Author / Tank
"The biggest difference between Jackie Chan Film Plan A and other film venture capital projects is that it is closer to the market and closer to the audience."
In Wuhan at the beginning of December, the weather was slightly cool, and it was not yet winter, and the film together was invited to Wuhan, and in the Jackie Chan Film and Television Media College of Wuhan Design and Engineering College, many filmmakers witnessed the successful conclusion of the fifth phase of Jackie Chan Film A Plan.
As in previous years, this issue of Jackie Chan Movie A also invited many senior filmmakers, even if there are many epidemics that have repeatedly delayed the activity for more than half a month to disrupt the original announcement plan, but a number of senior directors and screenwriters in the industry, including Tian Yusheng and Yao Tingting, still came to the scene and participated in the film's venture capital review link.
Back on September 21, the fifth phase of Jackie Chan Movie A officially began recruitment, focusing on the theme of "the future has come, the unknown is known, and the unseen has been seen", and in just one month, more than 413 applications for projects have been received. In the end, a jury composed of Jia Zhijie, Shen Teng, Tian Yusheng, Yu Hewei and Yao Tingting selected 8 groups of young filmmakers' projects, and successfully entered the fifth phase of Jackie Chan Film A Plan, becoming a student of the "Youth Film Project Support Program".
Since the official project was established in 2015, Jackie Chan Film A has been in the past five years. At the moment of the epidemic, China's film industry has also entered a relatively difficult moment. At a time when film venture capital activities are emerging in an endless stream, what are the unique advantages of Relying on Jackie Chan's Big Brother A? Looking back at the first four issues, what new surprises will this year's Jackie Chan Movie Plan A bring to you? Under the aura of Jackie Chan's big brother action superstar, will Plan A itself be limited? To this end, the film together visited the scene of this year's Jackie Chan film Plan A with these questions, and also interviewed director Tian Yusheng and script expert Jia Zhijie to try to restore the true face of plan A.
After six years, Jackie Chan Movie A plan grows
1983's "Plan A" has a history of more than 38 years, which is also the first time that Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao and Yuan Biaoshi brothers have played a leading role in the same film, and Cheng Jiaban also won the Best Action Design at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards for this film. As an early masterpiece of Jackie Chan's big brother, this "Plan A" is deeply loved by mainland film fans, and its Douban rating of 8.1 is still the first place in the action movies starring Jackie Chan.
31 years after the birth of "Plan A", and when Jackie Chan's big brother was 60 years old, Jackie Chan's movie Plan A also came into being. In the eyes of the eldest brother, the most happy thing for him now is to do something meaningful and help some people in need, and only by letting more outstanding young filmmakers enter the industry and continuously injecting new blood into the industry can Chinese films go higher and farther.
The Beijing Jackie Chan Charity Foundation Filmmaker Charity Special Fund was officially established in 2015 as a special fund for film public welfare projects, which is composed of two parts: the "Young Filmmakers Project Support Program" and the "New Filmmakers Training Program". It aims to provide limited support funds for small and medium-cost film production, provide professional training and film incubation for the top talents in the film industry, and care for reality through the power of film.
The project was named Jackie Chan Movie Project A, which also came from the "best" movie of Jackie Chan's big brother, taking the best and best meaning of "A". At the same time, from a pictographic point of view, "A" is also like a towering mountain, a mountain that every filmmaker aspires to reach and see.
Since the official establishment of the project in 2015, the market is changing, the audience is changing, and Jackie Chan Film A plan has also successfully gone through six years. The fifth phase of Jackie Chan Movie A in 2021 has set up three major sections, namely the above-mentioned tutor class, venture capital meeting and shooting workshop. Invite film masters at home and abroad to open lecture halls, so that students have the opportunity to dialogue, learn and discuss professional film topics in depth; encourage young film directors, screenwriters and producer teams with certain production experience and genre film production potential to participate in venture capital; and equip first-line directors and screenwriters in the industry to guide the shooting of short films. It can be said that the five Jackie Chan Film A plans in the past six years have given practical help to young filmmakers from the theoretical and practical levels, and the Jackie Chan Film A plan has not only discovered and cultivated talents, but also armed talents with professional knowledge and created talents with effective resources.
Seeing that the "Huangpu Five Phases" are about to graduate, Jia Zhijie, a famous script doctor and screenwriter who has been deeply involved in the first session, told the shooting sir that there will be opportunities to accompany the development of Jackie Chan's film Plan A in the future.
The future has come,
Jackie Chan Film A Plan comprehensively assists the development of young filmmakers
Laying a good theoretical foundation is a compulsory course for all young filmmakers. This is also the role of The Program A mentor classes and special training camps.
Following the screenwriting, special effects, action, and genre films focused on in the first four special training camps, this time, the fifth phase of Jackie Chan Film Plan A named the theme "The future has come, the unknown is known, and the unseen has been seen". In the tutor class and forum section, we will focus on exploring the "impact and change brought by technological innovation to current and future film creators", focusing on the field of virtual production, working with overseas technical experts and domestic industry leaders to provide a high-concentration and in-depth practical learning and exchange opportunity for young film and television practitioners who are widely and have not yet been deeply involved in virtual production.
Before the Wuhan Venture Capital Conference, from November 16 to November 18, the fifth phase of Jackie Chan Film A has successfully held a "Mentor Classroom" activity, inviting Brian Pohl, Kang Qinghu, David Levy, Zhang Xiaobei, Gong Zhaohui, Liu Xiaowei, Liu Yang and other senior film mentors at home and abroad to share professional insights in the field of film virtual production.
If the tutor class is to use theoretical dry goods to recharge filmmakers, then the venture capital meeting and shooting workshop are from the practical level to really help filmmakers realize their filming dreams and promote the landing of film projects.
At the venture capital conference, we met with the projects of 8 groups of young filmmakers selected by the organizing committee and the jury composed of Jia Zhijie, Shen Teng, Tian Yusheng, Yu Hewei and Yao Tingting.
As an international first-line action superstar, will the film venture capital project named after Jackie Chan be limited to action genre films?
In fact, it is not, among the 8 shortlisted projects, only one is an action genre film, and the other projects are films with very different genres. Among them, there are romance films with science fiction backgrounds, black comedies with multi-line narratives, realistic themes, crime films, sports films, and even an animated film, which shows that its wide range of genres and flowers are blooming.
In addition, 8 groups of shortlisted projects, including "The Man Who Stole Fire", "Hunting Bureau", "Tiger in the Mountains", "Hero" 4 groups of projects were also shortlisted for the shooting workshop section, the above projects have both market practice and the public welfare of using film power to care for reality, and finally each group of projects won the 100,000 yuan short film shooting fund provided by Beijing Jackie Chan Charity Foundation. In order to encourage the diversity of young filmmakers' creations, the organizers have specially added "Geely Boxer" as a "special presentation by the organizers" project, which won a special award of 100,000 yuan for short film shooting provided by the Jackie Chan School of Design and Engineering, Wuhan Design and Engineering College. The 5 groups of projects received one-on-one shooting guidance from the industry's cutting-edge directors to complete a short film based on a long-form film work, so that the project could really come to life. Entering the shooting workshop, young filmmakers will gain more valuable practical experience.
It can be said that the mentor class + short film shooting workshop + venture capital meeting + follow-up project incubation is exactly the way that the whole industry chain thinking that Jackie Chan Film A has matured in the past few years has helped young filmmakers. If the mentor class and shooting workshop are the process of "creating images", then the venture capital meeting and follow-up project incubation are the only way to help young filmmakers go to the market, which will also increase the long tail effect of the project, so that the project can obtain continuous exposure and increase the probability of success of new creators.
The most commercial venture capital program,
Support newcomer directors to get on the road as quickly as possible
In recent years, more and more film festivals, film companies and foundations have begun to actively participate in the support of young filmmakers. This has also led to the upsurge of various domestic film venture capital projects in recent years, and almost every month there are 1-2 film venture capital projects that have emerged in major film festivals/film exhibitions.
However, when it comes to directors who can really come out of the venture capital project, there are only one or two every year. Many venture capital is short-lived, no follow-up, Jackie Chan Film A plan, then in one go to achieve the fifth session, which is not easy in the current domestic film environment. It can be said that Jackie Chan Film A plan is not just a venture capital meeting, but a complete set of support programs for young filmmakers.
In addition, "commercialization" is also a deep impression that Jackie Chan's film A plan has always left on the shooting sir.
"Compared with other domestic venture capital projects, Plan A is more commercial and more grounded than other venture capital projects", which is also the key expression of director Tian Yusheng to us. In an exclusive interview with the film together, director Tian Yusheng, a judge of the jury, believed that Plan A would not have too many projects that attached too much importance to the author's expression and had too high literary and artistic attributes, but was a more grounded commercial genre film, which was the most important thing here. And in the view of director Tian Yusheng, it is more difficult to make a mature commercial genre film than to make a literary film.
In addition to domestic first-line directors and screenwriters, filmmakers from domestic first-line film and television companies, including Xie Jiao, senior producer of Tencent Pictures, Jiang Wei, president of Wuyuan Vientiane Pictures, and Zhang Qun, general manager of Dadi Pictures, have also given guidance experience in the film market through online video reviews.
In addition, in Jia Zhijie's view, although there are many domestic venture capital activities at present, young directors have gained more opportunities to shoot works, but China's current film environment, there is still a lack of good directors, especially good genre film directors. There are too many mature commercial genre films in Hollywood and even South Korea, and chinese films have not yet been tried, and I hope that young filmmakers can try more, and Jackie Chan Film A plan also gives them such a platform.
While many young filmmakers have more or less common problems of newcomer directors, such as overemphasizing self-expression and ignoring commerciality, Jackie Chan Film A can also help young filmmakers transition from the experimental stage to the shooting of commercial films and learn the core experience of industry content creation. This is also the original intention of the entire Jackie Chan Film A plan, giving all newcomer directors who want to shoot commercial genre films a richer choice of themes.
In 2021, the year of the restart of Chinese films, the successful holding of Jackie Chan Film A plan has also built confidence for more young filmmakers, as the slogan of this issue of Plan A said, "We believe in the future, we believe in movies." ”