Readings and Discussions with the actors

So for the past two days I sat with my actors and started our script readings. It's been quite an interesting start so far. First of all due to my lack of Korean language skills, getting into doing a serious normal rehearsal of the script was quite out of question. We had to think of a way by which the actors, when they land on the shooting location, would almost precisely know what to do and how to deliver their lines. In order to achieve something like that I had to let go a bit of my own ideas of the script even though I was the one who'd written it. I reckoned, it was necessary to treat the scenario as ours rather than mine. I had to let the actors understand for themselves who each of the characters in the film are.

So I sat down for a long time listening to the actors' opinion and many interesting dialogues came out of the discussion. Some of their ideas were close to what I had in my mind and some were a bit out of place. Whether their ideas matched exactly with mine or not is something that I am not so concerned about. Through the discussion we built a sort of a back story of each of the characters starting from where they came from what kind of jobs they did and how they all met in the beginning. I didn't interfere much when my actors expressed how they wanted their characters to be. I'd stop them only when they came up with ideas that were totally in contrast with mine. I'd put in a hint from time to time just so that we all moved in the right direction. I guess I am lucky that way that I found some intelligent actors who do their home work well.

10 more days to go

actors for Tell Tale

Well, only around ten days are left before the shooting of Tell Tale starts. Pre-production works are still going on but it hasn't been a smooth ride so far. Yesterday we went to see some of our chosen locations and found out that the location for the cafe scene would not work. We chose this very interesting terrace on top of the Korean Film Archive building in Digital Media City and planned to turn the terrace into a cafe for the movie but we had to give up the idea yesterday because of sound issues.

Since the Film Archives are right below the terrace, the terrace holds several big air-conditioner vents that makes a hell of a noise. We asked maintainance if it's possible to turn the thing off for several hours during the shoot but they refused. They said the air-conditioners for the film prints must run 24 hours and can not be stopped. So all the shot plannings and story boarding for that location has gone to waste. We have now selected another place, a cafe in Hongdae that belongs to a friend of a friend. It's called The Milky Way Travel Services Cafe - quite a sweet name actually. Here are some pics of the place.



Tomorrow all the actors will be getting together for the first time and we will do a couple of readings of the script and possiblly rehears a couple of scenes. It turned out that actor Jaygyun who will be playing Jongwon has a bit of an accent since he's from Pusan. I asked him if he'd be able to speak in the local Seoul dialect and he said he could if he practiced. So it means Jaygyun has to work extra hard, not just on his role but on his accent too. If it doesn't work, in the end I will be one to be blamed for being an ignorant foreign filmmaker in Korea.

What else? Oh I also went to check out Wangsimni station for the opening shot of the movie. It was in the script before but we took that shot out recently. Then again last night I realized that taking the shot of Wangsimni station for the opening might be useful as a safety measure. The picture below is a test of the opening shot of the film.



And while on my way home at the end of the day from Milky Way Travels Cafe, I passed through Hongdae mainstreet. It turned out today was Hongdae Sound Day of the month. The whole area was pretty crowded with loud music blasting from all the nearby clubs. I almost went into one but resisted and instead I did a little bit of shopping in the street and in a nice little shop called Under the Bridge near by my school. What did I buy. You'll see...

Tell Tale

Haven't updated the blog in a while. Anyways this time around I am getting ready to shoot my second short film in Korea titled Tell Tale. The shoot is going to start on 29th of August 2007 and will go on for five days in Seoul and in Incheon.

For almost the whole of last month I have been running around trying to find the right cast for the film. We found the actors for Ian and Hyejin fairly easily but finding Jongwon took an enormous amount of time. It was difficult for we needed a person who fit well with the other cast who've already been selected before.

Finally today, we found Jongwon. I don't know much about his previous acting experiences but he seemed modest and willing to atleast try do his best.

Here are the production details
FILM TITLE: TELL TALE
FORMAT: 35MM
DURATION: 15 MINS.
LANGUAGE: KOREAN
PRODUCTION: KAFA/KOFIC
PRODUCER: OH JU EUN
WRITER/DIRECTOR: TENZIN TSETAN CHOKLAY
CINEMATOGRAPHER: KALINGA DESHAPRIYA

© COPYRIGHTS RESERVED KOREAN ACADEMY OF FILM ARTS 2007

Synopsis
Tell Tale is a short drama that revolves around three characters – Ian, Hyejin and Jongwon. Set in urban Korea, the movie explores the ordinary people’s ability to tell stories and take the listener into an imaginary fantasy world of a sort that they themselves belong to in a certain way.

Two characters in the film, Jongwon and Ian each tell a story to each other and with the story they manage to convey messages - about personal complexes, identity and of acceptance and alienation.

One of the key themes of this film is also about how different we all are to each other even though we live in the same world and at the same time we all struggle to fit and conform ourselves to the world around us.

Jongwon and Ian, they each choose a different story to tell and they each respond differently to the story that they hear. May be the stories they tell are real or may be not but the stories bring forth the question of what do these people want.

The stories are set in three different periods – one in the near future – the year 2008, one in the past of the future – the year 2007 and one in the past – 14th century Seoul.

Location

Here's a video of our producer June standing in for the actors at one of the chosen locations for the beach trail scene. The beach is located near Incheon and takes about an hour and a half to get there from Seoul.

BALLON ROUGE Trailer

Elif's Seoulitude

The shooting of the film Elif's Seoulitude was completed at one in the afternoon on 28 May. The shoot took three and a half days starting from the 25th. We shot in the following locations: Meridian Motel, Valentine Motel, Sinchon Street, Changyeongung Palace, Namsan Tower and City Hall. We had three main actors, Heather for the role of Elif, Woo Hyun for the role of Woo Hyun and Dongwon for the role of teenage motel deskboy. The crew consisted of eleven people including me as the writer-director, Kim Yoo Kyong as the producer and Kalinga as my cinematographer.

Random pictures from the shoot









Synopsis of the film

Elif, a Turkish woman arrives in Seoul, the South Korean capital inorder to meet her Korean lover. At the motel, the promised meeting place, her elusive boyfriend does not show up and Elif's attempts to reach him fails. During the course of her stay in the estranged city Elif discovers herself and people's ability to connect. Sometimes it's possible for strangers - who've never known each other before and are from completely different cultres can develop a bond and affection even though only briefly.