A live concert film that lets audiences watch orchestra members' subtle expressions and movements on a large screen while feeling sweeping melodies through immersive sound has been produced in South Korea for the first time. The project aims to offer classical music fans a listening experience different from a concert hall while lowering the barrier to entry for viewers unfamiliar with classical performances.
"Going Home Project: Ravel & Shostakovich in Cinema" opens at CGV theaters on the 17th. It is the first time a live classical orchestra performance held in South Korea has been produced using Dolby Atmos immersive audio technology and given a commercial release at multiplex theaters.
The film captures a Going Home Project concert held in July last year at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall. The Going Home Project is an orchestra made up of leading musicians active around the world, with pianist Son Yeol-eum serving as creative director. The film presents in full Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad," and Ravel's "Bolero," performed by about 100 musicians without a conductor.
Its biggest draw is a visual and aural vividness that is hard to experience from a seat in the hall. Footage shot with 12 4K cameras captures individual players' fingerwork and glances, down to the moments when they align their breathing. The result offers the sensation of sitting in the middle of the orchestra and watching the performance unfold. Director Sung Yu-jin said at a recent press briefing that the film captured "even the exchanges of glances between players that are difficult to see from the audience," adding, "A live performance seen on screen will deepen immersion in the music even further."
The sound also sets the film apart from conventional concert videos. Dolby Atmos is a technology that creates three-dimensional audio in which sound appears to come from multiple directions. The film captures a wide sonic range, from the faintest sounds of individual instruments to the explosive full-orchestra passages produced by 100 players.
Choi Jin, the audio producer who oversaw recording and mixing, said Dolby Atmos has the advantage of capturing both instrumental detail and a sense of space, and that the film captured everything "from the tiniest snare drum sound to explosive bass." Choi added that when the music reaches its peak, the resonance "is not just heard with the ears but felt through the skin and the body," explaining that theaters offer a sonic pleasure difficult to reproduce with home speakers or earphones.
It was a new experience for the performers as well. Son said the same music leaves a different impression depending on whether it is heard in a concert hall, on a recording or in a movie theater. "A performance seen in a cinema can serve as a medium that proposes a new perspective we have not experienced before," Son said, adding that works in which sonic effects matter, such as Shostakovich's symphony or Ravel's "Bolero," may come across even more vividly in a theater.
The production team hopes the attempt will help lower the threshold to classical music. Sung said that even people unfamiliar with concert halls can encounter classical music comfortably in a theater over coffee or popcorn, and that the visual elements of the film and the rhythm of its editing should make the music more approachable.
During the opening week, CGV theaters at Yeongdeungpo Times Square and Yeouido will host a guest visit with Son, commentary screenings and stage greetings by orchestra members.
Sung, who is also chief executive of the production company Seaconbox, does not intend the project to be a one-off. "I thought the time had come for an attempt like this, given how much the skills of Korean classical musicians and the size of the audience have grown," Sung said, adding that for such projects to continue, production companies, investors, theaters and audiences must all take part. Sung said the team is exploring various distribution options after the theatrical run, including classical music streaming platforms at home and abroad and screenings at regional performance venues, and hopes the film will become a stepping stone to the next stage.
