Today we’d like to introduce you to Hyunjun Park.
Hi Hyunjun, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hello, my name is Hyunjun Park, a Cinematographer from South Korea with 15+ years of professional experience in Camera Operation and Cinematic Lighting in Film & Commercial industries.
I came to Los Angeles back in 2011 to pursue my educational career in Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Videography and Video Editing have been some of the most enjoyable hobbies that I carried along with me since high school. After graduating from UCLA, I wanted to broaden my knowledge and experience about filmmaking, so I decided to work for a production company.
My first job in the filmmaking industry was working as an intern at a Production Company in Commercials and Advertisement. I’ve worked with such major Korean multinational brands such as Samsung and CJ Entertainment as a Production Assistant and Assistant Camera, where I learned the general logistics of how big-budgeted productions flow and familiarized myself with professional gears and workflows. For small projects and clients (with locals and small businesses), I was able to also assist with editing as an Assistant Editor to improve my editing skills and knowledge using professional tools.
With the knowledge and experience I obtained from the Production Company, I felt a stronger passion and pull toward the Camera Operation and Lighting. Then, my new chapter began as I started working for a Fashion Company. As a Cinematographer and Lead Editor, I enjoyed the full creative of making Fashion Films, Testimonials and Interviews, and Marketing Campaigns that generated $300M a year of revenue a year. I led a small but mighty team of five other filmmakers for about 5 years where the company supported and allowed us to experiment with different camera and G&E equipments to add a cinematic taste and aesthetics to traditional ways of shooting Fashion Films.
As I was adding more narratives and emotional attachment to what I was creating, I realized that I wanted to learn more about Narrative Filmmaking. Around that time, a friend of mine, who is a renown DP in Korea, referred me about a 1-year Conservatory Program from New York Film Academy in Burbank. Without hesitation, I applied for the program and jumped back into school.
At NYFA, my whole perspective about filmmaking started progressively changing with the realization that differentiated Narrative Films from all the other Commercials and Business-related Productions that I’ve worked previously with, as I started learning more in depth about the specifics and industry-standard ways of making “films”. Over just a year of time, I produced, directed, and DP’ed over 25+ short films, commercials, and music videos and built an invaluable amount of connections that helped me power through and succeed in what I do now after graduating from NYFA.
And, here I am. After graduating from NYFA in August last year, I am currently working as a Freelancer Cinematographer, having worked on 4 feature films, 10+ award-winning shorts, commercials, and music videos. I am grateful to be where I am now, as I am able to limitlessly collaborate with new creatives and talented filmmakers on every project while, as a Cinematographer, I always light and film the scenes with a multifaceted perspective that I have obtained from all my previous experiences.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I believe that there is no smooth road to anything that you strive for success. For me, one of the biggest challenges that were constantly getting in my way has been the Work-Life-Balance. Everyone in the film industry will agree that it is extremely difficult to establish a good Work-Life-Balance. Working on a 12-hour shift on every set and powering through a series of non-stop back-to-back shooting schedules is not an easy accomplishment to make, especially if you have a family or important ones to take care of.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Visual Storyteller and Narrator. I implement my knowledge and experience with cinematic lighting techniques and camera operation to achieve the visual aspects of whatever production I partake in. More importantly, one of my main jobs is to bring Director’s/Client’s vision into reality.
With my big picture in career being to become a creative Cinematographer, Camera Operation has been my strongest forte with all the technical knowledge that I obtained working from different industries. Having operated a variety of camera workflows of major brands such as Sony (Fx3, Fs5, Venice), Red (Komodo, Raptor, Helium, Dragon), Arri (Alexa Mini, Alexa Mini LF, Alexa 35), and Film Cameras (15mm, 16mm, and 35mm), I am confident with ANY camera setup and workflow that the production chooses.
Cinematic Lighting is another creative process that I enjoy the most when it comes to working on narrative films. Of course, the creative decisions on lighting are made collectively with directors/clients/producers, but I am a huge maniac of soft high contrast lighting.
I do not have a credit with Major Productions like “a DP in Marvel films” yet, but in terms of my recent DP projects, I just finished shooting a Proof of Concept for “Rubber Room”, a $1M budgeted periodic/thriller Feature that we are developing to shoot toward end of this year. Earlier this year, I worked on a quarter million dollar budgeted mystery/thriller feature, called “White Vinniga”, which we submitted to Cannes Festival.
What differentiates me from other Cinematographers are the techniques of Camera Movement and Framing. When I was working for the Fashion Company, I enjoyed shooting hand-held with 20lbs+ camera rigs on 12-hour sets with crazy movements and non-stopping schedules for not just one shoot, but for countless number of sets. Also, I have done way too many exterior, guerrilla shootings where I had to improvise a lot of shots in terms of framing and composition that works for the story and narration, so I am confident that my eyes and trained muscles memories for camera movements are exceptional, compared to others.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Personally, I interpret the meaning of risk-taking as, “sacrificing something to obtain or gain a new opportunity”.
It was the case for when I made a decision to quit the job at the fashion company to turn myself into film school for one year to learn more about filmmaking. For the decision, I had the following sacrifices to make: (1) losing 12 months of decent paying job = $6,000 x 12 months = $72,000, (2) having to spend my savings to pay for tuition fee: $75,000, (3) having to drive part-time uber to compensate for all the daily expenses, which would potentially lead to car maintenance cost and spending at least 4-5 hours on driving, and may more miscellaneous sacrifices that I had to make, totaling over $150,000 for the opportunity cost.
The opportunity was pretty clear and straightforward: to learn film logistics, to equip myself with strong foundations and knowledge about filmmaking, and to build connections.
Although I wasn’t able to calculate for the estimate of how much of the opportunity would actually turn into, I did see a huge potential that could possibly outnumber the opportunity cost of $150,000, which was also an unbearably big amount at the time. Yet, I did choose to take the risk and moved on with the decision.
Then, of course, I took actions to take every measure to reduce the monetary burdens I had to carry along. I gathered a portfolio using my previous experiences to get financial scholarship from school. I also reached out to some of my family members, including my mother- and father-in-law for monetary familial support. Almost every day, I drove uber for 4-5 hours a day to earn incomes to pay for daily expenses. And, here and there, I did some good-paying giggs as live events, wedding videographers to add extra incomes to my bank accounts.
In the end, I graduated with the highest GPA you can possibly graduate with, having acquired all the necessary knowledge and experiences to push my boundary to start getting new giggs as soon as I graduated (including my first feature film as a DP a few months after I graduated), and a well established line of connections that I enjoy working with up to date.
For me, I would consider myself as an occasional risk-taker who takes the risks when he sees a clear vision and faith in what the opportunity would bring. Because I saw the qualitative opportunity outcomes weighing more importance than the quantitative opportunity costs, I did take the risk and I am pretty happy with the outcomes that I will be carrying along for the rest of my life.
Pricing:
- Cinematographer/DP (would love to discuss the rate)
- 1st AC ($300/day)
- Gaffer ($300/day)
Contact Info:
- Website: junlafilms.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/hyunjun.la/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junla/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@junla6504
