Taking Risks to Complete 'Manager Kim' AI Sequence [AI Survival Guide]

A New Grammar for Commercial Dramas Created by Hong Seongchang and Ryu Jaehwan

The SBS drama 'Manager Kim' features a 3-minute-and-30-second sequence created entirely by artificial intelligence (AI). This was a decision made by the production team, who could not afford the costs of live-action filming. The project was led by Hong Seongchang, CEO of Studio S—known for directing 'You're Beautiful' and 'The King of Dramas' at SBS—and Ryu Jaehwan, Vice CEO of Morpheus Studio, who handled VFX on films like '1947 Boston,' 'Swing Kids,' and 'Flu.' Through meticulous logic and technological validation, they introduced a new paradigm to the commercial drama market.

Drama 'Manager Kim' AI Generated Image / Morpheus Studio.

Drama 'Manager Kim' AI Work Workflow / Morpheus Studio.

This sequence, set in North Korea in the early 2000s, faced hurdles from the planning stage due to live-action budget estimates. CEO Hong noted, "Filming just three minutes was estimated to cost around 500 to 600 million won," highlighting the financial limitations of set production. After completing three days of AI training in November last year, he recalled, "When I asked if anyone knew what Midjourney was, no one responded. I sensed a lot of skepticism among the staff."

Hong witnessed the qualitative difference between the instructor’s demonstration from six months prior and the capabilities at present, choosing to confront the challenge head-on. He said, "No matter how I looked at it, I was convinced it was feasible to produce this with AI," adding, "I put a lot of effort into persuading the team."

Applying uncontrollable generative AI to commercial content demanded rigorous pre-verification and the securing of institutional authority. Ryu, who also planned Morpheus Studio’s integrated platform ‘Aikron,’ stated that upon receiving the initial storyboard—spanning six pages and ninety-eight cuts—he felt overwhelmed by its complexity and unsure how to proceed.

He set up and cleared five extreme tests on his own: the angle of the red star in the North Korean flag, the curve of the tunnel and the texture of the paved road, the accumulation of ice and snow on the overpass, and the physics during motorcycle rides. He also preemptively requested authority to adjust settings, provide first-edit cuts, and perform initial color grading, establishing institutional safeguards. Only after securing both validation and rights was he able to generate the scenes featuring actor So Ji-sub using prompts alone, without any reference images.

AI Content Creation Forum Onsite / Morpheus Studio.

The infinite generative possibilities from massive datasets have reshaped the very concept of pre-production. Using the Aikron workflow, Vice CEO Ryu generated over 500 concept images, more than 1,200 final 4K images, and in excess of 2,000 video clips, assembling about 300 final cuts. This process—repeatedly generating and selecting content—marked a stark difference from the conventional view of AI as merely a support tool for computer graphics (CG). He stated, "If AI gets trapped in the frame of VFX, it ends up being judged as inferior to CG," and urged, "Please see AI not as just a cost-saving method, but as a tool for storytelling."

However, the enormous scale of content generation came with significant risks. When creating a North Korean official character, entering ‘menacing’ as a prompt unintentionally produced the exact face of a certain Korean actor from North Korean spy movies. Vice CEO Ryu stressed the importance of controlling copyright contamination, saying, "We are always cautious about the individuals generated." As for scenes where the main character’s post-synced lip-syncing looked awkward, they circumvented this by precisely trimming the final dialogue cuts. In essence, the limitations of the machine were compensated for by directorial finesse.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.