Press conference for "Iron Man 3."[Photo: mtime.com]
Along with the Festival De Cannes, the second Festival du Cinema Chinois en France kicked off last week, and one of the most anticipated programs for this year's event is a forum about future collaborations and cooperation between Chinese and French filmmakers.
Last month, during the second Beijing International Film Festival, a similar forum was launched, with James Cameron as a guest speaker.
Though cooperation between China and other countries started as early as the 1930s, major screen collaborations took off in the 1990s when Hong Kong filmmakers were looking for a larger market. At the same time, the Chinese mainland was trying to market domestic films.
Film cooperation now extends to an international arena. At the moment, most of China's film cooperation is with the US. The screening of collaborative films, such as The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008), The Karate Kid (2010), and more recently, The Flowers of War (2011), have set the precedent for future partnerships.
Deeper relationship
On a shallow level, film cooperations are quite common, such as shooting scenes in China or working with Chinese actors and actresses. But deeper collaborations or partnerships rely on capital investment from both sides.
Zhang Xun, general manager of China Film Co-production Corporation said in an interview on people.com.cn that a China-US film cooperation receives investment from companies in two or more countries.
These companies share the rights of shooting, distribution, economic pay backs—and also the risks.
In China, a cooperative film is treated the same as a domestic made film, provided it passes government censorship.
Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG Entertainment said in an interview with Qilu Evening News, a newspaper in Shandong province, that the US does not have the same concept of "cooperation" in movies. Filmmakers merely cooperate and work together if they agree on ideas.
But Mintz favors deeper cooperation between Hollywood and Chinese studios, like the cooperation on Iron Man 3, where DMG was not only a major investor, but participated in procedures like script writing, talent search, and distribution.
Friends with benefits
Though the degrees of cooperation vary, these partnerships are mutually beneficial.
"China has a big market for movies," said Wang Siwei, a movie critic. "Films that do not perform well in other countries can make a big profit in China."
Wang uses the 2010 film The Expendables as an example. The Expendables made about 200 million yuan ($31.64 million) domestically. Internationally, it took in a total of 200 million dollars.
Though the box office share is as high as 25 percent, it is still low compared to a cooperative film.
Filming in China is also comparatively cheaper. "To film scenes in China costs less than places like Washington DC. The Chinese government is happy to allow filmmakers in," Wang said. "Western audiences are already accustomed to their landscape, different backgrounds in China will raise interest to the movies."
And as a cooperative movie is treated the same as a domestic-release, it is easier to enter the Chinese market, given the quota on imported film.
Larger audience
Chinese films are eager to debut to a larger audience. Domestic movies usually make waves internationally through film festivals. But now, film collaborations offer a different way to enter the foreign mainstream market.
Zhou Tiedong, general manager of China Film Promotion International, said that since 2002, when Chinese movies entered the market, almost all of the movies that extended to a larger market were part of a collaborative effort.
According to statistics released by Guangming Daily, in 2011, China produced 558 dramas, of which 52 of them screened in 22 foreign countries. Among the 52, 50 were cooperative movies.
Collaborative films enter the market easier; they also assist with the general narrative of Chinese films. Chinese movie makers are often not suave at marketing a Chinese story to the foreign audience. According to Zhou, it's easier for films to gain international market recognition if they have simple yet entertaining plots. But Chinese filmmakers often turn a simple story into something complicated, weaving in too much Chinese history.
Zhou's opinion is echoed by Tom DeSanto, producer of Transformers. DeSanto said there are also Hollywood movies that sell well in the US but are poorly received internationally. He suggests that Chinese filmmakers first study the North American market.
Wang adds that Chinese movie makers can take this chances to learn film and management techniques.
"Before we were only a bystander, and now we are becoming a cooperator," said Wang. "We can only be a competitor after learning from our partners."
But Wang said that cultural barriers coupled with the different ways of dealing with the public and media may cause problematic film relationships.
"I think cooperating on films has more advantages. But we will have to see how it goes," Wang said.