[Video: ‘100 Years of Beauty:Korea- Research Behind the Looks’ via Cut.com]
The creators of the Cut.com film 100 Years of Beauty spoke this week about the research behind the runaway internet success video series.
The fourth video in the 100 Years of Beauty series focused on Korea and used a split screen to indicate historical and political changes during the decade when Korea divided into North and South Korea and accepted different leadership and political structure. The fascinating video went viral overnight when it was published by Cut.com on March 17. It reached 2.7 million viewers and made the front page of Youtube.
[Video: Cut.com]
You tube comments on 100 Years of Beauty indicated some concern about what type of research was used to create the looks for Korea through the decades. Cut.com released several videos and made their pinterest board public in an effort to answer those important viewer questions. In an exclusive Inquisitr interview, Mike Gaston of Cut.com took the time to comment on where the research behind the ‘100 Years of Beauty- Episode 4: Korea’ looks came from.
Our primary researcher was Robin Park. Robin is Korean with a degree in Ethnic Studies pursuing a MA in Communications. My director is half Korean and did as much research as Robin. In addition to going through fashion magazines, blogs, and historical docs, they consulted family and friends (in the US and Korea).
[Video: Cut.com]
Gaston also emphasized the team approach used to create the looks for 100 Years of Beauty.
In our office we have Korean colleagues who participated in everything from the development of the treatment to the casting of Tiffany our model. Our model is also a stylist and participated in the evolution of the looks. Katya our makeup artist and Juel Bergholm our hair stylist also provided significant contributions to the development of the piece.
[Video: Cut.com]
Cut.com has made the pinterest board used to design some of the looks for 100 Years of Beauty available to the public.
A popular viewer question was a request for any designer names from Korea that contributed concepts for the provocative project. Gaston clarified that important detail for viewers.
We didn’t work with any designer names on this project.
A recent Huffpost article questions the research behind 100 Years of Beauty also, suggesting that film makers ignored the overwhelming popularity of plastic surgery in Korea as a method for achieving what has become an unrealistic and distorted ideal of female beauty.
Newsweek was no doubt an inspiration for the 100 Years of Beauty video series. They created a similar time lapse video called ‘The Changing Face of Beauty’ as part of their special investigative report, The Beauty Advantage published July 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoJPq8-nHbc
[Video: ‘The Changing Face of Beauty’ via Newsweek]
Gillette also published a similar timelapse video called 100 Years of Hair showing the changes to men’s grooming over a hundred years as part of an intriguing advertising campaign in June 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h16y4m2TJsg
Cut.com’s 100 Years of Beauty video series also includes two videos about American beauty and a video of 100 Years of Iranian beauty. Based on viewer interest, we can certainly look forward to more videos in this compelling series that successfully combines fashion and politics and generates much food for thought about what ‘100 Years of Beauty’ really means.
Visit Cut.com on Youtube to see all of the videos in the 100 Years of Beauty series.
