Special feature of 1905 film network "It was successfully held for 15 sessions, witnessing 87 projects entering production, 72 participating in major film festivals at home and abroad, 44 being shortlisted for Class A film festivals, and 63 films being shown in cinemas at home and abroad." At the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, the host chose to use such a set of figures as the opening remarks.
Behind the figures are the achievements made by the venture capital unit of Shanghai Film Festival in the past 16 years. By providing docking services such as incubation, financing and promotion for projects of different scales and stages, Shanghai Film Festival Venture Capital has become an incubator for young directors’ works and an important platform for the industry to discover new Chinese speakers.
It will be released on June 16th, and the young director’s feature film debut is one of the examples. In 2017 and 2019, the project was selected by Shanghai Film Festival Venture Capital twice, and in 2021, it was selected as the "One Concern" unit of Cannes Film Festival. Starting from venture capital, going to international film festivals, and then landing on the cinema screen, Street Kids has gone out of the "idealized" path.
On the same day, director Najiazuo also came to the scene where the honor was announced, telling the significance of venture capital to him. "In 2017, I met the producer because of venture capital. In 2019, the filming was completed, and I went to many film festivals. I always wanted to go home and see it. Time flies. I hope I can still work as hard as filming Street Kids when I am 40 years old!"
As the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, originally scheduled to be held in 2022, was postponed to 2023, the organizing committee received a total of 679 project declarations in two years, and the competition was particularly fierce. After selection, 33 projects stood out.
In the end, various honors were announced: the director’s new work "Bye-bye, Bye-bye" won the "Recommended Project in Production"; The film "Wild Crane in the Clouds" with the theme of ethnic minorities won the "Recommended Project by Young Directors"; The director’s "Yao Yao Zhuan" and Gao Ming’s "Two Time Zones" were awarded "Creative Recommended Project" and "Special Recommended Project" respectively.
#01. The genre theme is novel and diverse.
"I think the diversity of this venture capital project is very good, not limited to a certain type of theme." This is the biggest feeling of the annual recommender and producer of project venture capital.
Bye-bye, which won the honor of "recommended project in production", focuses on the "bye-bye" belief culture in the relatively small Minnan area, and thus shows the living conditions of local elderly women. Similar themes are very rare in the domestic market, which also makes the judges shine. The recommendation language reads: "The theme is novel, the film language is distinctive and the completion is high."
Producer Kick told 1905 Film Network that she and director Ye Qian are both from Fujian, and they are particularly familiar with the stories and female images in the film. Since the debut novel "Sweet Potato Dried with Rice", Ye Qian has been insisting on the creation of similar themes.
"Paying attention to the elderly women and taking root in the soil of southern Fujian, Ye Qian has always been very firm. He will not pick up other people’s adaptation projects, and he is very determined to do his own things, which is very valuable and rare."
It is this persistence that made the director successfully move to play the heroine. "After reading the story, she said that she had not seen the role that moved her so much for a long time, which reminded her of the director."
Starting from one’s own life experience, combining personal experience, social observation and thinking with audio-visual language and transforming it into a powerful movie story, which is exactly what many outstanding projects of this venture capital have in common.
The same is true of Wild Crane in the Clouds, which won the honor of "Young Director’s Recommended Project". Director Ahmad McMaiti chose to tell a familiar "Xinjiang Story" in a humorous way, which left a deep impression on the judges from Uighur lines to strong regional cultural characteristics and ethnic customs.
The recommender concluded: "Personal experience and feelings are the best fulcrum for the director’s early creation. Rooting the seeds of creation in life may grow something with strong imagination. "
Not only do you dare to focus on minority themes in topic selection, but this year’s venture capital finalists are also showing a trend of blooming in variety. Youth, suspense, sports, family, crime, comedy, love, fantasy and martial arts are all involved, taking into account art and business. The enthusiasm and vision presented by young creators are gratifying.
#02 Hot Women’s Issues with Realistic Themes Get Attention
In recent years, the market feedback of realistic works has been fierce, which has frequently triggered heated discussions in the society and staged a box office success of "small and broad". Coupled with its relatively low cost and shooting difficulty, realistic themes have become the focus of young creators.
For example, the director’s new work focuses on education and medical care, which are closely related to people’s livelihood, and interweaves them with dramatic techniques. He explained the theme of the film like this: "When fairness and justice are not good for you, will you still insist on fairness and justice?"
Faced with this controversial topic, Chen Zhixi bluntly said that the director could be bolder, take a "stinging" step forward on the basis of the original script, and more directly poke the "pain point" of the audience and society.
Different from the warm tone of Trading Destiny, From Now on, written and directed by young director Yang Guomin, hopes to maintain a cruel and true "hard spirit" and "force generate’s true feelings in a cruel way" when showing the special father-son relationship of the family with cerebral palsy.
While the three judges affirmed the quality and strength of the script, they also pointed out from the market point of view that the audience would like to see the story of how the protagonist in trouble faces life actively and meets challenges, which can increase the initiative of some characters.
"In the current environment, the audience hopes that the film can give it some hope and courage while empathizing, which also makes warm realism a preferred type in the current market," Chen Zhixi said.
Among many realistic works, the increase of women’s themes is also a significant trend. For example, Night Running tells about the situation and choices of three generations of women, Taste of Chinese focuses on the growth experience of post-90 s girls, and Playground this Friday puts the pressure of single and full-time mothers on the table.
When Chen Meiyu, the director and screenwriter of "Mom at the same table", took her 7-year-old daughter to the public presentation site, it quickly attracted the attention of the judges and guests. And her work is also adapted from personal experience. "I took the college entrance examination five months pregnant and reported to the university when I was nine months pregnant." Mother at the same table "tells the story of female college students taking their children to college."
In Chen Meiyu’s view, when it comes to "early pregnancy mother", many viewers will inevitably have curiosity, and the heroine she created is to break the stereotype of the audience: she can argue with the school for the right to go to school, boldly respond to her ex-husband’s struggle for custody, and dare to tear open the wound to tell her story to the public. "The first key word is fierce. She is not bitter at all, but she is optimistic and brave."
During Chen Meiyu’s presentation, producer Chen Zhixi was moved to tears. She bluntly said that the real and special story emotion is the biggest advantage of this project, which makes it both topical and market space.
"She has got a natural good topic, and the next step is to have a good text, find universality under a special story, and the mother-daughter emotion should be able to make the audience empathize."
Indeed, both "Mother at the Same Table" and the above-mentioned female-themed projects are paying attention to women’s living difficulties and inner world from different dimensions. Several judges also reminded the creators that the shaping of female images and the choice of female actors are very important and will become the key to whether the audience can substitute and empathize.
#03 Art or business to be decided
"Do you want to make a movie to express yourself, or do you want the audience to buy tickets to go to the cinema? These are two completely different goals." A sentence from the judges triggered on-the-spot thinking.
In his view, art or business, personal expression or market-oriented, this is the direction that needs to be determined in the early stage, and it is also a problem that many creators have not thought clearly.
Wu Ershan explained: "The new director’s project needs to have a clear goal, not both sides. For example, if it is the direction of film festivals, it needs to maintain the originality of creation and the creativity of film language, while maintaining low cost; However, if the target is the mass market, then you need to consider what types of elements your work has, whether the organization is mature, whether it meets the needs of the market, and whether the budget can match. "
The producer of Bye-bye, Bye-bye has a clear position in this respect. As a narrative film with a strong author style, they made it clear from the beginning that they would take the direction of film festival exhibition, and they also hoped to make targeted regional announcements in Fujian and Guangdong during the cinema stage.
"The key to a small-budget movie is to find its unique audience, recognize its own advantages, find audiences with the same roots and similar cultural soil, and it is good to’ punch through’ an area without eating into a big fat man."
The same is true of the romantic film Time Hotel, which was also selected as a "project in progress". The total budget of the project is only 3.5 million yuan, and the filming has been completed and entered the post-production stage.
Director Yixiang Zhai said, "I hope to make a movie with aesthetic feeling and adult love theme. At present, there are few similar movies depicting adult emotions in the domestic market. I had expectations for the market from the beginning, so I was more concerned about the budget than the producer. I finished shooting in 26 days and have been saving the budget. "
"We should not only see what everyone is doing, but also figure out what we can do." This is Xin Yukun’s message to young filmmakers.
He is also very envious that young creators can have a platform for exchange and learning, such as "venture capital". "In the process, you can know more like-minded friends, and you will also revise and sort out your own creative concept and film concept. This is the meaning of venture capital."
Wu Ershan hopes that the new directors can really exert their strength on the word "new". "We don’t need him to be perfect or mature, but we want to see new themes, new ideas and new film languages. This is the primary standard. With this longboard, other shortcomings can be slowly filled."
Starting from the "new", the next China story is on its way to the world.
