IN Conversation with Music Video Director Wei Han
Interview by Isis Nicole
In a fast-changing present arrives cinematographer and director, Wei Han, living in New York City. After directing NYC/Seoul-based artist, The Saint’s, latest music video “Home (Press On)”, he takes time with us online to reflect on the influences of Eastern and Western classic pop-culture, and what it means to make a dream collaboration come true.
Since graduating from NYU, Han is playing a small-scale professional part—for now—in the arts today, capturing common highlights—love, uncertainty, etc. you get the idea—close to our lives. But it won’t be long until he lights up a major screen with his gift and grit that makes the young director’s vision as radiant as his own evolving—first drawn to music videos in the early 2000s from Taiwan and Hong Kong—citing acts like Jay Chou (周杰伦), S.H.E. and Edison Chen (陈冠希).
Now suiting up to build a versatile body of work as time goes on—Han shares his recipe for success in NYC, ruminates on dreams versus reality, and sheds light on what it’s really like to pretty much become married to the music industry, for better or for worse.
Director+Producer+DP: @weplusi
Creative Director: @weplusi + @invidious_
Cast: @invidious_ + @minimochifeet
1st AC: @alexwohlin
2nd AC: @anissakph
HMU: @ruthie_n_black
Driver: @fourthfloorfilms
Edit+Sound Design+Graphics: @invidious_
Colorist: @jennymontgomery @company_3
Color Producer: Alexandra Lubrano
Special Thanks: @metpostny + @kodak_shootfilm + Du-All Camera
Shot on 3-Perf 35mm Film
Isis Nicole: What has your journey in the music industry been like thus far?
Wei Han: It's a bittersweet feeling. At certain times, I love it. At certain times, I hate it. At this point, I feel like I'm just married to it. Music videos are this very classic, but also innovative, and constantly evolving art form that could date all the way back in the early 20th century, when television was first invented. People would call them "talkies" (sound films) back then and that's the early shape of music videos. In the contemporary setting, U.S. video channels such as MTV and VH1 in the 80s really made music videos become the main popular medium for artists to promote their music recordings. We saw big artists such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, and David Bowie on T.V. screens everywhere with their new music.
When I was growing up in Asia, the music video scenes in the early 2000s from Taiwan and Hong Kong were very influential to the whole generation of young people in the Chinese speaking territories. Artists such as Jay Chou (周杰伦), Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), S.H.E, Edison Chen (陈冠希), and Twins were very big. Me and my friends would even watch their music videos in school during classes. Till nowadays, I sometimes still go on YouTube and watch their old videos to get some inspiration. And obviously artists such as H.O.T., RAIN, BoA (보아), Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵), Kumi Koda (倖田來未), and Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル) from South Korea and Japan also played a role in terms of shaping my early understandings of music videos and pop culture in general.
When I started creating music videos myself as a young cinematographer and director in recent years, the heart and soul are still the same. The roots come from those early encounters. I said earlier that it’s a bittersweet feeling because obviously you get to be creative with your ideas and make beautiful visuals, but there are also the reality and constraints of it where they could be a very tight budget, a very low rate or even no pay, a very short preparation time and intense filming schedule, or simply creative differences between you and the artist. When everything works out, it feels like the best thing in the world. When it’s not, it’s very painful. But a lot of times, there are always compromises. You just have to learn to be flexible and adapt to different situations.
IN: What are some of the challenges you face as a director?
WH: Dreams vs. reality. But as time goes on, you learn and get better and better at it. And how to manage working relationships and deal with different personalities is also very important, and sometimes challenging in this industry. In terms of this music video specifically, the challenges were very short preparation time and a tight budget. I had 10 days to put everything together since the artist first approached me about shooting the music video. I really wanted to push it back so we could have more time to prepare for it but we couldn’t because he had to fly back to Seoul, South Korea the day after the shoot for [the] business side of things. And due to budget and COVID-19, we had to keep the crew as minimal as possible, so I produced it as well apart from directing and dping. It was really intense during pre-production and I was certainly under a lot of pressure but I’m very glad that everything worked out in the end.
IN: How did you team up with The Saint?
WH: Me and the artist both went to NYU, and we met while in school. This was back in early 2016. We were both editing projects at this NYU computer lab. We saw each other and [basically said], ‘what are you working on?’ And then we started talking. Later we bumped into each other almost every single week in this computer lab because we both loved it. It’s just so chill. Very big, nice space, and most importantly, very few people would come. That’s how we met. We don’t really hang out because we are both busy and all over the place. It’s more like we have a mutual admiration for each other’s works and talent, and always want to find opportunities to collaborate. In late 2016, he went back to South Korea for military and I was between New York and China, finishing school, and kept working on my crafts and building my portfolio. In late 2019, he came back, and we reconnected. And finally, this music video made our dream of collaborating with each other come true.
Back then, I just started learning filmmaking and was working on some shitty school projects, but he was already doing music videos for some decently famous Korean rappers such as G2, YunB, and #Gun [also] professional works for fashion brands. He was certainly ahead of me but these days he tells me that now the tables are turned. I mean I went to NYU Tisch and received years of proper education on filmmaking. This is my profession and I spend a lot of time and money on it. I get better through working on different sets. But for him, he was just doing it on the side apart from his major and now his full-time job.
He learned everything himself since high school. He makes films and music. He paints. He curates exhibitions. He is good at a lot of software from Adobe Suites, Davinci Resolve, to Ableton Live. Sometimes, I am just like, dude, how? It’s just very easy to work with someone like that because he already has tons of experience in those fields.
IN: How do you like New York?
WH: New York is home at this point. I went to school there. I’ve lived there for a couple of years and know plenty of people so it’s easy to do many things. But I never feel crazy about New York. It’s more so just I’m in it and I can make it work. I think I am gradually becoming more emotionally attached to it, but it’s never like love at first sight or this is so amazing. There are certain things I like about New York but there are also many things I just don’t know what to say. My two favorite cities are Tokyo and London. It’s like mom I really appreciate it, but I still prefer to live with her.
IN: How did you get into filmmaking and art in general?
WH: Growing up, honestly, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in the future. I was just a normal kid, like a lot of teenagers you see in middle schools and high schools. I played lots of basketball and volleyball. I loved to listen to music. I read fashion and cultural magazines often. I was doing okay on the academic side but never fell in love with it. Then in high school, I met this super good friend of mine who was into art and later went to Central Saint Martins to study fashion design. He was the biggest influence on me early on. Seeing him doing all the art stuff for his college portfolio applications really inspired me. He bought tons of art books from artists such as Juergen Teller, Agnes Martin, Louise Bourgeois, Daido Moriyama, Robert Seydel, Michael Borremans, David Bailey, Luc Tuymans, and Dirk Braeckman. It’s crazy to think about it even now because this was when we were just 16,17-years-old.
He would buy many of them online all the way from Japan or Europe because back then it [was] impossible to get those rare art books from local bookstores. And I occasionally would borrow a couple of them from him to just read for fun during spare time. These experiences are super important to me because that was my first real encounter with art, and I feel like I entered the right path and formed a good aesthetic from the very beginning. It’s still relatively important till today because whenever I am doing research for a project, I know where to go look for resources and inspirations.
I never thought I would study filmmaking. I took two gap years after high school trying to figure out what I want to do in the future. At first, I wanted to study architecture. I also seriously considered fashion design or photography. I went to Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc) in LA briefly. But I didn’t really enjoy the experience, so I left. Later I took a semester-long program as a visiting student at NYU Tisch. I was like maybe after studying some basic film courses, I can shoot vlogs myself. But I really fell in love with it, so I transferred to NYU and finished my degree there.
IN: What’s your take on art schools?
WH: My favorite art school is Central Saint Martins in London. I still remember I did a campus tour there after high school and I was just completely blown away. The campus, how people were looking and dressing, the way they were carrying themselves, the works they were creating. And even the name, Central Saint Martins. It’s such a cool name for an art school. To me at that point, it was just like this is the art school. I took short courses there. I tried a bit of fashion design, like draping and sketching. The school is very fashion driven. I eventually decided to not study fashion design, so I didn’t apply to there. But I still often pay attention to their shows and new talents coming out of that school.
Speaking of my alma mater NYU, I really enjoyed my experience there. It’s my favorite school in America. It’s a very unique school because it has a lot of resources that only big universities can give but also it has that art spirit like smaller art schools, so it’s a good combination of the two. And set in Lower Manhattan, the heart of New York, everything is within reach.
Bunka Fashion College Tokyo (文化服装学院) also left me a deep first impression. A friend of mine went there so I visited the school before. The school feels like Japanese street culture to the fullest. You’ll know exactly what I mean if you have a chance to visit the school and see how people are dressing. I feel like every single kid in Bunka can be in a Japanese movie or anime. A funny side story. I remember there was a no-smoking zone behind one of the main buildings. And during short breaks in-between classes like just 10 mins or so, literally hundreds of people would pop out and smoke there, talking about projects or whatever, just chilling and completely disregarding the no-smoking signs.
Obviously after graduation, nobody really cares about which school you went to. Your works [is what] speaks for yourself. But for an 18, 19-year-old me back then, Central Saint Martins meant the whole world and it will always remain special in my heart. Overall, I think for things like filmmaking, photography, and even graphic design, I really doubt that you need an art school education because those things are very intuitive and easy to learn by yourself but for other art professions such as architecture and fashion design. I think it’s a good idea to go to art schools because they require more techniques. It’s just very hard to learn it yourself.
IN: What’s your take on social media?
WH: I have mixed feelings about social media. It’s fortunate and unfortunate that we live in this day and age. Social media make it super convenient for artists to promote their works. But I’m a low-key person in general so having to promote my works constantly on social media is kind of tough for me. But it’s necessary, otherwise you won’t get new works and noticed. It’s just inherently contradictory for me, and it’s not until this music video that I realized okay maybe this is how I’m going to use Instagram, etc.
I feel like social media sometimes bring the distance between people too close that it starts getting uncomfortable. It could affect mental health. I sometimes miss the old days when we only had MySpace and MSN. I’d say I love Internet but not necessarily social media because with Internet, I don’t have to constantly interact with people, but can still gain tons of resources in a short amount of time.
IN: How and/or why did you decide to explore the stage in-between friendship and love?
WH: I mean, when the artist approached me with the song, he already had some thoughts. My job as the director and cinematographer was to finesse the ideas and help him achieve his vision. The stage between friendship and love is very subtle but also quite interesting and unique because you see a lot of movies or music videos exploring the ideas of two people either in love or breaking up, but less commonly on this premature stage, so we decided to portray that.
IN: What's your most favorite accomplishment in 2020?
WH: This music video honestly. I’m serious because I did lots of work on the project from pre-production to post-production. I directed, shot, and produced it and I also did parts of the creative direction. It’s really a Wei Han project from head to toe. This music video allowed me to try many different things and I saw my growth from it. For example, I never did graphic design before or thought I could do it. This was my first time doing it. I think I did a decent job and I start to fall in love with it, so I plan to do more for my future projects.
And this music video lets me see the beauty of simplicity. It’s a very small-scale shoot and we didn’t have a big budget, but the result is satisfying. A lot of people love the work. Obviously down the line, I want to do bigger shoots with bigger crews but sometimes learning to work with the constraints but still creating beautiful images is also very important and that’s the beauty of filmmaking.
IN: What do you want viewers to take away from this music video?
WH: Don’t wait until it’s too late.
IN: What do you have planned next?
WH: I want to create more diverse works and work with more diverse people. This music video, and ‘Another Good Person’, a music video I did before, are probably two of my signature works so far when people mention my name. I get it. These are visually striking and explore love between young people, which is close to our lives. And I know I can do a good job on those because it’s just embedded in my DNA. It’s who I was and maybe still part of who I am, but I’m more than that and I want to show people that in my future works. When you get older, you become more mature and hold more responsibilities as an adult. Your world of view changes and you are no longer just a rebel kid who only rocks with what’s supposedly cool. I want to step out of my comfort zone and channel parts of the world that I’m less familiar with. And I don’t want to just limit myself in cinematography or filmmaking in general. I also want to create more works through other art medium such as photography and graphic design. And I’m getting to know more and more people in Tokyo and Shanghai. Hopefully I have a chance to work with any of them in the near future.
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