“Art also had to survive and live on just like the disaster-stricken characters”

One day, a villa (term used in Korea to describe multiplexes or smaller apartments) suddenly falls into a sinkhole. People who were planning to spend a lazy weekend suddenly get stuck deep underground. They’re people in the lower middle class who only wish to have a place to call their own. Director Kim Jihoon and Art Director Kim Taeyoung who proved their outstanding abilities through the disaster film The Tower joined hands once again. While The Tower focused on the disaster itself, Sinkhole is more about pointing the camera towards the feelings of the people in a crisis. The way it shows how universal human emotions arise within a crisis stands out. The film’s mise-en-scène of the sinkhole and the villa that fell into it is outstanding, allowing the viewers to get more absorbed in the stories of the characters. We met with Kim Taeyoung, the art director who designed and built the look of Sinkhole and listened to the secret behind the movie. 

Cheongwoon Villa, its neighborhood, and the sinkhole that is 500m deep were all sets built by the production team. How did you come up with the artwork and the concept of Cheongwoon Villa?  

A structure that would faithfully reflect the tone and manner of director Kim Jihoon’s story was our priority. We tried to make a villa with an exterior that didn’t feel out of place in the neighborhood of Jangsu-dong, while we tried to replicate the tone of newly built villas. We took into consideration the stories and the situations the characters would get into after the disaster, while coming up with the structure and picking the material for the exterior during the process of creating the artwork.

What was the first image of the sinkhole that came to mind while preparing for Sinkhole? 

I had the word “isolation” in my had rather than image. When seen horizontally, the sinkhole would not be too far away, but when you look at it vertically, I wanted it to feel distant. Although they can see the sky and the people outside, I thought I should make the characters feel far away in isolation. 

After the villa falls into the sinkhole, the background and the different structures 500m underground looked impressive. Were there any references you were inspired by during the preparation stage? 

What left a strong impression on me was the play 887 by Robert Lepage, which I watched during the early preparation stage of Sinkhole. I was greatly inspired by how the same apartment space changed into diverse spaces with unique characteristics, and received much inspiration to apply to the set of Sinkhole.

What kind of conversations did you have with director Kim Jihoon before shooting started, and were you given any special instructions? 

Right from the start, director Kim Jihoon wanted to focus on physically realizing the spaces more than relying on CG. From the neighborhood of Jangsu-dong, which was used as the backdrop of the story, to the inside of the villa units, he expressed that having actual sets to support the story would be important.

You have collaborated with director Kim Jihoon for a while through films May 18, Sector 7, The Tower, I Want to See Your Parents’ Face, and now Sinkhole. As a colleague who worked with him for a long time, what kind of director is Kim Jihoon?

I worked with him on five projects until now, ever since I was an assistant. When he introduces me as a staff who worked on the greatest number of films with him, I’m honestly honored and proud. It has always been challenging to work with him as I often have to overcome difficulties that are hard to grasp. However, he always gives his trust to the staff in charge of the different parts, and is always actively giving us feedback. This energizes us to work harder together in order to come to a good result. This is what I find the most admirable about director Kim Jihoon, and it’s what I want to take after.

The production team built about 20 buildings to create a neighborhood where Dongwon (Kim Sungkyun) and Mansu (Cha Seungwon) live. It's like building a small town. What did you focus on the most during the set production, and what kind of brilliant ideas and know-hows did you apply?

The designing process and production took five months. The tone of Jangsu-dong, which is where the story takes place, was born after much deliberation with director Kim Jihoon. The 2,500-pyeong (approximately 8264.5m2) set was also designed in advance in both pre-disaster and post-disaster appearances, and changes were made according to each disaster situation.

The blueprint was complicated because we designed the interior in advance while thinking about how the disaster would develop and how the characters would move around in it. Actually, it would’ve been easier to have built separate sets. Despite that, we decided to make this complicated indoor set because the living spaces of these characters fall deep below underground, get isolated, then break down and sink. We thought this would allow the story to develop smoothly and the characters to move flexibly in the limited space as they face a gradually worsening disaster in isolation.

What are you most satisfied with out of the art direction you led for Sinkhole?

I remember the gimbal set the most, which we used to shake the set. We used two gimbal sets for the full interior of Dongwon’s house and also for all of the rooftop. All the spaces are meaningful to me, but the gimbal set used for the round floor was a special experience for me.

We constructed a semi-circular structure on which we placed the flat floor of the set. We came up with the diameter of the semicircle by taking the width of the set and after discussing the width and the angle of the maximum tilt with the special effects team. Throughout the production period, I was worried someone might get hurt thinking I could’ve designed it wrong by mistake. Fortunately, no one got hurt and the shoot went smoothly. I was relieved to read the actors' interviews where they said they were able to perform realistically thanks to the gimbal set.

You participated in large-scale disaster films like The Tower and Sinkhole. I think a common characteristic about the two titles is that they both have this image of “collapsing”. How were the two films different on site?

Sinkhole and The Tower differ in many ways, including the tone of the film, the aspect of the disaster, the production process, and the approach. First of all, The Tower is a fire disaster movie which takes place in two 108-story skyscrapers, so the set burned down or sank underwater and disappeared after just a few shoots. The art in the film suffered the disaster just like the characters in the story.

On the other hand, Sinkhole’s disaster is much smaller in scale and it happens to a five-story villa when it falls into a sinkhole. Because the sinkhole is so deep, the victims can’t climb out and there's no place to run because there are walls blocking them in every direction. The disaster had to be faced and overcome by the characters alone. The film art also had to survive and live on just like the disaster-stricken characters. The Tower had an overwhelmingly bigger number of sets and set types, but Sinkhole required more conversions of a single space.

I bet you have your own work philosophy after working on several disaster films as an art director. 

Film art exists to support the story. The disaster is within the stories of the characters, and the different aspects of the disaster are express through how the individuals fight through it. If I follow through to the end of the story, I’m able to envision the beginning of the picture.

Why did you choose to be an art director out of the many different roles in filmmaking? 

Film art is an area that covers many fields. The sentiments of the space, the tone, the light, and how the final picture gets made can all be summarized by the term, “mise-en-scène”. There are many areas to keep in mind, so you feel an even bigger sense of accomplishment. In addition, I get to meet new backgrounds and individuals with every script, and I must observe, feel, and express everything constantly, which I find are the charms of art directing.

Korean films are often regarded highly for the industry’s expertise and how completed the final projects look. Of course film art is getting praised as a part of that too. What would you say is the strength of film art in Korean films?

The art in Korean films not only conveys the tone, manner, and information on the characters and the situation, but also sentiments. It expresses the sentiments of the space and the characters, and that’s why the art in Korean films are more detailed than films from abroad. Every nook and cranny contains sentiments and emotions, and such delicate details make you want to analyze beyond what’s told through the story. I believe that is its strength.

Sinkhole​ has been invited to the Locarno International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, and was selected as the closing film of the New York Asian Film Festival, receiving much interest from abroad. To close off, can you share a point the international audience should pay attention to?

The space where we live in and stay at is something we universally find precious. When your sole resting place in the midst of your busy life suddenly breaks down and starts to disappear, I think what you’ll realize is that more than the space, you’ll find the people whom you breathe and live with more important. The characters in this film also didn’t realize this because they became so used to the presence of each other, but in the end, the space they lived in and stayed at was there as a means for them to live with their precious ones. Even when a place of comfort breaks down and disappears, I hope you’ll see how the characters struggle for the people they cherish.