sooji choi in film
to whom it may concern,
I accidentally forayed into film during my second year at Parsons the New School for Design. I came to Parsons uncomfortable with labeling myself as a designer. I was a writer, of that I was certain, but I quickly learned that the Parsons curriculum offered a narrow space to grow in writing. So I took up a few writing courses at Eugene Lang the New School for Liberal Arts but then grew restless, this time not with writing, but with not having design. Writers think differently than designers, and designers do not think the same as writers. By then, I had become a bit of both, and wanted to explore a medium that was integral to both. Film has allowed me to write with the eye, and direct and shoot with a clear narrative.
I ended up having an unexpected extracurricular opening my second year and decided last-minute to enroll in a film class. It was oldschool film, where we cranked an old Bolex, rotated color filters to play with the light while shooting, and the word “digital� was only relevant to the editing process. Everything was done with a keen eye and a careful hand and it was wonderful. I saw each of these projects from start to finish, many of them a one-woman project in the production process. While brief and captured in time, I hope these teasers serve your interest well and invite you to further explore my film work on my website.
SOOJI CHOI, Fall 2010
new new york
Fall 2009
1
New New York is a silent, coming-ofage short film about a young girl who sets out in the city with preconceptions of glamour she’s learned from movies. She tries to re-live what she thinks are iconic New York moments but slowly begins to feel overwhelmed by the reality of the city. Towards the end of the film, she is portrayed as a blurred, painterly image against the clear backdrop of Times Square---the ultimate picture of New York City. She retreats back to the unknown origin from which she came, tired and defeated, but not wholly unaware of her own New York memory she’s made out of her day.
3:00, shot on 16mm Bolex, edited on Final Cut Pro
silencing the lamb
Spring 2009
2
Loosely inspired by the acid attacks on women in the Middle East, Silencing the Lamb is silent film that was submitted as my second year design final set to multiple narratives told through real-life film, stopmotion claymation, raunchy cue cards, and thought bubbles thunk by a penis named George. In the film, a fair maiden named Shoshannah is relentlessly pursued by an evil sex perv, Gandolph. After her many refusals, he decides to get even with her by throwing acid on her face. While the reallife film part was inspired by true events, the next two acts of my project were developed on my own.
Edited on Final Cut Pro
Cue card by cue card, instructions are laid out on how to properly seek revenge justice on the manic sex perv. At the same time, we are shown insight into the inner mind of his penis, which is the supreme ruler of his actions. As a woman’s face is to her femininity, so is a man’s manhood to his masculinity. The only proper justice, therefore, is to douse Gandolph’s penis in acid. Which is precisely what he gets, as portrayed in stop-motion claymation.
Adobe Illustrator, clay, rope
Clay, jar, yellow pipe cleaners (rug’s gotta match the curtains)
wear your face on mine
Spring 2010
3
Wear Your Face on Mine is a first screenplay that narrates in a broken chronicle a young woman’s descent into jealousy. Inspired by the last line of Ted Hughes’ Lovesong to Sylvia Plath (“And in the morning they wore each other’s faces.”) the screenplay recounts the disintegration of a relationship in broken chronology. With intense graphic imagery (in one scene, we see the female protagonist methodically hanging the slaughtered body of her boyfriend in her closet, next to the countless other hangers of dead boyfriends past) and easy dialogue, WYFOM is most definitely a project to be fulfilled in the future.
impressed
the craft of letterpress printing
Fall 2009 - Summer 2010
d
4
IMPRESSED: The Craft of Letterpress Printing is a six-minute documentary featuring the work of a Brooklyn letterpress studio SWAYSPACE and the student work of the Half-Broken Things. I helmed the short film that documented the process of letterpress printing and then our adaptation of the process as inspiration for our fashion garment. It was a lengthy eight-month feat that resulted in the reward of 2nd place out of the 23 teams that competed in the LVMH “The Art of Craftsmanship Revisited” competition. As team leader, I was thrilled to see our group to such a victorious end, especially since we were the only undergraduate team of the entire competition. Widely publicized within the industry, we debuted our garment at Fashion Week 2010 and held a summer exhibition on Governor’s Island.
(at left) Fashion sketches for the garment by teammate Chi Lo, inspired by typographic impression and movement of the letterpress machinery (at close right) Publicity from the MAC & Milk Studios runway show during Fashion Week 2010 (at far right) Teammates Sooji Choi and Sherman Hung with the model in our garment
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