Latest update October 21st, 2015 12:41 PM
Business Opportunities in the China Market - Filmmaking Education
by Hua Yang
Filmmaking and screenwriting are becoming increasingly popular areas of study in China – the application to renowned film schools becomes an uphill battle.
Beijing Film Academy, one of the leading film institutions in China, accepted only 489 students out of 24,000 applicants in 2015, one third of the admission ratio of Harvard University.
The acceptance rate at other top film institutions including the Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theatre Academy is also below 5 percent.
Faced with such high rejection rate, some have turned to overseas film institutions as well as universities in search of a more accessible film education.
To cater for the growing needs of Chinese students and filmmakers, western film schools have been trying to bring their education to China. Canada’s Vancouver Film School (VFS) opened a satellite campus in Shanghai while a handful of other prestigious film schools frequently stage short-term programs in China.
Discovering China
Shanghai University and Vancouver Film School jointly established Shanghai Vancouver Film School in June 2014. The school offers the same one-year programs as those offered by VFS.
“The establishment of Shanghai Vancouver Film School was in response to the government’s call for Chinese culture going global. Meanwhile, Shanghai is developing to a new stage where film and TV companies are constantly emerging. The entire faculty in the Shanghai Vancouver Film School comes from VFS, and a considerable number of them are industry leaders,” said Liu Haibo, vice president of Shanghai Vancouver Film School.
James Griffin, VFS president and co-founder, said the industry convergence could help the students to produce more and better works. “Chinese film educators should co-operate more with their international peers. They are two close-linked parts of the system. The films produced in this way could get more cultural attention,” he said.
Meanwhile, New York Film Academy has been offering 4-week HD filmmaking workshops in Shanghai and Beijing, in conjunction with CCTV’s China Movie Channel, M1905.com and Shanghai Theatre Academy. The program asks each student to write, direct, shoot and edit three projects shot on HD and edit on digital editing stations.
The USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA), on the other hand, is providing an 8-week non-degree screenwriting course in Shanghai with Shanghai Tech University to nurture young Chinese writers. During the eight weeks, SCA instructors teach a screenwriting workshop for the 20 students and each student is expected to create a 10-page script for a feature film under their guidance.
“SCA welcomes international students and we have students from all kinds of backgrounds. We always tell students to co-operate more and be careful not to judge things too easily,” said Alan Baker, associate dean of administration and international projects at the School of Cinematic Arts. He revealed that future projects with Chinese universities are currently in discussion.
More on the way
Western film schools generally offer more hands-on training, which Chinese filmmakers are hungry for. As a result, these new programs are well received in China.
More importantly, China’s film market is expanding at an extremely fast pace, so it is with the film education. The short-term courses, along with VFS’s new branch, is just the beginning.
Operated by New York University (NYU) and East China Normal University, Shanghai New York University was founded in 2012.
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is one of the top incubators for filmmakers and actors. The Shanghai New York University hasn’t set up any film-related courses yet. But Josh Murray, executive director of Global Communications at Tisch School of the Arts, said that they would most likely be developing film studies and screenwriting courses at Shanghai New York University in the near future.
Such projects are beneficial not only for these film schools’ global expansion, but also constructive for nurturing the next generation talents in China.
- This article was published on the CFM Toronto issue.
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