Korean VFX today

NEWS & REPORTS
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Feature

NEWS & REPORTS

Korean VFX today

Feb 06, 2018

Writerby KIM Seong-hoon
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A Study on ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE TWO WORLDS, STEEL RAIN, and THE BATTLESHIP ISLAND

Every summer and winter, the theaters are full of big movies boasting VFX technology. Their strategy is to attract as many viewers as possible with spectacular visual effects in these big moviegoing seasons. A countless number of Korean films have fought hard for the last five years to earn the crown during the summer and winter.

Changes in the Last 5 Years In summer 2013 it was as much fun to watch the state-of-the-art technology in Snowpiercer by BONG Joon-ho and Mr. Go by KIM Yong-hwa, as it was to follow their narratives. Mr. Go featured a digital character, a gorilla, as the lead actor for the first time in Korean cinema history. It cost KRW 25 billion (USD 18.6 million) and took more than 150 VFX specialists to create this digital creature. In summer 2014, Roaring Currents by KIM Han-min and The Pirates by LEE Seok-hoon successfully visualized natural objects like water, fire, wind, and fog, which are known to be the hardest objects to render using computer graphics. (Both films had their VFX work done by Korean company Dexter Studios.)

The following winter, Ode to My Father (2014) illustrated modern Korean history on the screen. Usually, a single company does the VFX job for an entire movie, but for this project, the workload had to be divided between three companies, which itself made a lot of news. “Korean VFX companies are very good and have a lot of experience, but as the release date approaches, they tend to rush with too much work to handle. As Ode to My Father had three clearly divided sequences, it was OK for three different companies to handle each sequence, thus it was saving time,” says JK YOUN, the director of the film. Digital IDEA, which took part in My Way (2011) by KANG Je-kyu, was in charge of the two biggest scenes, depicting the Hungnam Evacuation and the Vietnam War, respectively. Studio 1064 worked on the open market (called Gook-je-shi-jang) in different time periods from the 1950s to the 1980s. Cocoa Vision took charge of the mining sequence in West Germany.

The Himalayas (2015) by LEE Seok-hoon and The Tiger (2015) by PARK Hoon-jung, the big players in winter 2015, showed different kinds of VFX. The Himalayas depicted 8,750-meter high mountains, which were sure to take your breath away. The Tiger brought the last tiger of Joseon to life, which is supposed to have weighed almost 400 ㎏ and measured 380㎝ with a tail that was 120㎝ long alone.

In summer 2016, TRAIN TO BUSAN by YEON Sang-ho and Tunnel by KIM Seong-hun were the major players. TRAIN TO BUSAN tried for the first time in Asian cinema what is called ‘rear projection’ to vividly create the landscape seen through the train window in motion. Digital IDEA made use of their experience from Oblivion (2013) when they projected from a height using LED panels. This time they juxtaposed two LED panels which measured 15 by 3 each and attached wheels underneath so they could move. During each take they checked which zone the train was going through and synced it with the rear view. In Tunnel, the process of a tunnel’s collapse and the terrible scene of its aftermath were vividly brought to the screen.

Winter 2017 has been another busy season of great movies. Steel Rain, directed by YANG Woo-suk, a new star cineaste whose previous film The Attorney (2013) attracted more than eleven million viewers; Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds by KIM Yong-hwa, the first installment in a two-part series with a KRW 35 billion (USD 32.7 million) budget; and 1987: When the Day Comes by JANG Joon-hwan, featuring some of Korea’s greatest actors including KIM Yun-seok, HA Jung-woo, YOO Hae-jin, and KIM Tae-ri. These three movies were released within a week of each other. And the result? According to the integrated cinema ticket network as of January 31, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds attracted 14.02 million viewers, 1987: When the Day Comes received 7.08 million and Steel Rain brought in 4.45 million viewers. Among these three films of different genres and with different actors, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds and Steel Rain are the barometers to measure the level of achievement of Korean VFX technology.

Building the 7 Hells and Afterlife: Along With the Gods

As soon as the production of Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds was announced, people started wondering how they might represent the afterlife. It was seen as a considerable challenge for Dexter Studios to portray on the screen the world after death that none of us has ever been to, especially since it is based on a webtoon depicting the 49-day journey of the deceased with three death messengers in the afterlife. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds has as many as 2,200 shots with VFX, which represents 88% of the entire movie. If you add montages and transitions as well, it amounts to more than 90%. There is practically no scene without VFX in this film. However, despite the huge amount of VFX, the audience can still focus on the narrative thanks to recent achievements in technology.

JongHyen Jin, chief VFX supervisor, who was in charge of the entire process, including pre-production, production and post-production, confesses that he “had a lot of worries” because he was not sure “how to visualize the world of the original work.” After he talked a lot with director KIM Yong-hwa and his staff members as to how to depict the afterlife, he concluded that “the audience will find it natural if what they see is a familiar image.” He added: “Yet the afterlife and hell are not comfortable places that they have gotten used to. So we went for unique spaces.” And that marks the beginning of the visual expression of Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds. KIM and his staff aimed to symbolize the different hells with seven natural elements like fire, water, iron, ice, mirror, gravity, and sand. Different hells in the film include ‘the hell of murder’, ‘hell of laziness’, ‘hell of lies’ (or ‘forest of swords’), ‘hell of fire’, ‘hell of betrayal’, ‘hell of violence’ and ‘hell of divine principles’. “The hell of lies is a forest made of countless swords. We wondered if a forest can be made of swords, but we imagined the swords as actual obstacles that cause problems for the journey of Cha-hong (played by CHA Tae-hyun) and the three death messengers”, says Jin.

Thus, visual ideas become concrete and clear as they arrive at the R&D Team. R&D means making software programs and tools for VFX, which even Hollywood finds hard to do. Even The Jungle Book (directed by Jon Favreau) went through a lot of mistakes, and that is how R&D started to be considered central to digital work in a film. In The Jungle Book, everyone except the main character is digital. Likewise, when a pioneer shows the way, others are to follow. Just like The Jungle Book, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds was to be filled with digital work. CHOI Wan-ho, R&D Supervisor at Dexter Studios, says “For us, all the previous works, including Mr. Go, turned out to be the basis and preparation for Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds.”

After reviewing the visual motif and associated images, he concluded that the key to the R&D of Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds was the depiction of the environment, whether natural or artificial, just like the key to Mr. Go was the depiction of gorilla fur. Since its successful application in Mr. Go, Dexter has applied the Mr. Go fur solution to many different works, including Chinese films Sword Master by Derek YEE and The Monkey King: The Legend Begins by CHEANG Pou-soi. This time the staff made relevant environments with trees and plants instead of fur, which looked very natural. The same method was used to make the gate to hell, which is known as the Cho Goon Gate sequence, and it worked out fine.

ZENV vividly depicted the afterlife, including the seven hells. First of all, for the Cho Goon Gate sequence, the R&D team created a spectacular view featuring a huge crowd of the deceased. The ZENV solution created rocks, mountains, landscape, plants, and pebbles. Countless human characters were made with the mob-making system used in Mr. Go, Supervisor CHOI says: “The director of Mr. Go did not like the idea of employing so many extras, and insisted on making everyone in the crowd with computer graphics (laughs). We used the same mob-generating system in Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds. What is great about R&D is that the more films you work on, the more skills and data you acquire.” According to supervisor Jin: “The key to this sequence was the impressive sight of the march of the deceased, and the lighting right before the sunset. We focused on showing the vast landscape where the deceased were walking against the sunset. We got the idea for lighting from the natural environment. We wanted no artificiality in the afterlife. We wanted to keep everything natural.”

The sequence in which the deceased go into the fire pit boiling with lava reminded us of a steel mill. The FX team used fire footage to visualize the sequence. The FX team is the unit working on special effects like snow falling, explosions and so on. For the sequence of the ‘hell of lies’ (the forest of swords), they generated the entire forest, including the sword-like leaves, tree trunks, and plants, by means of the ZENV solution.

The Samdo Stream in the ‘hell of laziness’ was difficult to depict, as it involved using computer graphics for water. Water may be the hardest thing to render with computer graphics, compared to solid objects. “For this sequence, we had wooden ships in the aquarium and placed actors on these ships. There were devices in the aquarium to control the ships, and the performers acted as if they were really on the sea, to fit the movement of the ships,” explains Jin. “It was a very hard sequence to make, as it involves water and waterfalls. Our experience with The Pirates was a great help.”

For the ice river in the ‘hell of fire’, all the pieces of ice were made with the ZENV solution just like all the swords in the ‘forest of swords’ sequence. The vacuum cave in the ‘hell of violence’ was considered gravity-free. “It was not easy to find a reference as such a space does not really exist. We looked at a giant cave in Vietnam, and we also studied the texture, color, and direction of the light in the caves in Sanctum (2010).” Thanks to these well-integrated and natural CG effects, the film has performed strongly across Asia.

A Powerful Nuclear Explosion at the Gaesung Industrial Complex in Steel Rain

Unlike Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds where the VFX team closely worked together right from the pre-production stage, 4th Creative Party, Steel Rain’s VFX company, could only join the film once the shooting was complete. While VFX companies closely work together with a film’s staff to discuss how to work on what is called the ‘pre-visual’ for relevant scenes, for Steel Rain, 4th Creative Party had to work on their own, based on basic ideas and sources. So as soon as the shooting was complete and 4th Creative Party finally got hold of the film footage, they worked on what is called the ‘post-visual’. They applied roughly produced CGs on the basic structure for two whole months, and then discussed the specific details with Director YANG Woo-seok.

4th Creative Party especially focused on two sequences. One is the Gaeseong Industrial Complex sequence at the beginning of the film, where the Multiple Launch Rocket System, a.k.a ‘steel rain’, is killing people by falling from the sky like pouring rain. This sequence was shot at the Daegu National Science Museum because it was the location most similar to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, where the open plaza is surrounded by buildings on two sides. According to SUNG Hyung-joo, a VFX supervisor at 4th Creative Party: “the buildings at Daegu National Science Museum are modern, unlike those at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. So the buildings in the film and the background had to be made with computer graphics.” The ‘steel rain’ had to be thoroughly examined for realism. “There are a few kinds of ‘steel rain’. Largely they are divided into those for casualties and others for destroying tanks. It was impossible to get the reference for casualty ‘steel rain’, but for destroying tanks, we got some Chinese references to work from,” says SUNG. The dead bodies after the ‘steel rain’ bombardment were played by 200~300 extras, which was not enough, so the rest had to be filled in with digital characters.

While the Gaeseong Industrial Complex sequence was made by applying CG to film footage, the nuclear explosion, which is the climax of the movie, could only be made by computer graphics. It took a lot of work for post-visual as it was the hardest sequence to make, reflecting the complex relationship between the three countries, namely, Korea, Japan, and the USA. According to KIM Tae-won, the producer of Steel Rain, “We relied on YouTube for nuclear explosions, resources from Taurus Systems for ‘air to surface standoff missiles’ that were shot from South Korea to North Korean bunkers and battle simulation materials from Lockheed Martin, an American defense and security company, for aerospace action scenes.” 4th Creative Party worked on post-visuals for as long as four months, which is not at all usual, to which Steel Rain owes its audacious and spectacular depiction of the North Korean coup d’etat and nuclear issues.

Realization of the Past and the Great Escape in The Battleship Island

While Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds and Steel Rain used VFX technology to create an imaginary world and situation, The Battleship Island, directed by RYOO Seung-wan and released in summer 2017, aimed to reenact the past in a very realistic way. The story takes place in Hashima Island in Japan. As it was not possible to get film shooting approval from the Japanese government, the staff decided to recreate the island as authentically as possible. They searched the whole nation to find a location by the sea, where the weather is still not too influenced by maritime conditions.

To generate the island landscape where the residence area and mine were naturally divided by mountains, the staff assembled as many as 120 sea containers on the land and used cement work to produce a 20-meter high mountain. SON Seong-hyeon, Digital IDEA CEO in charge of VFX in The Battleship Island, explains why such a massive set had to be made. “Director RYOO wanted to make the location as realistic as possible. He wanted no hindrance for the camera or actors caused by the blue screen.”

The sequence that Digital IDEA especially focused on is the one towards the end of the movie, where the Joseon refugees evacuate from the island. In this sequence, the Joseon people come down the mountain, fight against the Japanese in a vast flat area, and then go over the wall by riding a conveyor belt. This had to be a seamless sequence with lots of VFX work.

It was not just the size that mattered. This sequence takes place from night to the following day. The explosion scene had to be shot before sunset, so they chose to shoot day for night. In post-production, Digital IDEA expressed the color change of the sky as time went by with computer graphics, which turned out to be quite realistic.

In addition, the VFX magic was used again to design the sequences where the Joseon laborers go down 1000 meters below sea level to the deepest part of the mine, and the sea by the Battleship Island where the Joseon workers meet, after a long journey following a transfer to another ship at Shimonoseki. The Battleship Island has more than 1000 shots with VFX, but sometimes it is hard to tell whether a certain shot is a VFX product or not, mostly because technology has been so naturally blended into the story.

This year Korean cinema is ready again to entertain many viewers, equipped with all kinds of VFX technology. To name a few, there is Psychokinesis, directed by YEON Sang-ho, which is the story of a man who accidentally gains supernatural powers and uses it for good causes, Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days, and The Spy Gone North by YOON Jong-bin which depicts North Korea.

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