Preparation - Face Masks

One of the things we wanted to use in our music video were face masks. Face masks were originally a convention used from time to time in Asian hip hop. Asian hip hop was very obscure, and only recently it was popularised and noticed by the mainstream. Because of Asia's lack of hip hop being popular, the instrumentation for most songs are reminiscent of modern hip hop, which shares a similar culture to Trap.

This convention is used mostly in Japan, as face masks are used by many people on a daily basis. While most people use it for personal hygiene, it is also used as part of fashion, as well as a well to hide one's own identity.

An example of this convention is found in Keith Ape's music video of his track 'It G Ma'. This is also an example of Korean and Japanese hip hop.

Another example is from Vic Mensa and Skrillex's track No Chill. While it is not an Asian hip hop song, the music video is set in Japan, using the street fashion found there:

We wanted to do something similar to this, and decided to use face masks as part of the clothing for the dancers. This will add to the sense of lack of identity. 

When we decided on this, we also realised we could create meaning through the masks - the dancers would be the visual representation of the protagonist's emotions, which will be conveyed through using different colours for the dancers's face masks. 

For the scene where the protagonist gets assaulted, the three hooded figures will wear black. The black represents negativity, which is also a metaphor of the protagonist's mental situation.