The film 'Streaming,' driven by the delicate work of director Jo Jang-ho and a passionate veteran production team, has revealed its production behind-the-scenes.
#The leading contributor to realism, one-take filming
Director Jo Jang-ho, who believed that 'the essence of film is real-time broadcasting,' made the bold decision to film most scenes in one take. Cinematographer Kang Sang-hyeob focused on "implementing the properties of real-time and on-site feel."
To capture the maddening expressions and eyes of 'Idol,' the filming team maintained a close shooting distance between the character and the camera, using a wide-angle prime lens and a stabilizing equipment called a gimbal to shoot key scenes. Even in the high-tension chase scenes of 'Idol,' they aimed to maintain the one-take concept while highlighting the differences between the types of cameras and gimbals, relentlessly challenging both their established techniques and new attempts.
#Art that captures both realism and unfamiliarity
Art director Park Ok-kyung established the primary concept of wanting to create a unified perception where the streaming broadcast gives a raw, realistic feeling yet becomes a medium where truth and falsehood are hard to distinguish. She intended to create a setting where in all spaces of the film 'Streaming,' the actor enters the stage as if it is real, while also giving a feeling of being somewhat unreal. Amid the enthusiastic support of viewers chasing stimulation and sensationalism, she designed most spaces in a narrow and elongated passage to evoke a feeling of 'Idol' 'entering the stage from behind the curtain.'
Additionally, all personal spaces in 'Streaming' projected the characters. After profound discussions about the values of director Jo Jang-ho and 'Idol,' the art team differentiated the space from regular streaming channels while showcasing 'Idol's' bravado and poise, who monopolizes the number one spot in subscribers. They set up a space where 'his successful background is visible but his ostentatious character and desires subtly emerge, following trends while remaining unflashy.'
'Matilda's' house also chose a method of using lighting to form a distance between broadcast and reality as an extension of 'strangering.' After countless tests on which fabric would be effectively illuminated, they used red lighting on gray curtains, intending to highlight the space's characteristics to evoke a sense of being mistaken when transitioning to mundane moments.
#VFX that realized true streaming
Director Jo Jang-ho paid great attention to elements such as commercials positioned in between, realistic chat windows that emerge, and sponsorships bursting like jackpots to make it look like an actual internet broadcast. As director Jo noted that "comments were a form of mise-en-scène," the real-time comments in 'Streaming,' which added stimulation on top of stimulation, played a crucial role in enhancing the viewing pleasure, and the VFX team dedicated immense efforts to working on the comments.
Park Seong-jin, the VFX supervisor, stated that it was important for the comment window to be both well-designed and sufficiently visible without greatly affecting the film's screen since it constitutes an axis of the images showcased throughout the movie. Given the substantial proportion of the screen occupied by the comment window, illustrators manually designed the comments to be transparent cells rather than using an opaque black comment box, thereby enhancing its aesthetic quality while minimizing disruption to the movie's visuals. Since the actual real-time comments in live broadcasts rise unpredictably in speed and volume, they set various speed intervals for each scene to add a layer of variability to the detail, further enhancing the film's quality.
#Sound responsible for the dynamics of the live broadcast
Director Gong Tae-won, responsible for sound, emphasized the 'filmic liveliness' when implementing the voice of the sponsorship chat from the 'Waege' channel. Rather than a mechanical voice used on actual internet broadcasting platforms, he thought it necessary to borrow a 'performance' of a mechanical voice for filmic pleasure and decided to record with various voice actors to break monotonousness. Four voice actors participated, recording over 100 sponsorship chats, while the production team placed voices corresponding to situations and scenes. The voice of Lee Jeong-soo, a voice actor from 'Squid Game,' was used for the sponsorship chat voice and to explain the 'Waege' worldview, while voice actor Yoon Yong-sik participated in the weekly analysis content, and Kwon Hyuk-soo made a surprise appearance. The voice of the enigmatic character 'KJ5385,' which added tension to the drama, was created by enhancing actor Ha Hyun-soo's voice with sound effects.
The film 'Streaming,' which has brought forth an unprecedented vividness, is a thriller that depicts the story of a crime channel streamer, 'Idol,' who discovers clues to a serial murder case that had remained unsolved and broadcasts the process of tracking the killer in real-time.
[Photo] Lotte Entertainment
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