ICONIC BY MISTAKE - LE SSERAFIM

Pre-production combined detailed storyboarding with 3D previsualization in Blender. A simulation of half a basketball court was used to test camera-to-subject distances and confirm whether the chosen camera and lens could achieve the planned compositions within the available space, especially for shots requiring greater distance from the dancers. Approximately 30–40 shots were designed for the roughly 80-second performance, allowing the team to complete the planned coverage within a shooting window of just over two hours.

The basketball court’s house lights were kept off to avoid the naturally bright, even character of the space. Instead, two lighting setups were developed. The first used a strong key with selective background illumination to preserve depth without losing the darker atmosphere. The second pushed the environment much further into shadow, using a hard backlight, focused facial illumination, and flashing practical-inspired light to create a more surreal and unstable visual language.

Camera movement was choreographed alongside the dancers, with tracking movements, reframing, and planned zooms designed around specific moments in the choreography. Matching sections were also captured across both lighting environments, allowing the edit to cut rapidly between identical movement in contrasting visual spaces.

Post-production extended this contrast through deep blacks, bright highlights, and a muted green cast while preserving texture in the dancers’ costumes and skin. Film grain in the darker setup was reduced to keep its texture closer to the first lighting setup, avoiding a distracting shift in grain between the two environments. Selective frame removal and rapid intercutting were used around the song’s stuttering rhythmic moments, creating brief visual interruptions that reinforce the deliberately fragmented and slightly uncanny character of the piece.