Cinematography Style: Chung-hoon Chung

INTRODUCTION

Chung Chung-hoon is a cinematographer whose work doesn’t abide by one particular aesthetic. His photography is flexible and balanced differently for each project. 

With that said, much of his work, especially with director Park Chan-wook, has taken place in the thriller or horror genres. Therefore, he does tend to treat these stories with a slightly darker eye and cinematic tone which is slightly surrealistic and elevated from reality.

In this episode I’ll look at Chung Chung-hoon’s philosophy on photography and show some of the gear which he uses to execute his vision. 

BACKGROUND

Chung’s entry into the world of cinema didn’t start behind the camera. It started at the age of 5 when he was cast as the lead in a show which became a huge hit in his home country of South Korea. This acting career went on to last 15 years until he began studying at Dongguk University in Seoul where he directed several short films. He also served as his own cinematographer on these projects.

Chung began his official career as a feature film director of photography at 25, which he has continued doing ever since.

His biggest breakthrough came after Park Chan-wook’s editor put his name forward to shoot his next film Oldboy. He was a fan of his prior film Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. At first he hung up when Park’s production team called him as he thought it was a prank. An hour later he got a call from Park himself. He won the job without Park ever having seen any of his prior work.

Oldboy accelerated his notoriety as a DP in Korea and internationally and began a long working relationship with Park. Some other directors that he’s worked with include his recent collaboration with Edgar Wright, Andy Muschietti and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

PHILOSOPHY

“From my viewpoint as a cinematographer, the creation is not about obsessing on making new things that no one has created before but to combine things that fit the film with the right balance.”

Getting this ‘right balance’ is one of the reasons why he does not maintain the same stylistic flairs across projects. To him, the right balance is attained by having a deep appreciation and understanding of the story. He credits his early work as an actor as giving him a solid grasp on storytelling.

“The reason I keep mentioning the drama of a piece is because only by understanding the characters and what they go through can I provide and capture all the movement I want and need to capture.”

“For example, in Oldboy I saw the overall movement as the chasing of the characters and as such there is a lot of long lens and zoom lens work, shots taken from behind and less handheld camerawork, more fluid I guess I would say. I believe if I understand the characters I can accurately build up relevant, sympathetic scenes within whatever overall genre is required.”

After gaining sufficient understanding of the story and characters, when working with Park, they’ll then set out to storyboard the film. Although he says that probably about 40% of the storyboarded shots change, he likes having them as a base to start from.

Since they’ve worked together on so many projects, Park is readily accepting of lots of his ideas. Chung credits Park as being a good director for his ability to discern and accept, or reject, ideas which he puts forward. This is what gives the films their overall style and tone. 

When it comes to translating these ideas to the screen, he prefers to shoot with a single camera whenever possible, as it is quicker to light and means he never has to sacrifice any angles or lights that may have to be moved due to the placement of a second camera.

With that said he has used multiple cameras, on films such as It, for the purposes of capturing performances more easily or to speed up production.

GEAR

Although many aspects of his cinematography like the way the camera moves, the colour palette, grade and focal length selection, changes depending on the story and whims of the director there still are some elements of his style which are present throughout his filmography. 

For example, many of his movies are photographed in a 2.35 aspect ratio.

In many films he uses a hard backlight with a soft fill. In It this was done by using tungsten Vari-Lite VL1000s rigged to the ceiling to provide backlight from any angle and then filling in the space by rigging 17 Kino Flo Image 85s with daylight tubes to a pipe above the set. The Kino Flos were fitted with egg crates so that the light from above didn’t spill too much onto the walls, which maintained deeper shadows and more contrast.

He’s used this similar technique with different lights in different positions in his other films, dating back to his early work. Backlight characters with harder lights and filling in with something soft and diffused to retain detail in the shadows.

In some films his lighting is more naturalistic and in others it’s a bit more exaggerated depending on what’s best for the story. Although Chung has mentioned that keeping things looking fairly natural and real is a good way of making horror films look and feel scarier.

For interiors he often employs a subtle use of colour, particularly a mix of off-green and tungsten light, which he has done in many films to bring in a slightly sickly feeling of dis-ease. 

He may use atmospheric smoke to give shape to the light.

When it comes to choosing a camera his previous work was captured on 35mm film but after the digital revolution he has mainly stuck to shooting with digital cinema cameras. He almost exclusively uses Arri cameras: like the 435 or Arricam ST for film and the Alexa XT or the Mini for digital.

He pairs these with a mix of spherical and anamorphic lenses. When using film he preferred sharper lenses such as Zeiss Ultra Primes or Zeiss Master Primes, but now that he shoots digitally he prefers lenses which are a little bit softer or that have vintage characteristics such as Hawk V-Lite Vintage 74’s or Panavision G-Series anamorphics. Chung carries Angenieux Optimo zooms on most films, usually the 24-290mm.

When working with the Alexa now, he uses a colour accurate monitor and a remote iris control on the camera so that he can ride the exposure to levels that he is happy with by wirelessly changing the iris.

Chung works with a Rec 709 LUT which may be tweaked live on set by his DIT based on his feedback. His main focus is on getting the contrast right on set and has said that he usually leaves the overall colour in the grade down to the director and their preferences.

For example, a lot of his work with Park is quite punchy and saturated with strong contrast and deep shadows, while on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl the grade is more washed out and desaturated.

He isn’t the biggest fan of the steadicam and often prefers to use a dolly and tracks for camera moves with greater stability and control. 

CONCLUSION

From comedies to thrillers to horror films, Chung Chung-hoon is familiar with multiple genres. His greatest ability is being able to read the correct cinematic tone for the story and characters and adapt his technical choices to get the right balance.

Sometimes the right balance is manic and stylised. Sometimes the right balance is natural and real. Sometimes it’s dark and moody. 

Chung is able to separate himself from any one aesthetic and craft a cinematic language which is always right for the story.