“12.12: The Day,” which gave the Korean film industry a lifeline, has now passed the 5 million mark in tickets sold at the box office. Thanks to the box success of “12.12: The Day” and the film’s overall cinematic quality, Dexter Studios, which worked on this film, has been attracting attention.
Dexter Studio (206560), a company specializing in VFX and content production, announced on December 7 that it worked on the DI (digital intermediate) technology for the movie “12.12: The Day.” The company said that its subsidiary Livetone was in charge of sound effects, which added the final touches to the film.
“12.12: The Day” is a film depicting the nine hours Korea endured to prevent a coup by a new military regime at Korea’s capital, Seoul, on December 12, 1979.
The film was directed by Kim Sung-su, who previously directed the movies “Asura: The City of Madness,” “Flu,” “City of the Rising Sun,” and “Beat.” It made headlines early with its cast that included top actors Hwang Jung-min, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Sung-min, Park Hae-joon, and Kim Sung-kyun. The film continues to earn rave reviews due in large part to the passionate performances of the actors who portrayed real historical figures with great context and depth.
Director Park Jin-young, a colorist at Dexter Studios’ DI headquarters who supervised the ditigal intermediate work for “12.12: The Day,” said, “Before we started working on the film, cinematographer Lee Mo-gae gave me a photo album with textures and color contrasts that reminded him of the 70s for reference. Using that, I set up the whole concept for the film. In particular, we focused on the contrast to really bring out everyone’s eyes and expressions.” Park explained, “In order to show the difference between the place and the characters, we used red undertones in moments of struggle and blue undertones in cool and calm parts of the movie to create a contrasting effect. We also took some bold risks to express a heavier texture by adjusting noise through the grain process.”
Meanwhile, cinematographer Lee Mo-gae said, “I looked at things from the perspective of an observer who had just time-traveled into the past. I was focused on capturing the ambiance and people who were part of the scene.” He continued, “The scenes I shot came out great thanks to the post-processing done by Director Park. It really focused the movie on its theme, each character’s emotions, and the overall backdrop for the whole incident on December 12. And I think the intended composition and viewpoint became even more noticeable and better conveyed to the audience.”
Choi Tae-young, CEO of Livetone and sound supervisor who designed the sound for “12.12: The Day,” said, “We focused on effects that could maximize tension, such as the sounds of gunshots and artillery fire, vehicles, boots on the ground, radios, loudspeakers, and telephone calls. We also paid attention to the sense of space as well as the confrontation between characters. Given how the story just flies by with such urgency, we put a lot of effort into even the smallest elements of the sound mixing to support the entire narrative.”
Kim Sung-su, who directed the film, said, “I wanted to recreate a film that delivered an accurate impression of such a confusing time in our history, but at the same time, convey things in a responsible way.” He explained, “The important point of this film is the different sounds in each space and situation. Our sound supervisor, Mr. Choi, carefully separated the sounds to help distinguish between different sounds and make them as clear as possible. I believed we conquered this mountain of a task with relative ease thanks to Livetone which aligned the music with lines just belted out by our actors.
Meanwhile, recent projects where Dexter Studios worked on the digital intermediate and sound include the Disney+ original series “Moving,” the Netflix original series “Mask Girl,” and the films “The Moon” and “Cobweb.” The company continues to demonstrate its unrivaled skills in post-production, including CG and VFX work, for both theaters and OTT platforms.
