Establishment of Filming Guidelines for Movie and Drama Cultural Heritage

Submit Application and Plan at Least 15 Days Before Filming
Mandatory Assignment of Safety Personnel Dedicated to Management and Supervision

From now on, when filming movies or dramas set against nationally designated cultural heritage sites, safety personnel must be stationed on site. Additionally, a pledge to make efforts to prevent damage to the cultural heritage must be submitted during the filming permit process.

Byeongsan Seowon

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on the 20th that it has prepared and distributed to local governments the "Standard Guidelines for Filming Permits at Nationally Designated Cultural Heritage Sites." These guidelines were established following incidents of damage to the UNESCO World Heritage site Andong Byeongsan Seowon and the Treasure Mandaeru during drama filming. KBS faced criticism last December after it was revealed that nails were fixed to Mandaeru and other locations to install props while filming the drama "I Took Namju’s First Night." The Cultural Heritage Administration explained, "We prepared these guidelines to share precautions regarding filming permits within cultural heritage sites to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future."

Accordingly, film or drama production teams must submit an application, a plan, and a pledge to the heads of local governments such as special autonomous city mayors, special autonomous province governors, or city/county/district heads at least 15 days before the filming date. The filming plan must include the filming subjects and locations, purpose, detailed schedule and filming content, measures to prevent damage to cultural heritage, and a list of filming equipment to be brought in.

For commercial filming or when the number of filming personnel exceeds ten, safety personnel dedicated to managing and supervising to prevent damage to cultural heritage must be mandatorily assigned. The list of such personnel must be submitted before filming. A Cultural Heritage Administration official explained, "Safety personnel qualifications are specified as experts in cultural heritage fields such as architecture, landscaping, history, archaeology, or cultural heritage interpreters affiliated with the respective local government."

The pledge submitted when obtaining filming permission includes content such as "We pledge to take civil and criminal responsibility for any damage to cultural heritage, damage to facilities, safety accidents, and all other matters arising from filming." Specific rules to be observed on the filming site are also specified. For example, regarding the controversial nailing, the pledge includes a clause prohibiting "the act of nailing into wooden components such as pillars of wooden structures within cultural heritage sites and the installation of metal fittings (such as nails) on foundations and stone walls."

The guidelines serve as a standard procedure reference when issuing filming permits and are thus more of a guideline in nature. A Cultural Heritage Administration official stated, "We plan to use them as materials for prior education and to guide permit conditions."