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| Director Na Hong-jin, center, who filmed the short film "Faith" using Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, speaks during the film's premiere at Megabox theater in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Film director Na Hong-jin was impressed with the camera capability of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, he said Wednesday, adding he was able to capture textures, vivid images and sounds without much difficulty when shooting the short film "Faith."
"I tried to capture all the elements in the frame with the smartphone. The camera caught the texture of the paint on actor Ko Jun's face, scratches on the key and dust on the glasses worn by actor Choi Moo-sung. In some cases, it showed much better results than a film camera," the director said during a premiere event for the short film "Faith" at a theater in Seoul.
For the short film with a 10-minute running time, Na, famous for his previous works "The Chaser" (2008), "The Yellow Sea" (2010) and "The Wailing" (2016), used about 10 S23 Ultra smartphones.
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| A poster for "Faith," directed by Na Hong-jin who used Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone for shooting, is displayed on a big screen at Megabox theater in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul |
To promote the newly launched smartphone's camera capability, Samsung worked with Na and Academy Award-winning director Ridley Scott who also directed the short film "Behold."
"Faith" is about a man who has achieved what he wants to have without giving up his faith, Na elaborated.
When he agreed to shoot the short film with Samsung, he was not sure about the theme of the creation, but decided to make a movie about faith right after watching the championship final of an e-sports event for Riot Games' "League of Legends" last November.
"I was given a mission to shoot the film within a short time. After watching Deft win the final of the 'League of Legends World Championship and cry, I thought it would be good to talk about faith," Na said.
Deft is the nickname of Korean "League of Legends" veteran player Kim Hyuk-kyu. Last November, he impressed many by saying that he has been a player with "an unbreakable heart" after he finally won the championship for the first time since his debut in 2013.
"As soon as the game was over, I wanted to talk about faith. Like him, so many young people are living with their own faith and I wanted to talk about such people," Na said.
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| Actor Choi Moo-sung, left, speaks during a film premiere at Megabox theater in Seoul, Wednesday, alongside actor Ko Jun, center, director Na Hong-jin, second from right, and emcee Park Kyung-lim. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul |
The director said he expected at first to experience various kinds of difficulties.
"My concern was that the film should be made with a smartphone, but it was not that difficult. We went through a lot of test operations because of these concerns. I tried to understand the characteristics of this smartphone's camera and was able to shoot without difficulty," Na said.
He also praised the various features of the smartphone's camera. "The auto-focus feature, which automatically focuses on the portrait in the background, was impressive. In addition, there were many functions such as adjusting the horizontal level or stabilization," he said.
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