“Queen of Tears” Filmed Scenes in a Virtual Studio

Airing its special recently, Queen of Tears spotlighted the eye-opening post-production efforts behind, which revealed that key scenes had actually been filmed in a virtual studio!

Forget the Green Screen
With production fees totalling 56 million won, a sizeable amount had been spent on post-production other than the expense of outdoor shoots filmed in Germany. A thrilling car scene where Kim Soo Hyun pursued Park Sung-hoon in the rainy night had been entirely filmed using generative AI in the Virtual Studio, with other road vehicles, moving scenes on the sides created using LED screens. The rain had been artificially produced, while swerving vehicles had been created by mechanisms attached to the bottom, avoiding the dangers of actual road filming.

In another scene, Hong Hae-in enters a snow-capped forest scene before she awoke back indoors. While many thought that the effect was created using green screens and CG, the scene transition had actually been created using LED Wall using state-of-the-art display technology.

Real-time Rendering

Gaining attention since 2019’s The Mandalorian, virtual studios have already been widely used overseas. Providing the benefits of reduced production costs and time, these studios further allow complex scenes to be realistically brought to life, opening the door to a new era of content production in film.

In collaboration with Samsung Electronics, Korean media conglomerate CJ ENM has set up the largest virtual production studio in Korea – the Virtual Production Stage. Comprising two walls, one of it is a 360-degree LED Wall measuring over 1,000 inches in a custom oval display of 20 meters in diameter and 7 meters in height.

Virtual Production producer An Hee-soo said, “The reflection of buildings in the city should be seen on the exterior of the car and driver. It’s hard to create composite images after filming (in front of a green screen), but we can shoot those scenes at once at this LED studio.” Adding that virtual production studios can save around 5 to 10% of costs, as outdoor shoots are not required, freeing actors from the boundaries from being on location. Enabling real-time rendering for pre-and post-productions, all crew members are able to “see” the same scene while filming.

About 50 productions have been filmed at the Virtual Production Stage including Street Woman Fighter 2 and Queendom Puzzle.

Explore Virtual Production Used in Car Scene: