Minh Ngọc

This is bil. I run Microwave Soups. I’ve been building worlds for a while, just never really named what I do. This is not my first project like this. But it’s the first one I feel like I really have to share. HIEUTHUHAI’s 2nd Album MẮT NHẮM MẮT MỞ

I was asked to draw a final resting place for my dad, one day after he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. This was the first time he had requested me to create something specifically for him. He passed away 35 days after the diagnosis. 100 days after, a white stone tomb emerges from the ground. It may not have been the best design, but it was the most meaningful project that would always have a special place in my heart. Mọi thứ diễn ra nhanh quá. Hôm nay cũng là sinh nhật bố, chắc bố sẽ vui. Cám ơn Huy cùng chị chỉnh sửa gần 20 bản vẽ trong mọi cung bậc cảm xúc, cám ơn Trân và Thiện về ý tưởng lấy sáng, cám ơn anh Huy cho em font và bé Hào. Cám ơn Nguyên vì đã luôn bên cạnh 🏡

Với Hạ Màn, Bil là người giữ các lớp ý tưởng luôn nối lại với nhau, để mọi thứ không rời rạc mà cùng chảy trong một mạch chung. Từ đó, dần hình thành một cách nhìn rất riêng, không chỉ ở cách một dự án được tạo ra, mà còn ở cách nó được cảm nhận và ở lại trong ký ức. Bil là người sáng lập và creative director của Microwave Soups, đồng thời là người đứng sau việc định hình ý tưởng và dẫn dắt Microwave Soups với vai trò head chef. Bil mang một góc nhìn rõ ràng nhưng giàu cảm xúc, luôn tìm cách làm sáng tỏ ý tưởng, kết nối các lớp nội dung để mọi thứ vừa thống nhất, vừa giữ được cá tính riêng. Với Bil, mỗi dự án là một quá trình xây dựng một thế giới mới, nơi mọi “nguyên liệu” từ ánh sáng đến không gian đều được đặt trong một tổng thể có chủ đích, và từng chi tiết đều có lý do để tồn tại. #HaMan #saigontheatre #nghethuatsankhau #stageproduction #behindthescenes

It began with a fixed camera. No movement, no cuts. The entire set had to exist within a 360 frame, with nothing to fall outside of it. There were also seven stitch lines, so everything had to be placed with care for the image to come together seamlessly. That condition slowly shaped the work. The script, the staging, even the rhythm of the space had to adjust to something that would always be seen in full, from every angle, all at once. #HVL #MCK Art department by @microwavesoups Production design: @lebowery (Microwave Soups) Associate Art Director: @noneviolet (Microwave Soups) 3D Concept Lead: @qakalous (Microwave Soups) 3D concept: @kng_td (Microwave Soups) Art Coordinator: @_sassymi_ (Microwave Soups) Set Graphic: @huongwdung_ (Microwave Soups) Art social: @hachunoi (Microwave Soups) Sculpting: Thao Nhi Set Dressing & Scenic: Microwave Soups Team Props master & constructing: Do Tuan Team, @huuminh.nguyen.31 Team CNC foam sculptor: Nguyen Huu Tho Team Director: @lf.pvnirvana (Antiantiart) Starring: @rpt.mckeyyyyy Director Of Photography: @kelvincwz_dp (Antiantiart) Celebrity Wardrobe Designer: @vickivirus Choreographer: @lf.quoctit (Last Fire Crew) x @lf.huykhi (Last Fire Crew/Antiantiart) Production House: @antiantiart_ Executive Producer: @hglicious (Antiantiart) @lf.pvnirvana (Antiantiart) Managing Director: @notankhang (Antiantiart) Producer: @khai.nguyen2901 Production Manager: @lengthuyvan

The Year of the Wood Snake brought its share of turbulence, tension, and taxes. It asked for discernment. It asked us to choose carefully who stands in our kitchen when the fire is high. We grew fast, from a small circle of like-minded, passionate teammates into a collective that builds worlds and tells stories through the spaces we create. This year, we built a space of our own. A place to gather. To dream. To make things happen together. And in the process, we learned that not everyone who shares a table shares the same hunger. Still, we are grateful for growth, for lessons, for the kind of companionship that feels steady rather than loud. 2025 sharpened us. In 2026, we cook differently.

From a single detail to a space where every artist has their own world, we finally hit the finish line. After a mountain of chaotic sketches and archived drafts, everything distilled into three core shapes. These seven pop-up booths are more than just structures. Each becomes a distinct world for its artist, stripping everything back to only what’s truly signature. No decorative noise, no extra fluff. Inside, you’re free to wander, get closer to the artist’s inner child, and leave a little note behind. Just a place to feel, before the music starts. - Từ một chi tiết nhỏ đến 7 thế giới khác nhau Sau nhiều bản sketch lộn xộn và những ý tưởng phải cất lại, mọi thứ được cô đọng trong 3 hình khối chính. 7 pop-up booth. Mỗi booth được thiết kế để tạo nên một không gian đặc trưng riêng cho từng nghệ sĩ, nơi mà bạn có thể lang thang khám phá, chạm gần hơn tới thế giới nội tâm của nghệ sĩ và để lại lời nhắn nhỏ trước khi âm nhạc cất lên. Co-Creative Director: Duy Plue & Bil (Microwave Soups) Project Managing: Duy Plue Creative Lead: Bil (Microwave Soups) Idea & Communication: Trân (Microwave Soups) Head of Art booth operation: Linh Nguyễn 3D Lead – Booth Concept: Lương (Microwave Soups) 3D Lead – Interior Zone: Thảo Nhi 3D Concept Artists: Khôi Nguyên (Microwave Soups) Art coordinator: My (Microwave Soups) With contribution from Hào, Nhật Minh, Tôn Construction by Hữu Minh Nguyễn & Thành Hưng team

Bắt đầu bằng việc cải tạo nhà cho một người bạn, rồi dần dần trở thành một thế giới nhỏ, nhiều màu sắc, nằm lệch nhịp giữa đô thị. Với Soups, giữa những ngày on-set liên tục với film và MV, cải tạo Nhà A1 giống như một khoảng nghỉ nhỏ mà bọn mình rất vui. - Blue tiles with grey grout run across the floor like a quiet grid. Steel, velvet, wood, ceramic, none of them matches, and that’s the point. Exposed steel joints remain in-sight. A red lamp head peeks out where you don’t expect it. A mirror so thin it feels like a sketch line rather than an object. Small decisions form the space: a diagonal wall cut for feng shui, a rocking chair placed on the bed, toys arranged and rearranged into different stories every day, a soft butter-yellow nook just for zoning out. A house for one (and a tiny dinosaur) but made by many, in the midst of the hectic film shoots and music videos, this renovation feels like hitting pause. For our friend Phan Anh aka @colorcolortomtom Concept & Overall Direction Bil (Microwave Soups) 3D Concept Development & Team Lead Qakalous (Microwave Soups) Production Management & On-site Execution Trân (Microwave Soups) in collaboration with Phan Anh Draughtsman: Loc Q Le (Spacing Head) 3D Development Khôi Nguyên (Microwave Soups) Thảo Nhi 📸 @phuocphammm

SAUCIN’ @lngshot4sho Production Design Breakdown / Part 3 For the traffic jam sequence, we locked down an entire street.
Not just as a location, but as a system, cars, bodies, smoke, walls, and movement all choreographed to collide. Every wall was treated as a surface for texture. Layers of posters, signage, prints, and decay were built to read both wide and close, turning the street into a compressed, overstimulated backdrop. Smoke wasn’t added for atmosphere. It was designed to interrupt depth, break clean lines, and collapse perspective,
so the jam feels physical, not just crowded. We shot this sequence while a storm was rolling in.
 Wind, rain, shifting light, nothing stayed consistent for long.
It forced us to adapt fast, re-balance textures, and embrace instability as part of the scene.

SAUCIN’ for @lngshot4sho @moresojuplease @morevision.kr @ambienceseoul @antiantiart_ Production Design Breakdown / Part 2 Hip-hop isn’t our comfort zone. So this set came from adaptation, learning through research, references, trial, and error. The giant tracksuit started as a joke, then became a rule. Streetwear stretched into a single oversized form, turning costume into architecture. Alongside it, the chains and belt were custom-designed and illustrated specifically for LNGSHOT scaled-up hip-hop symbols treated as graphic objects, meant to belong only to this world and this group. Building everything was far from easy. Fabric choices, construction methods, materials, and scale had to work within very real budget limits. It stayed a work in progress until the very last moment and taught us more about materials than we expected. It’s playful, exaggerated, and slightly uncomfortable because identity, when forced into uniform, always is. Art Department | @microwavesoups Production Design | @lebowery (Microwave Soups) Art Direction | @noneviolet (Microwave Soups) Lead 3D Concept | @qakalous (Microwave Soups) 3D Concept Artists | @_nnhii_ (Microwave Soups) @kng.td (Microwave Soups), Hong Dang (Microwave Soups) Standby Art Director | @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) LNGSHOT Illustrator | Ok Man, @colorcolortomtom Main Street Texture | @traanfhui @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) On-Set Dressers | @traanfhui @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) @noneviolet (Microwave Soups) @kng.td (Microwave Soups) @_nnhii_ (Microwave Soups) @lebowery (Microwave Soups) @qakalous (Microwave Soups) Props Master | Thái Nhứt Set Construction | Thái Nhứt Team

SAUCIN’ - @lngshot4sho @moresojuplease @morevision.kr @ambienceseoul @antiantiart_ Production Design Breakdown - Part 1 We treated the city like a system under pressure.
Everyday spaces, offices, streets, traffic jams, were kept real, but slightly hacked. The all-white broken car was conceived as a beautiful collapse. A hyper-clean white cube framing destruction like a luxury artifact, a set driven by the director’s insistence on absolute restraint, pushing both PD and DP to their limits, where cleanliness left no room to hide and every decision became unforgiving. The evil CEO office was built from outdated symbols of power.Familiar enough to feel real, but deliberately placeless, leaving you unsure whether it was shot in Korea, somewhere else, or in a corporate fantasy that exists everywhere. We share these first two sets to show the contrast:
one brutally clean, flat, controlled, and unforgiving.
One overloaded with texture, character, and detail. Two opposite instincts. Both equally hard to get right. Art department by @microwavesoups Production Design | @lebowery (Microwave Soups) Art Direction | @noneviolet (Microwave Soups) Lead 3D Concept | @qakalous (Microwave Soups) 3D Concept Artists | @_nnhii_ (Microwave Soups) @kng.td (Microwave Soups), Hong Dang (Microwave Soups) Standby Art Director | @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) LNGSHOT Illustrator | @ok_____man , @colorcolortomtom Main Street Texture | @traanfhui @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) On-Set Dressers | @traanfhui @haof.tawng (Microwave Soups) @noneviolet (Microwave Soups) @kng.td (Microwave Soups) @_nnhii_ (Microwave Soups) @lebowery (Microwave Soups) @qakalous (Microwave Soups) Props Master | Thái Nhứt Set Construction | Thái Nhứt Team

@vvup.official For VVUP’s Supermodel, we pulled every ounce of camp, cuteness, and chaos we had. Our girls fought monsters; we battled 3D modeling, fake surfaces, tricky materials, and a mountain of digital prints. We tried quirky color pairs, tested new print methods from 2D to 3D, and built an entire world of objects that look real, unreal, and somewhere deliciously in between. A lot of “first times” went into this world custom-built, custom-faked, custom-everything for one chaotic supermodel fever dream.

Vườn Hồng - @vmhuong @chipupu This was our first time working with a sand curtain.You only get one reset.
Once the sand pours, it settles and ruins everything beneath, no margin for error. Behind it all was a wall that breathed.
The LED background went through 11 versions before we chose the final one right on set. Stone carving textures, pulsing softly under layers of gold leaf. It looks simple. But the precision behind the timing, the light, the weight of the sand, it took full trust between builder, gaffer, and camera. We’re proud of how this moment came to life, both fleeting and unforgettable.