Video Production
Can you use your existing video in Korea?
Product and factory shots usually carry over; speaking shots, burned-in text and the closing screen get remade. Subtitles or dubbing, sizes by placement, and seven files to request.
You do not remake a whole video to use it in Korea. Product-only shots, ingredient and production-line shots, and the logo screen usually carry over as they are. Three things get remade: shots of someone speaking, text burned into the picture, and the closing information screen. Text burned into the picture — letters flattened into the video file itself. Without the edit project they cannot be removed.
Which shots carry over and which get remade?
Watch the original from start to finish and mark each shot against one row of the table below.
| Element in the original | In the Korean version | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product-only shots · hand close-ups | Keep | Nothing in frame says which country |
| Ingredients · production line · head office | Keep | These shots show where it is made |
| Logo animation · brand colours | Keep | Has to stay the same in every country |
| Shots of someone speaking | Subtitle or dub | The words carry the meaning |
| Burned-in text · prices · units | Remake | Notation and units differ |
| Closing information screen | Remake | The route to purchase differs |
| Music · licensed footage | Keep after checking the licence | Territory limits vary by country |
Once the marking is done you know how many seconds need work. If that total passes half the running time, building a Korean version from the source clips is faster than repairing the original.
Subtitles or dubbing?
The dividing line is not budget. It is where the viewer's eyes have to stay. If they have to stay on the picture, dub. If the original voice is part of the meaning, subtitle.
| If the original is | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A demonstration with hands on the product | Dubbing | Reading takes the eyes off the hands |
| A close face with the mouth visible | Subtitles | Lip movement and sound will not match |
| Narration only, nobody on camera | Dubbing | Nothing on screen to contradict it |
| Placed where it plays with the sound off | Subtitles | Many viewers never turn the sound on |
| A voice that is part of the brand | Subtitles | The original sound stays |
The two are often combined — a dubbed track with subtitles available as well. Korean subtitles read comfortably at 16-20 characters per line, two lines at most, held on screen for at least 1.5 seconds. A long sentence in the original is split across two cards.
How do length and aspect ratio change by placement?
Head office usually holds one master — 16:9, one length. Korea uses more placements than that, and each one wants a different length and shape.
| Placement | Ratio | Length | First 3 seconds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product page on your own store | 16:9 · 1:1 | 20-40 sec | Show the product straight away |
| Short vertical video | 9:16 | 15-30 sec | Keep text in the middle band |
| Main cut on a video platform | 16:9 | 60-120 sec | Say what the video is about |
| In-store and event screens | 16:9 | 30-60 sec on loop | Understandable with no sound |
Cropping a horizontal master to vertical cuts both sides away. If the original was framed edge to edge, the product or the face gets cut, so those shots are repositioned one by one in the edit project. On vertical video the top and bottom 15% or so is often covered by on-screen buttons, which is why text sits in the middle.
What do you check in shots with people?
Check the paperwork and the picture separately. The paperwork is the talent agreement, and four lines in it matter: territory, term, media covered, and whether re-editing is allowed. An agreement written for the home market alone cannot be posted in Korea as it is, and if the term is nearly up, settle the extension before the Korean version is made. Music and licensed footage are checked on the same four lines.
For the picture, sort each shot by what it is saying. Shots that say "this is where it is made" are helped by a foreign setting. Shots that say "this is how you use it at home" are the opposite — kitchen and bathroom layouts or seasonal clothing catch the eye, and reshooting those few shots in Korea is quicker. Shots of hands alone carry little background information and usually stay.
How far do you change on-screen text and figures?
Units move to Korean notation — mL and g for volume and weight, year-month-day for dates, Korean won for prices. Changing the digits while leaving the original grouping and decimal marks looks wrong, so both are fixed together.
Where ingredients, claimed effects or certification marks appear on screen, export those frames as images and send them first to whoever handles import and distribution. What may be written on screen depends on which product category the item falls into, so the party that knows the category answers directly.
Closing screens often carry a home-country address and phone number. Building that screen separately and attaching it at the end leaves the main cut untouched.
Which files do you request from head office in advance?
A Korean version does not start from one finished file. Ask for these seven first.
| File to request | What happens without it |
|---|---|
| Edit project with its linked source files | Burned-in text cannot be removed |
| Textless master | Korean text cannot be laid over cleanly |
| Audio track with the dialogue removed | Dubbing removes the music and effects too |
| Script and subtitle timings (SRT) | Translation starts again from raw timings |
| Unused footage from the shoot | Nothing fills the gap in a vertical crop |
| Logo · fonts · colour values | Only the Korean text ends up looking different |
| Talent, music and footage licences | No way to judge what may be used |
Textless master — the finished cut before any text is laid over it. Audio with the dialogue removed — music and effects only, called an M&E track in the trade. With those two in hand the Korean version becomes a layering job rather than a rebuild, and the schedule shortens.
What to do today
Send one email to whoever owns the video at head office. Paste the seven files from the table above as a list and ask them to mark each line "have it", "do not have it" or "need to check" and send it back. It takes 30 minutes to write.
The reply decides how the Korean version gets made. With the edit project and a textless master it is a layering job. With only a finished file it becomes subtitling, or reshooting in Korea the few shots that need it. Asking for quotes also moves faster after that reply, because every quote can be given the same conditions.
