Something Special’s Jin Woo Hwang Talks K-Formats

Amid the booming interest in Korean content globally, the TV Formats Festival heard from Jin Woo Hwang of Something Special about the prospects for Korean remakes across scripted and non-scripted.

Hwang is the founder and president of Something Special, Korea’s first format agency. You can watch his session, part of the festival’s Asian Innovation strand, here.

Hwang and his partner in the business, InSoon Kim, are looking to expand on the heels of venture capital funding from DAEKYO Investment and SB Partners. “Being an independent player, this will be a significant moment for scaling up Korean formats by independent players.”

Following that investment, Something Special enlisted format producer Jacob (Jongbin) Han to serve as its first head of productions. His first task is producing Unforgettable Duet, commissioned by MBN and funded in part by a recently awarded KOCCA Fund. The format is a key priority for Something Special this year.

“Something Special focuses more on quality control through project management rather than physical production. For this reason, we need managers who can actually operate productions or projects rather than securing multiple production staff. This is largely based on my personal experience as a producer. What we needed was a strong, experienced producer who could carry on these experiences and perform the role. This may be common in the Western industry, but a production producer as a project manager is very rare in Korea.”

The conversation then moved to the role of formats in the overall K-content landscape. “The K-content business is gaining fame at the moment; nevertheless, behind these successes, domestic production costs have actually tripled over the past five years. This is causing many difficulties locally. The global expansion has become inevitable. That is also one of the reasons why a Korean scripted series now has to secure international sales as a finished tape, or they work more on these presales or even pre-investment nowadays. South Korea has the weakness of being a single-language country. This poses difficulties for global expansion. Something Special strongly believes that formats are the key to overcoming this.”

Hwang founded Something Special after several years at CJ ENM. The company has derived many benefits from being an independent. “Working in a great company like CJ ENM allows you many opportunities, but there are always pros and cons. The great thing about being an independent is that you can work with any broadcasters, any creative talents, and even any production companies. Working in one big company or a big broadcaster, normally, you can only work on their own IPs, but being an independent, you are able to work with anyone. The opportunities are far more interesting and even fun than ever.”

Over its five-year journey, Something Special has sealed a range of international partnerships. “Where there is collective creation, there is much more quality in development. Adding international perspectives actually provides many more strengths. It’s also true that some co-developments do not always bring the best results. Even if it’s not a successful development, every experience gives you great wisdom.”

Hwang then talked about the market for scripted formats from Korea, noting that it’s a challenging landscape. “Obtaining rights is a very difficult matter considering scripted formats. We want to show our local scripted players that remakes aren’t easy, but a super interesting field. Last year, we only packaged and represented one title. This year, it will be two titles, and next year we hope to double that. We want to become the one-stop shop for both local and global partners in Korea, for non-scripted and scripted.”