The son painted the garden with his brush held in his mouth, and he won a prize at the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea. These are some of the contents of “Human Theater,” broadcasting May 8 to 12. This program, which is from 8:55 to 9:25 p.m. every Mon. to Fri. on KBS TV2 (Korean broadcasting company), captures the minds of the audience because watching, the viewers can feel a sense of humanity in such a cold, information-oriented society.
Each episode, simply the life of a main character, has aroused viewer sympathy and made strong impressions on the audiences. The producer of this documentary, Park Eun Hee (the general manager of the document production center, LEE’S PRO Broadcasting Production), has lectured in the University of Seoul.
The class is “media practice,” for sophomores in the Dept. of Urban Sociology. Of course, a student who is not in the Dept. of Urban Sociology can also take this lesson. Documentaries are better at bringing issues to light than any other genre because they are creatively reconstructed and reflect the reality from the producer’s perspective.
The peculiarity is that this is similar in structure to a lesson in Urban Sociology, from which social phenomena or the principles of social structure are learned.
The class was started by trying to recreate and rediscover our modern human society and the history of it with a creative perspective analyzed by documentary makers. It combines the theoretical form of Urban Sociology with the methodological features of a documentary production.
Curriculum
Lessons are broken into three parts: composition, filming, and cutting of film. Specialists lecture each part at the beginning of the term. After the students learn theories, they make a film from the planning stage to cutting all by themselves.
Features of the class
“The best feature of this class is that we get a lot of practice,” said Kang Hui-jeong, a sophomore of the Dept. of Korean language and literature. There is not enough time to finish learning documentary production. So lecturers talk to students about experience in the field. “In the broadcasting field, it takes a minimum of a few years and a maximum of over ten years to gain enough experience and insight to train as a documentary director,” said Mrs. Park.
Assignment and Examination
There are assignments in every stage. Firstly, the assignment for the composition stage was to plan and compose a work following human documentary form by each student. Then, the second assignment was choosing, editing and analyzing an episode of “Human Theater.”
The mid-term exam was replaced with a work composition plan, and a students’ own work presentation will substitute for the final exam. The works submitted as substitutes for the final will be made as documentaries with free subject matters. There is no limitation on the amount.
“We plan to make a documentary about the homeless. It’s not easy to contact them,” said Son Sung-dal, a senior of the Dept. of Urban Sociology. “I try to watch “Human Theater” to prepare for the class,” said Lee Mun-seob, a sophomore of the Dept. of Business Administration.
Assessment
The premise of this class is not training a specialist. With good technical skills, anyone can shoot and edit. However, some students have a new approach, which is to reorganize and creatively rediscover reality. These are the main criteria of the test. Is it a suitable subject? Does the chosen subject have creative perspective? Does a film contain a good enough logicality to explain the document’s topic? Does the documentary have consistency and unity within the argument?
Comments for the Student
The lecturer said, “Be a student who tries to find out hidden truth in the world with original vision. It can be the most critical part of your life from now on.” The students could learn just a small piece of the methodology while they are producing the documentary and ultimately take lessons to enlighten their own perspectives.
Ki Jae-ryang Editor-in-chief
speer0731@uos.ac.kr