In 2016, the total output value of documentaries exceeded 5.2 billion yuan. Development needs to combine art and humanities

Being rooted in China elements in content, pioneering and innovative in form, being in line with international standards in technology, and having both artistic and humanistic connotations are effective ways for China documentaries to become internationally competitive.

Original title: The total output value of my country's documentaries exceeded 5.2 billion yuan last year-documentaries can also become a "Internet celebrity"

documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" that became popular on the Internet has entered theaters and received high praise.

Recently, I was pulled by my friends to watch several films one after another, including "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City","We were Born in China","Shengmen" and "Hexi Corridor". All of them are documentaries without exception. Friends said that today's documentaries have become "Internet celebrities" sought after by young people. Whether it is the world around you or the distant home, it can use a new perspective to help you discover the truth. It was learned that the total output value of my country's documentaries last year exceeded 5.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%.

To be honest, today's documentaries are completely different from the stereotype once left to the public,"quietly I left, just as I came quietly." Because of this, it is necessary to explore the truth about the current documentary market in my country.

Walking into the

Wolong Bamboo Forest of the theater line, in the hot air of nearly 40 ° C, the giant panda mother Meimei and her daughter Yaya lived a warm and sweet life. However, as the daughter grew up day by day, the atmosphere of parting began to shroud them... This is a story told in "We were Born in China" directed by Lu Chuan. When Guo Ting sat in front of the big screen in the theater and encountered this story, her heart was touched. "It turns out that documentaries are not all boring, they can also have another color. Moreover, when watching documentaries in the movie theater, the tone becomes stronger." Guo Ting said.

That's right, many documentaries have entered theaters, and more and more people, like Guo Ting, feel the charm of documentaries through the big screen. According to the "Research Report on the Development of Documentary Films in China" released by the Documentary Film Center of Beijing Normal University, a total of 12 documentary films (including 1 introduced film) were released in my country in 2016, with a total box office of approximately 82.92 million yuan. Although this figure is not alarming, it still shows that the box office of traditional documentary films is growing significantly. According to Zhang Tongdao, head of the research report research group and director of the Documentary Film Center of Beijing Normal University, from 2014 to 2016, the box office of domestic traditional documentary films was 18.15 million yuan, 31.63 million yuan, and 77.95 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 74% and 146%.

In the eyes of many industry insiders, documentaries need the big screen more than drama films. "Documentary films use artistic language to express phenomenal content, so they pay special attention to color tones. The final effect they want to present can only be more fully displayed on the big screen." Li Yuan, editor-in-chief of China Economic Commission All Media, who has nearly 10 years of experience, told reporters that the investment in documentaries is often not small, and the cost cannot be recovered by relying on TV channels. This is one of the reasons why documentaries must enter theaters. "Since you enter the theater line, you must follow the rules of the market and use storytelling techniques to repackage the materials. Mature foreign documentary markets will reserve a fixed share of theater screenings to documentaries, mostly because they are relatively good at storytelling."

In addition to entering theaters, practitioners in the documentary industry, who had been secretive about "business" in the past two years, are now using the Internet to reshape the production and marketing methods of documentaries. For example, the producer of the documentary "The Power of Nature" opened a live broadcast room on the barrage website, where the creators interacted with the audience in real time, sharing stories on and off the scenes, and attracting hundreds of thousands of fans to participate; for example, Li Yuan and her Zhongjing All Media Group fragmented the documentaries produced by the company after being broadcast on TV, turning them into micro-documentaries lasting for 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes, or forwarded them in the circle of friends or uploaded them to video websites to make them an online social resource.

Opening Li Yuan's circle of friends, I saw a lot of content in this regard. She said that many people gradually get to know each other through her circle of friends and then fall in love with documentaries. "Industrialized documentaries have broad development space in our country. To this end, we hope that the state will provide more support policies and the entry threshold for entering the film and television market will be appropriately lowered. We strive to make a big IP in the documentary field as soon as possible." Li Yuan said.

Going International

In recent years, stories about China and China have attracted much attention from the international community, and some domestic documentaries have become popular overseas. During the release of "We were Born in China" in the United States mentioned earlier, the American film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" gave a test review of 83% freshness, far exceeding other films released during the same period; the British BBC broadcast "Chinese Spring Festival-The World's Largest Event", describing the customs of the Spring Festival, local food and festive atmosphere, and showing cultural China to overseas audiences, was popular.

At the same time, more and more overseas documentaries are also aiming at China. For example,"Confucius" broadcast on the French cultural channel ARTE,"The Shocking Secret of the Mausoleum of the Qin Emperor" broadcast on the National Geographic Channel,"The War That Changed the World" broadcast on the Foxtel History Channel of Australia,"Super China" filmed by South Korea's KBS TV, etc.

This actually shows that the documentary materials available for excavation in my country are rich and diverse. In Li Yuan's view, my country's five thousand years of excellent culture is widely distributed, and the tremendous changes that have taken place in the past 30 years of reform and opening up have shocked the world. These have become a treasure house for documentaries around the world. "When I participated in the domestic documentary forum, I found that a large number of them were foreign guests. During this year's Beijing International Film Festival, I met an Italian insider. He heard that I was making documentaries related to colorful ethnic groups. He was very interested. After discussion and exchange with me, he proposed that we could provide materials. Develop cooperation. Because he feels that the expression of most documentaries in China cannot adapt to the international market."

Indeed, the world does not lack stories about China, and there is a lack of good stories that can tell China. As China elements are receiving increasing international attention, how to reasonably express China stories has become the key to the development of the documentary field. In this regard, Liu Dian, artistic director of China Economics All Media, has his own opinion.

Liu Dian graduated from the Department of Photography of the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in documentary photography. It is said that this major only recruited the only group of students in 1986, so Liu Dian is a rare graduate in my country's documentary industry. Although he learned technology while at school, the experience accumulated in this industry over the years told him that documentaries are used to ask questions and discover, not to draw conclusions. At present, many documentaries in my country still preach high above. It is difficult to establish themselves in the domestic market, let alone go international. "There are also some people who are purely self-appreciating, chewing on the little joys and sorrows around them alone, and also horribly treating the little joys and sorrows as a big world. They have not thought about how to tell the story well, and how can it be accepted by the public?"

Liu Dian believes that rooted in China elements in content, pioneering and innovative in form, integrating technology with international standards, and combining artistic and humanistic connotations are effective ways for China documentaries to become internationally competitive. "This is a process of 'going out'. The so-called' going out 'means going into the international market, not entering the international market. If it is 'invitation', it may blindly cater to the methods that foreign countries like, such as how they are backward, how they behave, and how they come from, but this is definitely not the real and all of China. To move internationally, we must bring confidence in China civilization."

Getting out of embarrassment

While some people are delighted by the series of details that China documentaries are becoming popular, others are cautious and hope that the industry will not prematurely conclude that "China documentaries are ushering in a hot summer." Qi Shaopeng, director of Nanjing Huasuo Culture and Media Co., Ltd., is a member of the cautious group. In his view, the shortage of talents is a dilemma that urgently needs breakthroughs.

"Documentary talent training cycle is long and comprehensive quality requirements are high. The industry is facing both talent training and brain drain difficulties. At present, more and more young people regard watching documentaries as a fashion. This actually requires more young people to join the documentary production and operation team to meet the viewing needs of the new generation of audiences. But unfortunately, we have not yet achieved the goal of supporting the development of the documentary industry with a steady stream of growing fresh talents." Qi Shaopeng told reporters.

Perhaps, some people will say that the popularity of smart devices and editing software is making more and more young people become documentaries? Qi Shaopeng feels that this sentence is half true, because documentaries are records of reality. It not only requires documentaries to have professional skills, but also have certain personal cultivation and ideological realm. They must observe life and think diligently. This is actually a high threshold, not a standard that everyone who can shoot with smart devices and edit with editing software can meet.

"More importantly, the production of documentaries is an austere task that many young people cannot endure." Qi Shaopeng said. He showed the reporter a documentary describing the white-lipped deer. The reporter wanted to know how hard it could be and was also curious how it was filmed. "None of the four seasons in nature and the cute animal actors can be manipulated at will during filming. We can only follow their rhythm. A five-second shot of a white-lipped deer appearing on the scene could have been edited from a week of filming footage." The answer he gave was surprising.

According to Qi Shaopeng, while we are worried about talents, many foreign documentary directors have already had a more refined division of labor, and filming humanities does not touch nature content. Similarly, photography of nature will never cross cultural content. In fact, this reveals another dilemma in the development of documentaries in my country-the lack of awareness of the entire industry chain.

For a long time, my country's documentary industry has not had much sense of profit, and the division of labor in investment and marketing has not been detailed. Nowadays, the emergence of several "Internet celebrity" works has led some local documentary brands to emerge. In addition to excellent content production, how to open up many links such as early publicity, personalized services, post-release, external export and even subsequent derivative development has also become a bottleneck that they must break on their way forward.

From the perspective of cautious people, the existence of the above-mentioned series of embarrassment shows that my country's documentary market has not yet reached the peak of summer. "From the perspective of the market, my country's documentaries that have not yet found a clear business model are still weak children, and it is not suitable to be pushed directly to the market to fight. Therefore, I also hope that relevant national departments, non-governmental organizations, and media can work together to support him to grow up." Liu Dian, who gave this suggestion, felt that my country's documentaries needed to grow up slowly, like Qi Shaopeng.

Editor: jessica