The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2024
RM's LOST! video renders his psyche as a haunted game world where emotions are characters
In RM's LOST! video, the star's mind becomes a maze of game-style rooms and his emotions — Goofy, Anxious, Confident, Jaded — are characters in it.
Big Hit Music · RM
What it had to solve
The D&AD entry describes LOST! as a mind-bending exploration into the psyche of RM, the K-pop star, with the video adrift inside the maze of his brain. The creative task was to make that interior state visible and watchable rather than literal.
How it works
RM's LOST! is described by its D&AD entry as a mind-bending exploration into the K-pop star's psyche. The video places the viewer adrift inside the maze of his brain, a space full of hypnotic hallways and video game-style environments, accompanied by his emotions — Goofy, Anxious, Confident and Jaded.
The craft made the concept concrete. The production focused heavily on set design and 'God-view' high angles, building scenes that are purposely otherworldly yet domestic — almost like a haunted game of The Sims — with the director's conceptual surrealism and sense of humour throughout.
By personifying emotions and giving the mind rooms, the video turned introspection into a world an audience can look down into, rather than a monologue or a metaphor spelled out in lyrics. D&AD kept the work in its awards archive, crediting Pulse Films and Christopher Ripley as entrants for Big Hit Music and RM.
Why it lands
- The concept gives the invisible a setting: RM's psyche becomes a maze with corridors and game environments, so the video has somewhere to go.
- Casting the emotions — Goofy, Anxious, Confident, Jaded — as characters turns abstract states into people the audience can recognise and follow.
- 'God-view' angles plus domestic-yet-otherworldly sets (a haunted The Sims) make the mind feel familiar and uncanny at once, matching the confusion of being lost.
- The director's surreal humour keeps the introspection playful rather than heavy, so the video explores a mind without turning solemn.
What it did
The concept gave abstract feelings a geography and bodies: RM's mental maze has rooms, and his emotions have faces the viewer can follow. D&AD kept the video in its awards archive.
What you can take
Invisible inner states become filmable when you give them geography and characters: building the mind as a maze and casting its emotions turns a private feeling into a world an audience can explore.
Since then
D&AD kept LOST! in its awards archive, with credits listing Pulse Films and Christopher Ripley as entrant and Big Hit Music and RM as client. The archive page records no view counts, chart positions or award level, so the evidence stops at the work itself and its place in the archive.
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