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Ko - production in Busan
- Interview
- BLACK PANTHER’s Korean Line Producer, Danny Kang
- by SONG Soon-jin / Feb 27, 2018
- “I want to shoot a drama film where we can show the Korean panorama”
Marvel Entertainment’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Black Panther have a deep connection with Korea: they were both shot in Korea. Black Panther, which was recently released to great acclaim, captured the port city of Busan, which is famous for its international film festival. The film contains all of the main landmarks including the Jagalchi Market, as well as a powerful car chase scene on Gwangan Bridge. A special Mise-en-scène was created through the stark contrast between contemporary high-rises and the traditional buildings. We met with producer Danny Kang of Mr. Romance Film Production (http://mrromance.co.kr) who participated in the Korean location shooting of Black Panther to talk about the behind the scenes episodes as well as the charms of shooting in Korea.Could you provide an introduction for Mr. Romance Film Production as well as yourself?Mr. Romance provides total production services for Korean films like The Phone (2015), as well as international projects. We don’t limit ourselves to film, so we also do commercials as well. I’m in charge of international films, so I was the one looking after The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), seasons 1 and 2 of Sense 8 (2015 & 2016) which is the Netflix series by the Wachowskis, the recently released Black Panther, and an upcoming March release, Pacific Rim Uprising.
I heard that the Busan Film Commission was very enthusiastic with recommending Busan as the film’s shooting location for Black Panther. What kind of process did you have to go through to shoot in Busan?The Busan Film Commission started “FAMTOUR in Busan” in order to attract international films to shoot in Korea. I met location manager Scott Allen Logan during The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and he asked me if I would join him on the FAMTOUR. At the time, I was working on season 2 of Sense 8 (2016), so one of my staffs joined him instead. Then in August or September of 2016, they called Mr. Romance. We joined teams in October and started to prepare in Busan. Black Panther’s location manager Meagan Lewis and I went around the corners of Busan to take pictures to send them to director Ryan Coogler. Soon, the director came to Busan himself and decided on the locations. The places in the film are the places the director picked out himself.Compared to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which made Seoul the birthplace for Ultron, Black Panther had even more scenes in Busan.They shot in Korea for 15 days from March to April in 2017. If The Avengers: Age of Ultron only shot day scenes, Black Panther only shot at night. Most of the major scenes were with Busan’s night skyline. Can I call it a jet lag? That was the hardest for me. We gathered before the sun would set, then we would start shooting at night until the sun rose again. Other than that, it wasn’t very difficult. Once shooting started, I could stay in the back and just overlook what was happening. During The Avengers: Age of Ultron, we had many Korean staffs so it was easy to work. The size of the production crew was similar this time. There were about 100 Korean staffs and 80 international staffs. Some of them were familiar faces I met during The Avengers: Age of Ultron, so it had a good atmosphere.
I understand that Hollywood films are more careful when it comes to confidentiality. What were some of the rules the staff had to live by during Black Panther?Security is the most emphasized element. All staff must sign a contract in the beginning to pledge to keep everything about the film in confidentiality. Aside from that, they don’t ask much. Most of the lingo is similar, so it’s not much different from a Korean film set. Every project has its own unique difficulties, so it’s hard to compare.What was the location you had the most difficulty with?The city of Busan offered full support, so it wasn’t hard to recruit locations. As for Gwangan Bridge, they helped us block both sides. The Jagalchi Market shoot was probably the longest shoot we had. The Busan Film Commission helped us get the support from the borough office, and the staff had to visit every merchant for their cooperation. It was a long process before we could start shooting.
Why do you think Black Panther decided to shoot in Busan?Ryan Coogler said that Busan is a place where the past and the future coexist. Haeundae has contemporary buildings that look futuristic, but just a few blocks away, there are Korean traditional buildings. On top of that, the residents of Busan are open to film shoots thanks to the Busan International Film Festival. The Busan Film Commission was a big support, and there are also experienced staffs and great equipments here. Since Busan is a vacation spot, there are many convenient facilities as well. Most of all, they found the Korean Film Council’s location incentive interesting. I often get calls from people abroad asking me to help them get the incentive since they want to shoot in Korea. When I get such requests, I help to provide the best option the producers want while giving advice on how they could get the incentive. Unfortunately, the story has to be related to Korea or the incentive will not be granted. As for one independent film, they were not able to get the incentive since it was a story about North Korea.Lastly, what kind of genre or story would you say suits best with location shooting in Korea?With The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther and even Sense 8, all of the projects I participated in shot their action scenes in Korea. However, action scenes move too fast and it’s impossible to show the beauty of Korea. I want to try working on a drama film where we can show the scenery of Korea in more detail. A while ago, an international location manager and I talked about how great it would look to shoot something like CSI in Korea. How about CSI Seoul shot in the middle of Gangnam on Teheranno, then contrasting it with the back alleys? Or we can even call it CSI Korea! For your reference, Koreans are very good at shooting detective stories.
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