Film competition fosters talent

Initative targeted at students aims to address shortage of high-quality professionals in the movie industry across the country. Huang Ying reports.

For the first time, Zheng Xiaoyun is a bit closer to achieving her dream of becoming a film director, thanks to a student video competition.

The intense five-month BRAiN iT ON! competition, which was launched by the Jebsen Industrial in March, offered contestants a chance to shoot their own films with the most advanced digital camera in the market - the Arri Alexa camera.

The initiative is one of the ways to tackle a shortage of movie-making talent in China, industry observers said.

All the contestants received training to learn how to use the equipment and technology support from Jebsen Industrial, a major filmmaking and shooting equipment supplier in China.

"The most important lesson I learned from this contest is that technology matters in the filmmaking process, but it still is not as important as the ideas behind a film," said Zheng, a junior student at the Communication University of China, and a member of one of the five teams that made it into the finals.

The theme for the short video competition was related to Jebsen Industrial. Contestants had to combine their artistic visions with commercial demands.

"This was quite different from the usual work we do on campus, in which we only care about the art and give no consideration to commercial elements," said Pan Jiahui, the director of the team from Shanghai Theatre Academy.

This was the first time that Jebsen Industrial held a similar competition, in a bid to promote the long-term development of China's film industry. The members of the jury panel included Lorenz Zimmermann, Jebsen Industrial's director, and people who have worked behind the scenes for movies such as Cape No 7, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero.

"This experience makes us have a better knowledge of the whole process of film production, including post-production, editing and special effects. In addition, we have realized how important team work and time management are," said Leung Zi Hong, a student from the Hong Kong Design Institute.

"For undergraduates like us, the opportunity to take part in the entire film production process is extremely precious. Even though we had to sacrifice our summer holidays, we felt it was completely worthwhile," said Lu Yi, a student at the China Academy of Art and the winner of the competition.

Jebsen Industrial, a sales agent for film and TV shooting equipment, takes up about 40 percent of the Chinese market. "More than half of the movies that are shown in theaters in China are shot with Arri Alexa cameras, and 90 percent of them are sold by us," said Yang Juanyi, general manager of Jebsen Industrial's engineering and science and technology unit.

For the company, the sales of equipment in the Greater China region doubled from 100 million yuan ($16.28 million) in 2010 to 200 million yuan in 2012, according to Yang.

"Most of our clients are equipment-leasing companies, but I think that an increasing number of colleges and universities are buying high-end filmmaking equipment," said Yang.

"Although innovation in science and technology is the engine for a Chinese films' boom, the key point lies in a high-quality practice program that helps students to achieve breakthroughs," said Gao Hongming, a professor at Shanghai Normal University, who was also on the jury panel.

"What we are lacking is a complete system or platform that gets people together and offers them the opportunity to use their talent fully," said director Clement Cheng, whose film Gallants has won the best movie award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011.