FORUM BIFF

This session pays attention to the changes in Korean cinema over the past 30 years from the viewpoint of digital technology development. Korean films, which were once immersed in the world of realism due to the limitations of policy, technology, and capital, met with digital technology and dreamed up a world of new images and storytelling. Through this, we discuss the direction of artistic desire to realize imaginary visuals, the turning point of Korean cinema achieved by visual ambition met with storytelling, and the new task of creating visual effects according to the changes in the screening environment caused by the revitalization of the over-the-top (OTT) media service market.

This session focuses on what has been gained and lost due to the rapid change in film production and screening environments and the transition from film to digital data in the early and mid-2000s. The transition to digital data during this period has redefined many things throughout the film industry, and one of the most important issues to pay attention to is how to view the digital sources created during film production. The transitional form of shooting film, digital post-production, and then screening film has resulted in overlooking the importance and need for preservation of the original negative film as the original source. Although the complete transition to digital format has been made at this point, we will discuss and seek solutions for preserving original data, methods of preservation, and digital conversion and utilization of preserved films.

The cultural flow of the “Korean Wave” has gone beyond the consumption of individual works such as songs, movies, and dramas, and it is leading the world beyond the boundaries of cultural technology and the cultural universe. The challenges and possibilities that lead to changes in the overall film culture will be discussed; these include the expansion of the cultural imagination of Korean VFX technology, which has recently been attracting attention, the virtual production that is trying to change the entire film production process, VR that breaks down the boundaries of the classic rectangular frame, and ScreenX.

The adventurous documentarists who emerged in the 21st century have broadened our worldview with a bold and creative perspective, without being bound by complete objectivity, which was the serious or thematic approach of traditional documentaries. They have taken on cutting-edge technologies that were unavailable in the 20th century, and they have accepted challenges that erase and cross the boundaries between documentary and fiction, private and historical, as well as objectivity and subjectivity. While appreciating this new trend, we discuss what documentary is in our time and where it is going with what vision.

It is hard to deny that one of the most prominent forms of achievement in the audiovisual storytelling field of the 21st century is the long form, or serialized TV dramas. The traditional view of serialized TV dramas as artistically inferior versions of cinema is no longer valid. This has raised the question of what its formal characteristics are as increasingly urgent and important. The narrative and style norms of modern serialized TV dramas are examined from the perspective of film production and criticism, and through this, the mode of existence of audiovisual storytelling media is explored in the ever-increasing transmedia conditions.

The issues in the relationship between film and serialized drama raise old and fundamental questions about the definition of cinema. In a situation where neither the film as a material support nor the centrality of the theater viewing experience can serve as a basis for certifying the existence of a film, it has now become an unavoidable task to explore the possibility and direction of reconstructing cinema. In this session, theoretical issues and methodological possibilities are suggested and discussed. This will provide valid reference points not only in the realm of fundamental theory, but also in the realm of criticism and practical policymaking of individual works.

The concept of cinema has become uncertain recently, and this creates many difficulties in the composition and operation of laws and systems that make cinema socially present, as well as policies and institutions for the promotion of cinema as an art and industry. In an era where digital convergence eliminates the inherent differences of media types and where large hybrid platforms emerge, are unique institutional conditions and promotion policies for movies really necessary? If so, for what reason and in what specific way should they be implemented? From the current issues to the direction of fundamental innovation desperately needed, various discussions are held around the policy (re)construction of cinema.