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Learning from Experience
The experience of learning to use CG provides another opportunity. Director Yoon
Je-kyoon and JK Film are now in the early stages of putting together an underwater
“monster movie” called Sector 7. Mofac Studio is working on preproduction together
with JK Film for the project.
The creature in The Host was brought to life by an American VFX company called
The Orphanage. Back then, a movie featuring a huge monster was an unprecedented
challenge in the Korean film industry. For a blockbuster that cost around US$9.1
million to make, the producers had to be careful when making choices to ensure they
didn’t lose money, which is why The Orphanage was chosen over every other Korean
company. While The Orphanage was known for the CG work it did on a texture called
“hard surface,” through its work for The Host, the company acquired the necessary
technology to create a new kind of monster, which in turn helped raise its own standard
of quality.
Not to be outdone, the making of Haeundae was also an amazing achievement. JK
Film stipulated in its conditions that all technology would transfer to Mofac Studio
when it signed a contract with the foreign VFX company. The resulting data from
Haeundae thus became the property of Mofac Studio, which ultimately helped improve
Korea’s own VFX technology.
In a similar move, Weta Digital, a New Zealand visual effects company, grew leaps
and bounds with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. More recently, it helped
Still and CG works from the movie The
Forbidden Kingdom (top, below), CG works from
the movie The Restless (bottom).
before
after
before
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DTI Pictures
08
KOREA
FEBRUARY
2010