Golden Rooster Shines, Light and Shadow Walk Together
November 1, 2023 PM “Gulangyu Forum” at the Xiamen Gulangyu Organ Art Center was grandly organized!
As the opening forum of the Golden Rooster Film Forum of this year’s film festival, the Gulangyu Forum is themed “Cultural Inheritance, Light and Shadow Unity – The Road of 2023 Chinese Film”. Leading entrepreneurs, academic experts, and renowned directors in the film and television industry have opened a high-end dialogue here to jointly sort out the spiritual map of Chinese cinema, evaluate the achievements of hot topics in Chinese cinema, and present the style and charm of outstanding Chinese filmmakers.
Zhang Hong, member of the Party group and Secretary of the Secretariat of the China Federation of literary and art circles and Secretary of the sub Party group of the China Film Association, Zhang Yan, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and director of the publicity department, xushouyao, executive vice minister of the publicity Department of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and director of the provincial Film Bureau, wuzidong, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Xiamen Municipal Committee and director of the publicity department, Wang pingjiu, deputy editor in chief of the film channel program center, Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and professor of Tsinghua University, director, screenwriter, producer Guan Hu, director, screenwriter and producer wuershan, director and screenwriter liuxiaoshi, Zhang Lin, chairman and President of Wanda cultural tourism group, chairman of Wanda Film Co., Ltd., Li Jie, President of Ali film, Hua wangzhonglei, co-founder, vice chairman and CEO of yibrothers Media Co., Ltd., Gongyu, founder and CEO of iqiyi, Li Wei, chairman of 1905 film network, Lan Yu, host of film channel, and other guests attended the event.
Five thousand years of profound culture is the source of our filmmakers’ confidence. Between history and the present, we filmmakers are duty bound. With the help of advanced film audio-visual technology, we are releasing new charm of Chinese traditional culture on the screen and building a film aesthetics with Chinese characteristics. We will further effectively promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s excellent traditional culture, and vigorously promote the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.
Film is a literary form loved by the people and an important carrier to promote the development of cultural heritage. Over the years, Fujian filmmakers have always kept in mind the earnest instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, given full play to the unique cultural advantages of Fujian’s diverse and profound integration, excavated and utilized rich revolutionary cultural resources, based on the practice of Chinese modernization in Fujian, and worked with peers in the industry to create and launch a number of excellent films that highlight the Chinese spirit, Chinese value and Chinese power, making due contributions to promoting cultural inheritance.
Film has always played an indispensable role in passing down the outstanding traditional culture and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, and in the year 2023, a large number of masterpieces that vividly tell China’s story have appeared on the silver screen, which have not only gained the recognition of the audience in terms of word-of-mouth and box office, but also made great progress in terms of art, technology and industrialization. Participants discussed and exchanged views on the significance of “telling China’s story” and how to “tell China’s story well”.
Wuershan believes that the key element of telling a good Chinese story is to find a common emotional resonance with the audience. “The cultural environment shared by Chinese film creators comes from our heritage of history and inspiration based on practical experience, which is the core of our creation. China’s own history and culture and China’s real life are also the most resonant parts of the audience. For creators, we also hope that based on this resonance, we can pass on some values we jointly recognize.”
In Guan Hu’s opinion, Chinese stories come in all shapes and sizes, from relatively grand themes to the expression of individual life experiences articulated in many works. “What we have traveled in 30 years is what others have traveled in 400 years, so countless people and things that can be written about have happened in between, and I think this is a very remarkable pool of material. If we focus, our point of view, on certain individual lives that are very worthy of description, it is the best China story.”
The key element for filmmakers to tell Chinese stories well is that they can go deep into life and take root in the people. Liuxiaoshi frankly said that he was very interested in the topic of Contemporary Soldiers and troops. He believes that if a creator wants to make a good picture of today’s Chinese stories, he must first have a close connection with this era, and strive to keep his keen sense of smell and feel the changes of this era. “There is a point that has always reminded me that the boundary of language is often the boundary of cognition. Sometimes we design a line, a prop and a plot. It must have a source. This source comes from our serious life, that is, we really listen, see and feel.”
Yin Hong believes that our past, present and future constitute the main line of the Chinese story. In recent years, Chinese films not only have stories that show 5000 years of traditional Chinese culture, such as the “gods” directed by wuershan; There are also stories about Chinese people striving for independence and liberation in the past century, such as “I and my motherland” and “800” directed by Guan Hu; There are also Chinese modernization stories. For example, the king of the sky directed by Liu Xiaoshi is a very typical Chinese modernization story. The biggest change in recent years is that we have more stories about the future from the perspective of our Chinese people, such as wandering the earth 2. “If literature is a human study, in fact, movies are also human movies. So when a movie tells a Chinese story, it is more accurate to say that it is telling a Chinese story. It reflects and expresses the changes experienced by the times with the joys, sorrows, and joys of the Chinese people, the changes of the Chinese destiny, and all the changes and feelings of the Chinese people in the times.”
Films are not only artworks carefully polished by the creators, but also products with painstaking efforts in all aspects of the whole industry chain, such as cinema lines, production, distribution and projection. As representatives of the film field of production and distribution, the guests talked about the opportunities and challenges of China’s film industry in 2023 from multiple perspectives, and offered suggestions for the development of Chinese films in the new era.
Li Jie said that this year’s summer holiday exceeded the expectations of the whole industry. The film types are rich, meeting the audience’s different viewing needs, and the publicity focuses on resonating with the audience. “Domestic film audiences are becoming more and more mature, and their aesthetic and appreciative abilities are also increasing. For film creators, the ability to tell good stories is also becoming more and more demanding. Ali film’s selection criteria are more oriented towards the future, to see the audience’s preference for the whole subject type, and to calculate the next two years through film viewing data or to see some social emotions and resonant topics as our judgment. At the same time, we are more concerned about the quality of the script, because good stories are the foundation of everything.
Wangzhonglei believes that the persistence and innovation of film creation itself is the most important. Because the audience is the most real, like is like. “Nowadays, many films are first shown and then hot, which is very different from the past. This also makes me more and more convinced that the quality and innovation of the film itself are more important for film creation.”
Li Wei said that in the process of years of publicity and exploration, the film channel has gradually formed its own unique law of integrating media, making more customized content output, more long-term communication and more accurate coverage.
Zhang Lin said that now the number of screens in the country has reached nearly 80000, and the cinema line is no longer the traditional cinema line. Now the work of the cinema line is to attract the audience to the cinema as the “last step”. Wanda relies on its own apps, applets and other media platforms to form a publicity matrix. At the same time, it uses live broadcast, private community and other forms to gather audiences, effectively improving the screen operation efficiency.
Gong Yu shared several observations based on iqiyi’s user portraits: as a popular culture, the portraits of platform movie viewing users and Cinema Line movie users basically coincide. In the past six months, the audience’s online movie viewing data has been improving, the quality of domestic movies has risen steadily, the proportion of female movie viewers is increasing, and the audience’s aesthetic is becoming more and more mature and diverse.
The guests also talked about the topics of Chinese films going global, youth talent training, separate screening and so on. Wangzhonglei suggested that blockbusters should be screened on separate lines first. When blockbusters are divided into two or three lines, there will be a lot of small and medium-sized films – those films that originally had no chance to show have the chance to show. He said that his next blockbuster would be screened separately. “We hope that the producers, publicists, platforms and cinemas can re launch the reform of our film market.” Zhang Lin believes that the distribution should attract more people to the cinema, and different types of films can be distributed in different periods, forming a joint force. “For good films, we can have a window period to distribute them separately, and we can create some brands for distribution.” Li Jie believes that the number of cinemas and screens in China is already the highest in the world. In addition, the rich and diverse types of domestic films support the feasibility of distribution in terms of content supply. Gong Yu believes that the branch line can provide more content, which is conducive to long-term development. He believes that a healthy market has both Matthew effect and long tail effect. Iqiyiyun cinema should provide services for those films that are released as the first window on the Internet, especially for some films that are highly artistic, ideological and a little niche, which have more economic and practical significance.
At the end of the forum, all guests came to the stage to jointly issue“Kulangsu initiative”
Chinese filmmakers will shoulder the mission of building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation and forge ahead on the road of high-quality development. Take root in the people, embrace the times and tell Chinese stories well. Take on the mission, work hard and carry forward the Chinese spirit. Be firm, confident, upright and innovative, and inherit Chinese culture. Deepen consensus, strengthen cooperation and pool the strength of the film industry. Make concerted efforts to strengthen the foundation of the film industry. Cherish the film maker, be grateful to the audience, and provide film platform services. Keep pace with the times, explore and innovate, and make great strides in reform. Based on China and looking to the world, we will grow and expand in the process of opening up. The future of Chinese film is promising; Let us join hands and create together! Let us sail to the light!
Released by: Yin Hong, Guan Hu, Liu Xiaoshi, wuershan, Li Jie, wangzhonglei, Gong Yu, Zhang Lin, Li Wei.
The 2023 kulangsu Forum (Opening Forum) is co sponsored by the China Federation of literary and art circles, the Chinese filmmakers Association and the Xiamen Municipal People’s government, organized by the film channel program center and the Xiamen Film Bureau, and broadcast by the film channel and the film channel. The forum guests talked about the spiritual core, cultural characteristics and expression forms of Chinese films in the form of round table dialogue. The atmosphere at the event was lively and enthusiastic. As a permanent forum after the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival settled in Xiamen, Gulangyu forum is the most important overview review and prospect speculation of the film industry every year. It sets new themes in combination with the latest trends of film development every year, and is widely disseminated through the Golden Rooster Awards, a national platform. It is committed to creating the brand logo of “Golden Rooster + Xiamen” and forming a cultural card with global influence.
