Film Editor Sunghwan Moon
Sunghwan Moon has been enamored with cinema and the art of filmmaking his entire life. Long before he attained international prestige, he would spend all of his time in the theater watching movies that would later influence his signature style as a film editor. He is now one of the most sought after and respected professionals working in the industry in both Asia and the U.S.
He began working in the field while in Korea, learning the craft while paying his dues as an assistant editor on projects for clients like Verizon, the worldwide telecom company. It was then, in the earliest stage of his career, that he solidified his reputation for having the reliability and expertise to complete every project and meet the demands of both directors and creative teams.
While working on the Korean spy thriller IRIS, Moon had to be constantly prepared for anything. He worked on 20 episodes of the series, which garnered wide critical acclaim, incredible ratings and remains the highest-budget Korean drama ever produced for television. His role was to edit and produce the trailer for each episode singlehandedly. The demands of working on IRIS might have been too much for anybody else, but Moon faced down the time constraints and pressure for perfection without breaking a sweat.
“I was the sole editor responsible for cutting trailers for each episode,” Moon said. “In Korea, it’s very common to shoot an episode until the morning and air it the same night when they’re on a tight schedule.”
That ability to both create and deliver edited content under the strictest deadlines was what earned Moon the position of lead editor of on-air promotion at the newly established Korean Disney Channel in 2012. He oversaw a team of editors and worked closely with them to ensure that trailers, promotional clips and segues for both the Disney and Disney Jr. Channels were produced on time every week.
“As a team leader, I also had to supervise other editors’ work. I enjoyed working with other team members,” Moon said. “We had to create a lot of promos every week with a fairly tight schedule, but everyone collaborated well and it always went fine.”
In And The Wind Falls, Moon carefully used his talents as an editor to achieve the subtle undertones the director and writer sought. The film tells the story of a motel housekeeper whose life is thrown into chaos after she is accused of stealing money from a dead guest.
“It was written in a way that the story unfolds with a lot of subtlety,” Moon said. “So many things are only implied, which you might miss if you don’t get engage completely.”
Moon has a special connection with his work that most people lack. In addition to his extensive training at the world renowned American Film Institute in Los Angeles, he has an instinct that guides him when editing, the way a musician feels when a note is just right.
“I try to see what is actually captured in camera,” he said. “In general, I believe how the footage is shot tells how to edit. The footage tells you how to cut.”
The intuitive approach Moon has brought to his work has landed him a spot as an editor on an array of films over the years including Head Trauma, And The Wind Falls, Tracks, Mrs. Alderman and the series Three People and Lifetime’s Fall Into Me: British Billionaire. He is also slated to work on Oscar nominee James Franco’s upcoming film In Dubious Battle.
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