PRODUCTION POSSIBLE LOVE
I’m speaking via Zoom with cinematographer Kim Ji-yong, whose last few projects include Park Chan- wook’s Decision to Leave and Squid Game Season 2. “I wanted to do this film even before I read the script,” he begins. “Lee is a great director and I really wanted to work with him. The first time we met he told me about the history of trying to make this project. He wrote the script almost ten years ago and after nearly making the film, decided to put it aside.” Kim admits that, when he did eventually read the script, it was nearly impossible for him to understand the whole idea. “I thought, if I shoot this, then I could come to understand it as we shoot it – and I like that part of the process.” Lee spoke to Kim about meeting a ‘movie god’ during filming. “I’m not sure how to translate that exactly, but he told me if we try our best, try 100%, then this movie god will come down and help us. He meets this movie god once in every movie, so he said we’ll meet him depending on how hard we try.” Lee emphasised that he wanted audiences to experience the film as if they were seeing it with the naked eye – without feeling that they were looking through a camera or filters. “That doesn’t mean we simply point and shoot either; it’s about keeping the image realistic and authentic. In Korean, he told me to always find ‘jinja’, which can be translated as
something between genuine and true to life. That’s what we were after,” Kim says. Possible Love feels very much like a film shot on location, but Kim explains that although this was intentional, it didn’t work that way. “We built the summer vacation house and redressed the main character’s house, as well as the house we see in the flashbacks. Alongside the art department, Lee spent lots of time making the environments all look real, even parts that we don’t see in the film. He wanted the actors to feel immersed in them. It was pretty inspirational.” Kim approached the lighting in much the same way, becoming involved in the design of the houses from an early stage. He focused on the direction of the windows, so he could find out the path of the sun. It was vital to make sure the colour of the walls and even the props were aligned with the realism. He selected ambient lighting to complement the naturalistic aesthetic. He was also conscious of keeping the lighting equipment away from the actors, so they could focus on their performance. “I didn’t want them to see any lights,” he adds. “It wasn’t always possible, of course. While I wanted it to feel real, I still had to find something impressionistic for the drama. I wanted to make really quiet visuals, which isn’t something I’m used to. This is maybe my most non-lit, naturalistic attempt in my career.”
OPPOSITES ATTRACT Director Lee Chang- dong (above) wrote the film ten years ago
Kim shot the film on an ARRI ALEXA 35 paired with ZEISS Super Speed and Angénieux EZ-Series lenses. “The camera and lenses really enabled me to capture the film handheld and allowed me to easily follow the characters. We didn’t want intentional mise-en-scène when it came to framing the scenes.” One of the most striking sequences comes towards the end, when two of the characters leave the summer house in the early hours and scatter into the woods. It involved shooting for less than an hour each day, across numerous days, as the sun set behind the mountain.
REAL DRAMA Kim Ji-yong, who used an ARRI ALEXA 35 with ZEISS Super Speed and Angénieux EZ- Series lenses, says Possible Love is ‘maybe my most non-lit, naturalistic attempt in my career’
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