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MillimeterNot Rocking The Boat
May 1, 2008 10:00 AM, By S. D. Katz
China’s new wave opts out of controversy.
I'm sitting in Vicks, a Beijing club in a KTV (karaoke) room having just finished singing an appalling rendition of Sinatra's “My Way.” No one is listening — first because it's appalling, and second because it's a room packed with a fairly good sampling of the next wave of young Chinese film directors, writers, and producers each talking about their next project. The filmmakers, most of whom are under 40, talk about how to break in, not how to break out. The notion that film can be risky, daring, or even dangerous is not on tonight's agenda. Most of the filmmakers I speak with are just happy to be working; a movement is the furthest thing from their minds.
As I happily pass the microphone to the actress next to me, I have a chance to ask Ming Beaver Kwei about the current movie scene in China. Kwei is a Beijing producer, and his next picture will star Ziyi Zhang. Kwei was the director of development for Warner China Film from 2005 to 2008. He is a graduate of the film program at the University of California Irvine, and he developed or was an associate producer on such films as The Painted Veil, Crazy Racer, Connected, and Slam. He has worked with Jet Li on Danny the Dog, Hero, and The One. He's seems to know all the filmmakers in town, and I ask him if he'll explain to me what it's like to get a movie made in a country where the government determines what the audience should or should not see. Here are his answers written to me a couple of weeks later:
millimeter: What are the challenges of being movie producer in China?
Kwei: Obviously, the first one would be the lack of a rating system for motion pictures. The types of films we can produce here in China are quite limited due to the censorship system. In terms of distribution, the marketing process has improved greatly in the past few years. So that is not a major issue. Most of the difficulties we deal with daily are creative and production related.
What kind of pictures can get made?
In terms of Chinese-language films made by mainland Chinese directors, big-budget-event tent poles do well regardless of genre. mainland Chinese directors have yet to successfully produce mid-range-budgeted films. Lower-budgeted romantic comedies and comedies recently have had some moderate success. For Hong Kong directors, action films, martial art films, fantasy films, and police dramas/action have been doing fairly well in mainland China. Hong Kong comedy, with the exception of Stephen Chow, does not translate well in the mainland China market. Mainland Chinese directors also make the so-called art films. These films are not intended for the mainland Chinese audience. They are designed for the worldwide film-festival circuit.
Who is the audience for movies nowadays?
The demographic of the mainland Chinese audience is divided into two groups. The first is the audience who go to movies regularly; this means once a week to once a month: first-tier and second-tier city dwellers, white-collar workers, dating couples, between 18 to early 30s with purchasing power. The second group is the audience who only go to big event movies, typically once a year or during major holidays. Mostly these are city dwellers. They are the 30- to 40-somethings who usually are too busy with work and life to make movies a regular option.
What are the elements that come together to make a package?
What makes a deal in China? It is just like Hollywood plus two other unique items: (A) Strong sponsor; for example, a mobile telecommunication giant might sponsor a script. (B) Government mandate. The government says since it is the Olympics, there should be more sports-related films. There might be a small financial and/or censorship incentive from the government.
What are the typical budget ranges for Chinese movies?
Mainland pictures and Hong Kong pictures have to be discussed separately. So, mainland China budgets first: Low budget tend to be comedies in the USD $500,000-to-$1 million range, not including P&A [promotion and advertising]. As for medium-budget pictures for the mainland, there aren't any. High-budget films can be martial-art movies, art films, and historical dramas. These have bigger budgets in the USD $7 million-to-$10 million range, not including P&A. Hong Kong movies made for the mainland audience are either medium-budget or super-big-budget movies. These big pictures are USD $7million and up and might be a co-production. There are no low-budget pictures made in Hong Kong for the mainland audience.
Who are the major distributors in China?
The main one is China Film Group and is owned by the central government. It has its own chains of theaters. It is a very powerful entity functioning using business structures from the command economy model.
There is also the Shanghai Film Group, which is owned by regional government. It also has its own chain of theaters in the Shanghai area. There are also two newer civilian owned and operated media companies that are consequential: HuaYi Brothers and Poly Bona. HuaYi Brothers is the most powerful of the non-government distributors, and Poly Bona tends to distribute Hong Kong films. There are a few other smaller distributors. All of them have to work with the four groups mentioned above.
How do producers work around the piracy problem?
To replace the DVD piracy income, China is I think the only country in the world where product placement and the sponsorship businesses are an integral part of the overall budgeting and [profit and loss] process. The contemporary Chinese filmgoing audience is not receptive to advertising elements in the storytelling and promotional process.
What changes need to take place to make China's film industry vital and bring large audiences into the theaters (when you have theaters)?
To help China achieve a vibrant local industry, a lot will need to happen. Currently, the following elements are sorely lacking:
Writers who can write screenplays with three-act structures.
Producers who can provide strong creative support and project support for the filmmakers and the film studios.
Creative executives. We have no executives in charge of production here.
Postproduction services (all aspects — music score, post finish, sound design, etc.)
Trailer and one-sheet production. Right now, the film's director is expected to cut the trailer(s).
Censorship, DVD piracy, ticket prices and numbers of theaters are not a problem at the moment.
Why? Because the local filmmakers have yet to consistently generate enough products for DVD piracy to be profitable or to fill up all the theaters available in China. Piracy and lack of theaters impact American films and other imports, not movies made in China.
