감독의 첫 인사 First greeting from Director

미국 프로듀서가 되어 지난 10월 부터 동고동락을 같이한 앨런이 자꾸만 블로그를 쓰라고 보챕니다. 자기만 올리면 사람들이 재미없어한다나...그 닥달에 못이겨 감독판 첫 블로그를 작성하게 되었습니다. 안녕하세요? <내부순환선> 감독 조은희입니다. ^^

자, 무슨 말부터 할까요?
아 래 블로그를 보시면 아시겠지만 <내부순환선>은 지난 2월 "로테르담 영화제"에서 월드프리미어 상영을 갖는 큰 행운을 얻었습니다. 그에이어, 북미 프리미어 상영이 된 미국 내 큰 영화제 중 하나인 "사우스 바이 사우스웨스트 영화제" 까지 2006년 초는 <내부순환선> 에 있어 즐겁고 바쁜 시간이 되고 있습니다.

이번 영화제에서는 참 감사한 일이 많았습니다. 영화제 내에서 매우 드문 외국어 영화인 <내부순환선>을 장편 경쟁부문에 뽑아주신 일도 감사한데 "심사위원 특별상"이라는 큰 상까지 안겨 주셔서 너무나 기뻤습니다. 솔직히 저는 거의 일 년 가까이 진행된 영화 후반작업으로 지칠대로 지쳐 있었습니다. 솔직히 말씀드리면 영화제에 가는 것 조차 성가시게 느껴질 만큼 지쳐있었습니다. 심지어 영화만드는 일을 당분간 그만 두고 돈을 많이 벌고 싶다는 생각으로 가득차 있을 만큼 지쳐있었습니다. 그러나 이 은혜로운 사건은 마치 제게 깜짝선물로 용기를 북돋아 주시려는 계획처럼 저의 지치고 오그라든 마음을 단방에 녹여주었습니다. 그리고 다시 고민하기 시작했습니다. 그래...조금만 쉬고 다음 시나리오는... 언제 부터 쓰면 좋울까...그래서 그 첼리스트를 10대 소년으로 바꾸는 건 어때? (다음 시나리오는 첼리스트에 관한 이야기가 될 가능성이 큽니다 ^^)

이 불쌍한 독립영화감독을 알아봐주시고 깜짝 선물을 주신 영화제 측에 깊이 머리숙여 감사드립니다. 사실 수상 소감이 끝나고 넙죽 90도로 인사를 하고 말았습니다. 그게 미국식은 아니지만 저절로 숙여지는 머리를 굳이 막을 필요가 있겠습니까.

그러나 <내부순환선>은 아직 갈 길이 멉니다. 이 영화의 고향, 한국에서의 상영이 기다리고 있기 때문입니다. 아시아 관객들, 특히 한국관객의 반응은 어떨지 두렵고 긴장됩니다. <내부순환선>은 한국 남부의 도시 전주에서 열리는 "전주국제영화제", 한국영화의 흐름 부문에서 상영을 갖습니다. 따사로운 봄이 한창일 4월 말에서 5월 초, 인사드리겠습니다. 다만 염려되는 것은 보기만 해도 추운 겨울이 배경인 그리고 대부분이 실내거나 밤인, 심각한 또한 별로 해피하지 않은 앤딩을 맞는 영화를 그 화창한 봄날에 보여드려 혹 누를 끼치진 않을까 하는... --;

사우스 바이 사우스 영화제에서 있었던 세세한 사항들은 아래 앨런의 재미있는 글을 통해 즐감하시길 바라며, 저의 첫 글은 이것으로 마치겠습니다. 아직은 겨울기운이 가시지 않은 3월 이 곳 시카고나 뉴욕, 서울 기타 세계 각지에 계신 여러분들 . 앨런이 올린 따사로운 텍사스 사진 보시고 최면거시기 바랍니다. ^^

My US Producer, Alan, who has shared the pleasure and pains of filmmaking with me since last October, has kept asking me to write a blog. He said people would be bored by the producer's blogging alone. So, I did this partly so that he will stop bugging me. Producers can be such a pain in the you-know-what sometimes! Just kidding. Mostly.

Hello! I'm the director of INNER CIRCLE LINE, Eunhee. ^^

Well, where to start?

As you can see from the rest of the blog, INNER CIRCLE LINE was fortunate enough to have world premiere screening at International Film Festival of Rotterdam last February. Another lucky thing was that one of the biggest film festivals in the US, SXSW (South by Southwest), gave us a chance to have our North American premiere. It has been a very busy and happy time for INNER CIRCLE LINE in early 2006.

We had many things to be grateful for at SXSW. I appreciated that the festival chose this as one of very few foreign films in the festival for the Narrative Feature Competition, plus, I was so happy that they gave me a meaningful award, Special Jury Prize. Honestly, I was so exhausted by the almost year-long process of post production that I even felt bothered by having to make this festival trip. I was even hoping for earning lots of money doing something other than filmmaking for a quite a while in my life after this project. But this graceful incident, like a great plan of encouragement with surprising present from Angel, immediately melted my tired heart. And I began rethinking ...well, let's take a rest for a little bit and then next script... when would it be a good time to start?...so how about changing the Cello player to teenaged boy? (It's highly possible that my next script will be about cellist ^^)

I bow with gratitude to SXSW which recognized this poor indie filmmaker and gave surprising present. Actually, I did happen to bow to the crowd after my speech. I know it's not American style but do I need to stop myself from this automatic expression of showing thanks?

But we still have a long way to go. This film's home, Korean premiere is waiting. I'm sort of scared and nervous about the Asian audience's, especially Korean audience's, reaction to the film. INNER CIRCLE LINE will be screened at Jeonju International Film Festival in the section called Korean Cinema on the Move. I hope to see you around late April, a peak time of Spring in the southern city of South Korea, Jeonju.

Please enjoy the detailed story of SXSW through following Alan's fun blog. I'm closing my short blog here. To the people like me here in Chicago, NY or Seoul, whatever areas over the world, still having Winter this March! Upon seeing some of the pictures from warm Texas, hope this helps you daydream. ^^ -Eunhee

SXSW: Next stop on the Inner Circle Line

3.11.06 Just arrived for SXSW today from LA, fresh from pickup shoots for my other movie Half-Life, which was exhilarating because of the excitement of production, hanging with my HL peeps and meeting a lot of cool new people, but I’m also sick and really fatigued. But it’s freaking 85 degrees here and the rental car was out of midsize cars so they gave me a Jeep Wrangler for the same price. Yee-haw! Woo-wee! Yippee-ki-yi… ok, nevermind. Sorry to my Texan friends Kat and Stacy, who must be cringing right now ;) Anyway, to celebrate our arrival in America's heartland, we did some truly American things: ate at a diner, and went right to Wal-Mart, where the aisles are bigger than Manhattan streets, and we bought everything from bathing suits for the hotel pool and hot tub, to a completely unreasonable number of tangerines, just because we could.

3.12.06 Had our first screening today, at the Alamo Drafthouse, which is this crazy awesome place that serves food and beer during the movie. The projection was a little dark, and the subtitles were cut off a little at the bottom, but we had a good appreciative crowd that asked a lot of really cool questions. Eunhee and I each got into the drafthouse part a little too much though, so we were a little tipsy by the time the Q & A rolled around, and the proof of it was that the first thing I blurted into the mic was something like “Hi, I’m Alan, and we’re drunk” ;) Chris and Quynh from the Americanese team stopped by to say hello, which was cool – I’m looking forward to seeing their film. And thanks to our co-producer Robert, my friends Annie and Michael, and all of Eunhee’s TX peeps who came out for drinks with us afterwards at the crazy bars on Sixth Street.

3.14.06 When I woke up this morning, I just had a good feeling about today, and sure enough, we had a great screening. Even though it was a daytime screening, we had a good full crowd, and most of all, they were hoppin’ – laughing at all the jokes, chuckling at the situational stuff – very lively, maybe because it was a younger student crowd? Afterwards we talked with a lot of aspiring filmmakers, a few festival programmers and acquisitions people, and some fellow filmmakers we’ve met, like Eric Byler, stopped by to chat too. Good stuff.

Then came the awards show at night, which I almost missed due to a mishap involving me, a missing rental car key, and an urgent need for a locksmith…but that’s another story. Not being one of the films that had Hollywood actors in our cast or a huge PR machine behind us, we pretty much expected to be spectators for this, but when they got to announcing the special jury prizes, something funny happened. The first special jury prize went to Americanese, and while they were giving their acceptance speech I looked up at the screen announcing the recipients, which read: “AMERICANese & Inner Circle Line!”. I turned to Eunhee and said, “Does that mean what I think it means?” We just stared at each other for a second, then I said, “I think we’re about to win something.” We were kind of in shock, so we did the only thing befitting ultracool indie filmmakers – we panicked. E was like, “You have to come down with me – I don’t know what to say.” I was like,”I don’t know what to say either!”. But sure enough, seconds later, they announced that ICL had won the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Visual Achievement. Somehow we managed to say things that I think were mostly sensible, from what I can remember. I just recall E making a nice speech, and I think she got a little misty up there! She included a very heartfelt thanks to me, which meant so much to me, and I managed a few words thanking SXSW for being a fest that supports films that are truly indie, and to prove how indie E is, I mentioned how she cut ICL on an old G4 with a monitor that turns purple every 9 seconds until you slap it – which by the way, is utterly true. Afterwards, they whisked us into the wings, where we exchanged hugs and handshakes with the “Americanese” peeps. After a few seconds, it really sunk in, and E and I had a nice big emotional hug. Suddenly, all the all-nighters and blood, sweat and tears of filmmaking seem so worth it. I’m so proud of E! Wow. K, enough mushiness, time to party our asses off at the Closing Party!

3.17.06 Today was our last day at SXSW. We’ve been watching as many movies as we can. I've gotten to see "Bondage" (funny) and "The Last Romantic" (love the look) and "Neil Young - Heart of Gold", as well as a cool film called "Apart From That". Last night was our last screening, and the playback on the HDCam deck was glitchy, but it’s all good because we got to hang with our pals Kat, Stacy and Lorie from “jumping off bridges”, Ari K from “For Sale by Owner”, and Robert Z from “Half-Life”. Maybe the best part about winning the award was that lots of people knew us afterwards, and approached us to say congrats - we got to meet so many great fans and so many terrific filmmakers – I’m so excited to see their future work! Some of them are pictured here – please support them all. I'm sad to leave Austin - almost bought myself a real 10-gallon cowboy hat, but I decided it might be a little too Brokeback for a straight guy living in Chelsea. Next stop, Korea! -Alan














Pictured, top to bottom: us with Greta from "LOL"; Eunhee with Aaron Nee of "The Last Romantic"; me with Allison Sie of "AMERICANese"; us with Kat, Stacy and Ari; us on Sixth Street.