PrettyCarEye

Ok, I'll think about it. :)
Have you by any chance seen The World that They Live In with Hyun Bin and Song Hye Kyo? Or Love Story in Havard? While I otherwise enjoyed those dramas I couldn't stand the female leads because they were illogical, stubborn and defiant just for the sake of being stubborn and defiant, not because they were fighting for something important. I really dislike characters like those.

Oh! You've seen quite a bit then. Maybe it's just not your cup tea. Nina loves it though and she pretty much convinced me to watch it. I must admit before she talked me into it I was skeptical of the plot. But we'll see! I'll watch the first ep one day soon and see if it captures me.

Is Scandal very angsty and melodramatic with lots of bawling, death and all that rigmarole?

That's great and no worries! I see you've seen quite a bit of drama! Wow. The day I net 100 dramas is still a far way off! lol How long have you been watching? You should consider writing a little about yourself too so we all can get to know you! :)
What are you watching now, anything good? I just started a japanese drama Aishiteru to Ittekure.

Hello there, was just on Edinaa's profile and came across your comment about watching Capital Scandal. This is a drama I've wanted to watch, but the mixed reviews make me hesitate starting it all the time. People are telling me that it's quite boring and since I must finish everything I start I'd rather not start something that I'll have to labour through. My question is, how is it for you? Are you finding it boring?

Also you're a sæguk fan. Been wanting to try a good sæguk for a long time, but it's hard to find one with nice romance and happy ending! haha

I have Yi San and few others on my list to watch, but I haven't been in the mood for tragedies for the longest while. Actually Yi San only made the cut because I'm partial to the lovely mr. Lee Seo-jin! :)

Edinaa, my good friend NinaJade82 (maybe you know her?) told me that Golden Empire is awesome! You just have to keep at it a bit before it starts to get good. I've decided to watch it, but I'll probably wait until it gets off the air.

How is Scandal? I love the title of that show and I'm tempted to watch it just because of that! lol But, I hate melodramas and revenge themed dramas so I don't know. Let me know how you find it.

Just now I started Aishiteru to Ittekure (Say You Love Me). I like stories with disabled characters. The hero here is deaf and can't speak. I hope it's a good watch.

As for my favourite cinematic signatures? This is not an exhaustive list:

- minimal dialogue
- strong thematic resonance (greed, obsession, lust, love, whatever)
- sexuality
- anti heroes or slightly abnormal protagonists
- voyeuristic camera angles & shots. I also make use of a lot of close ups, high angle shots and long takes.
- tracking & dolly shots (when the camera trails the subject)
- in terms of colour palette rich earth tones with dashes of bright colour and moody atmospheric lighting.

Those are just few & you won't see all of the above in every film. At the moment I don't focus too much on technical signatures. My aim is to first try & tell a decent story by paying attention to plot & character development. With more life & professional experience this list will evolve.

Oh dear, MSS, apologies for taking a whopping 24 days to respond to you! I didn't mean to. There's just not enough space in my brain (or hours in a day) to remember everything that I have to do! :)

So back to our conversation! No, it is my genuine opinion, having spent thousands of dollars to attend film school, that classes do not drastically influence viewpoint at all. Like I've said before anyone with any true interest in film will already have their own ideas of the type of films they want to make (usually based on films they like to watch). Classes are good for harnessing your energies & trimming down large cinematic ideas or concepts which might be unfilmable. Finding your voice, as I mentioned earlier. But either you have the basic talent or your don't, and the best way to learn how to make films is well ... to make films.

I mentor a few up & coming filmmakers and they're always worried about having not attended film school. I try to tell them that film school nowadays is mostly good for network and access to free equipment. But if for some reason you can't go, it's no big deal. If you want to make films just go out and do it. That's how you learn and that's how you get better. You learn by doing. Most masters of film did not attend film school.

However, if you'd like to try your hand at film criticism then learning film history & theory might give you some perspective and a weekend class or two can be good for that. Books are of course an option as well, but the classes will be good for interesting discussions & likely clips of (old) films you've never seen or heard of before.

I didn't like him in Smile, You, but he was great in Que Sera Sera!

What's up, love? Did you finish Cruel City? How was it for you? How about Lovers?

Don't feel bad about not liking Coffee Prince. It's not a bad drama. The characters are great and the story had good potential, but even I can admit that it draaagged for a good number of episodes. I skipped a lot in the middle parts, esp scenes that don't feature the leading couple. They were the most interesting part of the story. Actually, if I'm totally honest, what motivated me to keep going were the hot kisses between Gong Yoo & Yoon Hye Eun! They were not your typical eyes wide open dead fish kiss! :) LOL

I just finished watching Que Sera Sera, a passionate rollercoaster ride of a drama! It was pretty good. My only wish is that the lead couple had more 'happy' screen time together. They spent at least 3/4 of the drama longing and pining after each other. But otherwise good drama!

What's up, love? Did you finish Cruel City? How was it for you? How about Lovers?

Don't feel bad about not liking Coffee Prince. It's not a bad drama. The characters are great and the story had good potential, but even I can admit that it draaagged for a good number of episodes. I skipped a lot in the middle parts, esp scenes that don't feature the leading couple. They were the most interesting part of the story. Actually, if I'm totally honest, what motivated me to keep going were the hot kisses between Gong Yoo & Yoon Hye Eun! They were not your typical eyes wide open dead fish kiss! :) LOL

I just finished watching Que Sera Sera, a passionate rollercoaster ride of a drama! It was pretty good. My only wish is that the lead couple had more 'happy' screen time together. They spent at least 3/4 of the drama longing and pining after each other. But otherwise good drama!

Cantiara (you have a very lovely nick by the way), apologies for the late reply.

Thank you for the rec of Sam Soon. I've been hearing about this drama since I came to dramaland & at one point I even had it on my list. Upon further investigation, however, I wasn't able to convince myself that this was a drama for me so I deleted it.

I do like determined, sensible heroines, for eg the female lead in Lovers is an absolute favourite. On the other hand heroines who are defiant and stubborn for no reason or stupid reasons (for eg meaningless or misplaced pride) irritate & frustrate me. I've found that most so called 'strong' females in Korean dramas are of the latter variety so I'm wary of this label whenever anyone uses it to describe a female lead.

I also am not particularly fond of noona/dongsæng dramas. I prefer when the characters are similar in age and life experience.

Cantiara (you have a very lovely nick by the way), apologies for the late reply.

Thank you for the rec of Sam Soon. I've been hearing about this drama since I came to dramaland & at one point I even had it on my list. Upon further investigation, however, I wasn't able to convince myself that this was a drama for me so I deleted it.

I do like determined, sensible heroines, for eg the female lead in Lovers is an absolute favourite. On the other hand heroines who are defiant and stubborn for no reason or stupid reasons (for eg meaningless or misplaced pride) irritate & frustrate me. I've found that most so called 'strong' females in Korean dramas are of the latter variety so I'm wary of this label whenever anyone uses it to describe a female lead.

I also am not particularly fond of noona/dongsæng dramas. I prefer when the characters are similar in age and life experience.

Cantiara (you have a very lovely nick by the way), apologies for the late reply.

Thank you for the rec of Sam Soon. I've been hearing about this drama since I came to dramaland & at one point I even had it on my list. Upon further investigation, however, I wasn't able to convince myself that this was a drama for me so I deleted it.

I do like determined, sensible heroines, for eg the female lead in Lovers is an absolute favourite. On the other hand heroines who are defiant and stubborn for no reason or stupid reasons (for eg meaningless or misplaced pride) irritate & frustrate me. I've found that most so called 'strong' females in Korean dramas are of the latter variety so I'm wary of this label whenever anyone uses it to describe a female lead.

I also am not particularly fond of noona/dongsæng dramas. I prefer when the characters are similar in age and life experience.

Hi! I can't remember if I responded to you or not. If I didn't apologies for the delay!

Well, as a producer I read 40 - 50 scripts a month (both short & feature). Some are scripts we're developing in house with directors who are attached to our company, but the vast majority are unsolicited scripts from independent screenwriters & writer/directors who send us their work hoping for a break.

So we have a lot of great options when it comes to ideas for feature films. Ideas are not hard to come by. Money is. Fortunately in this country there's a lot of 'soft' money (that is, government funding) floating around, but it's very competitive. Often those who succeed in getting funding comes down to an intricate combination of politics & luck. We've had to shelf a few projects because we didn't get the money to make them, but have been lucky with others.

I'd love to direct. I don't know yet how good I am, or if I am. I believe I can do it, but I have a lot to prove, having only directed once. I have a proven track record of being a producer whilst directing for now remains an experiment. I think I can do it, I only need to direct something that's worth it's salt. Only time will tell. The project we're currently trying to get made is a short about a female pedophile who has just been released from prison & is trying to reconcile with her family. It's written and will be directed by me, if we can get the remaining 12 500 euros we need to make it! :)

Edinaa, Que Sera Sera was pretty good! Angsty love story that takes you on a wild roller coaster ride of emotions. Overall, good drama. And I loved that it was of the mature variety with proper kisses and adult themes.

I've been tempted to start 2 Weeks, but I decided against it. Knowing myself I'd probably die of impatience just waiting for each episode to come out. lol
Have you decided yet what you want to watch?

Hehe don't worry about it. :) This happens to me all the time. I'd think I responded to someone but upon further investigation, nope! Anyway, thx for the recs. I had a look at Drunken Tiger. He really does look like a tiger who is drunk! lol

Have you by any chance listened to anything from Shinhwa? I just finished watching Eric Mun in Que Sera Sera and wow, he's fine! I could tell he was Korean-American because that boy's got swag. Loved him in the show. Found out afterwards he's also a rapper and has been for some time. I'll definitely look into some of his music too.

By the way, not be a total hassle but do you have any recs of specific songs? I'm in a time clamp. There's not enough hours in a day so specific songs would help me out a lot instead of having to go thru entire albums trying to find something good. Cheers! :)

Ahjummmmma! Where are my khiphop recs? :)

Fun article! :)

I'd say soju and ramen are staples of Korean culture though so I personally wouldn't define them as overused. They represent a legitimate depiction of life in that country. Just like ... say Starbucks ... is to the States.

Otherwise I'd agree with gongyoyo below. Phone straps are waaaay overused. I don't think I've ever seen a phone in dramaland without one.

Hey, long time no speak! I see you've put Who Are You? on hold. Is it really as boring as people have been saying? Was kinda looking forward to seeing it ...

The whole drama is about 1hr 40 mins long. It's angsty but not very much. Plus the eps are so short that the story doesn't demand a great deal of emotional investment. It's a quick fix drama & that's it.