The film was made in Korea with a Korean director and a Korean cinematographer, but the crew and most of the cast were from the US and the language spoken in the film is English. It is hoped this will increase the film's chances of finding success on the world stage.

"A number of miniatures were used during the
production, and I utilized many green screen sequences"

Shooting in the cave

"We expect the film will be a blockbuster in Korea as well as in other countries," said the director Hyung-Rae Shim. "We are in the process of contracting to distribute Yonggary internationally." Already sold are the territories of Germany, Poland, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, China, Taiwan and Latin America.

The producers talked to film buyers about the film at last year's Cannes International Film Festival and at the American Film Market in February/March. But, with the film in the can, it was at this year's Cannes in May, that the heavy promotion began and the real business of selling the film worldwide gained momentum.

Director of Photography An-Hong Kim has worked with Shim, who is a famous Korean comedian as well as a film director, since Shim's first film. Kim chose Eastman EXR color negative 5245 film, Vision 500T 5279, and Kodak's new SFX 200T for the shoot. He was very satisfied with all the stocks and with the suitability of the SFX 200T for the green screen and other special effects work.

"To make a film like Yonggary is different from shooting other feature films. A number of miniatures were used during the production, and I utilized many green screen sequences," said Kim. "Since most of the scenes were shot at night, it was difficult to expose the film properly. I needed high-speed film but unfortunately we began shooting in April last year when Vision 800T was not available. I used Vision 500T for the night scenes."

Kim used an Arriflex III, an Arriflex BL-4S, and a high-speed camera. HMI and Tungsten lights were used, as well as small lights for the miniatures. Half of the film was post-produced using Avid Media Illusion and other digital equipment. "We had a very hard time since this film used a lot of computer graphics," said visual effects supervisor Hee-Jung Ryu, who confirmed that the SFX 200T was a big help during this phase of the film. "It was a big challenge. Everyone in our visual effects team worked so hard, and I expect we will get a good response from audiences when it is released."

Yonggary has all the classic characters you would expect to find in a dinosaur epic: the prominent palaeontologist, the greedy ego-driven archaeologist, the beautiful and brilliant research assistant, the ambitious and unscrupulous reporter, and the handsome and charismatic military leader.

Among the cast is Harrison Young, who portrayed the old Private Ryan in Steven Spielberg's epic war drama Saving Private Ryan, Richard B Livingston, whose work stretches from King Lear to Primary Colours, Donna Phillipson, a classically-trained British stage performer making her film debut, Brian Wells from Lethal Weapon 3, and Wiley Pickett who has appeared in the TV shows ER, Baywatch, and Beverly Hills 90210. The film was budgeted as a multi-million dollar project from the start, to be compatible with major players. Although this included the purchase of some post-production equipment, many partners were involved. They included the director's production company Zeronine Entertainment, Samboo Finance and Samboo Finance Entertainment, Hyundai Capital Corporation, Korea Technology Finance Corporation and Shinbo Investment Corporation.

Productionteam

Yonggary