Majoring in Cinematography at Kyunghee University and the Korean Film Academy, CHO Young-jik received an MA at the Yonsei Graduate School of Communication. Having serious interests in experimental filmmaking during his school days, CHO learned versatile skills in cinematography with various mediums including 35mm, 16mm and digital. His debut feature as a cinematographer was a critically acclaimed indie narrative drama <Dimmer> (2007) by director KIM Sam-ryuk. Afterwards...More

Majoring in Cinematography at Kyunghee University and the Korean Film Academy, CHO Young-jik received an MA at the Yonsei Graduate School of Communication. Having serious interests in experimental filmmaking during his school days, CHO learned versatile skills in cinematography with various mediums including 35mm, 16mm and digital. His debut feature as a cinematographer was a critically acclaimed indie narrative drama <Dimmer> (2007) by director KIM Sam-ryuk. Afterwards, he worked for many independent documentaries and narrative fictions including <Ki-mu: the Strange Dance> (2007) and <Mother Is A Whore> (2011). The most famous work filmed by CHO is KIM Ki-duk’s <Pieta> (2012), which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival. However, CHO was recognized as a talented cinematographer through collaborative works with director ZHANG Lu. Entirely shot with a CANON 5D Mark II, ZHANG’s feature-length documentary <Scenery> (2013) showed very bleak but breathtakingly beautiful landscape shots of migrant workers’ living and working spaces in and out of Seoul, along with their unforgettable portrait shots telling about their dreams. Afterwards, CHO worked again with ZHANG for the narrative fiction Gyeongju (2014) which was invited to Locarno International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival among others. CHO proved his know-hows to maximize the look and sense of a film limited in a low-budget production scale, particularly with wide shots, long-takes and efficiently designed lighting. Recently, CHO has collaborated with ZHANG again for a short film which was supported by Seoul Senior Film Festival. The short is known to be extended into a feature length film.Less