South Korean director shoots movie entirely on the iPhone 4

By Aemon Malone January 14, 2011

With acclaimed films like “Oldboy” and “Thirst” already on his resume, Park Chan-wook’s latest release was bound to create a stir. “Night Fishing” is attracting attention not just for being Park’s latest film to premier, but also for its creative use of mobile technology. Park opted to solely use Apple’s iPhone 4 to shoot the 30-minute movie.

“Night Fishing” was shot over 10 days, using a crew of 80 people, with a budget of $133,000. Ten iPhone 4s were used — three of which were controlled by Park himself — in the filming. The film is about a fishmerman’s encounter with a female Shaman. Park directed the film with some help from his brother, Chan-kyong.

“From hunting for a film location, shooting auditions, to doing a documentary on the filming process, everything was shot with the iPhone 4,” Park said after the film’s screening, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We went through all the same film-making processes except that the camera was small.”

The movie is being shown in South Korea during the month of January and was partially funded through a deal with wireless provider Korea Telecom, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in South Korea.

Park rose to prominence in 2000 following the release of “JSA: Joint Security Area.” Park’s “Vengeance Trilogy,” which includes the films “Old Boy,” “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and “Lady Veagance,” won the South Korean director achieve global recognition and a devout cult following. “Old Boy” was selected for Cannes Grand Prix award in 2004.

Using iPhones certainly helped to cut down on production costs, but there were also other advantages to using the smartphones for the filming. “Movies that I directed before were meticulously planned ahead and shot just as pictured.” Park said in an interview with Reuters. “Compared to that, shooting this film felt free, and everyone had an equal amount of say.”

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