Industry Flush with Capital Needs to Put Stronger Focus on Quality, Experts Say
Wang Hailin is presenting his attitude towards the topic of the forum.
The protection of content integrity in an era of capital sweeping was the focus of discussion at one of the last Magnolia TV Forum panels on June 9 at the 2016 Shanghai International Film and TV Festival.
The significant amount of capital flooding into the Chinese film and TV industry in recent years has been good news for production companies and filmmakers as it pushes up production costs and means bigger paychecks.
But the capital is also changing the industry landscape, with a profit-only goal causing a series of problems, such as plagiarism and poorly-made productions.
Chinese scriptwriter Song Fangjin told the forum increasing levels of plagiarism and false data in TV and film products is not just a problem within the industry.
It also exists in other industries and, in order to find a solution, people working in the TV and film industry need to speak up and self-rescue.
"The \'counterfeiters\' use false data and plagiarize ideas to fabricate a market and construct fake audience interest that doesn’t exist," said Wang Hailin, scriptwriter, vice-president and secretary-general of China Film Literature Association, and chairman of Beijing Xiduorui Media.
Wang said new media should be producing new content using the revolution in new technology. But, in reality, many companies are producing very poor quality TV series. The stories and characters of a TV series must be very solid as they are the touchstones, he added.
Wang Qian, actress, scriptwriter and producer, and also general manager of Beijing Yidongpai Entertainment, said that for actors and actresses, the polarization is very serious in the capital-sweeping era. The earnings of some falsely-hyped actors have skyrocketed while many others are actually seeing decreases in their pay.
Han Gang, president of Jetsen Group, said the ultimate value of motion picture and video technology is to be able to use it to deliver good productions. Money has no fault, he said, but greed does.
"As an investor who puts money into the culture industry, one must maintain dignity and responsibility, producing works that you would want your children and grandchildren to watch," Han said.