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1905 movie network feature "Your audience is waiting for you in the future, and I am also waiting for you!"On the evening of August 25, on the lover’s night of the Qixi Festival, Deng Chao said to a group of young directors waiting to get an "olive branch" by the Yanqi Lake in Huairou, Beijing.
This was the awards ceremony of the Beijing Market Venture Capital Section of the 10th Beijing International Film Festival. 17 finalist film projects were competing for six awards. Directors and producers were eagerly anticipating the awards, which meant that they would receive bonuses sponsored by different film companies.Awards and bonuses are just the first step. Next, they will face a three-day online market negotiation, communicate with different investors, and strive for more cooperation opportunities.
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Set the time back to 9:30 in the morning, and a roadshow of venture capital final approval that lasted about 8 hours kicked off.A project, the main creator 10 minutesstateDirector and producer Chen Guofu, as the chairperson of this year’s venture capital jury, and actors Wing Mei and Deng Chao formed the final judges to comment one by one. The scene was like a large-scale reality show, and it was held on the day of Qixi Festival, which was more like a "blind date conference".
"There is no problem with coming to a blind date today." In the face of a good project, Deng Chao directly expressed his heart to the main creator.
In addition to the project parties and investors, the final roadshow site was also open to the public through live broadcast. 17 projects took the stage and began to search for their first audience.The winner of the special prize was the film "Wandering in the Blue Prairie," the only film with a female director in the final judging program. After winning the award, the director Qiao Sixue and the producer Hu Jing told us: "In fact, as soon as I stepped down, the employer had already contacted us."
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The popularity of venture capital continues unabated, and the number of registrations hits a new high
Department 829.This is the total number ** film projects collected by the venture capital unit ** the ******* Film Festival this year. Affected by the epidemic at the beginning ** the year, this year’s ******* International Film Festival was postponed from April when the ****** flowers bloomed to August when the summer was hot, but this did not affect the registration ** the venture capital unit at all.
The 829 film projects were 94 more than last year, an increase of nearly 13 per cent. These projects are divided into two units: "venture capital projects" that have not yet started and are in the development stage; and "projects in production (WIPs) " that have already started shooting and have not yet completed post productin.According to statistics, there are 777 venture capital projects this year, and 52 projects in production. Among venture capital projects, the number of drama categories is the largest, followed by comedy and suspense thriller crime categories.
In the drama category, the number of family themes is relatively large, mainly focusing on issues such as growth, family love and ethics. The number of applications for romance films has declined for three consecutive years, and there are also seven musical musical and dance film projects, two documentary projects, and more than a dozen epidemic-related films have also quickly joined the "audition".
The review judge, screenwriter May, believes that she saw the new director’s attention and involvement in real life during the review process, which is a very good creative phenomenon. The review judge and actress Liang Jing also observed: "More and more directors are beginning to care about the relationship between people and people, the relationship between people and emotions, and the relationship between people and society."
Since its establishment in 2012, the venture capital unit of the North Shadow Festival has undergone 9 years, and the types of registration projects have become more and more diverse, and the subject matter content has become more and more diverse.
This year is particularly not easy for the WIP project, many films in the production stage because of the impact of the epidemic, spent three years by the team to create the animated film "Tiger Dun Baby Redemption" encountered the problem of withdrawal during the epidemic.
Each film company provides a single sponsorship bonus for the venture capital unit ranging from 50,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, the amount is not large, but for these projects whose financing volume is generally in the 4 million to 10 million range, this bonus may be able to save the world, or be the icing on the cake.
The more important significance of the venture capital platform lies in the communication and mutual assistance between new films, new directors, and filmmakers, especially training and roadshow presentations. Review judge Yang Zi believes that directly reading the script will be more subjective. Through face-to-face communication, you can better understand the original intention of a project and express your appeal, and further enhance the industry’s awareness of the project.
"In the face of the current group of creators, what resources are they in urgent need, what are they thinking about, and what can we give them?" said Chen Guofu, the chairperson of the venture capital jury, which was the real concern of his participation in the review.
For the finalists, this is also a rare learning opportunity. "Wandering in the Blue Prairie" producer Hu Jing told us that during the process of participating in the venture capital, the screenwriting and actual shooting operation of the project will become clearer. "As a producer, we are also looking at other people’s projects, and we can also learn from their strengths and weaknesses."
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Project Highlights: Women, Minorities, Documentaries
11 venture capital projects and 6 WIP projects in production.From the preliminary review, review to training, these works that broke into the final review process cover a wide range of genres and themes, and also reflect some aspects of current Chinese film creation."Tiger Dun Baby Escort" is an animated film, "Figure Skating Girl" is a sports documentary, and "Life" is a documentary that tells the story of the doctor-patient relationship and the fight against the "epidemic". Animation and documentary are generally rare in venture capital.
"Figure Skating Girl" is the biggest winner in the WIP project, winning the Most Investment Value Project Award and the MPA Asia-Pacific Special Cooperation Award. A clip of the project played at the roadshow won a lot of applause from the audience.
This documentary, which was evaluated by the jury as "full of power", focuses on the growth and changes of Chinese genius figure skating girl An Xiangyi and her "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad". Director Zhou Jinghao said that the amount of footage completed so far is more than half, and it will take another year to a year and a half to shoot. With this recognition, I believe he can move forward with more confidence.
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The genre film projects in the final roadshow accounted for a relatively large proportion, with the largest number of comedies of realism or absurdism, with 5, including "The Unhurried Guest", "Another Plate!", "A Thief Died" and "The Stage"; "Let’s Go Child", "The Rattle Knock" is a road film, "Into the Mountain" is a police and bandit adventure film, and it is a soft science fiction romance film.
Compared with these projects with strong commercial attributes, the finalists also share some common characteristics: "Nanguo Fog Language" and "Downstream" are typical southern family movies that have emerged in recent years and can be benchmarked; "Winter Pasture" and "Wandering in the Blue Prairie" are all ethnic minority themes.
Among the 829 applications, the number of projects showcasing the lives of ethnic minorities has increased compared with previous years; while 24% of the project representatives are women, and gender identities are more diverse. The special award-winning "Wandering in the Blue Prairie" brings together these two characteristics.Director Qiao Sixue is a Daur girl born in the Hulunbuir prairie. "Fellow" Yongmei also directly expressed her preference for the film, "I wish I could be 20 years younger to play my daughter or 10 years older to play my mother."
The story of "Wandering in the Blue Prairie" focuses on a Mongolian matouqin player and his mother with Alzheimer’s disease, telling a mother-child relationship about blood ties, produced by Bad Rabbit Films, the production budget is about 6 million, and it is expected to start in April next year.Film producers have vigorously supported female-themed films in recent yearsYao ChenQiao Sixue recalled that Yao Chen told her that the first time she read the script, she was moved to tears by the story, and even offered to play a small role.
In the past two years, "Cadillac" and "Slow Half Shot", which have won venture capital awards at the Shanghai Film Festival, were all made by female directors. "Wandering in the Blue Prairie" also won the most grand prize in the venture capital unit of the North Film Festival this year. It can be seen that Chinese films are gradually gathering an emerging female power.
Chen Guofu’s comments hit the nail on the head, Deng Chao asked for a role on the spot
"Why didn’t you put my photo?"At the roadshow scene, many venture capital projects listed preset references or actors that had been set on the big screen, which could be seenHuang Bo,Wang Jingchun,Fan Wei,Tan Zhuo,Wang Chuanjun,QixiWait for someone."Teacher Yongmei and I have set the schedule for the next play." Seeing the good project, Deng Chao, an actor, also strives to cooperate.
The judges only had a short 5-minute comment time on the scene, but in fact they had already read the scripts or production clips of the shortlisted projects in detail."Can I go to the 24th scene after the title is released?", "Is that you in the 33 minutes and 51 seconds of the material?" Deng Chao put forward his opinions and questions to the director and producer in such detail.
Chen Guofu’s venture capital review experience is relatively rich, and his comments on different projects are often the right medicine, and his words are also quite sharp:
"If I were one of the producers, I’d rather spend millions more in another believable scene."
"Although there are so many jokes, if it doesn’t stand up at first, it will be difficult to empathize later."
"Let’s loosen the structure a little more so that we can’t figure out where the story is going."
"Once you’ve found the concept, don’t let the concept come back to dictate everyone’s emotions and expressions."
"The budget is low, and the turnaround is the most expensive cost in China."
"The titles of many projects are too fussy, neither the positioning of the product nor the relevance to the content."
"You can use the concept of logistics to promote, and the audience will feel more immersive."
Chen Guofu told us that his opinion will depend on the nature of the project, "Some projects may attract me more because of its originality, and some projects I will be curious about how it will reach a large audience, and the way of communication with everyone will be different. It is not necessary to ask all creators a question."
In his opinion, projects that focus on market types and literature and art have different demands on the venture capital platform. Literature and art films have author attributes, and it is relatively difficult to make suggestions. Here, it is more about finding more like-minded partners. "For projects that come to the market, it is more important to listen to the opinions of the practitioners and experienced industry insiders present, which can help the project move forward more accurately."
Why did the completed project enter the competition?
"Why are you still participating in venture capital?" There were two special WIP projects that made Chen Guofu question one after another.One is "Unexpected Visitors", Fan WeiheDou XiaoStarring, it has been completed at the beginning of the year; the other is "No Problem with Thought",DiplodocusChen Guofu said that these works that already meet industrial standards and are highly commercially competitive generally do not come to the venture capital platform.
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"There are unknowns in the films of young directors," Fu Jia, the producer of "Unhurried Visitors," said on the roadstage. "Although’Unhurried Visitors’ is nearing completion, we still look forward to finding distribution and publicity to help bring it to market."
Pushing a new director’s first film is the most difficult, Fu admits, "because no one has seen what you were like before, it is difficult to judge from a capital perspective, and you need to talk about it one by one. The process is very cumbersome." Even if the film is successfully shot, it will face the problem of later release.
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The appearance of "Immediate Visitors" and "No Problem with Thinking" in this venture capital unit also enriches the connotation and significance of venture capital. The support of venture capital platforms for new projects not only ends at the front and middle end of the film industry chain, but also at the back end.After the roadshow, Chen Guofu told us that in fact, he knew that these completed films would also benefit the later marketing promotion through venture capital.
"Bring a story, change a movie" is the slogan and concept of the venture capital unit of the Beijing Film Festival. Over the past 9 years, a total of 4,495 film projects have been solicited, more than 200 projects have been promoted to connect with the industry, and more than 30 young directors have been introduced to the domestic and overseas markets.
On the night of the awards ceremony, Chen Guofu told all the directors of the shortlisted projects: "The judges cannot decide the final fate of all these projects. The final fate is still in the hands of you creators. No matter how we compare and score, your will, your ideals, and your blood will not be buried."
See you at the cinema, this is where all venture capital projects eventually arrive.
