Sunday 2 September 2012

The Way He Arrived - an ode to Hong Sang soo

So KOFFIA (Korean Film Festival in Australia) has hit the town again. But I aint going to talk about their fantastic film selection, no this is gong to be all about the Short Film Competition they ran this year.
I got a bit inspired, had a great idea and I saw that there was also $2K up for grabs so I swung into action.
Last year at MIFF I saw a film called The Day He Arrives by my favourite Korean Director Hong Sang soo. A most verily fantastic film. Let's just say that and you can read the review and see the film in Melbourne at ACMI on Wed 12th Sept at 2045. It's actually the last film before the closing ceremony.

It's not so much the film that inspired me but the trailer to the film. Such a great minimal trailer in this world of the 'super' Hollywood reels that are just jam packed with excitement and hooks and anything else they deem suitable to suck you into that theater to see their show.

This one is so lyrical, so simple and for me so effective. Now if you aren't privy to Hong Sang soo's films it may come across as a bit too simple and possibly weird but hey ho you could also see it as I just wanna see what film could possibly be attached to such a promotion?
Check it out!



Well what inspired me was to recreate this trailer but rather than in Seoul in Melbourne. What if you came out of the cinema having seen the film and then you found yourself witnessing the trailer, not quite in it but right next to it? This was my idea. And the beauty in the idea was the simplicity of the idea. I only had a few weeks and life was pretty busy so a shoot for a couple of hours and an edit of about double that was very attractive. Cause then I'd have a film ready for submission, in time for the deadline.

So I organised a shoot late on a Sunday afternoon and assembled my cast and crew. Well every crew member was also a cast member. Rusty and I were on camera, there was no sound and we were using available light. I needed five people in the shot, three guys and two gals. What I got was the opposite, two guys and three gals but hey that was cool because I was putting a twist on it eh? and that was my first.
The second was to stage it outside ACMI where the festival screens (well that was just a suck job!) The taxi was going to be the factor unknown so I had a few strategies up my sleeve, different versions so to speak.
Anyway as planned the shoot was short sharp and sweet, shot on a 7D and it kinda just rolled out as planned, all done in 2 hours and no real fuss. The edit was slightly different as there were a number of takes and I had to work out the timing and action for the best ones. Also the graphics and the compositing took a wee bit longer than anticipated. I just don't run AfterEffects and that is what was needed for the iphone shots. Luckily Rusty did and he jumped on for that part.

So Far So Good! the next phase was the selection process. KOFFIA selected a shortlist of 8 films from a possible 24 or so and luckily for us they selected The Way He Arrived. I felt a bit chuffed as the plan was unfolding. This meant that the film would be screened up at the Dendy Opera Quays cinemas in Sydney and a judging panel would pick the winners. This panel consisted of a couple of Korean Filmmakers (guests of the festival) and a few players from the Sydney film industry.


We couldn't really stack the 'audience' award because it was Sydney based and Marina was the only person involved who was going (she was up there for work). Anyway on Sat 25th Aug at Midday the show was underway, the plan was unfolding.


But alas that is where the plan finished. Out of eight films there were four prizes up for grabs plus best actor and actress (but I didn't think we would crack any of them) but we didn't crack a noodle. Shame Shame. Big thanks to those involved as it was a fun little project.
Cheers to Marina, JoStar, Maggie, Tez and Rusty. You guys embraced what it is to be indy and gorilla too. Next Time Guys!

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