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Emerging genre is the new darling of advertisers, but that maychange the plot, reports Raymond Zhou. Acouple of school buddies share many hobbies, including a love formusic and a secret passion for the same girl. One of them teacheshimself Michael Jackson's signature moonwalk. However, once theyleave school, they have to make do with reality. One makes a livingby hosting weddings, while the other becomes a barber. The teenagers grow into middle-aged mediocrity. But they have nevergiven up on their dream of making it big. They team up to competein a singing contest, one plays the guitar and the other reprisesthe moonwalk. They sing of "life as a ruthless knife that changedour looks, of flowers that withered before they had a chance tobloom, and of youthful days that galloped by without sayinggoodbye, leaving us deadened and bloodless". This is the plot of Old Boy, a 43-minute film that spread likewildfire on the Internet in early 2010, attracting tens of millionsof viewers and inadvertently kick-starting a cultural phenomenonknown as "microfilms". Short films have existed since the late 19th century when themedium was invented. But what distinguishes microfilms fromtraditional shorts, as they are known by the professionals, is thedistribution platform. These films are not meant for theatricalrelease. Instead, they are made with the desktop or mobile screenin mind. The sudden popularity of microfilms attests to the wide use oftechnology, which "enables people to get information on the go andpiecemeal", says Yu Xin, a film critic. "The trend is going in thedirection of information fragmentation, dumbing down andacceleration." In that sense, a microfilm is like a video tweet, tobe posted online and passed virally from gadget to gadget. Fast track to success Old Boy clicked with the public mainly because the story epitomizesthe dashed dreams of many who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s andare now the mainstay of China's online demographic. The fact thatthe two filmmakers were aspiring, struggling artists helped cementthe perception that microfilms, like televised singing contests,are the poor man's fast track to success. Xiao Yang, 32, graduated from the famed Beijing Film Academy, buthe majored in advertising and has been in that business ever since.Wang Taili, 42, tried to break into the music business. Callingthemselves the "Chopsticks Brothers", they started makingmicrofilms in 2007. Old Boy was originally conceived as a musicvideo for an end-credit song, but they fleshed out the plot andmade music-making the climax of the story. The duo also starred inthe film. Given their backgrounds, it's not surprising that Old Boy has highproduction values, with fluid and dexterous editing and direction.Sadly, most of the 50,000-plus microfilms uploaded in China in 2010(a figure provided by Weng Jie, a Tudou executive), don't matchthis level of professionalism. An increasing number of people have realized that we are entering agolden age of video creation: The wide availability of homecamcorders and the ease with which editing software can be usedmeans that non-professionals can now express themselves with videoalmost as easily as with words. The democratizing technology isbreeding a new generation of filmmakers. "In the old times, filmmaking was the privilege of the elite. Butdigital technology has blurred the line between the elite and thegrassroots. Now, those at the bottom can also participate in filmcreation, with no strict requirements for aesthetic ortechnological demands," commented Shi Chuan, a professor of filmand television at Shanghai University. Like shorts in Western countries, microfilms are seen as a trainingground for aspiring feature filmmakers. The program that funded OldBoy was sponsored by Youku, a video website that recently mergedwith its biggest competitor Tudou, and China Film Group, which usesthe platform to scout for new talent. However, the pros soon took over. Shortly after Old Boy became ahit, the online media company Sina sponsored a quartet of worksproduced by the Hong Kong-based filmmaker Ho-Cheung Pang andstarring big name actors such as Zhou Xun and Shawn Yue. Sina'srival Sohu launched a project that gave seven film stars theirdirectorial debuts. Last year, Youku launched another series called59 cm of Happiness, in which six celebrities from non-filmbackgrounds were given the opportunity to display their potential. Meanwhile, microfilm competitions and awards have been cropping upfaster than bamboo shoots after a spring shower. "There are morethan a dozen such events already," said Hou Zhihui, creativedirector for Funshion, a film website that claims a global audienceof 120 million. "Many name directors like Feng Xiaogang serve aspresidents for these events. Access to such celebrities has becomethe raison d'etre, rather than the means of discovering talent."(Full disclosure: I sit on the juries of the Tudou Festival andFIRST Youth Film Festival, among others.) The least commercial of these programs may be that run by CuiYongyuan, which selected 10 people to participate as assistants inupcoming productions by renowned filmmakers. The program is madepossible by donations from Cui's friends. Cui, an eminenttelevision personality with a zeal for chronicling and preservingChina's film history, wants to discover and train the next crop of"Chinese film masters". Each applicant had to submit a five-minutemicrofilm entitled New Year. "They interpreted it (the title) inwhichever way they saw fit," he explained. "Cui's program could be the purest," says Funshion's Hou, whoproduced Father, the Chopsticks Brothers' follow-up to Old Boy."Microfilms should belong to those with potential." Revenue generation Microfilms may generate a large number of Internet hits, but theyare hopeless at generating revenue. China's online population hasan aversion to paying for digital content and that means commercialsponsors have become involved. Most websites fund their microfilm programs with money fromadvertisers, such as Youku partnering with the electronics companyPhilips or Sina with Samsung. The advertisers get their money'sworth through product placement. As China's regulators crack down on television commercials,limiting their running time, the number of spots available has beengreatly reduced and rates have shot up. Meanwhile, televisionviewers are migrating en masse toward the Internet, where theirfavorite soaps are streamed without any technical or commercialhiccups or a weeklong wait for the next episode. Chineseadvertisers have found a new niche in the form of onlinemicrofilms. Websites also have an incentive to embrace microfilms, becausetelevision shows that used to charge a nominal licensing fee havegreatly increased their prices. A typical work can cost as little as 10,000 yuan ($1,600) or asmuch as 1 million, according to Hu Ge, whose short film The BloodyCase of a Steamed Bun, a 2006 spoof of director Chen Kaige's epicmovie Promise, is considered a precursor to the current wave ofmicrofilms. The Orange Hotel chain spent 30,000 yuan on its first advertisingfilm, which took one week to produce. The five-minute film waswatched 400,000 times in the week it was uploaded and was forwarded10,000 times, said Chen Zhong, the chain's marketing manager. Thehotel's whole series of 12 shorts cost no more than 1 million yuan. Statistics like this have prompted many companies to jump onto themicrofilm bandwagon. But they are also driving most works into therealms of the unwatchable. "Even television commercials can be madeinteresting," lamented Ho-Cheung Pang, who has been a juror at theTudou Festival three times. "But so many microfilms look so cheapwith their commercial messages and images." Many advertisers insist on prominent product placements,stipulating details such as each character must be given a close-upshot, holding the product or repeating its slogan. The intrusivecommercialism has upset many Chinese viewers. The Beijing Newsrecently described the future of the microfilm as being "hijacked"by advertisers. The Southern Weekly summed up its fate as "born inparody and dying in an overkill of commercials". Hou Zhihui ofFunshion said too much advertising is simply "smothering" thegenre. "The microfilm is a Chinese-style gimmick," said film director ZhaoTianyu. "Advertisers want to enhance the appeal of theircommercials and websites need a nifty name. It has a story, actingand details, so it should be more alluring." But the genre may falter before it grows to maturity as it fallsvictim to a vicious circle. You need money to make a good movie,money that only advertisers are willing to put up. But once theadvertiser's intent is incorporated, it generally downgrades thequality of the movie, making it less appealing and also lesseffective as advertising. Consumers are quickly losing interest inthis new form of entertainment, said Ling Ping, a producer and alsoan editor with an advertising publication. Huayi Brothers, a heavyweight film and television productioncompany, recently announced that it will partner China Telecom inlaunching a pay-channel for microfilms. But not everyone is bullishabout the prospects for revenue. Meanwhile, the Chopsticks Brothers are still reaping the rewardsfrom their knockout movie. A stage version of Old Boy will come toBeijing in June, and a television series is also in the pipeline.More importantly for them, their debut feature film is in theworks. Contact the reporter at raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Vegetable Display Stands , Metal Display Racks, and more. For more , please visit Container Store Shelves today!
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