Studio Woohaha is an image creation group composed of five artists working in a wide range of mediums including film, music, dance, and art. Yeosu Movie is a work preceding Geumcheon Movie studio Woohaha prepares in Geumcheon. Blending an imaginary story with real interviews against a background of Yeosu, it questions what the real Yeosu film is, beyond fiction and non-fiction.
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| It's not all about YEOSU HD video, color, 00:26:10 2010 |
Studio Woohaha, Working to Solve Old Troubles of Film Art through the Division of Labor and Cooperative Work.
Shin Eun-shil,
Cinema Digital Seoul Program Coordinator
Is a movie art? This is an unnecessary question today. The movie was born in the late 19th century, and recognized as art in the early 20th. Like other genres anterior to it, the frame of its philosophical, political reference was accepted, and diverse forms and methods by humans were executed through this genre. Almost all new ideologies (in the context of Marxism) and emotion were represented by these forms and methods.
According to Arnold Hauser (1892~1978), the author of The Social History of Art which formed a basis of 20th century materialistic art history, film should rightly solve the problem of artistic cooperative work. How can we address the trend of the division of labor and poor creativity in film,
where a material foundation and technology are fundamentally required? For Hauser, an artist like Charlie Chaplin, who was a playwright, director, and oversaw music production, is not a solution. Hauser argued “A one-man system does not overcome the division of labor but to deter it. It does not
achieve a necessary comprehensive plan but avoids the necessity of planning. A system where one person controls all functions, instead of a division of collectively organized labor, is amateur in terms of appearance and technique, and causes lack of inner tension, reminiscent of the simplicity of
amateur films.”
In this sense, the foundation of and work by Studio Woohaha, based at Seoul Art Space GeumchEon, is welcomed by the movie community. Since Hauser, cooperative work and collective creation by film artists has long been desired, but its practice is difficult within corporate cinema in the reality enormous capital’s dominance becomes greater day by day.
Director Min Dong-hyun who wrote many scenarios for short and feature films, including Yeosu Cinema; writer Choi Won-gyun who wrote popular, original film reviews, About Zombi, and History of Figger Circulation; director Nam Ji-woong, who directed legendary music videos and worked with creators including Ahn Eun-mi, Jang Suk-jun, Baik Hyun-jin, and Lee Suk-won; cinematographer Park Hong-yeol who filmed master film director Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha and Okhee’s Film, lending each light and shade, consistently collaborating with artists like Nam Hwa-yeon, Ku Dong-hee, and
Jeong Seo-young; and artist Cho Hee-dae, who worked on film editing, technical directing, visual art work, media performance, and public art projects in collaboration with promising artists such as Min Dong-hyun, Im Min-wook, Bae Yoon-ho, and Ahn Yoon-mi Considering these artists attained authority in their fields, we can assume they can work independently. By reviewing their activities based at Seoul Art Space GeumchEon, a politically, socially, and culturally distinctive creative hub, we capture the reason of their being. They attempted to work among local residents, producing documentary projects such as Dear Doksan-dong Residents! And, Geumcheon Research, archive projects including Geumcheon Watch and It’s not all bout YEOSU, and local film projects like Geumcheon Cinema. They have worked in collaboration with Pure Theater Laboratory Machal, Jeong Jeong-ju, Lee Kiil, and Jang Suk-joon. Highlighting the locality of Geumcheon, Studio Woohaha has worked with artists through collaborative work. Their Geumcheon Theater work may present a solution to the many troubles in film art.
