During the ideation process, I referred to the assignment guidelines and took particular note of the phrase “good artists copy; great artists steal”. I decided to use the scripted dialogue format for my writing: I’ve always been a huge film lover, and it’s the part of filmmaking that I most enjoy.

My favourite film of all time is 10 Things I Hate About You, so I decided to write a romance with a similar dynamic to the main characters in said film. I took the idea of stealing to heart and stuck to naming my main characters Kat and Pat, after the main characters in the movie.

The character of Pat was mainly influenced by the character Shima from my favourite animation, Skip and Loafer: the character is known for his golden-retriever persona – always bright and welcoming. I then wanted Kat to have a slightly contrasting, more deadpan personality: I felt that this conflict of personality types would help build the romantic tension between the characters.

The song that particularly influenced the tone of this story was ‘Ever Seen’ by Beabadoobee: I particularly associate the line “every piece of me holds parts of you” with how growing up with someone leads to their identity almost becoming intertwined with yours. This neatly fits with my main characters’ friends-to-lovers dynamic.

My video initially focused on fan culture and juxtaposed the hopeful and optimistic way I view concerts with the bittersweet lingering post-concert experience. The plan was to convey this with bold colour palettes and lighting in the concert scenes as opposed to unsaturated dull colouring for the other shots. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and lack of planning on my part, I was very unsatisfied with the footage and the direction in which the piece was going. Thus I changed my idea to an early-2000s style get-ready-with-me montage.

During ideation, I visualised the film Clueless, which thus influenced the grainy visuals and montages of the piece. I was also hoping to include more retro props to make the piece really look like it was out of the early-2000s (e.g. a CD player instead of my laptop), but due to time constraints, this was unachievable.

I simply wanted the video to convey a relatable morning routine while also reflecting my identity: there are therefore many references to fan culture all throughout. The background music is a song called ‘l i f e i s c o o l’ by BOYNEXTDOOR, which I believe to fit the video’s tone well. I also tried to edit rhythmically as I find this satisfying, my biggest inspiration being recent music videos from P1Harmony.

As soon as I saw the assignment guidelines, I thought it would be fun to try a podcast-style dialogue piece where a friend and I discuss fan culture. I wrote a rough outline for my friend and me to discuss what we liked and disliked the most about K-pop culture before simply setting down a microphone and allowing it to catch our organic conversation. Afterwards, I cut the audio, implemented sitcom-esque sound effects in order to meet the brief, and picked a joint favourite song of ours for the background music.

I view the effects of stars as ‘lingering’ because of how a star’s light often takes hundreds of years to reach the Earth, by which point the star itself might already be dead – even once it passes, its product lives on, continuing to affect those around it. You could also call musical artists ‘stars’, and I feel like this is quite fitting for fan culture: even if they stop making music, or we simply grow out of them, the feelings they gave us and the community we built as a result of that will live on forever. I was thus keen to use stars as a motif: all three posters have these stars stuck on them, linking them together with the imagery of hope and lingering positivity – something I have truly gained from being a fan.

I conveyed this in the first poster with a picture of my friends and me making a star with our fingers. I printed out the picture and stuck two stars in the middle to create a 3D effect, reflecting the outstretching positive influence that fan culture had on our friendship – relevant both in online spaces and in real-life, non-digital spaces.

Similarly to looking at the stars and gaining motivation, the second poster reflects how we look up at the stage and gain energy from those we support. I stuck the group onto the photo in scrapbook style because, while they curated the fanspace, they could be absent and what remains still is the sense of community. The text refers to the time of day when the sun creates a golden hue in the sky, but the song talks about creating your own ‘golden hour’ through making precious memories – which I believe happens in fan culture. The moments spent with my loved ones are my true golden hours.

The third poster is of the journey home, where the positive, fuzzy feelings continue: the fans are asleep on the tube, but the stars watching over them reflect the neverending warmth that follows after every event or moment shared, subconsciously.