I'm solo".
And then she appears dancing on her own in a beautiful and well executed contemporary
dance routine, showing her beauty and strength, like telling us "I worth much more than
that, I deserve better".
This is actually a pretty challenging shot with light coming from outside through the
windows.
We can see both the detail on the exterior through the windows and the detail on her
face and the outfit.
If you were to film this shot as it is, you would either get really bright blown up windows
or really dark shadows on her and her outfit depending on how you set your exposure.
In order to make this shot possible you would need to compress the dynamic range of the
image so it fits in the camera's sensor.
Some light needs to somehow hit her from the front side in order to bring exposure closer
to the bright light that is coming from outside.
If we were to use artificial lights directly on her it would be really tricky to avoid
shadows since the space is really tight to create enough diffusion for the light.
So what they are possibility doing here is that they have some large panels set on the
walls at the left and the right side of the room.
Those panels bounce back some of the light coming from the windows or possibly some extra
lights pointing directly towards those panels, making the ratio of the light much more even
so such a shot can be achieved.
In the middle of the hook we move on to the next scene which is a laundry room.
Jennie enters the room wearing a pretty pink dress.
That dress is a symbol for her past relationships and the expectations for a romantic love story.
She takes it off and she puts in the washing machine exposing a badass swimsuit representing
her new strong and independent self.
With that she delivers in cool fashion the second verse which is the rap part of the
song.
A machine is used to fill up the scene with soap bubbles.
Those bubbles represent the past memories that are washed off.
At the end she opens the door of the washing machine to check if everything is cleaned up.
She decides though to leave the dress behind signifying a complete change for the future
with a new path that is completely different than her past.
Then we are taken back to the scene that caused all this disappointment and pain.
Jennie is seen at a club partying and then suddenly she stumbles upon her boyfriend being
intimate with another girl.
Then we can see a shot that Jennie is walking alone past her boyfriend and the other girl.
This is to show how shocking that sight was to her, as everything else around her didn't
matter anymore; her fun and nice mood was just ruined and taken away in a heartbeat.
The party is over for her and she ends up lonely.
The next location is external and Jennie can be seen bicycling around meaning she is leaving
her past behind.
She closes the Love Stories book showing she just had enough of those.
Then we can she her dancing in three locations.
One is a tunnel full of gratifies where she is standing in front of it like she just came out.
The tunnel symbolises her past that she has just exited from.
There are a few people at the back inside the tunnel.
Are they just strangers that happened to be there during the filming or could they be
there on purpose to symbolise the people she has left behind back in the tunnel?
The other dancing scene is pretty impressive with Jennie dancing in front of a carousel
and fireworks going on in the background.
It shows how she feels happy and excited about her decision to go solo and what is coming
in the future.
Finally, she is dancing alone in the middle of the street in London showing us how she
feels free and not caring much about the past.
During the bridge we get a sequence of a typical cycle for a relationship.
In the beginning the meetings and the happy times, followed by the sad and lonely times.
Then the rebirth.
Jennie can be seen on a car where she wrote with her lipstick quotes of moving on like
"not even a distant memory" and "better off without you" to help herself move on.
She is wearing a pair of wings symbolising how she is now ready to fly away from the
past and make a new start.
During this scene the car is actually pulled using a truck.
Finally we get to the last dance scene.
Just when we were ready to complain like hey YG you didn't have money for back dancers
for this music video?
Boom, there are 24 of them just for a few seconds during the last chorus showing that
"going solo" does not mean she is going to be alone.
She has all her friends around and she is ready to live exciting times by loving herself.
Now, while this dance scene is made to look like it was filmed in the palace location,
realistically speaking it's not.
There are a few reasons why it's very unlikely that it was filmed in London and much more
likely that it was filmed back in Korea instead.
Firstly, it would be really impractical, expensive and a logistics nightmare to bring what it
appears to be 24 very beautiful and highly skilled Korean back up dancers all the way
to UK just for this shot.
Their flight tickets, picking them up, their makeup and hair, their stay, their food, their
clothes and so on.
It's not that YG doesn't have the money to do it but producers tend to be pragmatic
and down to earth on these matters; they would choose to spend all that money much more wisely
on something that brings real production value.
On the other hand you might think "oh, they could be Koreans living in UK or nearby countries"
but this is also a very far-fetched scenario as all these girls would have to be auditioned,
clear up their schedule, tested then be brought up together weeks ahead and practice under
the choreographer.
The second give away is how that room is lit by design, something that is not found in
normal living spaces but rather in typical set architecture created for filming.
In addition, the perfect and symmetric prop design is typical of Korean music video set
mentality attempting to recreate antique spaces that are not originally found in Korea.
We can see the chandelier is different style than the first dance solo which is definitely
filmed in the palace location in London with matching style.
In the last dance the chandelier is conveniently placed in the background just as a production
value aid and not in the center of the room which would be the expected location in a
normal room.
The fireplace is different and of course we can see the many well designed gaps embedded
in the architecture of the set so it can be lit perfectly for filming.
The fact that this room is the only one that is not presented into the behind the scenes
video that shows how the music video is being filmed in London is further proof to this theory.
Now, whether building this and having additional shots in Korea is any cheaper than bringing
the back up dancers to UK is a whole different story.
It's definitely more manageable and easier to plan though and that is something very
important when filming music videos.
And here is some even more speculation for you.
Could it be that a whole music video was actually filmed in Korea first and YG found that it
just wasn't what he wanted, so they went to UK to film further and they only used some
of the shots of the original music video?
Or the more likely explanation that this was the plan all along and they just filmed these
extra dance shots in Korea?
Well, we will never really know and it doesn't really matter after all.
The end product is fantastic and definitely up to par with the company's usual high
presentation quality and what Jennie deserves as an artist.
The music video was filmed using the Arri Alexa Mini which has been the standard in
the kpop industry for mid and high budget music videos for many years now.
This is paired with Cooke cine lenses which is a bit unusual for Kpop music videos as
the Arri Zeiss Master Primes are the usual choice.
We can see Jennie holding a storyboard while she has her hair prepared for the next shot.
Storyboards are made by the director to convey his vision to the rest of the production team
and of course the artist.
It can be either drawn images or screenshots from other music videos or movies and a short
description that conveys the mood and the action of the shots.
This is different than a shotlist which is a more technical oriented document and has
a list of every shot to be taken usually accompanied by information such as lighting, camera settings
and movement, lens focal length and so on.
A shot list is also very important because it can give a good idea of how long each shot
will take, so each of the production team members can get things prepared on time like
the set, props and of course the artist.
Also, usually most Kpop music videos are filmed in a continuous 24 or 48 hour shoot with brief
breaks and rests.
In this specific case we had a 3 days shooting with full breaks for sleeping which is quite
rare and it was probably done this way because the filming was taking place in a foreign
environment with more complex logistics and a variety of locations as opposed to studio
Kpop music videos where everything takes place at the same location.
The physical album of the release is a simple small size hard case colored pink with the
words Jennie Solo in the front.
It comes with a card that has the lyrics of the song and all the credits for the people
that have worked on this release as well as a polaroid style card with Jennie's photo
and a short message and signature at the back.
There are probably a few versions of these cards and you get one at random.
They are just printed and not actually signed by Jennie herself.
Then inside we can see the numerous pictures of the photobook.
They are in slightly different style than the music video and they are more like a fashion
guide from Jennie.
Finally at the end there is the CD and a wrapping band that contains the tracklist.
My personal opinion is that I really loved this song and the music the moment it came
out like I do for most Black Pink releases anyways.
I like the cool and well refined style and every release from Black Pink is something
I wait patiently and sit down and enjoy when it comes out.
I have two favorites in Black Pink and that's Jennie and Lisa so for me it was a really
nice present to see a solo release from Jennie.
I'm a big fan when Trap elements are blended into female Kpop songs because I believe they
bring out the inner strength of the girls something that makes them much more attractive
to me rather than let's say innocent or super romantic concepts.
Everytime Jennie looks at the camera I can feel it in my heart, I'm like girl… stop
it, that's all I can take for now.
I can't wait to see what's next from Black Pink.
Maybe another solo?
Could it be Lisa?
I'm definitely down for that.
Or for anything...
Black Pink.
If you have any questions about anything I just explained or you are just curious about
anything regarding kpop production feel free to comment with your question and I will try to answer.
Also let me know which song you would like me to do next time so I can start studying
it, get the CD, film it and so on.
Then if you have any ideas or requests about more sections that I could add or things I
could talk about on each episode just leave a comment.
You know, I have been planning this for a few years with a few test episodes in order
to refine the format and make sure it's something you guys would enjoy.
Just imagine that the very first test episode was Dalshabet's Someone Like U, a song that
was released in January 2016.
That's 3 years ago and I have been planning about this even before that.
I created test episodes for Twice's Signal, 9Muses Remember and a few others that they
have never seen the light because I was not ready to really commit to a continuous stream
of episodes that I believe is vital for this series to make any sense.
Since I'm working with the kpop industry I could eventually bring up songwriters, chorographers,
stylists, make up artists or music video directors for example, as guests in some episodes so
they can give you a personal insight of the releases.
My main point here is that while I want to express all these exciting and nerdy Kpop
fanboy emotions, pretty much anybody can do that and some actually do with reaction or
explanation videos and so on.
But you see I'm not exactly that super extrovert kind of person that is like "yo whass up" and
can go on talking for 10 minutes about pretty much nothing and still being enjoyable to watch.
So, instead, I'm capable of giving you a much deeper insight into the kpop products
and the industry and show you how those products were actually made, allowing you to engage
further with Kpop and appreciate it, not just for the visuals, the songs and the choreographies
but also for the incredible and enormous amount of work that goes into delivering those products
and all the people behind it.
Also, while I'm going to be doing a lot of episodes for recent songs eventually I
do want to start reviewing some older Kpop classics.
I have actually so many ideas but one thing at a time.
What's important right now is that if you have enjoyed this video, make sure you like
it and you are subscribed to my channel, make a comment, and finally do check out my Patreon
because I really need your support so I can continue doing what I do and keep bringing
more content to you.
This is the Kpop Nerd, see you next time!
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