MCLC: challenges of making original content

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: challenges of making original content
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Source: Asian Creative Transformations (n.d.):
http://www.creativetransformations.asia/2014/06/the-challenges-of-making-or
iginal-content-in-china/

The challenges of making original content in China
By Michael Keene

The pitfalls of co-production animated discussion at the recent Shanghai
International Film Festival (SIFF). Several speakers raised issues about
stories, or in the case of China a perceived lack of story-telling
ability. Of course this is a moot point. One can argue that domestic
stories are doing well; for instance Lost in Thailand and this year’s The
Monkey King and Dad Where Are We Going?

In the various industry forums much of the focus was directed at
Hollywood. There was a good reason for this focus. The Motion Pictures
Association (of America), the MPA, had organized several of the forums.
While other nations were promoting their collaborative assets and
incentives, Hollywood owned the red carpet. Many places trade on the aura;
for instance Bollywood (India), Nollywood (Nigeria) and Chinawood
(Hengdian), but there is only one Hollywood.

Many players in Hollywood see China’s expanding film market as a way to
climb out of a period of relative stagnancy. The international market now
accounts for greater return than that of North America (the US and
Canada). Although great films are still made every day in LA the industry
has faced lean times in recent years with writers’ strikes, the loss of
many production projects offshore (and to other parts of the US), and the
troubles of its locally VFX industry, namely the bankruptcy of two leading
VFX firms in the past couple of years, Digital Domain and Rhythm n’ Hues.

Because of Hollywood’s problems China is considered to be the great market
that will carry the film industry forward by its sheer weight of numbers,
particularly the number of young film watchers, the widespread audience
acceptance of 3D, and the rapid increase in screens. In 2013, the box
office in China was US$3.4 billion: The PRC is now the second largest film
market in the world.

Before I come to the challenge of making content that is original, it is
worth clarifying what exactly is a co-production. In short, co-productions
are designed to share financial risk.  A coproduction can be simply an
equity stake; it can be investment in production in return for
distribution rights; or it can be creative collaboration. It may be a
combination of all three. In recent times people are talking a lot about
creative collaboration in China, not just with the Hollywood majors but
also smaller studios.

Most co-productions are based on necessity rather than choice; in the case
of Hollywood there is a necessity to engage with China for its market and
also the fact that having a project classified as a co-production avoids
the film quota imposed by the government and allows greater share of box
office revenue: up to 43 per cent. In addition to revenue sharing films
(RSI), now expanded to 34, the government also permits 60 flat fee
imported films (FFI), which are not subject to the same rigid accounting
of the box office take.

Unlike many other countries the US does not have a co-production treaty
with China. Yet the co-production arrangement is attractive in that it
avoids the two quota categories; that is co-produced films are not counted
as imports.

In co-production agreements there are procedural requirements: they need
to be jointly funded, have Chinese elements, and there needs to be one
third Chinese cast.  There is often a degree of mystification about films
that claim to be co-productions. For instance, does the current wave of
coproduction entail making Chinese stories or just adding Chinese
elements, as we have seen in Iron Man, X-Men andWolverine franchises?
Moreover, is the addition of Chinese elements original or just a marketing
strategy? Certainly many movie goers are sceptical of cameos provided for
Chinese actors as well as local versions of international blockbusters.

Internationally many people want to see critical stories about China. For
this reason independent directors, sometimes called the Sixth Generation,
are positively evaluated; they operate under tight budget constraints and
their work is often banned. Independent directors will make films
examining troubling elements of Chinese society and politics. Of course,
this is what independent cinema is best at and there is a market, however
niche: the films of Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, Ning
Ying and Li Yu for instance. Some have foreign investment but they are not
counted as official co-productions.

Moreover, there is a point of difference in relation to creating content.
This hinges on the target audience. It’s very rare for any coproduction to
hit the sweet spot in all markets. Stereotypes of China exist among
Western audiences. A story that connects with a Chinese domestic audience
will often be different from those stories about China that appeal to
international tastes.

US-China co-productions, however they are defined, have existed for some
time: Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun was a co-production with China; mostly
shot in Shanghai. There are a number of Chinese stories that have had
moderate success. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was produced by Columbia
Asia, a subsidiary of Sony Tristar, as was Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home.
In both cases the directors were Chinese. Big Shots Funeral directed by
Feng Xiaogang was produced in the way with Huayi Bros. Other films with
coproduction elements include Mummy 3 and The Karate Kid: in these cases
there was sharing of distribution rights.

Chinese investors have cash; some don’t come from a film background and
are willing to put it into a Hollywood branded movie. Wanda is currently
investing in The Southpaw which does not have an identifiable Chinese
element. Having cash available means that a lot of the risk sharing that
goes with film making is dispensed with; for instance pre-selling
territories that establish the grounds for a lender to release funds or
making distribution deals with major studios to offset investment. The
institutional processes in China that underpin film financing, film making
and film distribution have developed according to their own market logic
and there is a view expressed within Hollywood that the Chinese industry
needs to get its system in order, in other words to be more like
Hollywood. Of course, many in the industry in China concur but this may
take time and the industry will never be like Hollywood because the
Chinese government will remain a key stake holder. Most of the profit in
China, 90 percent in fact, comes from the box office rather than through
ancillary markets, the extended value chain of merchandising and tie-ins.

In terms of story, much is made of this. The Chinese often say that they
have a wealth of stories that can be told. But the question is: are these
stories meaningful for international audiences? Chinese audiences are open
to history and the retelling of history; this is evident in the
classifications of genres from ancient to revolutionary history, to great
revolutionary themes. In a sense the domestic audience have become
habituated to history in TV serials, at least many of the older
generation. Culture is never far away from the surface; moreover the
Chinese language is full of historical references; at the same time there
is a fondness for melodrama, which doesn’t translate into blockbusters
very well.

In the television industry there is way of avoiding these issues and that
is formatting. A Chinese version is made of an international program.
However formats rarely apply to dramas and feature films.

Most Hollywood stories are character driven: the most successful genres
are not culturally specific, the exception being when the story involves
foreign locations such as The Bourne Identity and 007franchises. All
audiences in the world can understand the formulaic action movie for
instance; indeed Hollywood players put a great deal of emphasis on script.

What is often lost in the emphasis on Hollywood is the impact of East
Asia: creatives and stories coming from East Asia may unlock the door to
the market more easily than Western stories. Still there are challenges
and at the top of the list is censorship. East Asian directors are well
aware of what can be said and will find clever ways to express ideas,
often with the help of Chinese Mainland writers.

The problem of script applies less to an assisted production, where the
film is made in China but intended for release elsewhere. But if a film is
intended to be shown in the Chinese market the script has to be passed by
SAPPRFT. This applies to all films but in the case of co-productions it
can mean the project going off the rails. If the partner is a leading
Chinese entity the script will be first examined by the China Film
Coproduction Corporation (CFCC).

There is also another question: what are the challenges for Chinese
producers in making original content within the co-production model? This
is equally as problematic.

The processes inherent in creative development run up against the history
of film making. Much of the best cinematic work has evolved and changed
during pre-production, even into the production and post-production
stages. While everything is changeable the most valuable assets are the
idea (story) and the final cut. While having the script completed
beforehand is a necessity in order to get a permit in China, it does not
allow for creative elements to be modified during production. If the final
product deviates from the original script the work will not be released.

Internationally the journey from idea to final cut is essentially about
the creative process. The most famous animation studio in the world,
Pixar, is a case in point. Every one of Pixar’s projects struck trouble
during development, resulting in extensive rewriting and brainstorming and
new plot lines. The result of this creative confusion is excellence.

While Western scripts that address Chinese life often misunderstand and
misrepresent Chinese culture, it can work the other way around: a
well-known TV serial directed by Feng Xiaogang in 1993 calledBeijingers in
New York was shot overseas. It included multiple stereotypes of Western
society: individualism, capitalism, lack of responsibility for family,
even prostitution, and venality.

The current spate of films about overseas locations also raises the
problem of how to deal with cultural difference: films like Finding Mr
Right, If You are the One II, and Lost in Thailand have tackled this well.
It remains to be seen how the trend towards overseas production and
overseas themes (e.g. My Big Wedding in Australia, Fall in Love with
Italy, Love in Milan etc.) deals with such issues. Will the audience tire
of formulaic plots? Is this the right path for Chinese movies or just a
trend?

On the other hand the trail of overseas directors, producers and
financiers to China signals something more disquieting, a greater
willingness to self-censor resulting in content that is ultimately
compromised. China’s film industry workers live with this reality. At the
SIFF the line was diplomatic: we can learn much from Hollywood: how to
make better stories well as enhance the industry value chain. The
foreigners, no longer ‘wolves’, were equally carefully to play the
diplomatic card, playing a careful hand of self-censorship.

Welcome to the China film market.