mother midnight is an award-winning, micro-budget feature film shot in rural korea during the pandemic that found global distribution on amazon prime, apple tv and google play.
beginnings
Mike Beech & Jiwon Lee.
In 2020, husband & wife, director Mike Beech and producer Jiwon Lee, moved to Buyeo, a tiny village in South Korea in an attempt to get away from the pandemic.
Finding refuge in the quiet rural town, they took over the day-to-day running of Jiwon’s parent’s traditional guesthouses, known as ‘hanoks’, and put their careers on hold as the world shut down over Covid-19.
During the following year and a half, they wrote and shot a small-scale narrative feature film using their surroundings and whatever they could creatively put to use in their environment.
The unique setting and stunning natural beauty of the Baekjae region of South Korea provided a perfect backdrop for a slow-burn, intimate family drama.
The traditional Korean hanok guesthouses where much of Mother Midnight (서까래) was filmed.
building the team
At this time, despite Korea’s strict Covid protocols, Mike was able to slowly begin working again as a director and DoP in Korea on documentaries, corporate projects, Netflix Originals, and broadcast news content. Through these shoots he had built-up close connections with several talented crew members who were interested in collaborating on a feature fiction passion project of our own creation.
Mike Beech working on Netflix Originals ‘Midnight Asia’ and ‘Human Playground’ with crew members Thomas Maitland, Jason Lee, and Daniel Walker, who would become the core crew behind Mother Midnight.
thomas maitland, jason lee, and daniel walker are three film industry creatives and co-founders of seoul-based production company, flix oven.
Thomas Maitland
Thomas received his training at the film and media department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He’s focused on developing stories that tackle social issues and cultural challenges that span from Africa to Asia.
Jason Lee
Jason can bring teams from diverse locations and countries together to work collaboratively. To date, he’s produced more than 150 projects in South Korea across a variety of genres and formats.
Daniel Walker
A filmmaker based in Seoul, South Korea, he’s produced commercial videos and he recently worked on Netflix’s new documentary series, Heart of Invictus.
cast
In keeping with the film’s DIY approach, first-time actors Jiwon Lee and her father, Jongho Lee, bravely took on the two lead roles in the film and blew everyone away with their incredible performances, particularly given that they have had literally no acting training ever! Their talent and enthusiasm was infectious for the whole cast and crew and we are all so grateful for their commitment and passion for this film!
Jiwon Lee
Jongho Lee
The father-daughter acting team of Jongho Lee (left) and Jiwon Lee (right), whose on-screen parent-child relationship is at the heart of the film.
Once the script was complete we began casting actors for the other roles and were incredibly lucky to put together an amazingly talented ensemble cast.
Tuin Tak as Mr. Jo.
Jaejin Yun as The Shaman.
Hyunji Son as Woo.
Hyeonjae Lee as Minhyeok.
Our supporting cast stuck a great balance between film and theatre veterans Tuin Tak and Jaejin Yun and younger newcomers such as Hyunji Son and Hyeonjae Lee. Their commitment to the film and the depth of work that they all brought to their roles truly elevated the script and really helped to build out a believable world in which our story unfolds.
As our tiny team was doing everything ourselves in order to keep the budget down, we had to create a huge array of spreadsheets to keep track of everything from costumes to the shooting schedule to the F&B arrangements.
A few samples of some the documents our team used to manage the production. I know it may look boring but it was essential on this project!
production
“We were able to carve out a 17-day period for principal photography & worked out that we could just about capture everything we needed in this time. We split this time into two blocks to give the team a week to rest before jumping back into the physically & mentally gruelling gauntlet we had thrown down for ourselves.”
- Jiwon Lee, Producer
Jaejin Yun gets in to character while Daniel Walker makes some final sound checks.
One of the things that really helped get our production moving was having a fixed window of dates where the guesthouses where not fully booked and all our crew members and talent were available. This galvanised the whole team to get everything organised in time for the filming as we knew this small block of time might be our only shot to get everyone in the same place at the right time. This involved a lot of juggling of schedules, shooting completely out of order, and having to vacate rooms and clean them before the actual guests arrived!
“Our aim was to seamlessly integrate the local ambiance & distinctive character of Buyeo into the cinematic narrative as the natural world is thematically important to the story. We embraced the elegance of long takes, often allowing a scene to unfold in a single shot, while focusing on discovering compelling compositions within these extended takes.”
- Thomas Maitland, DoP
DoP Thomas Maitland getting to grips with the Nanlite Pavotubes.
Aside from the sections of the film shot in Seoul, all of the locations we used were within a ten minute radius by car from our home base at the guesthouses, and several of them were only five minutes walk. Having spent a lot of time in the area while writing the script, I had envisioned scenes with specific locations in mind and having them all so close meant that we were able to do multiple detailed recces to check everything we needed during preproduction.
Additionally, the fact that we were using only real locations and no sets lends a great sense of authenticity to the film. An actual Shaman’s house was the only location that we rented and it was a great honour to be allowed to shoot in such an incredible and holy space. But the others we were able to gain access to through calling in favours from friends or simply because a property was abandoned. Several of the key locations in the film have since been demolished so we were lucky to catch them while they were still standing.
Prepping a scene in a real-life Shaman’s house in Buyeo, South Korea. Thomas Maitland, Mike Beech, Jaejin Yun, Jiwon Lee.
“Being able to scout and then shoot in real locations in Buyeo was incredible as it gave the film such authenticity & we were able to document a very specific place & time in the world without having to have a huge production design budget. The same goes for props that we salvaged from my father-in-laws tool shed or from an abandoned house near where we were staying. A 15-year old, real hammer, with all the nicks, scratches, and marks from all the years of use will always look better than something new that has to be treated and faked as old.”
- Mike Beech, Director
The team setting up a dusk shot behind the guesthouses.
Sound recordist Daniel Walker (left) and lead actor Jiwon Lee (right) fighting bugs at a sunset riverside shoot.
Another huge factor in being able to get this film made was the fact that we could house our cast and crew at the hanok guesthouses while they were working as this really cut out hotel costs, so we are extremely grateful to Jiwon’s parents, Eonsook and Jongho Lee for allowing us to use the property.
Aside from the financial benefit, the hanok guesthouses are such nice spaces to be in that being there really helped to keep everyone’s spirits up during the gruelling shoot. The place is surrounded by beautiful nature and lots of animals (see below).
Additionally, we had a great communal space where we would eat all our meals together and discuss what we had shot that day or what was coming up and this all really fed into a great sense of camaraderie and team spirit that made the whole experience all the more enjoyable.
(Left) Cast members Hyeonjae Lee and Bico the Cat enjoy some downtime between takes. (Right) The facilities at the hanoks that our team was so lucky to have access to during the shoot.
Working with only natural light for a lot of the scenes meant that we needed to roll with the punches when the environment changed. This is where shooting with a tiny crew comes into its own and we were able to take a more guerrilla approach to filmmaking and turn what might be seen as a lack of crew members into an advantage.
If a great sunset suddenly emerged late one afternoon or a thick mist rolled in at midnight, we were able to adjust on the fly and capture some stunning scenes of the ever-changing natural world in and around the small town of Buyeo.
