yes. again it makes you realize that acting is indeed hard work.

http://seoulbeats.com/2011/09/last-minute-live-shooting-version-song-ji-hyo/

This article is a super interesting read about the perils of the live shoot drama and a discussion of what can be done about it/what one has tried to do about it.

both lines: LOL

TOTALLY.

"Who knows, maybe THIS will be the culminating end of the Hallyu Wave if dramas become terrible"

A lot of people feel Hallyu is the source of the problem.

1. Because of hallyu, actors' and actresses' cost skyrocketted. Before Hallyu wave, the biggest stars got $3000 per episode but now $60000 per episode. So the working condition got really worse b/c it cannot afford to pay more staffs which is crucial for quality of drama.
2. After Hallyu wave, many good producers, writers and staffs were taken out from MBC, KBS, SBS to new private productions which are made for Hallyu sales market. Before Hallyu wave, 99% of the dramas were made within the broadcasting company like MBC KBS SBS. Recent dramas made within broadcasting companies:My name is Kim Sam Soon (it had really low budget, so Kim Sun-ah lowered her pay), Coffee Prince, Queen of housewives, Soulmate. If a drama is made within broadcasting system, everything flows smoothly with staffs, producers, and writers with good communications and sense of membership.
3.Those private productions fight a tug of war with broadcasting system which make dramas' quality worse. They share income, and they become really stingy with budget that improves drama quality. So drama just becomes money source. If ratings are high, nothing matters nowadays. They lost sense of responsibility and a sense that this drama is "ours'" or "mine." When bad things happen, they blame each other for everything.
4.Emerging power of actors and actresses gives power to agencies they belong to. So broadcasting system again have to fight a battle with them. This is the reason why there are crappy actors and OST in drama with big stars. They sell their hallyu star with crappy OSTs and new comers in their agency.
3.The biggest hits in Hallyu sales market in Asia were dramas like winter sonata and autumn in my heart so they make dramas similar to these forever.

To think about epic dramas made before hallyu wave, it makes me really disappointed. The uniqueness that K-drama had is really disappearing.

I dont mind that kind of work hectic coz i will get high pay. If they get low pay, do u think they will do what they do now? Well, they sure take lots of suppliment. Executive B diatery supplement is something really good for hectic life. You all can try too.

Not as 'interesting' as it is 'ridiculous and baffling'... How can anyone work this way? Then again, I guess the hardest hit would be mainly the leading actors as they have the most screen time, and not all the actors? But the filming crew must have it hard too.

Perhaps they shoud make it standard practice to have 2 'specials' mid series, rather than at the end so that the actors get some time to recuperate and the filming schedule gets to catch up? I don't think 1 episode a week would work though cos it would take 4 months to finish a miniseries and alot of people (i.e. me with my limited brain capacity to persevere and follow plotline) could lose interest halfway. I stuck with drama series like CityHall for about 4 weeks before I realised that it was becaming the best drama EVER.... If it had aired 1 per week I would have simply have given up waaaay before that.

And actors in the States who have to shoot weekly hourlong shows complain about the hours/workload.

Imagine what they would say if they had to shoot 2 hourly shows weekly and in near real-time!

Frankly, I'm surprised that some big Korean stars who primarily had done been doing film have recently done TV, but then again, these days, it's hard to find good film projects and doing TV usually leads to greater exposure outside of Korea.

Otoh, I doubt we'll see Jeon Ji hyun ever doing TV again unless things change.

That's what I was thinking too. One episode per week, and maybe even shorter episode (like 45 minutes instead of 65 minutes). If one minute of show takes about one hours of shooting. 45 hours of shooting and some more for editing sounds more humane and manageable. They can still write the scripts based on viewers' input.

Yeah, and rely on quality rather than quantity. Korean dramas have good parts, but the editing could be so much better. I can't tell you how many dramas I've lost interest in and just not finished because there is so much unnecessary silliness in each episode that could be fixed by editing and better writing.

As mentioned in the post, Boys Over Flowers is a shining example, where the Japanese one zipped along with excellent editing and mostly logical plotlines, while the Korean one flagged and was dragged down with inconsistency. I know for some of the historicals it might not be logical, but the length of dramas could be a consideration; making them shorter, but with less crap in between. I just think the system is not just grueling and unfair, but truly dangerous as well.

They only have one, shorter episode per week in Japan and although they do live shooting, I've rarely heard of this issue - you can really see it in the difference in editing standards between doramas and kdramas.
Taiwanese and HK dramas start filming quite early (months) ahead usually.

I wonder that as well. Japanese dramas are usually shorter (in running time as well as overall length) and only one episode is aired a week, so it may not be as bad. They do live-shooting as well, but it's not as hectic. Each episode is shot well in advance of its airdate, I think.

They pull late hours sometimes, but it's only one episode a week. I remember reading that on the set of Galileo, Fukuyama Masaharu joked around saying that Shibasaki Kou would sleep everywhere, even on the floor which kind of freaked him out.

i dont think its like this in China. I'm pretty sure that they have a press conference, and then all goes into secret to shoot the actual entire drama. u dont get to see what they are shooting much except for the occasional fancams and entertainment news. then a few months later, the drama airs after everyone has finished. i think because China is not like korea in which there is only 3 TV stations (no duh, more people) so thats why less is wagered on rating and whatnot. But of course, during those few months of shooting, there are definitely days in which actors and crew have to pull allnighters. but then it comes down to the director if he/she takes care of you or not.

J-dramas go through the live shoot, but they benefit on two fronts.

1) Shorter running times. One episode per week. 45 minutes per episode. 10-13 episodes. J-dramas run longer than K-dramas.

2) Seasonal planning. Producers know when shows start and end, thus there's no demands for episode extension or last minute show swapping.

J-dramas writers usually conceive the beginning and ending, and then they fill out the rest of the show with episodic writing. This also has its problems. Tsuki no Koibito went through a lot of live shoot issues, due to VERY negative audience response from one actress. Thus, they had to rewrite a lot of the plot . . . and well, because the ending scenario has to be reworked, the story went vectorsplat.

Taiwan rarely has live shooting THIS close to the episode...like, they'll maybe be shooting for Episode 14 while Episode 8 or 9 is airing...at most. Typically, Taiwan dramas are done shooting before airing even starts. Shooting while airing only happens if there's been a delay because of a weather thing, or a rescheduled airing (pushed ahead because of another drama's cancellation), or some other unforeseen thing, and even then it's like I said--shooting ep 14 when ep 9 is airing, which still puts them a good amount ahead.

Japan's live shooting isn't NEARLY as hectic. They do it too, but the mess-ups and total chaos is relatively rare and usually impacted by something else that happens--someone gets entered, something interferes weather-wise, etc.

thanks for the info everyone!

Or they could actually do their homework and write a drama that will appeal to people, like everyone else. I mean, you should write what is good and people will like it. You are supposed to do a show and let people be entertained, rather than base the show's outcomes on the audience response. Their job is to try to figure that out beforehand. I know you can't always predict that stuff, but this madness has got to stop.

Pre-produced dramas also tend to be specialty driven, and don't fit the family/ajumma rom-com format. But nowadays, most of the pre-produced stuff are being sold to cable and optioned out to the Hallyu market. So something like Road No 1 gets heavily paid by foreign investors (i.e. Japan, Taiwan.)

Agreed. As a writer, it's your job to figure out what people want before the drama airs and give it to them, not waffle and figure it out as you go along.

yea, i like this idea.

That's a really good idea! We should go to Korea and give 'em these suggestions...