On April 7, the 2023 Qingdao Film and Television Week kicked off in Qingdao West Coast New Area.
This year's film and television week set up the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as 19 activities in five units: "Science Film Future", "World Film Capital", "Golden Key Venture Capital Program", "Sea Level" Young Filmmaker Program, and "Golden Seagull". Among them, the "Sea Level" Young Filmmakers Program Unit "New Concept of Screenwriting" series of activities was jointly initiated by China Film Screenwriter Research Institute, Screenwriter Education Committee of China Film Association, China Xia Yan Film Society, Qingdao Haifa Culture Group and 11 top domestic film and television art universities.
Since the launch of the collection last year, a total of 674 short film scripts and 159 short script scripts have been received, and after repeated weighing and careful resolution by the judges, a total of 10 short film scripts and 10 short script scripts have passed the preliminary review, and 8 short film scripts and 8 short script scripts have participated in the Qingdao Film and Television Week - Sea Level Young Filmmakers Venture Capital Unit Roadshow on April 8.
The 16 scripted works have diverse themes, wide coverage, diverse styles and high degree of completion. Here, DeepFocus will conduct a comprehensive inventory and combing, showing the perspective of young filmmakers looking at the world for all film and television industry practitioners and fans.
Screenwriter new concept live picture
Short film – The full awakening of women
Among the 8 short film scripts participating in the roadshow, 4 works present women's individual growth or the awakening of female consciousness, among which, Zhang Yarou's "Falling Beauty" designed a special pair of double heroine roles such as housewives and domestic maids, and launched a discussion of what kind of dilemma women are in in contemporary family structure. In addition, she introduced another social issue worthy of attention - the current situation of foreign workers in Taiwan. Between the chase of housewife Lifen and Filipino maid Ah Di, a search for women and society begins. This screenplay also received the highest score of this roadshow.
Screenwriter new concept live picture
Written by Dina Hamitty, "The Saddle" tells the story of a young girl who grew up alone after leaving the prairie and her silent father. As a director of nomadic descent, the steppe is her eternal spiritual home, and her own upbringing has led her to set her sights on the collision between Kazakh culture and modern cities. In "The Saddle", the girl named Alai is like this, between the steppe and the city, between her father and the horse, looking for the corner where the heart can really rest.
And Zheng Yue's screenplay "Pearl and Stone" makes the conceptual word "female growth" have a precise foothold, she faces the shame of menstruation, and uses real characters to create twin brother and sister roles of pearl and stone, and the competitive pearl ushered in menarche in a running race, so the girl's heart sank with the falling red.
It is worth mentioning that jumping out of the framework of realistic social exploration, there are still brushstrokes with female consciousness in the system of genre films. "A Day in the Spring Breeze" written by Zhou Zhou carries the label of costume and horror, telling the story of a woman who wants to control her own destiny, and finally kills the man who is foaming at each other in despair to achieve a new life.
In the face of these scripts, the judges expressed their joy: I am very happy to see so many women-related themes, and many of our female audiences are very looking forward to and need these stories.
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At the same time, the maturity of genres and subgenres is also a bright spot in the short film script unit. The completion of the crime suspense story is gratifying, and the emergence of soft science fiction and absurd themes has also added a different color to this roadshow.
Yu Yiran, a screenwriter from Chinese opera, uses real and false lions to bring out a profound discussion of the situation and class oppression of marginal characters, and Yu Yiran uses mature techniques to build an interlocking suspense story, and successfully places personal thinking in plot action. The script project finally won the top three results in this roadshow.
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And Huang Hai's screenplay "Red Sun Sunshine Green Forest" also belongs to the category of crime suspense, and he added the local characteristics of Laizhou in the 90s, telling a crime story about moral choices through three rural youths living in mining areas.
Finally, Luo Shixiong's "Yoshimitsu Katayu" and Chen Jialuo's "Watermelon" explore philosophical issues about time and social issues in small people through two subgenre stories, absurd soft science fiction and absurd comedy, respectively.
Skits – the treasure trove of comedy
Under the current situation of various short videos sweeping the market, short dramas have also become a new form of entertainment spawned by the dual needs of the times and users, and have become an important part of the content industry. In the face of such a more flexible and compact media format, short dramas obviously cannot be discussed with long-form TV series in terms of cost and content, so what kind of story is suitable for short dramas? What kind of audience are the skit audiences? For the answers to such questions, we may be able to glimpse one or two in this roadshow.
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Among the eight short script scripts participating in the roadshow, the jury finally selected three groups of short play scripts, and these three groups of works are all comedy without exception.
"The World's Most Useless Superpower" written by Yang Guomin tells the comedy story of a male version of Cinderella, an ordinary high school sophomore transfer student Luo Fanghao who is eager to pursue the school's white moonlight goddess Li Ziyi, who was originally a little transparent, but was accidentally given various strange superpowers by the "Guan Gong" statue, and gradually became a popular figure in the school. Despite these superpowers, Luo Fanghao only lacks one ability - the ability to control these superpowers. In this way, the originally beautiful youth love story was constantly embarrassed under Guan Gong's pranks. Yang Guomin uses funny episode titles, comic-style graphic design and nonsensical special effects to bring this high-concept story closer to the audience in a light and joyful way.
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"Starry Sky Has Answers" written by Zhang Hongming is a romantic comedy creation under the theme of science fiction. Under the framework of commercial genres, he interpreted what he considered comedy with unique characters, down-to-earth line styles and plot settings buried everywhere, coupled with the blessing of the concept of the future of science fiction, and the visual stimulation of the romantic starry sky, which was recognized by the judging panel.
Meng Yuan and Chen Ting's team from the Sha Sugar Orange Screenwriting Studio presented two short drama script works with their own characteristics "Don't Talk in the Cinema" and "Newspaper, There is Big News in the Rivers and Lakes!" , especially eye-catching in this roadshow. "Don't Talk in the Cinema" takes the audience back to the golden age of cinema - 1994, using the characters of the two dimensions to cross each other as the biggest fun point, coupled with retro modern elements and positive value orientation, jumping lightly on the form of short dramas.
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And "Newspaper, Jianghu and Big News" has a unique insight, if there were idols and gold medal agents in ancient times, such a question was thrown and immediately attracted both star-chasing girls and costume drama fans. At the same time, the fusion of the big triangle's costume romance and the light comedy label of the field directly fills the highlights. The two short plays from Meng Yuan and Chen Ting's teams have been praised by the jury panel.
"Welcome to Nanwan Village" written by Cai Tingting focuses on the healing style, opening the situation with the likable character character of the pet doctor, the story adopts a unique rural space shape, and comedy elements throughout the film, such as the overlord character who is deliberately funny and reversed, and various designs add highlights to the project.
In addition to comedy, the story creation of fantasy genres and novel Chinese quirks are also worth paying attention to.
Li Ziang, Nguyen Van Yue and Wang Ni's joint work "Priceless Treasure" tells the story of three children's fantasy adventure, a tortuous journey led by children for adults to see. On the basis of adapting real events, the screenwriter added the concept of "Chinese weird core", which greatly increased the appeal of the short drama.
Screenwriter new concept live picture
"Red Project" written by Liu Bing pulls the timeline back to Qingdao in 1897, where Taoist Qi Men Dun Jia fights against Japanese Yin-Yang Jutsu, full of fantasy adventures, full of dangers, and evil does not suppress righteousness, those who love and kill each other rise and fall in the torrent of the times. At the same time, Sesame Open Pictures' "I Have an Ancient House to Inherit" is an urban fantasy, trying to build a spiritual mansion for all those who persist in moving forward.
Judging by the final result, the attributes of an implementable, promising skit have been revealed—a light, joyful story, preferably seasoned with a little catchy concept. For creators, while constantly understanding the characteristics of short drama content, communication characteristics and user needs, they also need to refine creative techniques and comprehensive methodologies to better find commercial breakthroughs.
Finally, Professor Meng Zhong from the Department of Literature of Beijing Film Academy concluded the roadshow, both units discussed the focus of short films and short drama development from multiple dimensions, hoping that the "New Concept of Screenwriting" series of activities can help more young filmmakers, jointly help the high-quality development of short films and short dramas, and burst out more possibilities.
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