For the fountain of a documentary that does not dry::
Present status of Korean Documentary and its direction
SHIN Hyo-jin, Editor
According to “The Korean Film Industry closing report” till April released this year by the Korea Film Council(hereafter, KFC), there are only three documentaries out of 135 released films. When vacation season, which can be called high season, is approaching, it will become more difficult to meet a documentary at major theaters. However, even in this harsh production·distribution situation, many documentaries have been made and released and met the audience. It can be argued that many audiences want a good quality documentary that the documentary rate is about 1/4 based on the release of various movies last year.
There are many difficulties in operating the budget since a documentary is often unable to predict the shooting period and the turnaround. In addition, even if the production is completed, meeting the audience can be said to be in a different level in the sky without its relevant policies and projects since there are many limitations in post-production.
It’s encouraging that Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has recently made an announcement of ‘International documentary market support project’, and KFC has done alone ‘Documentary film production support project’ with independent shorts from this, and various projects related to documentary promotion have occurred. However, the creative ecosystem of documentary can not be developed only with some support projects. To see the efforts of documentary producers, it’s necessary to build a virtuous circle production support system from the policy will. In this article, we examine the promotion policy of Korean documentary film and think about the policy direction and support system that responds to the voices of the documentary scene. [n1]
First of all, the documentary promotion project of KFC can be a measure of the policy of documentary support in the public domain. For the direct production support project related to documentary until last year, it belongs to one track of the independent film production support project and documentary production support was the biggest part. However, as mentioned above, we are promoting documentary film production support as a separate project from this year. The aim is to improve the professionalism of the support by reorganizing the project structure compared to last year and separately operating the documentary division. I also think it’s definitely a positive change to subdivide project composition by applying the quota of newcomers in documentary support.
KFC provides direct and indirect support for the production and distribution of independent documentaries with ‘Technical support project for post-production of independent films’, ‘Diversity movie opening support project’. However, it seems necessary to implement a documentary promotion policy considering the power of the entire film industry including the existing support projects mentioned above. It’s time to go a step further from the convention support plan of KFC and change a supportive method faithful to the voice of the field.
First, it’s necessary to get out of the support system focused on simple expenses. The goal system for why we should support a documentary and the study of the ultimate comprehensive development plan should be preceded apart from the current support system that supports the unspecified number of movies in a comprehensive distribution form. Also, if we set a goal for a flexible documentary market, and take an effort to the support system in a concrete and systematic manner, an advanced production environment will be established.
Compared with the comprehensive support system of KFC, production support systems at the leading documentary film festivals in Korea are much closer to production sites. Where to support production and release rations as the most systematic system in domestic documentary film festivals is DMZ Docs‘ production support program. As of this year, support programs are largely divided into three areas: production support and distribution support, ‘Daemyung Cultural Factory Documentary Fund’, and proceed. It supports a total of 290 million won by selecting Asian and Korean feature documentaries(10), new artist production support(5), and DMZ project(2) of public competition in the production support field. Distribution support solves realistic problems that are not easy to open in theaters, and gives 40 million won in total by selecting two Korean documentaries planning to release theaters in the first half of 2018 of 9th DMZ International Documentary Festival official invitation as a program to support theater screening so that mare people can see. Daemyung Cultural Factory Documentary Fund(Tentative name) has newly established this year. Daemyung Cultural Factory selects directly 1 piece of Korean feature(over 60 minutes) aiming to play in theaters and supports its opening and production, and a total of 10 million will be given.
The production support programs in film festivals usually support the production of documentaries in the form of ‘pitching’[n2]. EBS International Documentary Film Festival(EIDF) is a representative example. EIDF is proceeding with ‘EIDF production support project’ to expand the production base of domestic documentaries and train excellent producers. Specifically, documentary producers select feature, medium and short documentaries to be screened on ‘EBS Documentary Prime’ as EIDF production support works with pitching that can attract investment to domestic and foreign broadcasters and distributors. In addition, Seoul Independent Documentary Festival(SIDoF) held in March this year did [Finding new artists of independent documentary ‘Spring’] that is a project to find and support new documentary directors. Beyond the existing independent documentary production support system that the most important judgment was the completeness of the production experience and portfolio, SIDoF’s biggest advantage is that they can be supported even without production experience. It selects production support works through the 1st document review and 2nd in-depth interview and presents the project through public presentations, it’s a custom production support project for producers in having the feedback process of audiences, documentary producers and professionals and providing also directors’ mentor system in parallel.
Besides, documentary production support is provided in Jeonju/Pusan International Film Festival and Seoul International Women’s Film Festival and theaters, and the regional film committee presents also new models in the implementation of documentary support project. In particular, ‘DOCS PORT INCHEON’ has a great significance in terms of both direct and indirect support for each film production cycle. It has a distinction from general production support projects in selling ‘market’ to support business, documentary contents with domestic and foreign investors, broadcasting companies, distributors and theaters and being funded and further meeting partners to participate in production and doing business. It also has programs such as support for post-production of poor documentaries or for English translation, advertising design which are hard to find in other support projects
The various types of support projects we have seen so far will contribute to the development of Korean documentary culture. However, the scope of support policy is to narrow, this is because the majority of the expenditure for supporting the production cost is occupied. The support should be provided in the direction of creating conditions and foundation of creation beyond the support for simple production costs considering that the ultimate goal of documentary support projects is to produce a variety of documentaries. For this, the expansion of infrastructure should be the most urgent goal. It means creating the environment that documentary producers can devote themselves freely and vigorously to production activities. Even now, there is room for the entire video such as the movie space of Seoul Film Commission, Sangam DMS of Korea Creative Content Agency but no space dedicated to documentary(creation space). The policy of supporting them to focus on their production and creation activities through space dedicated to documentary space and platform in the public domain is urgent.
Along with the need for space dedicated to documentaries, indirect support methods should be pursued so that more suitable resources can be deployed. I think that the expansion of support projects including everything necessary to actually produce a documentary such as promotion and marketing support like Incheon documentary port case as well as production and release support will help greatly to make a virtuous circle where a good quality documentary is produced. Even in the case of supporting production expenses, it’s urgent to have a multi-year support system focused on documentary directors/producers getting out of simple support based on single works and to expanding support projects to be helped to find works from the planning stage. Finally, it’s also necessary to ensure the professionalism and transparency of the support process and review follow-up on support results and the plan to build a reflux system to rationalize the documentary support system.
Unnecessary comments-new outlet strategy
Recently, the documentary produced by the workforce from the fine arts is becoming another new trend. Artists based on visual arts are creating new visual aesthetics by making a documentary not in a traditional documentary production method.[n3] Documentaries produced for its similar video art, new media-related documentary or gallery screenings seem likely to apply for the support project in find arts by Korean Culture and Arts Committee and each local government cultural foundation. etc/
[note 1] Korean documentaries are meeting audiences around TV and theater in a big category. In this article, we’ll focus on theater screening.
[note 2] It can be a kind of investment briefing and an event that documentary producers or directors release the project in the planning and development stages in front of the audience and judges, and producers and investors for the purpose of grant funding, co-production, etc.
[note 3] For example, there are Park Kyung-geun, who directed <A Dream of Iron, 2013>, Lim Heung-sun, who directed <Jeju Prayer, 2012> and <Factory Complex, 2014>, and Jeong Yun-seok who directed <Non-fiction Diary, 2013>