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I recently had a conversation with an older friend who, in his teens, moved to the US from Thailand. After graduating from college, he found his passion in anim

I recently had a conversation with an older friend who, in his teens, moved to the US from Thailand. After graduating from college, he found his passion in animations and, ultimately, led one of the animation divisions for The Simpsons by moving to S. Korea. I was surprised to hear that he lived much of his professional life in S. Korea building out The Simpsons (decades ago) and why/how the work was outsourced there. He told me that labor and talent was abundant and affordable. This made me think of a possible reason as to how S. Korea's entertainment industry has become successful worldwide. That is, just as outsourced manufacturing/operations helps countries build out the infrastructure and gradually transform into a country for developing quality products/services, something similar happened where the grunt work of entertainment was outsourced helping S. Korea build out the underlying infrastructure until it had enough talent and capabilities to enable a larger ownership over the product/vision and become a major player itself.

cinntaile 5y ago
They also animate quite a bit of anime, I guess Japan is more expensive nowadays.
- jinto36 5y ago
  In-between animation has been outsourced for a long time, Dr Movie (founded in 1990) in particular has long show up in anime credits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Movie
- FarhadG 5y ago
  Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Cheap labor allows to build out the infrastructure and as prosperity kicks in, the standard of living increases—hence the need to transition from an outsourced partner to a larger contributing/strategic player to continue to compete.
thrower123 5y ago
Did a ctrl-f for Rough Draft Korea, zero hits. Curious, they animate a large percentage of western cartoons https://kids.kiddle.co/Rough_Draft_Korea https://kids.kiddle.co/Rough_Draft_Korea
bane 5y ago
Korea's media industry benefited greatly from decades of trade protectionist policies and government subsidies. For example, movie theaters had a maximum quota of foreign movies they were allowed to show at once, meaning bigger budget and better produced foreign films wouldn't dominate the mindspace of audiences. Simultaneously media arts schools received various benefits to produce high quality people in all areas in front of and behind the camera. This high quality labor pool, in addition to (relatively) low labor costs meant that several countries also outsourced lots of production work to South Korea for decades in animation, documentary production, editing, etc. These created the conditions for Korean film makers to be able to create very high quality productions and find their own voice -- rather than being a copy of nearby Japan or China or more popular American movie sensibilities. For decades Korean films were often well considered at international film festivals with noted directors like Park Chul-soo and Kim Ki-duk making artistically challenging films. With this foundation, and a desire from the government to develop exportable media as a pillar of economic growth, it was only a matter of time before Korean writers/directors were able to produce material suitable for foreign audiences (foreign not explicitly meaning "Western"). Over time certain Korean shows and movies, particularly ones centered around historic periods with traditional themes, found ready audiences looking for high quality content that they could connect with across all Asia where shared history and cultural sensibilities still resonated. It's really only in the last few years that Korean media has started to hit Western audiences as a major consumer pool. Some of this is a result of a massive investment by Netflix (about $500m) to produce Korean language media. This gives Netflix high quality, ready-made content, with original stories and themes that differentiate their platform from others. There's not really many other countries outside of a few Western European ones that they can turn to for this type of content. Still, there's tons of Korean media that's produced for Korean audiences that will find it hard to resonate outside of Korea due to very culturally specific content and themes. If you want a great example, "Attack the Gas Station" is a great Korean movie that's almost indecipherable to audiences not familiar with Korean cultural topics and as a result will probably never see export.
- AtlasBarfed 5y ago
  Don't virtually every other country have domestic production quotas (I know Canada does which is why there are a ton of canadian pop stars who made it in the US) for their airwaves? I think it's actually a very very good thing. Global monoculture enabled by the internet and financed by multinational corporations is wiping out cultural diversity. I do not want McDonalds everywhere. McDonalds corporation of course does. Me? I like my Chicken Tikka.
Ologn 5y ago
The movie industry in the US was originally based around New York City. Various studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey and Kaufman Astoria studios in Queens were where a lot of motion pictures were made (some still are in Kaufman Astoria). Intellectual property issues around patents were one of the reasons the movie business moved to LA. Edison was thought to be less able (or willing) to successfully sue non-client film companies operating in California.
mgh2 5y ago
With tech Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5zYKYF3Xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5zYKYF3Xo

cinntaile 5y ago

They also animate quite a bit of anime, I guess Japan is more expensive nowadays.

jinto36 5y ago
In-between animation has been outsourced for a long time, Dr Movie (founded in 1990) in particular has long show up in anime credits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Movie
FarhadG 5y ago
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Cheap labor allows to build out the infrastructure and as prosperity kicks in, the standard of living increases—hence the need to transition from an outsourced partner to a larger contributing/strategic player to continue to compete.

thrower123 5y ago

Did a ctrl-f for Rough Draft Korea, zero hits. Curious, they animate a large percentage of western cartoons https://kids.kiddle.co/Rough_Draft_Korea https://kids.kiddle.co/Rough_Draft_Korea

bane 5y ago

Korea's media industry benefited greatly from decades of trade protectionist policies and government subsidies. For example, movie theaters had a maximum quota of foreign movies they were allowed to show at once, meaning bigger budget and better produced foreign films wouldn't dominate the mindspace of audiences. Simultaneously media arts schools received various benefits to produce high quality people in all areas in front of and behind the camera. This high quality labor pool, in addition to (relatively) low labor costs meant that several countries also outsourced lots of production work to South Korea for decades in animation, documentary production, editing, etc. These created the conditions for Korean film makers to be able to create very high quality productions and find their own voice -- rather than being a copy of nearby Japan or China or more popular American movie sensibilities. For decades Korean films were often well considered at international film festivals with noted directors like Park Chul-soo and Kim Ki-duk making artistically challenging films. With this foundation, and a desire from the government to develop exportable media as a pillar of economic growth, it was only a matter of time before Korean writers/directors were able to produce material suitable for foreign audiences (foreign not explicitly meaning "Western"). Over time certain Korean shows and movies, particularly ones centered around historic periods with traditional themes, found ready audiences looking for high quality content that they could connect with across all Asia where shared history and cultural sensibilities still resonated. It's really only in the last few years that Korean media has started to hit Western audiences as a major consumer pool. Some of this is a result of a massive investment by Netflix (about $500m) to produce Korean language media. This gives Netflix high quality, ready-made content, with original stories and themes that differentiate their platform from others. There's not really many other countries outside of a few Western European ones that they can turn to for this type of content. Still, there's tons of Korean media that's produced for Korean audiences that will find it hard to resonate outside of Korea due to very culturally specific content and themes. If you want a great example, "Attack the Gas Station" is a great Korean movie that's almost indecipherable to audiences not familiar with Korean cultural topics and as a result will probably never see export.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago
Don't virtually every other country have domestic production quotas (I know Canada does which is why there are a ton of canadian pop stars who made it in the US) for their airwaves? I think it's actually a very very good thing. Global monoculture enabled by the internet and financed by multinational corporations is wiping out cultural diversity. I do not want McDonalds everywhere. McDonalds corporation of course does. Me? I like my Chicken Tikka.

Ologn 5y ago

The movie industry in the US was originally based around New York City. Various studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey and Kaufman Astoria studios in Queens were where a lot of motion pictures were made (some still are in Kaufman Astoria). Intellectual property issues around patents were one of the reasons the movie business moved to LA. Edison was thought to be less able (or willing) to successfully sue non-client film companies operating in California.

mgh2 5y ago

With tech Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5zYKYF3Xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5zYKYF3Xo