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The Host Runs Wild on DVD

THE HOST, one of Korea's biggest box office sensations, with a toxic avenging monster in the best tradition, lands on DVD July 24, 2007 (Magnolia Pictures, $29.98).

In THE HOST, the city is Seoul, South Korea, and the monster is a 40-foot long creature that emerges from the river. The unique creature was conceived by director Bong Joon-ho and visualized by designer Jang Hee-chul. Based on detailed artwork, a maquette was then created at Weta Workshop, New Zealand, and scanned at Gentle Giant Studios in Los Angeles.

To create the 125 vfx shots of the movie, the director turned to The Orphanage in San Francisco. The company set up a team led by veteran vfx supervisor Kevin Rafferty, exec producer Marc Sadeghi, CG supervisor Shadi Almassizadeh and vfx producer Arin Finger.

"While The Orphanage had done a few CG characters in the past, there wasn't really an established 'creature' pipeline and workflow," Rafferty admits. "We used THE HOST as a vehicle to leverage our existing Brazil-based pipeline and workflow into one that was more robust. The largest addition to our workflow was establishing a creature department and its supporting software, and feathering that into our existing pipeline."

Disc one bonus features include:* Commentary by director Bong Joon-Ho, including the role of CG.* Director Bong Joon-Ho's Reflections* Deleted Scenes: 23 minutes, which includes more characterization along with more of the monster in action.

Disc two bonus features include:* Making of THE HOST, including Storyboards, Bong Joon-Ho's Direction, Memories of the Sewer, The Film Departments: Set Design, Physical Special Effects, Sound Effects and Composing The Music.* The Creature, including Conceptual Artwork: The Birth, Designing The Creature, Bringing The Creature To Life, Building The Creature: The Weta Workshop, Puppet Animatronix, Animating The Creature and Why Did It Do That?* The Crew, including The Staff, The Production Team and Visual Effects Supervisor: Film Production in Korea.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

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