'Let's Do Business'?Korean Echoes Through Hollywood [K, To Hollywood]

AI, Emotion Recognition, and Virtual Production All in One Place

On-site at 'U-KNOCK 2025 in USA'

On November 5 (local time), the second floor of the Loews Hotel, located in the heart of Hollywood, Los Angeles, was filled with booths from Korean companies under a banner displaying the logo of 'U-KNOCK 2025 in USA.' Demonstration screens featuring cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), visual effects (VFX), augmented reality (AR), and emotion technology played in succession on monitors, while investors and producers moved briskly from booth to booth.

This event, co-hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, was far more than just an exhibition. It was a battleground where K-content was competing on the global stage, leveraging technology and capital as its weapons.

The Revolution of Real-Time Production

Jang Sung-ho, CEO of MOFAC Studio, demonstrated his company's technology on stage-a real-time animation conversion system used in the film 'King of Kings.' Using Unreal Engine, the system instantly transforms an actor's performance into an animated character, simultaneously compositing camera work, lighting, and backgrounds.

Jang stated, "Technology does not replace creativity; it expands it. By applying real-time previsualization, creatives can be reviewed before costs are incurred. With the entire film pre-produced and edited in advance, full-scale production can begin with minimized risks, reducing production costs and time by at least 30%."

Park Inchan, CEO of Studio W.Baba, promoted a production system utilizing Unreal Engine at his booth. "Unreal Engine is not just a rendering tool; it's a real-time production system. It can reduce traditional rendering costs by about 50% and shorten production schedules by 25%," he explained.

On-site at 'U-KNOCK 2025 in USA'

Investors who watched the demonstrations inquired about the immediate applicability of the technologies to real projects and requested separate meetings. The consensus was that the production paradigm itself was undergoing a fundamental transformation.

Hollywood Falls for New Technologies

The booth of High Stranger also attracted a steady stream of investors, thanks to its emotion AI technology, which analyzes human facial expressions, voice, and pulse to visualize emotional changes in real time. CEO Kim Dongguk explained, "Our multi-signal emotion analysis, which combines photoplethysmography (PPG), electroencephalogram (EEG), and facial expression recognition (FER), is 15-25% more accurate than single-signal methods. Our system aims for over 95% accuracy by integrating various biometric signals."

The company's 'Insight Flow' solution collects and analyzes audience biometric data to visualize emotion curves in real time. Kim said, "Production companies can pinpoint exactly when audiences are most emotionally engaged or disengaged during test screenings."

There was also a line at the booth for Millennial Works' 'ANIMOMENT,' an AI kiosk that transforms ordinary people into virtual characters in just one minute. CEO Song Yoosang noted, "The key is not just speed, but the ability to instantly convert and generate content in offline spaces."

Jin Saem, Chief Technology Officer of Curz, captivated investors by demonstrating the spatially tailored media art platform 'WAA (Where Art's Alive).' "WAA recognizes spatial images, analyzes color, texture, lighting, and layout, and then automatically recommends content suited to the purpose or reconstructs new media art," he explained.

Choi Youngho, CEO of ShopFanPick, unveiled a business focused on nurturing virtual creator IP and fandom merchandise. "We support everything from IP and world-building planning to vocal and voice actor training, similar to traditional entertainment approaches," he said. "After about six months of mock broadcasts and live training, creators are ready to debut," he added.

On-site at 'U-KNOCK 2025 in USA'

The Atmosphere On Site

Investors showed strong interest in AI production technologies and the use of emotional data. The consensus was that the technological capabilities and productivity of Korean companies are already at a world-class level.

Woo Seongbae, Head of Content Finance Support at the Korea Creative Content Agency, said, "We are compensating for a lack of English IR capabilities through prior IR and mentoring with regional partners and experts, as well as IR pitching rehearsals. We also provide vouchers for local legal and intellectual property consulting, corporate establishment advisory, and contract translation costs."

According to the agency, Korean content exports in the first half of 2023 increased by 1.3% compared to the previous year-a meaningful rebound, especially considering that overall industrial exports declined during the same period.

Industry insiders believe that as technology-driven IP increases, the entry barriers for small and medium-sized production companies may actually decrease. This is because traditional production costs-such as physical set expenses and lengthy shoots-are partially resolved, while technology, licensing, and platform integration can serve as new sources of revenue.

Perhaps for this reason, there was no longer a slogan on stage declaring, "Let's promote Korea." Instead, a simple message took its place: "Let's do business."