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Snowpiercer (2016)
Snowpiercer is a 2013 post-apocalyptic action thriller film based on the French climate fiction graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The film was directed by Bong Joon Ho and written by Bong and Kelly Masterson. An international co-production, the film marks Bong's English-language debut; almost 85% of the film's dialogue is in English.
Directed by Bong Joon-ho · Shot by Hong Kyung-pyo · Cut by Steve M. Choe · Music by Marco Beltrami · 126 min
How it was made
- Effects house Flash SFX built a gyroscopic gimbal supporting close to 100 tons of interconnected train-car sets, capable of rolling side to side and simulating the vibrations and curves of a train in motion.
- Bong maintained a strict shot discipline throughout the train interiors, always keeping the tail sections to the left of characters on screen and the engine to the right, to preserve the audience's sense of which way the train was moving.
- No studio in Korea was large enough for the production's scale, so filming moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague, where roughly ninety percent of the film was shot on a constructed 100-metre replica of the train over a 72-day shoot.
- Visual effects company Scanline VFX built more than 60 different digital versions of the train's various cars for its exterior shots, including the frozen city, the Yekaterina Bridge and the final avalanche sequence.
- For the Aquarium Car, the crew ran light through actual water trays mounted above the set so it would refract onto the actors the way it would in a real aquarium, with the team researching the effect firsthand at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Elsewhere
More by Bong Joon-ho
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