ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXHave you ever think of developing/financing your film internationally?
11 years, 2 months ago - Daisy Li
China is now widely expected to overtake the United States and become the world’s largest film market in a few years.According to the latest industry figures, China’s national box office income topped 21.5 billion yuan last year, or US$3.5 billion. This makes China the world’s second-largest film market after the US, with an estimated total box office revenue of US$10.9 billion.Based on the rapid growth of the Chinese market and the almost stagnant US market, many analysts have predicted that China would close the gap within a few years.
If you have the chance to take part in some tele-conference with the Chinese studios and producers, would you like to take part in? Have you ever think of developing/ financing your film internationally? Have you ever think of British-Chinese cooperating films? Tell me your worries on this topic.
I am DaisyLi, I have been working as the film journalist of the biggest weekly in China for 6 years, also I am the freelance film column writer for The New York Times Chinese version. This is year I am doing a MA course in Central Saint Martins college of arts and design, my final project is to find solution for the low budget/independent/domestically produced films to be survived from the competition with the Hollywood blockbusters, actually it is mutual story for UK and China, local stories are facing the harder and harder situation in our commercialized society, but we still need our own stories, don't we?
I am planning to hold one such conference for both Chinese/ British film makers, and please tell me how do you think of it.
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11 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran
I'm trying to discern where you're coming from Daisy?
Clearly it would be hopeless to try and make any case mitigating what happened in China with the film festival. Personally I'm pretty livid with what goes on here in the UK as an excuse for liberty and decency, but really! Good grief! The explanation that those independents are acting illegally according to the totalitarian paranoid criteria of that government will have absolutely no merit here. The fact is that everything that humans do has some political element. The fact that those independent film makers are in a small minority simply underlines just how pervasive that totalitarianism is and if anything suggests that that little group are brave heroes of thought freedom who have put themselves very much in the firing line well beyond that festival issue. If you want to consider a film that ought to be made between Chinese and British partners, how about a Chinese version of George Orwell's '1984'?
11 years, 2 months ago - Dan Selakovich
My worries would be distribution in China. I only know a bit about it, but isn't there just one way to distribute a film there? The CFG? And isn't the revenue sharing model limited to just 34 films a year? That leaves only Hollywood blockbusters, really. Other films can only enter on a complete buyout. And that buyout is extremely low.
Or am I wrong? The last time I really looked into China was a couple of years ago, and maybe things have changed. But I don't see how investment from China is viable if the investors only see a cut of a small buyout fee of a film distributed there.
11 years, 2 months ago - Daisy Li
Dear Dan,
Yes, the strict quota system is still there, even worse, now there is specific period of time in the year( normally could last for a whole month) only domestic films could be released in the cinema. All these bureaucratic strategies are applied in the market to protect domestic films. To some extent it works,as I remember, nearly 60% of the box office last year was contributed by the local films.
But both quota and protective month are applied for those pure imported films, for the cooperating films, like British director plus Chinese producer plus actors of both nationalities, the final film could be well treated as the domestic films.That is why all the HongKong film directors almost move to the Beijing, even the Hollywood studios are doing more and more cooperating films in China, and there is another "big" France&China cooperating film which is adopted from the Chinese novel WOLF TOTEM and directed by Jean-Jacques is about to release recently, kind of experimental France&Chinese cooperation, highly anticipated.
Of course there are specific criteria for definition of cooperation, I will translate the precise regulations and put out here.
Daisy
11 years, 2 months ago - Dan Selakovich
@Daisy Li Thanks Daisy. What if you met all of those criteria, but the film was in English?
11 years, 1 month ago - Daisy Li
Sorry to hear about your struggling Aleve, I am not crystal clear what happened, but anything I can do for you please let me know, confirm or translate or anything. Happy to see we all interested in these collaborative projects, maybe all these barriers are just the things we need to work on, and hope there are opportunities come along with our efforts. I am happy to have a meeting or Skype with you, though I don't know how much I understand the perform business because all my background is film related, but I think I could be a good listener at least. Good luck every thing.
11 years, 2 months ago - Daisy Li
hahaha~ I went to the cinema yesterday and saw the Boyhood, so real so moving, so restrainedly brilliant!
11 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Genius ;)
11 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Btw the link only doesn't appear to work as the SP forum code has included the closing parenthesis in the link it truncated. Try this version http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-28911343 - it's about the forced early closure of the Beijing Independent Film Festival
11 years, 1 month ago - Daisy Li
Dear all,
The co-production treaty between UK and China.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/uk-china-sign-film-co-production-treatyA landmark film co-production treaty between the UK and China was signed today by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and Vice Minister Tong Gang of the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT). Mr Vaizey is currently in China as part of a UK Government delegation to push forward new areas of cultural collaboration and champion the tremendous success of the UK’s creative industries.
The treaty, which was negotiated for the UK by the British Film Institute (BFI) with support from the DCMS and UK Trade & Investment in Beijing, will allow qualifying co-productions to access national benefits including sources of finance and an easier passage to audiences. In the UK this includes the Film Tax Relief and the BFI Film Fund, which is the UK’s largest public film fund. In addition, eligible co-productions will not be subject to China’s quota on foreign films, which only permits a limited number of non-domestic titles to be shown in Chinese cinemas each year.
China’s film entertainment sector (including cinema, Video on Demand and DVD) was estimated to be worth US$3.26bn in 2012. Films made as China/UK co-productions will be able to access the second highest box office audience in the world, worth US$2.7 billion and forecast to grow to US$5.5 billion by 2017.
11 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran
Just to raise a hoo ha!
Dan's point is still current fact. Whilst there's a continuing trend toward the West and China's convergence in so many ways, it remains a fact that there are some huge chasms yet to be bridged in terms of media ethics, copyright and government censorship, even with regard to the most trite of issues. Everybody wants to make money and much Western enterprise will ignore the most onerous of unpleasantries to make a buck. Even in India, which also has a vast film industry, in fact actually bigger than USA and China combined in terms of product output; and even though India is in many respects much closer to Western media ethics than is China, the gulf between Indian media enterprise and the West's has hardly been lessened. (East is East and West is West and ne'er the two shall meet, according to Kipling in the days of empire. Turns our he was not wholly accurate, and yet not without some insight) What China's government can't yet accept is that their people, much more than the with Indians would pretty much ditch most of China's relatively parochial production style in favour of the Wests, if they had the chance; that's why the Chinese government puts a cap on imports. As yet China needs Western media enterprise much more than the West needs China's
Fundamental truths continue to evade commentators and skewed analysis of global economics continues to baffle brains. Whilst China is still on course to grow its economy to a scale commensurate with its population size it remains very far from that ideal. (it ought to have one fifth of global GDP if one includes Africa and the rest of the undeveloped world or a third of global GDP if ones reckoning excludes those places, as any thoughtful analysis ought) At about nine trillion dollars (once 'official' figures have been corrected) China's economy lags much further behind than having the second largest economy in terms of nation states might imply to the unthoughtful. USA and Europe have a thirty two trillion dollar GDP between the with less than 800,000,000 people, or 2/3rds that of China. Add the rest of the free Westernised economies such as Japan, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Brazil etc., etc. and the differential becomes very much greater (c.$45 trillion) and still with a smaller population! So even though most Chinese and too many unthoughtful Westerners like to believe the hype that China is overtaking the World and that the World should be focusing on how to relate to China, the fact is that despite China's exponential, though slowing, growth, the opposite is true.
11 years, 2 months ago - Daisy Li
Dear John,
Sorry for my slow response. To some extent, I agree with you, thinking to relate with China all the time is unthoughtful, like so many recent blockbusters using the Chinese elements to target the market, most of them are just becoming bad (worse) movies, the stories are losing the original savor.
But it is another discussion. I think the majority of British and Chinese film makers they care artistic( I hate to divide films in this way) films more than the blockbusters( American genre films), and we are facing the same situation that we need to survive from the competition with the blockbusters, and we should win a place to exist by ourselves, for the both side, this is a much healthier way of live than relying on the bureaucratic thing totally.
Maybe some examples could make the point easier, like Jean-Jacques' Lover (adapted from Duras' novel), like Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor.They could be good cooperation films for both of China and UK, even they are good films for the whole world as well.
Obviously not every film suitable for the cooperating thing, and it is true sometimes the more individualized, the more localized is the more international, but another truth is any booming market is full of opportunities, places like UK is full of creative people, sometimes cooperating is not a bad idea in this industry.
11 years, 1 month ago - Stuart Wright
Please add me to your list for a teleconference if you go down that route. I'm London based so if you fancy a meet to discuss instead holler.
11 years, 1 month ago - Daisy Li
So sorry for my slow response Stuart, I had a short trip last few days, some other journalism work. So happy to hear your positive response. I am working on the background info which is suppose to be posted here in a few days. also I am contacting institution in China which is equivalent to BFI to be involved into the project, hoping to give the conference more credibility which is important for the both side. So far I got pretty good response from the Beijing Film Academy.
And one of my cooperator she is back to China to the details yesterday. Please keep in touch.
Of course I would like to meet people, because I am collecting British filmakers' stories to start my blog. Any time suitable for you next week, please message me.
Daisy
11 years, 2 months ago - Daisy Li
About the shutting down film festival, I just had a chat with m friend who worked for the independent film for years, ridiculous, sad. The BBC report exaggerated a little bit, like the hundreds of arrests of bloggers, irrelevant, and impossible (in my opinion).
The thing is this exhibition has be struggle to exist for all these 12 years.Basically in China if you want to make film, you should apply a" shooting license" at the screen play stage, and before the releasing another "screening license" is necessary, here are the censors people mentioned a lot. But some of the films involved in this exhibition didn't go through the process, from the government's viewpoint, they are illegal to exist and public screen. People tried to make the whole thing nongovernmental, obviously they are facing the trouble.
Both the event itself and the people around the event, they are the small minority of Chinese film industry, feel pity for them (feel embarrassed for the whole thing as well).
Actually every industry discussion people argued for the the changing in the censor system and giving the freedom back to the artist, things are better these days, especially when the project itself is unpolitical(looks unpolitical), but obviously there is a long way to go.
11 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran
Pretty much says it all Paddy
11 years, 2 months ago - Dan Selakovich
hahaha! Come on Paddy! Let's do John's idea! How could the Chinese Government refuse a film funded by their entire population.
11 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran
Hey Paddy, maybe a crowd funding campaign in China would do the trick. An average of just six pence from everyone!
11 years, 1 month ago - Alève Mine
Yes Daisy I have, and I do. It must be costly to check the contents for approval. I was asked to perform dance in China on my own music for a museum, and they required that I only use instrumentals. It was even hard to get a visa as a singer because you perform live, which I also did there. No problems: no such intentions on my side, but of course I know that, while they can never be sure. That was fine with music and dance, but with film you can't just remove dialogues, and what if you did, there still is the image. Each frame. Endless work. It is also particularly costly to register works there. So that substantially delays and further limits my ability to make collaborative projects happen, although I am already in discussions with a relevant local production company. Delay jeopardizes projects.
11 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Actually, I have an idea for a great cross-cultural twist on a superhero movie, one that really does bridge both China and the West as opposed to a token secondary character or location. Problem is, I'd want mid-8 figures to do it properly, I just don't have that access. But it's an awesome idea for sure.
11 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
How could they refuse a film? Sadly circumstances like this (China film festival shut down http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-28911343) are symbolic of why people are wary of dealing with China at many artistic levels.