This study abroad program aimed at promoting interaction among the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), the French national film school called La Fémis, and Geidai. During our stay in Korea, we organized a film screening of works created by each school, a joint workshop on short film production, and a symposium on international collaboration in filmmaking.

At the film screening, we showed each school’s final year projects. The students involved in the filmmaking talked about the budget, staffing, and filming methods. Through exchanging information on filmmaking process in each country in terms of techniques, directing, logistics, and so on, we learned about differences, characteristics, as well as perspectives and contexts that lie behind them.

At the joint workshop, all students from the three countries were mixed up into groups to make short films. Again, we experienced cultural differences in this filmmaking process. For example, the students from KAFA tended to be detail-oriented; They had a meeting to determine their plans before starting to film. When filming, also, they were strict about when to make a cut between scenes to communicate information effectively to the viewer. Thanks to them, we learned to be objective about the unnecessary “jump” in space/time in the story. The students from La Fémis, on the other hand, seemed to put more emphasis on the theme or direction of the story, and they were not making any concrete plans at the beginning. From the students of La Fémis, we learned that such an approach would lead to a conceptual film like the one produced by them.

At the symposium, we had an interactive discussion with an invited professional guest speaker on the theme “Approaches to Collaborative Filmmaking: The Market and Production,” where we talked about global challenges and possibilities of filmmaking by looking at relevant cases. We discovered that film school graduates in France can receive solid support for filmmaking from the French government. We also learned that the “Video on Demand” system is very popular in Korea and films made by students are available for anyone to watch. It was also pointed out that it would be rare in other countries to set up a production committee like the one in Japan. Thus, we were able to exchange specific information in light of international collaborative filmmaking.

For some Geidai students who participated in the program, it was their first trip abroad, and they returned home with a new mindset. They must have learned that there are many people outside Japan who are very talented but have a lot in common, and that it is exciting and meaningful to interact with people from different backgrounds. Some students were able to build their own network at the individual level, and are in touch with the students they met while in Korea. It is expected that they will become future partners and work together again.