by Phil Lelyveld
At today’s Seoul International 3D Fair, the Minister of Culture repeatedly stressed that the government will work with industry to make Korea a leader in 3D technology, resources, skilled workforce, and content production. His goal is to elevate Korea to a top-three global player in all things “3D” by 2015.
Korea is already strong in 2D-3D conversion technology and services, but it currently must rent 3D cameras and production equipment from elsewhere. It also lacks a trained 3D workforce and a supportive cross-industry professional community. The government has allocated funds and will support private efforts to rectify that situation. Their areas of 3D development go beyond motion picture, TV, and games. The government also supports the development of 3D hardware, software, and content for architecture, medicine, manufacturing, art and museums, and other industries.
Many more 3D fairs and conferences are planned for Korea this year to build momentum for the initiative. By 2015 the Ministry would like 20% of all content creation in Korea to be in 3D.
Building on the Minister’s talk, Jae Woo Lee, a researcher in the strategy department of the Korean Film Counsel positioned his data as “before Avatar” and “after Avatar.”
Before Avatar the question within the Korean content creation, distribution, and exhibition industry was “Do we have to make it 3D?” After Avatar the question became “How do we make it 3D?”
Beowolf played on one 3D screen in Korea in 2007. Three 3D movies played on 45 3D screens in Korea in 2008. Avatar opened in Korea in December, 2009. Today 1600 out of 2000 screens in Korea are digital, and almost 500 of those are 3D capable.
Mr. Lee noted that there are 27 Hollywood 3D features and 7 Korean 3D features scheduled for release in 2011.
Korea is the only country to create and exhibit a 4D (moving seats and other in-theatre special effects) version of Avatar. To date they have created the 4D enhancements for, and exhibited in 4D, 24 feature films. This could be a significant emerging market for the Korean creative and equipment manufacturing industries.
Mr. Lee concluded that Korea’s industries are nimble and able to move very fast into new areas and markets. They need the support of the financial industry to move ahead in all aspects of 3D.