TV producer aims to be leading content creator
Oh Won-taek, a producer at CJ ENM, advises young aspiring entertainers to figure out the “fundamentals” of what they want to do, rather than limiting themselves to a certain job category.
“I am working as a TV producer at a media entertainment company, but producer is nothing more than a job title,” he said in an interview last week. “As long as I can create content, it does not matter whether my job title is TV producer, film director or YouTuber.”
He became interested in creating audiovisual contents during his middle school years back in the 1990s when his father bought him a camcorder.
Oh described himself as a “country boy” back then, as the school was located in a small rural area in Geumsan, South Chungcheong Province.
“After figuring out that I enjoyed filming this and that with the camcorder, an ethics teacher told me to shoot a film about my school life and friends,” he said.
He engaged in every singular process in making the film, including writing scenarios, video shooting and editing.
It was then that he decided to become a content creator, as his movie received a favorable response from the students and teachers at the school. His class teacher also shared the movie with other schools nearby.
Even after entering high school, he never stopped his passion for creating visual content by playing an active part in a movie club at school.
“I rarely paid attention to any conventional classes at school, and spent most of my time learning new visual editing programs and thinking of ways to produce better content,” he said.
Under the sole aim of learning more about content creation, he studied communication at university.
His life began to take shape when he joined the nation’s leading entertainment and movie production company in 2011.
“CJ ENM was a latecomer in the entertainment industry,” he said. “But the company looked much more enticing to me than others, as it engaged in creating a variety of content, such as games, broadcasting, entertainment and even movies.”
“I enjoyed all of them, so I decided to join the company and create content that I like,” he said.
He has since served as a main producer for a series of hit entertainment and comedy shows there, such as Saturday Night Live (SNL) Korea.
Oh went on to say that his longterm goal is to survive in the fast-changing industry by continuing to create the content he wants.
“Living as a content creator for the rest of my life is everything I want for my career,” he said. “The content creation industry changes rapidly, so it will be tougher and tougher for me to survive as I get older.”
“But I always keep in mind that the fundamental purpose of my life is to create content, and as long as I can do that, I will be happy,” he said.