Familiar, Yet New: CRIMSON WHALE by PARK Hye-mi
“When I see you, it feels like I’m writing on a plain piece of paper, which pleases me,”
OH Seung-uk, director of
The Shameless and
PARK Hye-mi’s mentor at the
Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), told PARK. Indeed, PARK was a promising student. She entered the KAFA at a fairly young age as the youngest of the 28th group, and has absorbed knowledge on film, art and animation like a sponge, working on
Crimson Whale, a work for the 6th "KAFA production and research project."
To be sure, it was not easy to work for two years on Crimson Whale with a tight budget of KRW 150 million (USD 130 thousand) and limited staff. Nevertheless, the compensation was more than invaluable: it showed at the KAFA Screening; and invited to international film festivals. PARK is just back from Spain, attending the 48th edition of Sitges Film Festival in the Anima’t section, and now delivers her hard yet precious experience.
Dreaming of a Whale Flying in the Sky
PARK entered the animation division at the KAFA just because she liked drawing, not necessarily because she had a big dream in animation. She was not even sure what she liked. She dropped from college in the first year and had various theater-related jobs until she entered the KAFA as an animation major.
In the following year, this good spirited rookie in her mid 20s had an important mission to participate in the 6th project of feature length animation production course. PARK interprets it as the result of her “blind passion to sacrifice one whole year.” But her first year at the KAFA was a series of mental breakdowns. She had a lot more curiosity and missing knowledge than her peers. Only at the KAFA she found out that there were so many comics and animation geeks out there, and the joy of communicating with them. She immediately looked up the works that she hadn’t known, and while writing the Crimson Whale scenario, she clearly learned what she could do well and which genres she likes more.
Crimson Whale is an SF animation set in Haeundae, Busan in 2070, or more specifically, a post apocalypse genre animation, that is recently attracting many fans. Set in the ghost town of Haeundae in the future when the whole mankind is endangered due to great earthquakes and volcano eruption, a drug dealer girl Ha-jin sets out for a journey to catch a crimson whale along with a group of pirates led by BAEK Sang-won. Ha-jin has a special ability to communicate with whales.
The start of the story was simply a whale. "The fantasy that painting artists have of a flying whale in the sky,” led PARK to whale sharks. And this little motif developed into a “familiar story of a hero kid growing into an adult, leaving his/her hometown, headed for an unknown land,” which later turned into Crimson Whale. The reference that OH suggested while PARK was developing the scenario was Moby Dick.
“Surely I was influenced by Moby Dick: the story of six people with different purposes meet in a confined place and get to know each other. It is also a story of an innocent girl Ha-jin following a group of seamen. I was also influenced by the Treasure Island.”
The main issue was how to create this female character, BAEK. BAEK was also influenced by the female character of a novel Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte. It is a story of a Mexican woman, an ex-lover of a Mafia captain, who later turns into the chief in charge of drug smuggling in the Mediterranean. "At first I had a typical story in mind with a seaman from Busan in his 50s and a boy, but I decided to focus on the kind of story and character that I can do well, and I ended up with a woman and a girl," says PARK. "Among OH’s advice, what stood out for me was to focus on creating your world view. Akira and Blade Runner are revered all the more for their unique world views.“
Before the Whale, There were Human Beings
Crimson Whale had a funding opportunity for full length production because its nature as a fantasy adventure genre film is rare in Korean animation. Still, it encountered several obstacles. Writing the scenario took more than a full year but the struggle in the actual production was beyond imagination.
PARK originally planned co-direction but as the project fell behind the schedule, she became a solo director. It took one year and a half for five main staff, including PARK and an assistant director who were capable both of original drawing and variation drawing, to make the animation. Generally 3 or 4 cuts would fit for one day's work but they made as many as 8 cuts. It was a “frantic” job, indeed. Especially the action scenes with the whale were hard, as it was hard to break down the cuts. During post-production, they had to draw 60 more cuts in just two weeks while editing, because they ran out of sources for action scenes.
PARK still feels sorry and grateful for the staff, and recalls that it was only possible because the staff were all at similar ages and shared the same passion. Even for the music director who joined them later on, Crimson Whale was also a debut piece. Also, the voice actors were amateurs full of motivation. She says she will never make another feature length animation with such few staff, but at the same time, she feels “proud” of the job. Crimson Whale was possible because of these people involved.
Crimson Whale met domestic audience through “KAFA Films 2015: Bad Movies” which opened on Sept 10th, and foreign audience through the 19th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal and Sitges Film Festival. While domestic viewers were rather careful in watching the film, overseas audience in Europe and Canada showed much more immediate responses. Meeting these audiences, PARK was “sorry to see so many missing holes in the narrative and plot,” but she still wants to pat herself that she “took it through the end and finally made it,” implying that it was a tough work.
“I have no idea why I fearlessly chose the whale and went through all that hardships,” laughs PARK. Her next work will be a short animation. It again belongs to the post apocalypse genre, featuring a boy pilot. She is in the middle of writing the scenario. “Whether short or feature length, I will go on with animation,” assures PARK, working towards the release in the next fall.
PARK entered the animation division at the KAFA just because she liked drawing, not necessarily because she had a big dream in animation. She was not even sure what she liked. She dropped from college in the first year and had various theater-related jobs until she entered the KAFA as an animation major.In the following year, this good spirited rookie in her mid 20s had an important mission to participate in the 6th project of feature length animation production course. PARK interprets it as the result of her “blind passion to sacrifice one whole year.” But her first year at the KAFA was a series of mental breakdowns. She had a lot more curiosity and missing knowledge than her peers. Only at the KAFA she found out that there were so many comics and animation geeks out there, and the joy of communicating with them. She immediately looked up the works that she hadn’t known, and while writing the Crimson Whale scenario, she clearly learned what she could do well and which genres she likes more.Crimson Whale is an SF animation set in Haeundae, Busan in 2070, or more specifically, a post apocalypse genre animation, that is recently attracting many fans. Set in the ghost town of Haeundae in the future when the whole mankind is endangered due to great earthquakes and volcano eruption, a drug dealer girl Ha-jin sets out for a journey to catch a crimson whale along with a group of pirates led by BAEK Sang-won. Ha-jin has a special ability to communicate with whales.The start of the story was simply a whale. "The fantasy that painting artists have of a flying whale in the sky,” led PARK to whale sharks. And this little motif developed into a “familiar story of a hero kid growing into an adult, leaving his/her hometown, headed for an unknown land,” which later turned into Crimson Whale. The reference that OH suggested while PARK was developing the scenario was Moby Dick.“Surely I was influenced by Moby Dick: the story of six people with different purposes meet in a confined place and get to know each other. It is also a story of an innocent girl Ha-jin following a group of seamen. I was also influenced by the Treasure Island.”The main issue was how to create this female character, BAEK. BAEK was also influenced by the female character of a novel Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte. It is a story of a Mexican woman, an ex-lover of a Mafia captain, who later turns into the chief in charge of drug smuggling in the Mediterranean. "At first I had a typical story in mind with a seaman from Busan in his 50s and a boy, but I decided to focus on the kind of story and character that I can do well, and I ended up with a woman and a girl," says PARK. "Among OH’s advice, what stood out for me was to focus on creating your world view. Akira and Blade Runner are revered all the more for their unique world views.“Before the Whale, There were Human BeingsCrimson Whale had a funding opportunity for full length production because its nature as a fantasy adventure genre film is rare in Korean animation. Still, it encountered several obstacles. Writing the scenario took more than a full year but the struggle in the actual production was beyond imagination.
PARK originally planned co-direction but as the project fell behind the schedule, she became a solo director. It took one year and a half for five main staff, including PARK and an assistant director who were capable both of original drawing and variation drawing, to make the animation. Generally 3 or 4 cuts would fit for one day's work but they made as many as 8 cuts. It was a “frantic” job, indeed. Especially the action scenes with the whale were hard, as it was hard to break down the cuts. During post-production, they had to draw 60 more cuts in just two weeks while editing, because they ran out of sources for action scenes.PARK still feels sorry and grateful for the staff, and recalls that it was only possible because the staff were all at similar ages and shared the same passion. Even for the music director who joined them later on, Crimson Whale was also a debut piece. Also, the voice actors were amateurs full of motivation. She says she will never make another feature length animation with such few staff, but at the same time, she feels “proud” of the job. Crimson Whale was possible because of these people involved.Crimson Whale met domestic audience through “KAFA Films 2015: Bad Movies” which opened on Sept 10th, and foreign audience through the 19th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal and Sitges Film Festival. While domestic viewers were rather careful in watching the film, overseas audience in Europe and Canada showed much more immediate responses. Meeting these audiences, PARK was “sorry to see so many missing holes in the narrative and plot,” but she still wants to pat herself that she “took it through the end and finally made it,” implying that it was a tough work.“I have no idea why I fearlessly chose the whale and went through all that hardships,” laughs PARK. Her next work will be a short animation. It again belongs to the post apocalypse genre, featuring a boy pilot. She is in the middle of writing the scenario. “Whether short or feature length, I will go on with animation,” assures PARK, working towards the release in the next fall.
