FORUM BIFF

Cinema as Empire of Virtuality

Session 1. Korean Cinema Enters a Virtual Era

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.

Session 2. Collecting and Preserving Born-Digital Cinema Culture

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.

Session 3. Expanding Beyond the Frame of Cinema

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.