Working as a founder of a film/ graphic design film in Seoul, Korea, my interviewee, a self-driven and passionate 32-year-old shared his own story with me. It’s been over 5 years since he started his studio with few of his college friends. It’s a film and design studio that covers from short filming to motion graphic and concept branding. It’s a unique studio that is not common to the industry because unlike other media studios that has specific specialty such as planning, filming and editing: they customize all the work from start to end by directly communicating with customers or companies. Studying graphic design and photographic in Europe gave him the idea of having a studio that incorporates everything within the creative work. He believes that communication is one of the most important components in this work because he’s actually “creating work that matches customer’s taste.” That is why a day in the life of his job is usually consists of casual meetings with his clients to discuss about the project work at a café or his studio. Creating an artwork for someone requires getting to know who they are and what is needed to express the brand or concept in the most attractive and fun way. One of the big projects he is working on is an advertising film of a department store in Korea with over 500 stores in it. Moreover, he produces motion graphics for brand and music videos. He uses software programs such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Avid Media composer for film making and video editing. What he loves about his job is the openness of the work. Basically there is no restriction since film can extend to any kind of fields so he gets to consistently learn about different fields of work and people. Also, the directness with the clients makes the work efficient in time. Just like any other new media startups, his work base is very casual and flexible.
On the other hand, there are cons to this job. It is extremely competitive market due to excessive demands. Like any other country, film advertisement is very big in Korea. Along with big companies, the number of small studios and startups are increasing rapidly. The boundary of work is no longer limited or fixed. Since the pool of industry is getting bigger, there are more competition and it’s pretty much a saturated work. And since there are excessive number of studios, the “creative” characteristic of the work can be violated. Korean media industry is very trend-sensitive and fast-paced and they often want the same filming style. It’s hard to determine what is mine and what is theirs in terms of the editing and style of the video.
Also since it’s a customized work, it’s creates stress when the clients are not being consistent and change their mind after the work is or is close to be done. Some clients want the best outcome in the shortest time and some things they demand need enough time and editing to come out well. Sometimes some companies don’t understand the work as art so they just want to work to be done. It’s hard to find the right balance between the creation of good work and time. It’s stressful when it simply becomes a repetitive editing and editing instead of art making.
Another difficulty in his job is the intervention of the social media. He realized the importance of online marketing and the power of social media in Korea while working in the industry. People make images, communicate and explore through social media in Korea. The power of Instagram in they city is huge since almost all new media jobs are located in Seoul city so it’s more engaging and approachable. It can be used not only to communicate with the clients but also with other companies and studios. So he recently hired someone specifically for managing their social media platforms.
This kind of work is new to the industry since it extends from filmmaking to advertising and graphic design. If It were to identified as the term “digital marketing”, it was first used in the 1990s. With the rapid growth of technology, the importance of online marketing has been accelerated into a new height. Visual marketing has been a key component of modern marketing that could reach people quickly and effectively. The popularity of Facebook and Instagram has created this new platform by small and big companies competing with each other. Some of online companies that don’t have off line stores use simple motion graphics or videos to promote their brand images. The use of video is the most effect way to gain more profit with low cost for commercial companies. More and more traditional media are losing control of the industry as the new media is becoming the norm.
As explained in Neff, Wissinger, and Zukin’s “Entrepreneurial Labor among Cultural producers: ‘Cool’ Jobs in ‘Hot’ industries”, his work is a relevant jobs described in the reading. These industries “help shape, or even “brand,” the image of the cities they are in, potentially creating positive externalities of growth” (310). Like indicated above, the film studios in Korea is centered in the Seoul city that relies on close networks and “arm’s length ties” with trends and inspirations. This creation and active location benefited the communication between the consumers and the producers. With the project-based work type, it’s important to keep its interactivity online and offline. Small and casual startups located in artistic streets of Seoul apart from big companies have definitely created the image of industry as “cool” and “independent.” The idea of startup and “having your own company” has become a new trend and increased the competition. Moreover, creating a company that is operated on web has a lower entry level because it does not cost any professional degrees or resume to get in.
Likewise, these “cool” industries have to find ways to mitigate some risks by these new media work. Just as Stark describes in his article, “Creative Friction in a New-Media Start-Up”, they may suffer due to limited operating history, lack of managerial and operational resources, and failure to deliver various services if third parties fail to provide reliable software, systems and relation serves to them. Since his type of work is new to the industry, he had lack of information as well as financial and operational challenges in the early stage of the production of the company. So he had to actually visit sites to advertise and find clients in the beginning. Also, it was important to be flexible to learn whatever was needed to operate the studio such as different software and systems.
The new-media industry has enabled him to integrate different components filmmaking into one studio that operates everything. Difficulties of his work stated in the interview such as saturated market, stress due to unstable demand and lack of time should be solved in order to improve the industry setting. Although it’s an informal and casual work type, it should have some basic policies in regards of their work’s privacy protection. Moreover, one of the solutions of mitigating a risk as this new type of industry includes using its flexibility to target broader types of clients by using more various social media platforms. In order to make this “cool” industry to stay “cool” in a long term, policy just for the “new-media industry” should be created and they must legitimate their place in a society through social media.
