[KT AI P.A.N. Interview ⑥] Short Film Category Jury Special Award 'The Orange' CLUB RONAIC

A work that touched the hearts of the judges at the 2025 KT AI P.A.N video contest. Ultimately, the judges decided to award a special prize. The protagonist is the CLUB RONAIC team’s 〈The Orange〉. The story of a boy with a father who works in the sky wearing a large orange stimulated the judges' emotions even with a short duration of just over 5 minutes. In the latter part, where it is realized that a child's strange imagination actually penetrates reality, we can glimpse the 'power of storytelling' that the CLUB RONAIC team speaks of. We had the opportunity to closely examine 〈The Orange〉 from CLUB RONAIC artists Kim Yu-mi and Jang Soo-yeon. Meanwhile, this year's award-winning works can be enjoyed on the KT Genie TV YouTube channel 'Genius Cut' and Genie TV VOD.

I'm curious about how you got involved in this KT AI P.A.N video contest.

Kim Yu-mi Today, TOTM, who couldn't come here, was the first to suggest it.

Jang Soo-yeon We started working together as a trio from June. Previously, I was working with TOTM, and Kim Yu-mi joined us around June, and since then, we have been achieving unexpected results.

Kim Yu-mi We won an award at the Daewoo Construction AI Media Art Contest and all went to see the exhibition together. We said that to create something good, we need to see good things. At that time, TOTM was encouraged by an acquaintance to consider entering the KT contest, but we had been working on something prior and had some energy depletion from the contest. So we hesitated a bit, but after the Daewoo contest was completely wrapped up and we had some breathing room, we talked again. At that time, we had accumulated scenarios, so we decided to choose one of them to submit in the short film category (the opinion was gathered). The IP category of the contest was good, but we thought it would be a good test to present the scenario we had to the world. Among the scenarios, the one that was of appropriate length and seemed good to test as the first result was 〈The Orange〉. Since the synopsis and research materials were already prepared, we thought we could start working right away.

Jang Soo-yeon We are not a team that came together to enter a contest. Each of us has our own stories, and since it’s hard to do it alone, we had been working on a project regardless of the contest. However, it was a long and complex story that was difficult to implement, so halfway through, we received an award at a previous contest, and it was the day we first gathered to say, “Let’s eat something delicious.” At that time, we heard about the KT contest, and although we considered the IP category with actor Ko Jun, we decided that since we are a team that values storytelling, it would be right to do it with our own story. We usually share and develop ideas or stories as they come to us.

How did you develop the story for 〈The Orange〉?

Jang Soo-yeon The original idea was thought of by Kim Yu-mi.

Kim Yu-mi When I commute, I take the subway and bus a couple of times. Nowadays, many buses have TVs installed. There’s a limit to just looking at my phone, so I often zone out while watching those TVs. Various videos come out, and there was a video about summer safety rules, I think? A man wearing a safety helmet was sitting in the front, and there was an orange circle hanging on the wall behind him. At first, I didn’t recognize it as a safety helmet and thought, ‘Why is an orange suddenly appearing?’ So the next day, I paid more attention and realized it was a safety helmet. Seeing that made me think that children might see it as an orange. That’s where I developed the idea. While visualizing, I dealt with the 1910s to 20s, and since it was a safety helmet, I thought there would be a lot of high-rise work, and in the 1920s, many high-rise buildings were being built in the U.S., so I thought it would be nice to depict the world from the perspective of a child whose father is a construction worker. That’s how it developed.

Jang Soo-yeon Initially, there were dialogues. Then we concluded to minimize the dialogues and focus on music and sound effects, thinking that it could connect to scenes that focus more on the child's emotions. Following the child's emotions could lead to a greater impact at the end, and without dialogues, we could compress the video and create a symbolic poetic sequence that stimulates childlike innocence.

I was reminded of the construction photo of the Empire State Building in the last picture. I'm curious if the part without dialogues was intentional and if you targeted a global audience.

Jang Soo-yeon We didn’t specifically target anything. I wanted to give the video a warm feeling, so I wanted it to have a retro vibe. However, at that time, it was before such high-rise buildings came to the East. Considering both factors, the background ended up being foreign.

Kim Yu-mi That photo was indeed intended. Just looking at it gives a dizzying feeling, and it reminded me of the safety helmet and high-rise buildings. So I had already envisioned the last scene in my mind, and the images to go into that scene were already determined one by one.

Jang Soo-yeon It came out early on, the last scene.

If you could tell us about the tools and workflow you used in the process of creating 〈The Orange〉?

Jang Soo-yeon The image work was done using Midjourney. There’s nothing as beautiful and diverse as Midjourney. This time it was not realistic but animated, so it was even more so. I didn’t just use Midjourney; I also used various tools like Whisk and Dreamina for references and compositions. For the video, I think I used KLING or Luma a lot. I also used Veo 3. Although it hasn’t been officially released in Korea, I also used Seedance. In the editing process, I used Photoshop a lot.

Kim Yu-mi There are some details in the selected images that are lacking. So I used Photoshop's Firefly to adjust the details.

Jang Soo-yeon When looking at the results made by AI, there are details that are not very clear or unnecessarily created. For those, I would cleanly erase them in Photoshop for consistency with previous images, or I would use it when trying to expand the image to match its ratio. The tools have been standardized so that even ordinary people can produce high-quality images or videos, but maintaining consistency as a single story is the difference between those who have done it and those who haven’t. It’s a battle of how to combine which tools to produce the desired results. It took about 3 weeks. Since it was less than a month, there are still parts that were made hastily and are visible. However, I never thought that such a significant achievement would come from what we did in 3 weeks, so I feel much happier than I expected.

Was there a particularly difficult scene while making it?

Kim Yu-mi I can’t even describe it. (Everyone laughs) It would probably be easier to pick an easy scene. There are many emotional delivery scenes in the film. When I barely create them as images, they get muddled or fail to convey emotions when turned into video, so matching them is difficult because distortions occur in the video. Still, if I had to pick one, there was a scene I wanted to emphasize. It’s the scene where a child who was teased on the way home comes home and hugs their mother. It’s a crucial moment where the child bursts into tears in their mother’s arms after holding back their tears. I thought it was important to make it well, but it just wouldn’t come out well. So the credits really melted away. (Everyone laughs) After a lot of iterations, I could see in the records later, ‘Ah, this scene was difficult.’

Jang Soo-yeon It was difficult, so I passed it on to someone else, and when I tried it, if they found it difficult, I found it difficult too. ‘Why can’t you make that? I’ll try it,’ and when I did, I realized, ‘Oh, it is difficult.’ The OK scene was probably made by TOTM. He is someone who challenges endlessly until the desired scene comes out. The emotions are really difficult. 〈The Orange〉 has sadness embedded in it, but it overcomes it with the love of family, which gives it a dual feeling. So expressions need to transition naturally, but that’s really hard for AI. For example, in the scene where the mother is looking at the orange hanging, no matter how much I tell it not to move its mouth, it does. The AI learning process involves labeling, right? Sad, happy, that sort of thing. In that labeling process, ambiguous expressions usually don’t get labeled, and they label accurate expressions. That part was the hardest, the subtle emotions of humans.

It seems like the door to AI films has opened. How do you see the future of AI films?

Kim Yu-mi I see it positively, not negatively. There have been noticeably more contests since last year. When we look for contests to enter, many domestic and international film festivals have emerged. So to some extent, I believe that people are recognizing AI films as films, as a genre. However, I think that to say 'AI film,' the quality of each work must be guaranteed more than what the industry recognizes. For example, the story, visual beauty, and so on must also be met. I had a lot of concerns about extending the length, but last year I watched a film called 〈M Hotel〉. It was less than 10 minutes long. At that time, I thought, ‘Oh, I can make it longer.’ Until then, I had never seen an AI video of that length. Now the works from the KT contest have been released. Many of them are over 10 minutes long. Seeing that, I thought the era has come where amateurs can also create works longer than 10 minutes. Given the speed of technological advancement, I think there will come a day when feature-length AI films equivalent to an hour will be shown in theaters. The current situation in the film industry is not good. I think we need to think and prepare for works that can create a theater experience that traditional cinema is struggling with, as AI can do that.

Jang Soo-yeon I also tend to see it positively. Since I see it positively, I guess I would do this work? (laughs) If there were no AI, would we have been able to show our content with such good stories or plans in the existing system? Traditional films require hundreds or thousands of people, capital, and time from the idea stage. We made a 5-minute animation with just three people. So, I think many people who want to tell stories like us will take on such challenges. I believe AI can be a tool of possibility and a creative partner. There are many types of traditional films: blockbusters, independent films, short films, alternative films, etc., and each genre receives different levels of interest. Then AI can also establish itself as one of those genres. Moreover, I think that using this technology in traditional films will lead to a more efficient and economical film industry infrastructure in the long run, so it will be accepted as an element of the industry. In fact, while I was working, I had contact with film directors and production companies. I have provided consulting, and there are those who submitted to contests. So I see it as a good prospect since filmmakers are also accepting it.

I'm also curious about your feelings when you won the award.

Kim Yu-mi I was so nervous and flustered that I couldn’t say everything. I wanted to thank the judges, but I probably forgot. Winning the excellence award was approached with a certain strategy. We were considering making an IP category, but we decided to frame it as a short film. I thought that since the IP would likely lead to many animations based on webtoons, short films would probably have more realistic styles. So I thought that if we entered as 3D animation, we would stand out. That’s what I thought.

Jang Soo-yeon I thought it was just about ‘we have to tell our story.’ (Everyone laughs)

Kim Yu-mi So I thought about it again. I was concerned, but I thought this strategy was right, and winning the excellence award made me feel proud that the strategy was correct. After winning the excellence award, I relaxed and watched the talk program. In that talk program, actor Jo Woo-jin said, ‘There’s a work that made me cry,’ and he talked about establishing a special award for that work, and since there was no disagreement among the judges, they decided to create the award. I was so curious about what that work was. At that time, only the grand prize, excellence award, and jury special award were announced, so I naturally thought it would be a work that hadn’t won yet. I really like actor Jo Woo-jin, and he came up on stage as the presenter for the jury special award. So I was just praying with my hands together, thinking, ‘I want to receive an award from that person.’ But I was the only one nervous, and when they called out ‘The Orange,’ I was the only one who heard it and jumped up and screamed. My team members were surprised by my scream. (laughs)

Jang Soo-yeon Neither I nor TOTM expected it, so we didn’t even know they called 〈The Orange〉. Kim Yu-mi and TOTM are really fans of Jo Woo-jin. They go to stage greetings and everything. But since he said that he saw such an emotional work and that’s why they established the award, both of us were just thinking, ‘I’m so jealous, who could it be, what work could it be?’ So I ran out without thinking about the surrounding gazes like a child.

Kim Yu-mi I went out with my bag still on, preparing to go home. Even while receiving the award, I was only thinking about Jo Woo-jin and insisted that we must take a picture afterward.

Jang Soo-yeon After receiving the award, we talked over dinner, and I thought this was really important for us who make videos with AI. We develop the stories ourselves. While living, we awaken stories through human experiences, emotions, and senses, but let’s make it like a story that can be told in a film, not an AI film. Let’s erase AI from AI films. In the past, it was about female teachers, actresses, but now it’s not the trend anymore. We thought that since we are making an AI film, we should focus more on the stories that films can provide. To do that, we should focus on stories that contain human experiences, senses, and emotions. This award gives us confidence and assurance that we set the right direction, and it is very precious. TOTM, who couldn’t come today, wrote down what our team wants to say in one line, and I will convey it in his words: “The stories we want to create are what we want to see, what we want to see again, and what is worth watching over time.”

Are you currently working on any projects?

Kim Yu-mi There are many planned projects. (laughs) We are still discussing which one to start with. I think we will start working soon.

Jang Soo-yeon We have a style of bringing out the stories we want to tell, so as we work, the technology needed differs from what we thought in our heads. So sometimes we start but pause to wait for better technology to come out, and sometimes we had an idea level, but when the technology comes out, we can quickly pull up what we had postponed while matching our breath. I think next time we will probably do a mystery thriller in a realistic style.