Editor's note:
The smoke and rain of March unveiled the warm spring, and the interpretation of Chinese studios ushered in the 10th anniversary of its establishment. In the past ten years, with the care and support of all parties, this small team has been moving forward, from planning news talk shows, to launching various short videos, to filming series of documentaries and documentary films. Looking ahead, the mountains are endless, so what's the matter. In special moments, you always have to leave some words. Today, we publish an article by Yu Dong, deputy director of the China studio and director of the business department, "Let documentary images become the "Marco Polo's Travels" in the new era", which records our past road.
△ Interpretation of Yu Dong, deputy director of the China studio and director of the business department
"A country without a documentary is like a family without a photo album. "As Chilean documentary filmmaker Guzmán said, documentaries are the memory of a country and a nation.
More than that, documentary is an international language that transcends borders and enables communication across ethnicities, races and cultures. Documentaries also carry the important task of disseminating a credible, lovable and respectable image of China.
China has forgotten the world, but the world has not forgotten China. The beginning of Chinese documentaries began at the end of the 19th century when photographers from Western countries came to China to shoot newsreels, and those precious remnants of film recorded the social life of China at that time.
Entering a new era, the Chinese documentary industry presents a scene of "going out of the circle" and "going to sea", and documentary images are playing the role of "Marco Polo's Travels":
In the 13th century, Marco Polo, an Italian businessman, with his 17 years in China, created a work known as "a beautiful myth that shocked the Western world" - "Marco Polo's Travels".
We have noticed that in the international documentary market, documentaries on natural animals, humanities and history, and economic and social subjects are particularly popular.
China's vast territory, abundant natural resources, and strong ecological diversity also make Chinese documentaries have a natural comparative advantage in natural animal themes.
Interpretation of the documentary "Walking with Elephants" produced by China Studio, showing the world the beauty of China's great rivers and nature, reflecting the determination and efforts of the Chinese government and people to devote themselves to the construction of ecological civilization, and "On the Sea of Ice", which is being filmed, truly records the course of China's Antarctic scientific expedition, reflecting China's efforts to actively participate in global polar governance and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
△ "Walking with Elephants" poster
△ "Above the Sea of Ice" concept poster
As one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, China has an ancient history and splendid culture, and humanities and history documentaries are also the dominant themes of Chinese documentary creation and international dissemination. Interpret a series of works such as "Adventures in Sanxingdui" and "Beijing Central Axis Across Time and Space" produced by Chinese studios, actively promote traditional culture, and strive to promote mutual learning between civilizations.
△ "Adventure Sanxingdui" poster
Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, in just a few decades, China has completed the industrialization process that the developed countries of the West have gone through for hundreds of years, and created two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.
In the field of overseas documentaries, documentaries focusing on China's economic and social hot topics are particularly popular, which is also a key area to interpret the continuous efforts of Chinese studios, and has successively launched "Approaching Daliang Mountain", "On Firewood, Rice, Oil and Salt", "China's Poverty Alleviation: An Unprecedented Human Miracle", "Extraordinary Future: The Story of Chinese Science You Don't Know", "College Entrance Examination 2020" and many other documentaries that reflect realistic themes.
△ Posters of various works
Truth is the life of a documentary. These works strive to show the macro picture of China's modernization development, and also focus on recording vivid and delicate individual images, so that documentaries with truth and rationality as the core characteristics have warmth, attitude, and feelings.
Since 2010, the overseas popularity of Chinese documentaries has shown an overall upward trend, showing a prosperous scene of thousands of sails racing and a hundred flowers blooming. In recent years, the success of Chinese documentaries going overseas is more driven by the content of the works and is inseparable from high-quality content.
However, in the era of big data, the information island effect is becoming more and more obvious, that is, "the aroma of wine is also afraid of deep alleys": if there is no effective communication and marketing strategy, no matter how good the work is, it may be submerged in a massive amount of information.
In the production process, the interpretation of Chinese studio works pays more attention to international vision and global expression, and interprets Chinese studios actively adopt various forms such as international co-production, and invites internationally renowned documentary directors and institutions to participate in documentary filming;
In terms of communication forms, the interpretation of Chinese studio works also emphasizes the integration of traditional media and new media, and holds online and offline promotion activities such as screenings and exhibitions overseas to ensure all-round internationalization from filming, broadcasting, distribution and other links.
At present, overseas mainstream TV stations are still the main channel for Chinese documentaries to go overseas. However, the Internet is reshaping the ecology of the media industry, and the documentary industry is also affected by the Internet thinking.
Entering the era of "net students", documentaries also have a broader space for expression. In order to meet the new needs of the audience for mobility, fragmentation and personalization, Interpretation China Studio has also actively signed agreements with Western mainstream media such as Bilibili, Tencent Video, Mango TV, as well as Western mainstream media such as Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, CNBC, BBC, and Euronews, to jointly produce a number of China-themed documentary programs, including documentaries in the traditional sense, as well as fresh and lively new media short videos in the form of "Starlight" and "Slow Sound to Civilization".
Documentary images were originally imported products, the product of cultural exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations. At the end of the 19th century, a large number of photographers from Western countries came to China to shoot newsreels to record the social life of China at that time, which objectively also began the germination of documentaries on Chinese themes.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese documentaries have taken the initiative to usher in the tide of going overseas, and Chinese theme documentaries have also frequently won awards in international festivals and exhibitions.
Using documentaries, an international language, to let the world understand China and let China go to the world is an important mission of contemporary Chinese media professionals. Interpretation China Studio is sincerely willing to work together with documentary colleagues at home and abroad to stimulate the creativity of human civilization with the power of images, and jointly help human civilization exchange and mutual learning.