With the advancement of generative AI, an era has dawned where anyone can become a film director. Recently, major film festivals such as the 'Cannes Film Festival' have begun to separately organize sections for AI-produced short and experimental films, indicating that the AI film market is expanding. Amid this trend, 'Stellar', a 100% AI-produced film with no CG, a production budget of less than 10 thousand won, and a short production period of six months, will be released in October.
On the 7th, a preview screening and press conference for the film 'Stellar' were held at Seoul CGV Yongsan i-Park Mall. Director Seol Woo-in, co-director Won Kyung-hye, Ham Seul-gi (CEO) Studio leader Kang Tae-kyung, leader Oh Se-eun, and Vice Chairman of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee Ha Jung-woo attended.
'Stellar' is Korea's first 90-minute AI feature film. Laon Company Plus and Ainos Studio spent more than 500 million won on AI token costs out of a production budget of less than 10 thousand won.
'Stellar' is an SF action film depicting the story that unfolds when the autonomous judgment robot 'AIRA' perceives humans as a threat. Perhaps because it feels familiar to those accustomed to AI short-form content on Instagram and YouTube, there was a sense of déjà vu, and the actors appearing in the film bore recognizable faces that reminded viewers of others.
There were still awkward parts compared to general films, such as image quality that seemed overwhelming on large theater screens, dubbing with lip movements out of sync by 0.5 seconds, and stiff motions. However, the 90th-minute runtime passed without feeling tedious. In particular, the robot battle scenes, which appeared to have been carefully crafted, were as dazzling and tense as those in general films.
"When making a film with generative AI, what we considered most important was a narrative that could sustain 90 minutes," said Ham (CEO), adding, "Each shot is about 15 seconds long at most, and to create the 90th-minute film, we edited 13,000 results out of tens of thousands of outputs."
He also expressed regret that since most generative AI tools are overseas services, production schedules and costs were affected whenever updates, price hikes, or licensing policies changed. While the government is developing its own AI foundation models, he suggested launching domestic AI tools usable in production environments. The film utilized tools such as Cinedance, Google VEO, and Kling.
Vice Chairman Ha Jung-woo commented on this, saying, "I wrote a paper about video generation AI three or four years ago, and back then it was difficult to maintain consistency even for just a few seconds," adding, "The technological advancement is truly rapid. I watched it with amazement and enjoyment."
He further stated, "To become a cultural powerhouse leading the global stage in the AI era, we must actively support the AI content sector. Just as heroes emerge in turbulent times, perhaps AI can help reshape the content landscape that has become entrenched in Hollywood or Netflix."
Meanwhile, this film is an SF action story about the autonomous judgment robot 'AIRA' perceiving humans as a threat. It follows the familiar cliché of 'Yoon Kang', who was searching for his missing father, teaming up with the AI 'ARA' he created to don the combat suit 'Stellar' left by his father and face a crisis surrounding humanity's worst virus, 'Code Zero'. Although it is an AI film, instead of using AI voices, precise lip-sync work was performed based on actual voice recordings acted by real voice actors.
in TECH
