Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jpe]

Just moved here a couple weeks ago, and wondering if anyone's involved in any kind of film-related stuff. I'm hoping to work on a couple projects while I'm here, mostly documentary film/installation-related. The biggest thing I've got going is a long-term feature-length film on noise.

I'm not looking for help necessarily, but it would be great to find people to bounce ideas off of or places to shoot.

...Or we could just hang out in the Godard bar in Hongdae. Does anyone know if they still do screenings there?

[Hiromi C]

I shoot a lot of amateur, travelogue-type stuff. I'd love to toss ideas back and forth and trade notes on shooting locations.

[bekinseki]

[jpe]

Both noise as a musical genre, and noise broadly speaking -- in communication, as a form of pollution, in war, etc. It's a philosophical pursuit.

...That having said, I will be seeing Deerhoof tomorrow nite.

[FMPJ]

I play music here (noise? maybe) and if you don't know the Astronoise guys yet, PM me. They were the first Korean noise dudes and are getting pretty big in the improvised music world. Great, great dudes.

[jpe]

[shostahoosier]

If you're on Facebook there's a "Seoul Filmmaker's Workshop" that meets every month, second Sunday (so they'll be meeting this weekend, December 11th).

There is also a group called "Independent Film Team Korea" and I think there's an "Independent Film Team Busan" or "southern" (not Seoul) page. It's mostly actors and other filmmakers talking.

[jpe]

This maybe deserves its own thread, but since it's on the same topic....

I decided to finally start doing some shooting today, nothing special really, I just thought I'd shoot around Yeongdeungpo station where I live. About 10 minutes after I started I got harassed (like, really harassed) by what I assume is a homeless man (he had his three front teeth missing and reeked really bad of soju).

For the record I wasn't shooting him as far as I can tell, or anyone in particular. It was rush hour on a busy intersection, and there was some carolers/evangelical Christians speaking and I filmed them through the crowd a bit, but in what I would say was a really non-intrusive way...no-one was being particularly focused on and no-one else seemed to care. I don't think any of that made any difference in terms of this dude's reaction, but I want to defend myself ahead of time against any charges of 1930's style ethnographic bullying. There are a ton of homeless people who sleep in that train station but I wasn't shooting them at all and didn't even notice them around anywhere in my vicinity.

I wish I spoke more than 10 words of Korean so I had some idea of what exactly he was saying...I figured, as in much of the world, the homeless have serious mistrust of anyone with a camera, but even after I went to the other end of the intersection to shoot something he came after me. Finally, when I decided it wasn't worth it and packed it in, he continued to follow me. He even had his hand out ready to hit me until someone stepped in (this is, at this point, like 3 blocks away from the station).

Again, I haven't really done any filming in this country so I have no idea...is it a general thing that people feel uncomfortable/hostile around cameras (I figured in a country where everyone has a cell-phone camera on them/is constantly taking each other's picture this wouldn't be an issue)? Or have the media hounded homeless people so much that they've just decided to chase off anyone with a camera?

It would be good to know so I don't feel super uneasy everytime I want to shoot.

[bekinseki]

Well it's not like they're chasing you away from anything particularly captivating.

My advice: contact Koreans who would be willing to help you/steer you in the right direction. There are tons of noise musicians in this country as well, and those guys are full of ideas of what to film.

If I were in your shoes, I'd start filming in the factory district in Mullae, which is slowly becoming an arts district.