page_title: Korean drama
section_title: Filmmaking process
hierarchical_section_title: Korean drama / Production / Filmmaking process
caption_attribution_description: English: Kim Soo-hyun as King Lee-hwon at the press conference for "Moon Embracing the Sun", 2 January 2012
context_page_description: Korean dramas, more popularly known as K-dramas, are television series in the Korean language, made in South Korea.
  Korean dramas are popular worldwide, partially due to the spread of Korean popular culture, and their widespread availability via streaming services which often offer subtitles in multiple languages. Many K-dramas have been adapted throughout the world, and some have had great impact on other countries. Some of the most famous dramas have been broadcast via traditional television channels in other countries. For example, Dae Jang Geum was sold to 91 countries. K-dramas have attracted attention for their fashion, style and culture all over the world. The rise in popularity of Korean dramas had led to a great boost to fashion line.
context_section_description: As producing a series involves high expenses, production companies seek to shoot the episodes in the shortest time possible. In contrast to practices elsewhere, the first four episodes of Korean series are usually shot in advance, but the rest are shot continuously as the series is being aired. Scripts are not finished in advance, and may change according to viewer feedback and viewership ratings, where popular characters receive increased screen time and plotlines are changed to match audience expectations. These changes may occur a few hours before daily shooting, and the crew might receive only a few ready pages. The production usually works with three camera crews, who work in a rotating manner to speed up filming. Because of unregulated script changes and tight shooting schedules, actors are almost continuously on standby, and have no time to leave the set or sleep properly. The Korean media have a separate word to describe irregular, short sleeps that actors resort to, in often uncomfortable positions, or within the set: jjok-jam (쪽잠), or "side-sleeping". Dramas usually air two episodes a week, one after the other, with the following episodes having  to be shot within the intervening five days. Some Korean actors have admitted to receiving IV therapy during filming, due to extreme schedules and exhaustion. Nonetheless the live-shoot model remains widely used since the production team can react to real time audience feedback.
  Production teams originally sent two tapes to the channels; a primary copy and a backup copy. However, due to the tight filming schedules, a 70-minute episode might arrive at the broadcasting station on seven separate tapes in ten-minute installments. It happens that while the episode is being broadcast, the crew would be still shooting the last minutes or cutting the rest of the episode. During the airing of the nineteenth episode of Man from the Equator, screens countrywide went black for 10 minutes. Actor Kwon Sang-woo was openly complaining that he was still shooting Queen of Ambition 30 minutes before the last episode began airing. In South Korea, some production teams still do planning and scheduling manually, instead of using dedicated software.
  From late 2014 onwards due to the popularity of Korean dramas abroad, especially the success of My Love from the Star in China, producers have increasingly been pitching and pre-selling the overseas broadcast and streaming rights of their dramas. This has given production teams the budget to move away from the live shoot basis to one in which the drama is completed before broadcast. In 2016, dramas such as Descendants of the Sun, Uncontrollably Fond, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth were all pre-produced before airing. Nonetheless, some pre-produced episodes are often re-edited or even reshot the day of airing, due to audience feedback.
  The larger broadcasting companies have their own dedicated shooting locations for historical dramas, with extensive and elaborate sets. MBC's series are shot at MBC Drama in Gyeonggi, while KBS dramas utilize the Mungyeongsaejae Studio (문경새재 KBS촬영장) in North Gyeongsang and their studio in Suwon.
caption: Kim Soo-hyun in costume for the sageuk Moon Embracing the Sun. Soo-hyun is one of the most popular Korean actors.[34][35]
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