Docu-China: The Encouraging Power of Original Chinese Documentaries
"Docu-China", generated by SMG in 2006, is a long term program aiming at encouraging the production of China\'s own documentaries. It is the sole professional training and producing program run by the Chinese media groups.
The 2nd "Docu-China" Master Class was held on Monday in STV Mansion. 22 documentaries from different areas across China got on the entries list. The chosen creation teams will spend 2 days in the Master Class training, and then six will be voted as the winners, whose program\'s producing and broadcasting will get the financial and technical support of SMG\'s Docu Channel.
Slogan of the first Ducu-China is: "You may have no budget, you may have no technique and equipments, you may have no displaying platform, it all doesn\'t matter. All you need is a good idea, and we will make it come true". The slogan attracted 500 professionals or amateurs across the country, and 308 programs entered for the competition. 8 out of 20 programs which won the primary competition got the financial support, and 6 final productions were completed at last. Among the 6 final production, 2 won national awards. Many young documentary directors and photographers thus have a platform to practice their crafts.
Under this situation, on October 31st, 2007, the 2nd "Docu-China" was officially launched. The theme is "Chinese Face", and that program attracted 268 programs from 19 provinces in China and other areas overseas. Ying Qiming, the director of SMG Docu Channel told to "Zongyi Weekly": The original entry deadline is by the end of this March, but when the result of the primary evaluation was about to announce, the earthquake hit in Wenchuan, Sichuan. For this special reason, the committee decided add two extra specific programs to record the millions of brave "Chinese faces" when encountered with the disaster. So, besides 20 original primary evaluation winners, 2 special program recording the earthquake relief: "Miracle in Ruins" and "As dust comes down" came into being.
Set up a pattern
Ying believed the first "Docu-Chian" fulfilled the expectations of the committee: "First, at the first glance, 2 out of 6 final production of the 1st "Docu-China" won national awards, and it also provided the winners more opportunities for their future development. More important, this program will help young directors establish new production process, which is actually the popular process of foreign documentaries production." Ying said the major producer of documentaries is different TV channels, their production process is still "self-made, self-broadcast". But if we want to upgrade the quality and quantity, the full market-oriented environment and pattern are necessities.
It is true that "Docu-China" is not simply a documentary selection. The primary 20 winners will receive 2-day Master Class training course, and they will be under the guidance of master-level documentary producers- this year\'s Master Class includes: Cui Minghui (NYU), Chinese director Peng Xialian, Wang Xiaoshuai, Lu Chuan, SMG Docu Channel program manager Li Xiao, and Leonard Retel Helmrich (documentary director from Netherlands whose masterpiece is "Stand Van De Maan"). During their instructions, they, as the "Docu-China" juries, will select 6 out of 20 as the winning program which will get the financial support.
Cui Minghui has been in the jury for two successive Docu-China. Cui expressed her view on the current situation of Chinese documentary development to "Zongyi Weekly". According to her, a documentary director should pay special attention to the preparation of the program. As she said: "Documentary producing is a extremely delicate work, so the basic preparation must be done rightly."The shootings for documentary are quite careless in some mainland TV channels, when they find a topic, they just run to the spot and record it without thorough thought. But it is unfit in a market-oriented environment, for documentary cost money, as much as time and energy. "Lacking of preparation you will waste more time at scene."
In the Master Class training course of June 9th, Dutch documentary director Leonard Retel Helmrich shared his experience in dealing the technical problems. His theory and illustration of "one-lens film" stimulated great interests among the primary winners. While, Cui Minghui focused on the story, personality, structure and communication skills, in narrating her own experience.
Director Zhong Wei ("Unforgettable Moments") comes from Netherlands; he has been learning film producing for 3 years in China. "My biggest problem is lack of experience, so the Master Class is very effective for me. The communication ways Miss Cui told us are especially practical." Wang Jin is the producer of Zhong Wei, she thinks that platform like Docu-China is too few to provide chances for the young directors.
For those young directors and producers, Cui\'s advice is to sell themselves boldly."How to interest the sponsor in 5 minutes- searching for money is a skill." Recently, most documentary directors of our country, including these contestant, don\'t know where to "search for money". The producer is the director himself.
Liu Xi, a student of Communication University of China, is the photographer of "Disappearing Native Tone". He told "Zongyi Weekly" they have a fixed creation team including himself and Zhu Chengzhuo, the director. Before "Disappearing Native Tone", the team have experiences in shooting some films, like documentaries and dramas. "Except those films we shot for commercial reasons, we never really gained profits from our programs." This is the first time Liu and his team signed up for the Docu-China. "Before we signed up, we made a budget, the HD shooting would cost 80000-90,000 RMB. If we couldn\'t make into the final 6, we may cut our budget. "
In helping those teams like Liu\'s, besides Master Class, "Docu-China" set up a "Bidding for the program" part. After the special bidding training, the teams have to make a bid, promoting their own program. The process includes five-minute oral presentation, five-minute video display and ten-minute open questions.
Marketizing Training
Li Xiao, SMG Docu Channel program manager, is an experienced documentary director. He said: the winners won\'t get the whole investment at one time; Docu Channel divided the producing process into 3 periods: investigation, shooting and producing, and they will pay in installment. "The early bidding is the sale of the program; we will evaluate the creative idea and its budget. After the bid we will supervise the whole process, for example, to examine the material, to discuss and solve the problem in the early stage." Actually, among the 8 finalists, only 6 accomplished their production.
As the sponsor, Docu Channel owns the full copyright of the winning documentary. But according to Li, the main purpose of "Docu-China" is to provide professional training for the young Chinese directors and producers. "China is never short of masters, but short of professional documentary people." However, as a main purpose, Li said it is reasonable we should consider the need of Docu Channel. "What we need is productions, rather than creations."
Li Xiao believes that the gap between domestic and overseas documentaries are that the latter are mature products and their operation has order and standard while domestic ones are lacking a course of standardization. "Some individual producers lack self-discipline and related laws to regulate them. For example, during the financial supervision of project operation, we always set a deadline for them to send us their financial report but many producers fail. They are even not conscious of this."
Li Xiao also thinks that under the big environment of separation of production and telecast, the Discovery Channel needs more mature documentary products but many local individual producers only have the so-called works. The quality and subject of the works always can\'t reach the standard the Discovery set. "The Master Class" aims at nurturing more documentary professionals and inject new vitality to the market by professional training. Only after that can Chinese documentaries achieve production of standard on a large scale. As such, the Discovery Channel can naturally boast a large team of stability.
State Administration of Radio and Television
