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TED Talks Daily

How webtoons are changing movies and TV | Hyeonmi Kim

TED Talks Daily

TED

Creativity, Business, Design, Inspiration, Society & Culture, Science, Technology, Education, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Ted, Entertainment, Tedtalks

4.111.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2022

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pop culture is changing thanks to a different kind of storytelling, says digital strategist Hyeonmi Kim. They’re called webtoons: comic-like illustrations published in short segments and meant to be read on a smartphone in five to ten minutes. Kim breaks down how webtoons have leapt from phones to the big screen (Netflix’s “Hellbound,” anyone?) and how they’re bringing a new, diverse generation of creators into TV and movie scriptwriting.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. Pop culture is changing with a different

0:09.5

kind of storytelling, a different kind of comic entertainment from Korea. They're called webtoons,

0:16.0

and web tunes have gone far beyond a niche platform. In her talk from TED at BCG in 2022,

0:22.8

digital strategist, Hyunmi Kim, lays out the treasure trove inside Webtoons

0:27.2

and the fresh pipeline they provide for richer or diverse storytelling.

0:34.6

Believe it or not, many of you are participating in one of the greatest democratization of storytelling the world has ever known.

0:43.3

And you're probably doing this on a daily basis through the movies and TV shows you are watching.

0:49.5

This is a grand democratization that's giving voice on a global scale to the bizarre,

0:55.0

fantastical stories of the unheard.

0:57.0

It's amazing, and I want to tell you all about it.

1:01.0

But first, to fully appreciate everything I'm about to say, you need to understand how the

1:08.0

movies and TV shows are traditionally made.

1:10.0

So for the longest time, the mainstream media industry

1:13.9

has relied on a closed ecosystem of scriptwriters.

1:18.7

These starscript writers are often chosen to create a series of blockbusters,

1:24.6

and the production house investors rely on these proven writers to increase the

1:30.1

chances of success. And you can see the problem here. A close network of writers naturally limits

1:36.7

the boundaries of plots. This is why sometimes you feel like you're watching the same superhero

1:42.5

plots and cliche love stories.

1:45.4

But this is all changing, and it's changing fast, because of webtoons.

1:52.4

A webtoon is basically a story that's told using cartoon comic-like illustrations.

1:58.5

It's published in short segment, usually on a weekly basis, and

...

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