I must have been naturally influenced by the scriptwriting classes at college. Once I get involved in a new project, I always read the script first. Then I usually talk to the director, DOP, production designer and costume designer to build visual concepts for the film.

Once we determine the concept or look, we do multiple rounds of tests to decide the right tools for the film such as the camera, lenses, etc. I consider this pre-test as my first colour grading work.

When grading, I spend a vast amount of time developing the ‘colour theme’ based on the concept discussed during pre-production. Creating this theme is the key element of my approach. It’s a little more complicated than the look itself because it also contains the overall level of contrast, saturation, exposure, sharpness, and so on. It acts as a visual framework and once established, the rest gets much easier as I follow the story to determine the tone for each scene.

I have worked with Ji Yong for his previous eight films, and I am also planning to work on his next movie. Because we have worked together for a long time, we both understand each other so well that we produce excellent teamwork.

We discuss many things together such as the lens selection, the filter selection, the concept, the detailed colour grading plan, as well as the composition and the movement of the camera, and setting the exposure level or the overall contrast.

He always brings me amazing images and, as a colourist, nothing can be more exciting than working with beautiful images.

When Ji Yong Kim was awarded the Golden Frog at Camerimage, I was so happy and excited that I could not believe it at first. This award is so special because Ji Yong is the first Asian to be awarded at the Camerimage Film Festival.

I see this film The Fortress as one of my best works in terms of maturity and achievement. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work on this project.

For The Fortress, there were a few fundamental visual elements Ji Yong wanted to accomplish.

Because the story is set in the cold winter mountains, it had to be visually cold, and at the same time, it had to show beautiful scenery. The battle scenes had to look desperate with great intensity. There were many scenes where I needed to convey the main characters’ emotions elaborately.

In summary, Ji Yong wanted the whole picture to look bold and luxurious.

I was able to create the final look by creating a bluish cast with a strong contrast to enhance the sharpness of the image. I experimented with a lot of looks to express cold, snowy mountains. I chose a cool blue as the primary colour, and I added several luma mattes to apply unique shades of blue to create somewhat different shades of the colour for the movie.

For night scenes, Ji Yong used a torch or candlelight instead of using any lighting to capture the reality.

Overall, I love Baselight's colour pipeline. It is very accurate and technically precise when handling various types of digital media and displays. I think this is the most crucial function in digital image processing.

My favourite tools in Baselight are Base Grade and Film Grade. I believe well-balanced images are achievable with the simplest tools. I’d be curious to know what other colourists’ favourite tools are!

If I get a chance, I would like to work overseas and experience different styles of film and environment.