KOFFIA Short Film Comp Interview: "The Korean Butterfly" with Angela Lee

Check out our exclusive interview with KOFFIA 2013 Short Film Competition finalist Angela Lee below! Buy your tickets to what will be an exciting short film session, screening August 25th in Sydney!

1. What / Who inspired you to join this competition? Why did you get into filmmaking? 

My inspiration came from my obsession with the Korean culture and how much I want to show it off. Between my peers and I, there was an initial plan to film a music video cover in the second half of the year just for fun and also as a potential entry for the k-pop dance competition. 

However, when the short film competition was publicised, I thought that perhaps we should incorporate what we have learnt so far for the dance routine and make it into a short film competition entry instead when we realize very quickly how lacking we are in the dance department.

The entry criteria have also provided everyone on the project a level of comfort in entering the competition. The competition is firstly open to novice film makers and the explicit mention of the use of iphone filming on the advertisement also indicates that we can probably film without the fancy gears. 

I have always been interested in the entertainment industry, but like many others it has remain as a dream. So the only way for me to appear on a film is to produce it myself. 

2. Can you tell us more about your film? What made you want to tell such a story? 

The film is telling a story of two sisters who were passive participants of kpop culture to being active participants of k-pop by going to dance classes and joining in more k-pop related activities. Progressing from interest in kpop the two sisters then move on to gaining interest in other components of the culture such as Korean lifestyle, language and food. 

I wanted to tell this story because this is a personal journey that my friend and I are going through at the moment. While I have been interested in k- pop for a much longer period than my younger peer, but it is only in the last 2 years that we have ramped up our involvement in Korean culture from attending language school to dancing classes.

3. In reality, have you completely transformed into a Kpop fan? If yes, what makes you deeply interested in Korean culture? If not, what do you think about the Kpop fans that ‘transform’? 

While many of my peers may have thought that this is only a recent obsession of mine but the truth is I have been following k-pop since 2000 when H.O.T was a popular boy group. I have been a Kpop fan for a very long time, but of recent year the transformation has come in more prominent form such as the learning of kpop dancing and not to mention the physical transformation of becoming a blonde copying some of the k-pop stars. 

A special mention should be given to the Korean government for the setup of the Korean Cultural Office, it certainly keep me deeply interested in the culture. My first participation in k-pop dancing was only made possible because of the program that was promoted by KCO. This also applies to the learning of the language, the appreciation of Korean films and other cultural events such as those classical music performances at the Opera House. Without programs such as these, my interest may not have been as deep and wide. It was because of these programs that I had learnt more about the Korean culture other than k-pop music and successfully transformed myself from being just a k-pop fan to a fan on the whole of Korean culture. 

Taking this interest one step further, I am planning to enrol next year in one of Korea’s tertiary institution’s 3 weeks intensive course to further my proficiency in the language and also to have an extended stay in the country. 

4. What do you think about Korean culture (music/ drama / tv.etc) influencing people living in Australia nowadays? 

Gangnam style has certainly helped in the promotion of Korean music and dedicated media such as SBS Popasia has also provided Australians an opportunity to see what Korean music is about. Who would have thought that I would be viewing Korean music video on a local media channel in Australia? 

As for the influence, I think it can be easily judge through the number of Australians patronising Korean restaurants, attendance at Korean music festivals, enrolments in Korean language classes and probably the increase in the online viewing of Korean dramas and variety shows. Would you consider the increase sales of Samsung and Hyundai as a sign of Korean culture influence?

5. Do you think the K-wave will continue in the coming few years? 

Yes I think the K-wave will continue in the coming few years with active promotion from organizations such as KCO in their local area. Adding to that will be the constant production of interesting dramas, movies and also big hits such as Gangnam style. 

6. Were there any difficulties during the entire shooting? Which part did you enjoy most and why? 

The actual filming itself was not difficult. The difficulties were encountered in the pre and post production works. Being a first time film producer, I had limited to no experience in what were required to produce a short film. 

Pre-production work of storyboarding was a first time for me, who would have thought that there are so much planning in just drawing up sketches for what was considered a very short film. 

Post-production work was also a time of trials and tribulations. Our project was fortunate enough to have a perfectionist editor on board but that also meant that the editing took more effort than anticipated because there was a need to be perfect. Another difficulty that we had encountered in the post production work was the matching of audio and visual, due to time constraint, in the end we had to remove scenes because it was too hard to record the audio separately to match up with the visual. 

What I had enjoyed the most is the 7 days that the crew had spent together on the same journey in producing this short film. Starting from story boarding to editing, it is a memory for all of us to share and relive when we catch up again years down the road. To top it all, now as a group can get to walk down the “red carpet” together and how many people can say that they have the experience in their life to walk down a red carpet that is premiering their film.

Thanks to Angela Lee for the Interview!