Thank you for your patience and staying with me even though I haven't been posting for a while. Things got surprisingly extra busy with other areas of life but I'm excited to get back to more regular posts and sharing some awesome performances together!

Suga was recovering from surgery, so a VR version of him appeared in the middle haha

Because of COVID-19, all performances are done virtually without an audience. Since performances have to be pre-recorded for safety reasons, they've been taking advantage of the circumstances and getting creative in post editing because they can. It's like an M/V but live!

I thoroughly enjoy your analyses. The portal is for the image of Suga. He had major surgery on his shoulder and could not attend any of BTS' performances. This is one of the few that he appeared. (The group would usually leave his spot empty by leaving a gap, or the would bring a picture, and in one performance he is represented as a snowman.)

The transition is super clever- it takes your eyes from Jin to a virtual element and uses that virtual element make a visual spectacle of transformation to mask the cut where they had a costume change and redressed certain set elements like the trees leaves, shops awning, tables and flowers. The rest of the effect is achieved with a change of lighting and colourful floor projection, adding way more colour, depth and vibrancy to the set than before to reinforce the idea of a chance without drawing explicit attention to it once the transition has passed. As seen from the distanced shots, the physical set only extends as far as the trees, one building either side of the BE one and the road up to where the members walk at the end. All the rest is virtual, but integrated in such a way as to seamlessly draw the eyes to and from the virtual and physical elements without interruption, so that when you watch the colour transition that begins with the light ball and follow the visuals down towards the centre where the physical background begins you scarcely note the transition back to the physical set or the detailed changes that have happened to it. They aren’t trying to fool the eye with realism, but by using clever misdirection they can pull off a powerful change in tone and colour without breaking suspension of disbelief at all. As I’m sure you’ve been told many many time by now, the member that appeared through the door of light wasn’t actually physically present due to resting from long needed shoulder surgery. You can see he’s not there from the slight difference in visual quality, lighting, outline and colour of the image of Suga himself compared to the others, and while J-Hope plays off a great suggestion that there’s a presence beside him, it’s clear there’s nothing physically there for him to look at (the others help in this illusion by not explicitly acknowledging or looking each other either). As for the exact methods and processes used, I had a few theories at first: from 3D motion tracked model (unlikely given the natural subtleties in the expression and movement), a seperate on the day recording spliced with the other members (nonsensical since he might as well have recorded the performance anyway in that case) or matrix style multi camera recording and composite, but judging how the camera reacts naturally to his presence and the slight visual discrepancies I think it was a combination of both, and he was added in as a live virtual element. The stage and scene dimensions, rough design and blocking would’ve had to have to have been done in advance anyway to allow for the other virtual elements to be laced over the camera recordings (think of how Pokémon Go puts pikachu on your living room sofa). They’ve added live virtual elements on stage before with Trivia: Love (more rudimentary and obviously tracked considering it was a touring set up) and Mikrokosmos (a lot more precise and natural looking since its singular performance gave it the known, fixed setting of the stadium). From what I know, they utilise a camera with the virtual setting and elements already rigged up so that it can move around the physical space within said environment and use/interact with the elements freely as though physically present in the scene (notice how exactly they were able to line up interactions with the virtual elements like they knew where it was). This likely took a lot of practice, direction and many tries, since the members can’t look through the camera themselves whilst performing, but it’s why Jin can appear to lift the ball of light that marks the transition of colour without accidently walking through the path of a flying virtual dove and breaking suspension of disbelief. The doves seen throughout I believe could’ve been added virtual elements right from the beginning also (at the very least the ones in motion at the end are) but we just don’t notice as we aren’t looking for it- can’t remember where I heard it but someone once said that visual effects work better when you’re not actively looking for them and that’s exemplified here with these elements integrating more and more seamlessly the less the know about them, to the point of fooling the untrained eye who didn’t know that person who appeared had long been declared unable to perform or attend such events at this time, nor know of their history with this tech. Some people I saw actually had an uncanny valley reaction to this virtual appearance, either knowing the way he shouldn’t have been there, picking up the slight visual discrepancies present in the virtual self or perhaps a combination of both without understanding what or how they were seeing this.

Suga’s VR appearance was a surprise! He had been MIA after shoulder surgery for a month at the time. So audience worldwide were delighted to see him virtually. Performances were pre-recorded making the most of the fact that shows were not live, in front of an audience, but live as in beamed out from an e-platform.

This year MMA and MAMA saw almost all performances prerecorded and heavy use of VR. This one was on the main stage with the screens on the front part and the main buildings on stage being real. Everything else is VR CGI. Many people already pointed out that Suga was a hologram. The light that shot from his hand up to the sky was VR. As Suga said in their MOTS concert, some things can’t be done in these performances because they’re streamed and not seen live, but others can only be done because they’re being streamed and not seen live.

I really love your reactions.. just for your information.. the one who came from a door is (suga), and this IS NOT HIM they use hologram technique to look like a real person... and that because (suga) could not make it, he was recovering after his shoulder surgery Life goes on talking about covid 19 and even if everything is bad now life goes on " "like an echo in the forest day will come back again as though nothing had happened yeah, life goes on~"part of the words and about how they did that I do not know, their performance always feels like magic for me, they always put everything they have

Suga's been out with shoulder surgery. It is a hologram.

Oh also! So when Yoongi entered it’s actually a rendered 3D model type thing because he had shoulder surgery and couldn’t actually perform on stage! It was a very big surprised forarmy 🥺💜 I forgot the name but it’s like VR but for irl performances? It’s special effects and stuff

Welcome back to reactions! Hope everything is well with you and your family! Happy New Year! Χρόνια πολλά!!!

Its amazing how everything simple thing should be considered to do a perfect performance, nothing is meaningless ❤️

The lyric for the part of the song where the sky opens up and everything is in color is: close your eyes and travel to that future with me. Obviously this song is about the Covid-19 pandemic. So the color part represents them imagining a future where life returns to normal.

me encanta ver como bts bighit bangtan deja sin palabras a todas las personas que ven sus videos

Master, so happy to see you again watching BTS!!!

Welcome back missed you

Love your analysis

Love seeing you pop up on my feed again, Dr. Marc! I love what you said about how a true pro knows not to give 100% all the time. Member j-hope actually taught that to 2 younger members (Jimin & Jungkook) backstage once.

Thank you. love your reaction.

Love the way you look at this. Your analysis is always fantastic. They were able to do so much because of the ability of post editing and VR, it's unbelievable that a pandamic would be helpful for something. That it would be to make a live show less live and yet still look live, putting us together in different ways than we ever expected.

I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis. I swear I never knew that I needed an analysis to their stage presence until now. Thank you immensely. I look at this performance from a whole different perspective! Quite interesting 💜

Woo hoo! So glad you're back Dr. Marc! So looking forward to new reaction videos from you. Kind of different vibe from their usual, full throttle stuff. It was a bit depressing feeling at first with all the monochromatic grays/whites/creams. And then BAM! Colors and life and happiness! Love it! And love that you are back!

You're right. They're really a great storyteller and this performance is just one example of that. This performance really tryna show what's going on right now. In the beginning, there's celebration with fireworks then it paused/stopped...showed how the world stopped because of pandemic. Then it continues with the people 'frozen' on the stage...shows how the world suddenly 'frozen' due to covid. The white theme color kinda makes the 'world' on the stage kinda dull...like how we're have to stay at home and feel 'dull'. Then the last chorus actually tryna bring hopeful message that life goes on hence the reason why suddenly the 'world' on the stage becomes colorful which means life will go back to normal and life will goes on. Oh the portal is actually hologram of Suga since he's recovering from shoulder surgery and couldn't perform so they brought him in with hologram

Good to see you back. Lots of Dimash to watch🙏🏻🙏🏻

BH has been experimenting with VR and AR to make BTS’ performances jump to another level; especially in today’s world where performers don’t have the extra energy that comes from having a live audience. So this is not 100% live. It was recorded live but certain elements were added in post-production. For example: Suga coming from the door that suddenly appeared in the middle of the stage was a hologram. He had shoulder surgery in early November and hasn’t been able to be part of their end-of-year activities. This was a huge surprise for ARMY! As always really enjoyed your reaction and attention to detail. It’s a pleasure to watch hour reactions and insight.

Dr Marc, happy new year. It gets a bit lonely since you didn't post for a long time. Welcome back. I love your analytic on the setting, yea, the time where mask is staple item in our life. And my admiration to the stage team is to make their backdancer using mask, and even customized the mask to match the custume or concept. Another thing is, they use Augmented Reality stage.. It's a new thing in south korea since almost all concert now done by online, they add more visual effect with AR to make the performance more grand.

Yes alot going on! If you see the captions, things will make sense. Suga was a hologram appearance. Thank you!

I loved the part when AR Suga appears because it’s also symbolic of the times where we sometimes can’t meet in person and only virtually.

What for me and what I know about that song from "life goes on" is that we do not have to get bad because of covid-19, everything will be fine and the one that appears in a small window is suga is also members What for me and what I know about that song from "life goes on" is that we do not have to get bad because of covid-19 everything will work out and the one that appears in a small window is suga is also a member of bts He only came out in that one for his shoulder that is in recovery

Hi, Marc, good to see you again. I wondered if it was just me being inattentive as usual and missing things, but it seems from your remarks, that you may have actually not been posting for a while. Welcome back. :) I have come to suspect that BTS might be sorcerers to accomplish so much as they have, but it seems that this is an actuality, as demonstrated in this video. I always look on TaeKook as one person, so that's nothing new, though still magical; however the other points you make about moving around the stage are well founded and persuasive and new to me. Thank you.

Duude I missed ya! I was thinking about your reactions the other day and wondered if I had accidentally unsubscribed xD

Yes, they are masters of augmented reality broadcasts... ;)

BTS is so awesome in every way!!

Wow I've seen this performance like 10 times and I never noticed the stage move Lol

Can you also react to the SBS 2020 BTS stage which was their xmas stage!

Suga was a hologram. The change to color, I think, shows life post-COVID. That’s what this song is about “Life Goes On.” Because we’re all living in a less colorful world during the pandemic. But life goes on and things will come back to life eventually.

That was AR, this performance is amazing

I'm so happy that you are back! 😊

BTS ARMY SUPERSTARS 🤗💜🤗💜🤗💜🤗💜 FIRST LET SAY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO DR. MARC REYNOLDS FROM THE BTS ARMY GLOBAL ... THEY SAID IT BEEN A WHILE HOPE YOU OK SORRY TO SEE THE PANDEMIC IS SADDENED THE WORLD THIS IS WHY BTS PUT THIS SONG UP AS WELL AS THE PERFORMANCE AND A SURPRISE FOR THEIR ARMY AFTER 2 MONTHS LEAVES ON SURGERY RECOVERY FROM HIS SHOULDER ...THE STAGE PERFORMANCE IS RELATED TO THE WORLD OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES BEEN CANCEL DUE TO THE AIR SPREAD VIRUSES THAT BTS SHOW THAT WE .... YOU ... GLOBAL IS TO BE STRONG AND STAY HEALTHY AS FOR THIS LIFT UP MANY MANY PEOPLES LIVES THAT MATTERS FROM STRUGGLING THROUGH TOUGH TIMES WE ALL KNOWS THAT THEY TELL US TO LIVE ON ...MOVE ON ... AND THAT HOW LIFE GOES ON IN THIS SONG IS TO BRIGHTEN US UP 🥰🥰 HOPE YOU SEE BLACKSWAN ON THE WATER STAGE ... WE GOT THIS 6.2 BILLION VIEWERS ACROSS THE GLOBE WATCHING EVERY MOMENTS OF THIS ... DR. MARC REYNOLDS WE FIGHTING TO STAY HEALTHY AND WELL NOT A MILLIONS MILLIONS PEOPLES ARE DOING IT FIR WEARING FACE MASK BUT WE MUST THE WHOLE ENTIRE COUNTRY SOUTH KOREA IS IN FULL MASKS 😳😳👀👀 ALL WE NEEDS TO DO FOLLOW THE RULES TO STAY SAFE AND WARM EAT HEALTHY TOO ARMY 💜💜💜💜💜💜

The guy that appeard through the door was an hologram. This was prerecorded :)

i recommend you to watch MMA 2020 live performance, esp Dynamite!

we want new bts reaction video 🥺😭😭😭😭

MAMA2020 ON performance. MMA2020 Blackswan intro. Dynamite performance.. 😍 they use a lot if Augmented reality. Theyre taking advantage of the whole online concert situation. :)

Yes. This is BTS, it's what they do all the time. They communicate with every person in a 90,000 seat stadium, singing and dancing live for 2 hours. Yeah, there are big screens, but even those are small at that distance, the performers are tiny, but you can still read their body language and everyone feels the energy as if it were up close. The West has No Idea what they are missing. Just wait for the Grammys. They are not ready. Bearing in mind that BTS now has 3 months to prepare .... the Grammys will NEVER be ready.

suga, who entered from the portal, had surgery recently and couldnt physically be there.

Mma 2020 the whole performance

포레스텔라(Forestella) - Champions [불후의 명곡2 전설을 노래하다 zhou shen Time to say goodbye Maybe you haven’t heard of these two films. Both have a classical taste and special.

V is my favorite voice . he is so effortless ✨🔥

You're reaction it's so great! I really enjoyed maybe next time you can reaction girl group KPOP *SECRET NUMBER - GOT THAT BOOM or HOLIDAY* their song's so catchy and unique. Come guys check it out! 😤

I is a hologram whid Suga appear, he is recover after shoulder surgery

Интересно о чем он говорит

Bts lo mejor 💜💜💜💜tae tae mi bebe

So i looked at a bunch of your reactions. While you clearly have taken the time to learn the members' names, I am really shocked that you haven't bothered to react to their full performance--which SHOULD include their lyrics. As a performance coach, opera stage director, etc., I would think you would take the time to fully analyze everything. As much as you keep saying that their storytelling is superb (which it is), without bothering to delve into the lyrics, you are really missing the HUGE meaning BTS puts into their songs. A lot of their songs, particularly RM's has so many deep meanings. In fact Bang Shi Hyuk, the CEO remarked how amazing RM's lyrics were when he first heard them and that's why he wanted to bring RM in to meet him. Also, KPOP as SUGA explained (in BTS's interview with the Grammy Museum interviewer) is integrated content which focused on every aspect of performance (lyrics, music, visuals, choreo, staging, etc.). As exceptional as BTS is, there are lots of other KPOP groups that do this also.