[KT AI P.A.N. Interview ③] A Brave AI Movie Capturing Dance, Song, and Joseon... Special IP Best Award 'Joseon's Idol' Team ArtTech

Since the emergence of generative AI, countless AI videos have flooded the market, but 〈Joseon's Idol〉 stands out. The audacious imagination of challenging the class system of Joseon through music goes beyond mere eye candy and hints at new possibilities for 'AI movies.' The short film 〈Joseon's Idol〉, which won the Best Award in the Special IP category at the 2025 KT AI P.A.N. competition, is a fusion historical drama set in the Joseon era, featuring character designs utilizing the appearance of real actors, armed with a spirit of challenge through dance and song. The storytelling, which builds a narrative for 14 minutes with materials rarely seen even in live-action films, evokes the idea that AI is a tool and partner for creators. Let's feel the sincerity of these brave creators through a conversation with Team ArtTech (Kang Seung-yoon, Shim Eun-sung), who presented 〈Joseon's Idol〉. Meanwhile, this year's award-winning works can be enjoyed on the KT Genie TV YouTube channel ‘Genius Cut’ and Genie TV VOD.

How did you come to submit to the KT AI P.A.N. video competition?

Kang Seung-yoon We are students in a department called Art Engineering at university. We learn a lot of things in the department, such as games, 3D, VFX, etc. We had experience with video production assignments using AI, so we thought about what we could do during the vacation season, and that led us to challenge the competition. Among them, we decided to challenge the IP category with actor Go Jun because it seemed like the most fun to work on. It was also a section where we could gain inspiration and think of various ideas.

How did you feel when you won the award at the ceremony?

Shim Eun-sung I didn't expect it at all. I wasn't satisfied with the quality, so I was very surprised and happy to receive such a big award as the Best Award, and I wanted to develop further and create higher quality works.

〈Joseon's Idol〉 starts with a scene of a teacher teaching. Is there a reason you chose this frame-like structure?

Shim Eun-sung The theme involves meeting low-status individuals such as slaves, gisaeng, and the illegitimate children, and there is an attempt to reform the class system. I thought that if we set it as a real historical event in the movie, the theme would be more emphasized, so we did it that way.

Kang Seung-yoon To add, we didn't want a purely fictional story; we wanted some historical accuracy from the beginning of the planning. So there are many parts that are historically accurate, such as the fact that illegitimate children could not rise above a certain status. Considering this historical background, we wanted to emphasize those aspects by making it seem like it was part of the class content or something that actually happened in history.

Since it is a work that uses a lot of music and dance, it must have been more difficult. How did you prepare the song and dance?

Kang Seung-yoon I was in charge of the song, and there are two major stages in the work. Go Jun's debut stage and a group stage for the three of us. I also like hip-hop and idol music, so I listened to a lot of it, and since the theme is about idols, I tried to use music from other groups as references. I put the script into an LLM (large language model) and asked it to create lyrics for a song that fits this atmosphere, then I refined it with my personal thoughts. I thought it would be nice to have a Joseon era feel, so the first lyrics that came out were something like 'Will you let me be your idol?' and I changed it to something like 'I will be your husband.' For the final stage, since I like hip-hop, I manually matched the rhymes and edited the lyrics.

Shim Eun-sung For the dance, I made the song first and then created the storyboard. I'm not a dance expert, so I couldn't choreograph it myself. So, for Go Jun's solo stage, I asked AI to dance and created several versions, then pieced them together in a cohesive way. However, I thought the final stage was the most important, so I referenced key movements that could be key points in the choreography. I think I created key point choreography referencing SEVENTEEN's 'Son Goku' and 〈K-Pop Demon Hunters〉's 'Your Idol' until AI could implement it.

I felt that you reflected film grammar well, such as match cuts and inserts, while watching 〈Joseon's Idol〉. Did you both study video direction?

Kang Seung-yoon We developed it while continuously discussing together. I am actually a programmer, so I don't know much about video or anything like that. However, I love movies and videos, and I studied a lot to create AI movies, so there were parts that I thought would be good to include during that process. Eun-sung has a major in art and loves videos, so we talked and studied together, thinking it would be cooler to do it this way.

Can you tell us about the tools and workflow used in the production of 〈Joseon's Idol〉?

Shim Eun-sung We originally planned to make a 5-6 minute short film and came up with the idea of 'Joseon's Idol,' writing the story and script. (After writing the script) it seemed like it would exceed 20 minutes. So we recruited seven more people to ask for video production, and after we created the storyboard, we divided the work into 15-25 parts. We used Midjourney for images and Veo 3 for video.

Kang Seung-yoon Since Veo 3 is made by Google, the guidelines are strict. For example, you can't have faces of people, and you can't resemble famous people. So there were scenes we couldn't create, and for those scenes, we used Hailuo, which is an AI made in China and is somewhat more lenient. So scenes like slapping the face were well created. We mainly used three tools, including Runway.

Shim Eun-sung Even if we referenced actor Go Jun's face, it doesn't come out 100% the same, so we tried face swapping, but it looked strange. So I also edited the faces and adjusted the colors using Photoshop.

What do you think about the future of AI movies?

Kang Seung-yoon While making this work, I felt that at the current level, it absolutely cannot replace (live-action movies). I think the difference between real actors' performances and what AI produces is quite pronounced from a producer's perspective. Like in the fields of special effects or VFX, I think it is more suitable to play a supporting role in the background for now, and only after developing further can it achieve commercial movie quality.

Shim Eun-sung I also think that fully AI-generated videos have significant limitations commercially, and even if we use AI, it should be in a way that expands the ratio of filmed material or modifies parts with AI without being noticeable. Currently, that is the case, but I hope that in the future, the level will rise to the point where it can be used prominently.