The very first ‘ROK-UK Creative Industries Forum’ was held on November 20th at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The aim was to bring together culture and creative industries together from Korea and UK for partnerships and strengthening of the relationship. KIM Jong-deok, Minister of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Secretary of State Sajid Javid hosted, while Korea Creative Content Agency supervised the event. Presentations and discussions surrounded the two industries’ animation, audio-visual content, digital and visual effects with the professionals.

 

Prior to the forum, Korean Film Council’s Chairman KIM Eui-suk opened the day with a toast. KIM said, “it was the 130th year of diplomatic relationship between UK and South Korea last year, and in commemoration of the relationship we have signed an MOU with UK who has been developing and focusing on the creative industry for many years. This forum is the follow up of the MOU. In a creative society like today, we should focus on communicating with the public for more creative and unique products that will be able to meet the demands instead of building fast and cheap creative products.” He also emphasized that “I hope that the two industries will be able to discuss and construct at length cultural contents through the forum today.”

 

The forum started off with the video/animation category where British Film Council’s Amanda Nevill moderated with Korea’s Tuba Entertainment CEO KIM Kwang-yong and Blue Zoo’s co-founder Oli Hyatt were panelists. KIM talked about the success story and the know-how of the popular animation series Larva. KIM mentioned, “We put a lot of focus on the differentiation of content while taking into consideration the fast changing local IT technology and contents distribution methods.”

 

KIM analyzed three reasons for the success of Larva. First, the “running time is only 90 seconds which means the content could be played anywhere and anyplace with ease”. Secondly, the animation is “non-verbal slapstick comedy” which meant “there were no limits to the audiences’ nationality, age, or sex and could be relatable to anyone. There was no need for any interpretations, dubbing or subtitling so the content could also easily be exported overseas.” And lastly, KIM said he used “differentiation in marketing strategy”. “Other than the regular episodes in the series, we continuously made seasonal event clips where it could be used to play on subways and bus screens, convenience stores, hair shops, coffee shops, elevators, and pretty much anywhere with a digital signage in a public space and that’s why we were able to expand so much”.

 

Blue Zoo was created 14 years ago from 4 university graduates which has now become one of the most influential audio-visual media company in UK. Co-founder Oli Hyatt mentioned that the support from various tax benefits helped Blue Zoo. Hyatt claimed that Blue Zoo was able to benefit from several organizations’ support programs by international co-productions, and college animation technical improvement courses. Hyatt also added that “UK traditionally has many good storytellers like the creators of Harry Potter and there are many nearby studios around London of different sizes that are fitting partners for emerging media companies”.

 

 

Vice chairman of KOFIC, HONG Seung-ki moderated the digital/VFX category where Macrograph’s CEO LEE In-ho and Lightfield’s creative director Robin McNicholas were in discussion. HONG said, “The government started to pay attention to creative contents when the Korea Creative Content Agency was built, so it’s been just over 10 years. I hope that since UK has been proactive in TV program format businesses and has built its market over the years in creative industry, we hope the forum will lead to a learning about the know-hows from UK” while introducing Robin McNicholas.

 

McNicholas has been at the forefront of Lightfield’s recent projects in the visual effects category. Firstly, he introduced the shooting of an elderly actress’ face in 3D by shooting 360 degrees. Each angle showed different textures and a story was created just from the subject of ‘skin’. During the rock band U2’s concert, Lightfield was able to persuade the organizers to work on a special project where a project will sense the movement of the crowd and fluid light would be shined according to the movements. Recently, they are focusing on a new game where the whole room will show the environment of the digitally made space through 3D technology. McNicholas said, “Our aim is to blur the lines between reality and digital space through new technologies. We’ve seen great results by applying new into the preexisting technology. It’s important to invest in research and development.”

 

The first ROK-UK Creative Industries Forum closed with Macrograph’s LEE In-ho’s presentation. LEE revealed for the very first time the CG involved behind the box office hit Roaring Currents. This film has 61 minutes of ocean scenes. Of these, 90% were CG images and the company that worked behind the CG was Macrograph. Not only that, Macrograph worked on the Chinese film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons in 2012, expanding their stage to the mainland. “With 12 Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute alumnus who came together to found the company, we’re a little bit different from the artistic based CG companies,” said LEE In-ho. “There are 4 major CG companies including Mofac, DIGITAL idea, Dexter Digital and Macrograph but along with many mid-sized companies, but the Korean market is too small for all of us to show the techniques and skills we carry. Starting with the UK, we hope the Korean CG technology can be developed and realized globally.”