《K-POP: Witch Hunters》4K version includes recordings of the director and the triangle

In K-POP: Demon Hunters, a performance may have 50 shots, divided among about 40 artists.The problem was that the shots had to end up looking like the same concert: the lighting changes to follow the beat, but also to respond to the mood of the song.Director Chris Appelhans described it as a head-scratchingly complicated game of chess.

On November 8 in Los Angeles, movie fans came to the Barnes & Noble bookstore in The Grove shopping mall to participate in the film Criterion 4K release exchange event.Appelhans, along with co-director Maggie Kang, production designer David Bleich, and production designer Wendell Dalit, chatted with Criterion's Valeria Rotella about the making of the film.To put animated musicals, K-pop concerts, Korean culture and fashion fantasy into the same film, the team re-explored many aspects.

Dalit said that after stringing together the various sequences, the hardest part was to make them coherent and truly resemble a music video or a live performance.They eventually put the entire film file together and drew the color and lighting scheme uniformly over the complete clip: first quickly drawing the ups and downs of emotion, and then marking the changes in color and rhythm.In this way, the lenses in each department have a common direction.Appelhans called this effect “living painting”.

The section where Saja Boys sang "Your Idol" particularly gave the team a hard time.Bleich remembers that several people asked over and over how to do this?“The turning point was when Dalit put the visual plan into the software timeline and expanded the sketch and color design according to the music. Only then did they see the effect of the entire performance clearly for the first time.

Bleich used to do animation lighting, and usually added the music later, but this time he had to listen to the music first, and then set the lighting according to the beat.The rough sketches drawn by Dalit eventually became the blueprints and methods that were handed over to Sony Imageworks for further design.

Fashion is another thread that runs through visual design.Bleich wanted the girls to look good in every shot, like they were on the cover of Vogue.So the team kept experimenting with adding color, even to shadows and places where bright colors wouldn't normally appear.Maggie Kang said that David pushed them to use more color in almost every meeting, and everyone later joked that they were almost running out of magenta.Korean music and television also influenced the film's visuals.

Appelhans also talked specifically about Seoul, which was built by production designer Celine Kim.She carefully handles the size and pattern of bricks, architectural motifs, and street forms.He said that people who have been to Bukhan will have a strong sense of immersion when they see the place in the movie.A Korean YouTuber even made a series of videos to introduce step by step how the film faithfully restored the back alleys of Seoul.When Celine saw this alone at home, she was so happy that she shouted "Great!"”A lot of effort has been put into these sets before the picture enters the lighting stage.

Criterion's behind-the-scenes look back at the approximately seven-year development process of the film.Maggie Kang revealed that some of the storyboards were drawn before the project was approved for production; the early scenes of Rumi and Jinu's date were also used in the original concept proposal and are now included on the disc.

When the film was about to wrap up, the team went to London to record the soundtrack performed by a symphony orchestra.After hearing "Free", Maggie Kang burst into tears on the spot: that scene was still roughly the way she originally drew it seven or eight years ago.Appelhans feels that it is rare to put these sketches into the featurettes. The audience can see that many ideas have been formed in the storyboard stage, and then continued to be completed by the animation, lighting and other departments.These early sketches rarely leave the studio.

The development took a long time, and the directors also served as voice actors.It took years for the official cast to be assembled, and editing and story development could only begin with temporary dialogue recorded by the staff.Maggie Kang once hosted three members of HUNTR/X. Appelhans joked that directing her was like watching a strange one-man show. After a performance, she would ask: "Who am I?"Am I Rumi or Zoe?What's my name?%These recordings are also included on the disc.

She has her own way of switching: saying “Pork Chop Sandwich” over and over again.When playing Zoe, she uses a high voice, and when playing Mira, she lowers her voice. The same sentence helps her find her respective states.

Some of Genu's temporary dialogue was recorded by Appelhans.After the movie was released, fans compiled a collection of moments where the character looked silly, describing him as a “idiot in a handsome body”.When he looked at it, he realized: “Those were all when I was dubbing temporary sounds.” Another editing assistant, Charlene, also moved from temporary dubbing to the main film. The results of her trial recordings for various fans in the film were so good that the team finally officially asked her to dub these characters.

In addition to 4K discs, Netflix has also launched《K-POP: Witch Hunters: dedicated to fans!》(KPop Demon Hunters: For the Fans!) special area, which brings together the movie, sing-along version and more than 20 new episodes.Maggie Kahn and Appelhans will return for the officially confirmed sequel; as for the release time, Sony Animation executives still say that the sequel may have to wait until after 2029.