K-Content News
- July 21, 2021
‹Kairos›, a TV drama that makes time fly
Written by Ra-hee KWON
Photo by Sung-jae KIM
Resonation, energy, and catharsis
Q. ‹Kairos› has been widely praised for its incredible story and directing, and for its passionate cast. What’s your response to this acclaim?
A. We were able to finish the show thanks to the love and support we received. With our viewers’ support,‹Kairos‹ became one of Oh! Story’s most popular TV dramas. What most struck me was one viewer’s comment, who said, “The drama is about the resonation, energy, and catharsis of people who refuse to give up.”
Q. What led you to produce ‹Kairos›?
A. The screenplay captured me when I first read it. The ending of every episode was compelling, twisting the plot in ways that didn’t allow me to anticipate what would happen next. I was so impressed that I felt I had to make it into a drama. By changing the original script’s time gap from one year to one month, we were able to intensify the suspense. It helped facilitate and smoothen production.
Q. Why did you decide on a time-crossing thriller?
A. ‹Kairos› is a drama in which the characters live separately in the present and the future, forging relationships, helping one another, and fighting to stop a past tragedy from occurring. That’s the basic premise of the plot, and ‹Kairos› differs from previous time-slip dramas where characters might travel through time, yet would remain in the same time zone. In ‹Kairos›, characters uncover facts they didn’t previously know and go back and forth between the past and the present. I’m sure the crises, confrontations, and plot twists generated throughout this process would bring big thrills and fun to the audience.
Q. This is the first drama that writer Su-hyun LEE and director Seung-u PARK worked on. How did you all end up working together?
A. Writers and directors are responsible for scripts and directing, respectively — they’re the pillars of a drama. Ms. Lee and Mr. Park became shoulders I could lean on. Ms. Lee is a talented writer with an incredible attitude. She’s humble, yet confident with her scripts. I became excited every time I was handed a screenplay of hers; once I’d begin reading one, I couldn’t put it down. Mr. Park already had experience with co-directing. He’s also a very funny person, so I enjoyed working with him. He has a reputation for directing actors and staff on film sets and dramas like ‹W› and ‹The Guardians›. Mr. Park suggested plenty of fresh ideas to us, possibly because he’s so passionate about dramas, giving detailed and appropriate continuity. Everyone on set trusted and followed him, an important skill for any TV drama producer and one I appreciate in Mr. Park.
Q. The cast’s performance received a lot of attention.
A. Our entire cast gave impressive performances in each scene. They showed great chemistry. ‘MBC Drama Awards’’ serial report of the award made me really happy because it recognized their great efforts. Gu SHIN successfully played a character who was so different from the ones he usually portrays. Gyu-ri NAM’s successful portrayal of a sociopath who masquerades as a beautiful girl stunned audiences. Bo-hyun AHN communicated feelings of deep sorrow and love through his acting. Se-young Lee, who was the life of the party on set, gave an energetic performance. And Sung-rok SHIN’s acting made him resemble a character in his own right. Their overall chemistry made ‹Kairos› a lasting drama in the minds of our audiences.
Q. Is there a particular scene the cast or crew struggled with?
A. That would be the scene in the hotel concert hall where Seo-jin’s daughter was kidnapped. It’s hard to rent a premium hotel to shoot a scene — and the rental and setting costs are fairly expensive. We barely managed to rent a hotel and set a date for the scene. But we were also stymied by the pandemic. As the number of confirmed cases continued to rise, the importance of social distancing became more acute. We decided to postpone the scene until it was safe for the cast and crew to shoot everything and promised the hotel that we would follow their pandemic prevention rules and move as quickly as we could. Back then, I explained to the cast and crew that we only had one day to finish the scene. At this, I saw a determination in their eyes. We originally thought it would take at least three days to finish the scene; but when push came to shove, we had to complete everything in one day. We did a lot of things in that one day and the result was really great. The scene was finished thanks to the crew’s preparedness and the cast’s terrific abilities.
Q. How much post-production work did the crew have?
A. We poured our very best efforts into all post-production — including music, musical effects, CGI, and color correction. Because the show is a drama, every scene needed some CGI component. We used CGI to make scenes look more realistic and dramatic, and tried to distinguish the different temporalities with color filters. Seo-jin’s future, for example, used blue tones while Ae-ri’s past had a soft amber tone. The color contrast was intensified as the drama unfolded. The result was a high-quality drama, and I’m incredibly happy with the result.
Q. It’s said most dramas cost several billion won to produce. Which scenes are most expensive?
A. That would be scene No. 47 of the drama’s fifth episode, in which the building collapses at the construction site. The scene shows the relationship between Seo-jin and Ae-ri’s father, who were both buried at the construction site. This scene is also the starting point for Seo-jin in the future and Ae-ri in the past — they’re connected through Ae-ri’s father’s cell phone. Since the scene helps the audience understand how the drama will next unfold, the cast and crew cared about it enormously; I also poured as much funding into the scene as I could. Since ‹Kairos› has been selected as a project for the ‘Korea Creative Content Agency’s 2020 Video Content Funding Project’, we did our best in wrapping up the drama and received a launchpad for our next project. I interpret this as encouragement for Oh! Story’s present and its future. Production support is of great help to small production companies with less finances
Q. Is there a particular principle you emphasized while producing ‹Kairos›?
A. Making a drama is all about teamwork — you work with so many people across so many different fields. Because of this, clear communication is perhaps the most important thing to emphasize. The cast and crew’s competence is, of course, important, yet clear communication enhances the quality of a good drama. When filming ‹Kairos›, safety was our top priority. To prevent accidents from happening through carelessness, we held safety courses before filming. We also sterilized all shooting locations and facilities before filming. Though we encountered some filming difficulties because of the pandemic, I was energized by my colleagues who always showed up to work with a smile and the positive energy they instilled in one another on-site.
Working on set
Q. You’ve been in TV drama production for some time. What does a drama producer do?
A. Planning producers are involved in planning, producing, and marketing a drama — they oversee all stages of a show. At the planning stage, the producer focuses on getting new materials and items. When they’ve chosen what they’re going to produce, they find a writer and begin to create an environment that will help them finish planning the screenplay and map out production. At the production stage, producers create several arrangements to have the drama listed with broadcasting companies and attract financial backers. They also direct and organize the cast and crew to smoothen the overall production process. At the marketing stage, producers meet various foreign buyers to promote the drama and export it overseas. They also negotiate with advertisers and agents to attract product placement advertisements. Planning producers cover many things at both the front and back ends of a TV drama.
Q. Comparing today’s drama production environment to when you first started your career, what’s changed?
A. Today, we have a larger diversity of cable and general channels and more flexible TV programming options. When you start filming a TV drama today, the screenplay must be more than 50% complete and you have to follow the 52-hour workweek mandate. But when I entered the field as a line producer in 2006, it was very common to shoot a TV drama with an incomplete script and work through the night without breaks until the episode’s release. This culture arose to earn higher ratings — writers would change the screenplay based on viewers’ reactions to the previous episode. As the production environment has changed, there have been some changes to increase production costs. But these changes also help us more systematically and effectively produce dramas and have a work-life balance.
Q. What’s your take on over-the-top (OTT) media services? As a producer, what strategies have you developed to adapt to these?
A. OTT media services are central to producing content, and there has definitely been a big change in people’s preferences for media content. OTT platforms support drama production and offer high copyright fees, allowing production companies to experiment with new stories in various formats and make high-quality dramas in financially stable environments. For this reason, producing an OTT drama is now one of our company’s goals. We’ve also planned to make a creative team specialized in OTT media services. This will allow us to avoid depending on a popular writer’s talent and establish a new system of finding fresh writers and create dramas with multiple writers.
Q. Are you working on a new drama?
A. I’m currently working on ‹Red Shoes›, which will be out on KBS this July. The TV drama tells the story of a daughter who’s eager to get revenge for her mother, betrays her father, and leaves her ill brother. Myung-gil CHOI, who has continuously impressed audiences in his work, and E-hyun SO, who is full of positive energy, passionately act in this drama. I’m sure audiences will enjoy it.
Ok-hyun SON
Ok-hyun SON is the president of Oh! Story. He produced the MBC drama ‹Kairos›. He participated in the MBC dramas, ‹A Pledge to God›, ‹My Daughter, Geum Sa-weol›, ‹Jang Bo-ri Is Here!›,‹Pasta› and the KBS drama ‹Two Mothers› as a production director or producer. He entered the TV production field as a producer at Olive9 Entertainment and occupies the posts of production director at Jidam and co-representative director at Yein E&M. He’s currently working on the KBS drama ‹Red Shoes›.
KOCCA’s Video Content Funding Project
KOCCA’s Video Content Funding Project is a project to find and support creative video content with a global competitiveness level. It covers content that the industry needs, like broadcasting and new media dramas, dramas with new technology, and OTT dramas. It also supports creating variety shows, educational shows, documentaries, and format programs.
Poster for MBC Monday-Tuesday Drama ‹Kairos› ⒸMBC
The Cast of MBC Monday-Tuesday Drama ‹Kairos› ⒸOh! Story
The Set of MBC Monday-Tuesday Drama ‹Kairos› ⒸOh! Story
