The Team

So Friday morning we get up and really start to meet the team. I'm thinking to myself how exactly is this going to happen/work out. I have to admit the anxiety made me realize just why I jumped at this experience. To put myself as a Cinematographer into a different dynamic setting with a language barrier , and still execute onto a format that is big and new to me. It is........exactly what we as artist LOVE to be challenged by so I had to jump in.

So first off starting at the airport there is a level of curtosy and respect for the Director and Cinematographer that they had set the tone for by having a team ready to take our bags and chofeur us to our lodging, which is awesome by the way, in their new Media City towers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3CfLbVQ5k
So we live and work inside the same court yard multi towers, and no matter what they are there as a support team to help over come any and all challenges we may have. I gotta tell you to hear and try to remember their Korean names is one of the hardest things I've done in a while. The names closest to English of course I remember first. I remember thinking to myself when explaining the visual language of this film at this moment (1st group pict), did I ever think that I'd be in such a working environment 2 months ago...NO? How do I communicate this through my interpretor/1st AC (in the hat) of just exactly what I want, and is he fully understanding it to be able to interpret it? How do I know that my Gaffer Joon, on my right, is qualified and has a any real idea of how to approach this in a fast and inventive manner, while keeping the visual integritty that I bring to the table in the U.S? These ignorant ideas made me have to take a step back and really exhale and comprehend that people make great movies all over the world, and that Joon may have more experience than I in all the above.

In Korea Gaffers are known as Lighting Directors and are held in high regard with the cameramen and Directors. Because of the US/Korea joint venture the producers decided to keep things toward the American way, of the Gaffers role of working for the Cinematographer only. It hopefully makes sense but it puts a level of responsibility on me to respect and trust Joon even though our verbal communication is a second hand interpretation. Yet we both have an affinity of Light and story telling that goes beyond our ability to communicate verbally. Trusting these three individuals with the challenge of 3D is somewhat of an extreme challenge but a tremendous blessing to evolve into something that I've only read about for years in American Cinematographer.
So the short hand comes into play, I remember hearing of a story about a soldier who married a french woman and he could barely speak any French and nor she any English for the whole time that they were married yet they were married for long time with children. With that being said, I guess a short hand has to come into play, and it actually has over the past few days of scouting between a couple of key words and hand gestures we get what exactly what we are going to achieve. I Gotta say thanks to my parents who let me share in an experience at a small school called Northfield Mount Hermon where 64 countries were represented within its 1200 student body,D.L Moody's school exposed me to being a bit more open to many different folks from around the world, which has prepared me for moments just like these that I am immersed in right now.

Annoyong haseyo to all my Korean classmates from NMH and to my family and friends back east in the USA.

Joon (Gaffer), Me, Pak?, Dayne(1st Ac)