Public Service
Mythical characters who are masters of fire sing about fire prevention, writing four everyday hazards into a studio performance where each character has a part.
01 / Background
Content for National Fire Safety Awareness Month had to get several reminders across to the public: e-bikes inside buildings, cooking with fire, old electrical appliances and overnight charging. “Fire Safety Song: All-Star Version,” a collaboration between China Fire and Rescue and Baidu Search, takes the form of a song in an AI recording studio, with the characters singing the fire safety tips line by line.
Nezha, the Kitchen God, Huowa (the fire-breathing Calabash Brother) and Houyi form a “Fire Boy Band.” The characters are all tied to fire, yet here they are in a modern recording studio urging people to prevent fires; that contrast draws people in first, and the specific everyday scenes in the lyrics then make the point clear.
02 / Creative Highlights
The lyrics cover e-bikes inside buildings, cooking with fire, old plugs and overnight charging, unfolding in turns between solos and hand-offs. The looks of Nezha, the Kitchen God, Huowa and Houyi make each one instantly recognizable, while the specific tips are delivered through both the subtitles and the singing; viewers recognize the character first, then follow the lyrics to remember what to do.
Single-character close-ups highlight each character’s expressions, gestures and the tip he sings, while group shots carry the chorus together. The edit switches between the two, giving both the specific tips and the recurring “fire prevention” theme their own place.
Costumes from different myths can easily scatter the frame. A warm red recording studio, headphones, microphones and music stands run through the whole performance, uniting the characters in a modern recording setting. The flame, calabash, copper coin and sun marks on their headphones preserve their differences: members of the same boy band, each still with his own signature.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The film doesn’t ease in with an intro; instead, the closing chorus is moved to the very front: with a shout of “Prevent fires! Prevent fires!”, the four tips switch rapidly among the four characters and are all sung within ten seconds.
The Kitchen God and Houyi shout “Prevent fires! Prevent fires!” together in one frame, then it cuts straight to Nezha singing “Please don’t take e-bikes upstairs,” and back to the two-shot.
Houyi sings “When you’re stewing soup, don’t walk away,” Nezha and Huowa shout “Prevent fires” in one frame, and the Kitchen God follows with “Replace old appliances and they’ll last longer,” a new singer for every line.
Houyi sings “Don’t charge all night long” solo, wrapping up the opening with “Safety~ 666” before the main song begins.
Wearing flame headphones and a black leather jacket, Nezha raps at the microphone about the dangers of bringing e-bikes indoors. This segment is a solo in one continuous take.
Nezha introduces himself as “carefree and easygoing,” then sings “An e-bike in the building is even cockier than this demon kid,” using the character’s own meme to lead into the topic.
He gestures with the red silk sash across his chest as he sings; the lyrics describe a battery fire as “turning into a fire-breathing monster” that will “burn you down to bare feet.”
It comes down to what to do: “Leave it at the charging station,” before he spits out, word by word, “Don’t turn the stairwell into a bar! be! cue!”
The Kitchen God, in charge of the kitchen, sings about cooking with fire. The Kitchen God in copper-coin headphones takes the lead, Huowa jumps in for two lines midway, and the two end up in the same frame.
The Kitchen God stands at the microphone with his belly out and the character for “stove” on his hat, singing that he has “tasted every malt candy and candied fruit” in the kitchen.
Putting on the airs of an imperial official, the Kitchen God sings, “If you leave your fire unattended, you defy this official’s authority,” turning the reminder into a scolding.
The frame cuts to Huowa, hands on hips, picking up in a childlike voice: “Flames leap up to the rafters, black smoke takes just an instant.”
The copper-coin headphones glow gold on either side of the Kitchen God’s head as he spreads his hands and sings, “How can I put in a good word for you in heaven? Don’t blame this official for showing no mercy.”
During the interlude the two share the frame: Huowa leans into the camera grinning while the Kitchen God laughs and sings along behind him.
This segment reminds viewers to replace old plugs promptly. Nezha, Huowa, Houyi and the Kitchen God each take one line in turn, at a faster pace than before.
Nezha sings first, then Huowa squeezes into the frame and the two sing the same line together, one swaggering, the other grinning.
Houyi takes the turn in the lyrics: however mighty the flames, it’s old plugs that are the silent danger.
Eyes closed and fully immersed, Nezha sings “Replace them in time, before the sparks start to bloom,” spelling out what to do.
The Kitchen God sings “My fiery rhythm needs no accidents,” and the last word cuts to Huowa, who pouts and adds, “accidents.”
Houyi sings solo about the dangers of overnight charging, then the chorus returns as the four characters take turns shouting “Prevent fires,” ending in a group freeze-frame in the studio.
Wearing sun-totem headphones, Houyi first sings “I shot down the suns and saw through illusions,” then changes tack: “Leaving it plugged in when fully charged is foolish madness.”
Singing that late-night charging will “burn all your sweet dreams away,” Houyi raises his hand and shouts “Unplug it! Unplug it!”, giving the tip a physical action.
The chorus returns, switching between solo and two-shot frames every second: the Kitchen God and Houyi, Nezha, Nezha and the Kitchen God, Houyi, Nezha and Huowa, taking turns on the four tips.
After the Kitchen God sings “Replace old appliances and they’ll last longer,” Houyi sings the last tip and calls out “Safety~ 666.”
The camera pulls back to a low-angle wide shot of the studio: three members raise their fists toward the camera, Huowa stands in front with hands on hips, and a shout of “Go!” wraps it up.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Every lip-sync shot in the film starts from a “final studio image.” Shown in order of appearance: first the recording studio shared by all four characters, then each character’s final studio look, and finally the four-member group photo used for the ending.
Shot 1.1
Red acoustic panels, a large-diaphragm microphone, a pop filter, a music stand and framed pictures on the wall. All four characters sing in this studio, with consistent lighting and color.
Shot 2.1
A live-action young Nezha: black leather jacket, red silk sash, a flame mark on his forehead and flames on his headphones. He stands at the studio microphone, gesturing to the beat.
Shot 3.1
The Kitchen God in his traditional look, with the character for “stove” on his hat, stands at the microphone in copper-coin headphones; slightly portly, with realistic skin texture on his face and headphones glowing gold.
Shot 4.1
The green outfit, pink sash and calabash on his head from the Calabash Brothers are all there; he is a little older than in the cartoon but just as cute, standing at the microphone with hands on hips, a red calabash on his green headphones.
Shot 5.1
A high ponytail of silver hair with blue streaks, a gold forehead ornament and bracers, a quiver on his back and a sun totem on his headphones, which carry a faint golden glow.
Shot 6.1
A low-angle wide shot of the four characters striking stylish poses in the studio. The microphone stands are the same setup used in the solos; the closing fists-raised freeze-frame starts from this image.
05 / Results
We delivered a 9:16 vertical song short of about 1 minute 39 seconds, released simultaneously on Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat Channels and Weibo around National Fire Safety Day, earning 27K likes, 4,500 shares and 7,500 recommendations across platforms.
Case Study
Nezha can breathe fire, the Kitchen God tends the stove fire, Huowa spits flames, and Houyi shot down the suns.
What happens when these four urge everyone to prevent fires?
For National Fire Safety Awareness Month, together with China Fire and Rescue and Baidu Search, we brought them into the same recording studio as a “Fire Boy Band” to sing “Fire Safety Song: All-Star Version.”
01
This time there were four very specific things to get across:Keep e-bikes out of buildings, never leave cooking unattended, replace old plugs promptly, and don’t charge devices overnight.
Everyone has heard these before. The hard part is getting people to stop while scrolling short videos and hear them out.
The client set the direction from the start: borrow the popular “AI recording studio” trend online, gather a group of fire-related characters into a “Fire Boy Band,” and grab attention with contrast and a bit of absurdist humor. The film was made in 9:16 vertical for easy viewing on phones.
Our job was to turn this idea into a song that is easy to hear, holds attention and sticks in the memory.
02
The lyrics are divided by character. Nezha sings about e-bikes in buildings, the Kitchen God about cooking with fire and Houyi about overnight charging; for the old-plug section, several characters pass the lines down one after another.
Each character matches what he sings. The Kitchen God is already in charge of the kitchen, so he opens with “I’ve ruled the kitchen for thousands of years, tasted every malt candy and candied fruit,” then puts on the airs of an imperial official: “If you leave your fire unattended, you defy this official’s authority.”
The Kitchen God, who rules the kitchen, urges people not to leave the stove, and the reminder sounds like a scolding.
Houyi, who shot down the suns, first sings “I shot down the suns and saw through illusions,” then changes tack: “Leaving it plugged in when fully charged is foolish madness.”
The more familiar the character, the easier it is for viewers to remember what he sang. The character’s name stays labeled vertically in the top right corner of the frame, and the subtitles follow the lyrics line by line, so the message comes through even if a word is hard to catch.
03
Nezha, the Kitchen God, Huowa and Houyi come from different stories with wildly different costume styles; putting them together as-is would make the frame chaotic.
We first built a warm red recording studio: a large-diaphragm microphone, a pop filter, a music stand and framed pictures on the wall. All four characters sing in this studio with consistent lighting and color, so they look like one band recording a song.
Then we used the headphones to give each one a signature mark: Nezha has flames, the Kitchen God copper coins, Huowa a red calabash and Houyi the sun.Members of the same boy band, yet each instantly recognizable.
The character looks were refined step by step. Take the Kitchen God: first we created a traditional Kitchen God seated in a grand armchair, with the character for “stove” on his hat; then we added copper-coin headphones and changed him to a standing pose; once in the studio, we made him a bit plumper and added realistic skin texture to his face.
04
The song had to rotate among four characters, with frequent group shots for the chorus. If each section were assigned to only one singer, the edit would have no options.
We first split the whole song into sections: intro, Nezha’s section, the Kitchen God’s section, Huowa’s section, Houyi’s section and the chorus.For every section of audio, we made a lip-sync version with each of the four characters.That gave the edit full freedom: who sings this line, who gets the next one, and which two lines become two-shots.
The intro was split out and made separately. There is no singing in the intro, and if it were generated together with the rest of the song, the characters’ mouths would keep moving, which looks awkward.
To get the lip sync accurate, we went back to the song, cleaned up every slurred word one by one, then redid the lip sync. For the interludes, we also made extended performance clips so the characters keep moving to the beat when there are no lyrics.
Solo and two-shot frames switch every second; because every character had ready-made lip-sync footage to choose from, the edit could cut this tightly.
05
The first few seconds of a short video decide whether viewers swipe away.
So the film opens with the chorus: a shout of “Prevent fires! Prevent fires!”, the four tips switching rapidly among the characters, landing on Houyi’s “Safety~ 666.” Even viewers who watch only the first ten seconds have already heard all four tips.
It opens straight into “Prevent fires! Prevent fires!”, with a different character singing each tip.
Only then does Nezha’s rap begin, covering the details section by section. Finally the chorus returns, the camera pulls back to a wide shot of the studio, and all four raise their fists toward the camera, wrapping up with a shout of “Go!”
The closing freeze-frame starts from the final four-member group photo, so the Fire Boy Band ends with a group appearance.
06
The film was released simultaneously on Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat Channels and Weibo, earning 27K likes, 4,500 shares and 7,500 recommendations across platforms.
The fire safety message isn’t new; what changed is how it’s told: have characters the audience knows sing it, hold attention with the contrast of “fire-players urging fire safety,” and then use a song people can hum along to, carrying the four tips straight to their ears.
In terms of method, we first defined the characters, then unified the setting, then lip-synced section by section and shaped the rhythm in the edit. The same workflow suits other public service campaigns, science explainers and brand shorts: when you need to get a few specific points across and still keep people watching to the end, find the right group of characters to sing them.
FAQ
Each character first gets a “final studio image,” and every lip-sync clip starts from that image; costumes, headphone marks and the studio setting stay the same throughout. The four-member ending was also first composited into a final group photo, then retouched to align the microphone stands before being turned into a moving shot.
Yes. This film split the whole song into the intro, each character’s section and the chorus, and lip-synced each separately; the intro has no singing and was handled on its own to keep the characters’ mouths from moving randomly; where a word was sung unclearly, we fixed the song first and then redid the lip sync.
The project kicked off in early November: per the schedule, storyboard frames and clip samples were delivered on the 5th, the complete sample on the evening of the 7th, and the revised final on the 8th, in time to launch around National Fire Safety Day.
This film is 9:16 vertical, about 1 minute 39 seconds, and was released simultaneously on Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat Channels and Weibo. Besides the subtitled final film, we also delivered a clean version so platforms could add their own packaging.
Approach
The approved Nezha image set the style standard for the characters, which were then expanded using each figure’s reference images. The Kitchen God’s build, hands and skin texture, and Houyi’s face, body proportions and headphone glow were each refined in detail so the mythical costumes and realistic performances look cohesive. The microphones in the group photo also match the recording equipment used in the solos.
The song was first annotated by knowledge section with singing style and vocal tone, then the diction and pronunciation were corrected on the chosen version. Lip-sync footage was made for each section of the final audio, then combined into solo, two-shot and four-member shots; the ending cuts to a wider four-member pose, so the tips sung section by section all come back to the Fire Boy Band’s group performance.
More Work
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