When Art Direction and Cinematography Really Work

Steve K

The South Korean TV Series "Its OK To Not Be OK" (2020) on Netflix get an 8.8 at IMDB.  Sixteen episodes of about 70 minutes each, its very good as you might guess.  But for me the cinematography, art direction, lighting, set design and just overall camera shots are stunning.  Also, it has most of the 48 Hour Film Contest genres included: Romance, Comedy, Buddy Film, Horror, Thriller, Drama, ...

Sci Fi Funk

Wonderful stuff! Loving the night lighting. Thanks for sharing.

Mistara

luv this tuff.  thanks

Steve K

You're quite welcome.  I should probably not take all the credit, the South Korean production team deserves some.  

A few more shots attached.

Steve K

We saw the last (16th) episode tonight, a pretty good finale.  The two romantic leads are of course the focus, sort of the modern day Korean version of Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.  But for me, the show owes a lot to actor Oh Jeong-Se who is the autistic brother of the lead.  Sort of like Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" giving the Tom Cruise character a reality check.  Roger Ebert: 

"At the end of 'Rain Man', I felt a certain love for Raymond, the Hoffman character. I don't know quite how Hoffman got me to do it..  He does not play cute, or lovable, or pathetic. He is matter-of-fact, straight down the middle, uninflected, unmoved, uncomprehending in all of his scenes - except when his routine is disrupted, when he grows disturbed until it is restored. And yet I could believe that the Cruise character was beginning to love him, because that was how I felt, too.  I loved him for what he was, not for what he was not, or could not be."

Also, my favorite comic relief bit, after some serious heavy philosophical dialogue, a minor character in an aside says, "Jeez, that was cheesy.  I need a drink."  Gotta love writing like that, my wife started giggling.

But yeah, the great visuals were there to the end.

Dartanbeck

Fantastic!

...and cinematography is a great way to learn great lighting techniques. Those folks have the Trained Eye for it.

I need to revisit Digital Lighting and Rendering, by Jeremy Birn, whom has spent a full career as a cinematographer/DOP and has practiced and taught these skills for digtal media as well. The book is extraordinary long before finishing it. In fact, I don't think I ever actually made it all the way to the end - it got me so inspired to completely redesign how I light my scenes.

Great stuff, Steve! Thanks!

I'll have to give the show a watch some time!