Music video producer follows natural creativity
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Kim Hyung-min
By Choo Sung-ho
Kim Hyung-min, 30, a music video producer, said a desire to create new things led him to this field. Kim, who is also a member of singing duo “Runaway9oose” has many talents, including playing instruments and writing songs as well as making videos.
“I’ve never had proper lessons but naturally love to try new things and get excited by doing creative work. I think my identity is defined by the work that I create. Creating is a way of explaining who I am,” he said.
Kim studied communication at Yonsei University but spent most of his college life at Yonsei Theater Art Research Club, dreaming of becoming a movie producer. He won a couple of video making contests in Korea, but never thought of become a music video producer.
“Several years of extracurricular activities at the club have affected my current work. Especially, when I plot video ideas,” Kim said. “I focus more on the scene itself in the video than the narrative storyline, and this approach is more like theater technique than video making technique. This also makes my work different from other dramatized music videos.”
Kim is currently working as a lead music video producer at Mystic 89, a Korean talent agency, led by a singer Yoon Jong-shin. Kim has produced several music videos for Yoon Jong-shin and Kim Ye-rim, who is a star of the Korean television talent show Superstar K3.
Before joining Mystic 89, he and two college friends shot live music videos for Korean indie bands.
“At that time, no one provided high quality live concert videos for indie bands. This new approach drew many listeners and music industry people,” he said.
With success in getting public’s attention, he established OFFBEAT media production with the friends, aiming to launch a Korean version of VEVO, an American-based video hosting service. However, business was not as good as they thought it would be.
“While struggling with operating our business, singer Yoon Jong-shin asked us to join his project, Monthly Yoon Jong- shin. Ever since then I have produced his monthly-released music videos and that was how OFFBEAT got merged with Mystic 89 in 2013.”
He said he is working on Mystic 89’s new singer Puer Kim’s music video now.
“I am involved in many projects, but still feel I have a lot more to learn,” he said. “My short term goal is to make a movie about 60 minutes long because I have only made short videos so far.”