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| Jaegal Seung, left, supervisor of Dexter Studios, and the company's producer, Ha Seung-woo, are seen during an education session for filmmakers in a theater at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Seoul, Sept. 14. Courtesy of Dexter Studios |
By Baek Byung-yeul
With the advancement of technology, for some time, film lovers have been able to enjoy movies on the big screen featuring imaginary worlds or scenes difficult to direct in the real world.
Jaegal Seung, supervisor of Korea-based visual effect company Dexter Studios, and the company's producer, Ha Seung-woo, said it is obvious that more and more visual effects ― also called VFX ― will be widely used in movies and video media moving forward.
They added that a creative approach makes a better visual artist rather than the artist simply performing what the filmmakers ordered.
"I think the VFX supervisor is also a director. It's important to be an artist who thinks about his or her own idea and directing, not just a worker who does what directors tells them to do," Jaegal said during an education session for filmmakers in a theater at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Seoul, Sept. 14.
The education session was prepared by the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) in order to help filmmakers enhance their understanding of VFX. Dexter Studios has been a leading VFX studio in Korea, taking part in numerous popular flicks such as the "Along with the Gods" series, "Ashfall" and "Escape from Mogadishu."
"I always think about how to proceed more efficiently using limited costs, time and manpower, but the most important part is quality. We call ourselves artists because we are a group that creates artwork, and quality is more important than anything else," Ha said.
The two also shared their experiences from joining "Alienoid," one of the hit films this summer, saying that around 600 VFX artists took part in the SF movie for over a year.
"We usually join the film-making process from the pre-production stage, but in 'Alienoid,' we joined from the development stage before pre-production. It was such a vast film that we were in for pre-production for over a year with more than 600 VFX artists. As a lot of different kinds of VFX effects were used, we felt like we were working on five films," Jaegal said.
He also emphasized to the students in the education session that "it is becoming important to have unique and creative ideas rather than just techniques to produce VFX effects."
