First watch the controversial music video…

AmpedAsia.com: How did you come up with the concept of the music video?

Green Robot: After Ghost Style and Myself (Green Robot) wrote “Up Down Girl” we felt we had a good track and we wanted to make a video that would make people talk and somehow push what had been done in Hong Kong before. A lot of artists were playing it very safe so we decided to do something a little more risky. The idea was to make a video that was, fun, artistically shot, with tight editing and grabbed peoples attention. “Up Down Girl” talks about someone who’s girl makes them feel a certain way, so we decided to tell that from a point of view off two women. I’d also like to add that after seeing Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl” video I really was surprised that they didn’t have girls kissing each other, so I figured we’d do it instead.

AmpedAsia.com: Who are all the girls featured in the music video?

Green Robot: The girls featured in the video are a mixture of celebrity models (Hong Kong model and DJ Gloria Wong), TV personalies (such as Hong Kong’s Uny Chiu and Japan’s Rui Nakamura), industry people who have worked CGI (such as Emma Moosa) and even a Brazilian Model Ana Souza (there are two non Asian girls in the video). They all however are good friends !

A full list of the girls in the video are

Hallway Scene
Emma Moosa
Rui Nakamura
Patty Ng

Studio
Gloria Wong
Ana Souza

Office
Uny Chiu
Diane Wu

Hair Salon
Quentin Kwong
Susan Chen

Harbor

Manda Wong
Carie Blackmon

Rooftop
Mandy Tse
Stephanie Aileen

AmpedAsia.com: What was the process for doing the shoot?

Green Robot: Actually the process was quite interesting, I worked with my 2 producers Joe and Spencer and we sent out an e-mail to many of our female friends, some of which we worked with before, and some people that we knew who were more in the public eye.

We got a lot of positive responses which was great and we then just had to organize some sort of shooting schedule that worked, around everyone elses. The actual production time was 2 days, but each set up (meaning pairing of girls) took about 20 to 30 minutes to shoot. We funded the video out of our own pocket, which we made at a very reasonable budget because we already owned the camera (Cannon 550D with 3 different lenses, mainly a 50mm). Other than that we rented 3 kino lights, a reflector plus a Dolly. Joe and Spencer doubled up as crew and I was the Director, Cinematographer and Editor. Ghost Style helped out as well. Finally we had a make up artist by the name of Max Lam. Some o the girls also dropped by along with our friends, Harry and Kelvin, to some of the locations to help out a bit which was amazing.

Location wise we either scouted for outdoor ones or our friends came to our aid, this included a music studio wittingly enough called “Thismusicstudio” (where we do quite a bit of recording), a hair salon called O’s Hair (where I get my hair cut) and my friends office !

We had one incident where we were shooting the 2 girls kissing in the hair salon from accross the street and when we turned around a huge crowed had gathered behind us, that was a rather funny part of the shoot haha.

The whole process was really quite smooth. I intend to upload an outtake video eventually.

AmpedAsia.com: What is your nationality?

Green Robot: Ghost Style is Hong Kong Chinese but spent some time growing up in Canada, as for myself its the opposite, I’m Dutch but spent quite some time living in Asia (my mother is Dutch but was born in Thailand and my brother was born in Japan). I also have spent some parts of my life in Europe, but now live in Hong Kong.

AmpedAsia.com: Why did you decide to make films in Hong Kong?

Green Robot: I grew up on a steady stream of Hong Kong and Japanese films, there was as much Asian culture at home as western due to the fact that so much of my family actually grew up in Asia. As a result I actually went to film school here in Hong Kong. After I graduated I stayed here and got into making music videos, promo films etc. Hong Kong has a very specific vibe, energy and look about it that I do not think you can find anywhere else in the world, the textures and colors of the buildings, sidewalks and neon signs are very complimentary to the camera’s lens. The cost of production in Hong Kong is a lot friendlier as well, when it comes to a limited budgets and the crews work hard.

AmpedAsia.com: Where can we find more of your work online?

Green Robot: I just finished directing and shooting a video for a Spanish Hip-Hop artist that will be out soon online and on TV and we won this years Hong Kong 48 hour film festival (Best Film, Best Director, and our actors won Best Acting) which will be online soon and you can see more off our other at the links below:

Note: I will upload the video’s out takes, and some other music videos etc that I have done to my youtube page very soon.

For Ghost Style’s work you can check out:

Youtube: youtube.com/user/GeeStyles24

Facebook:
facebook.com/GeeStyles

Blog:
alivenotdead.com/GhostStyle

For Green Robot’s work you can check out:

Blog:
alivenotdead.com/arnevenema

Youtube:
youtube.com/arnevenemafilms

Written by kevinhype