Qingdao named UNESCO City of Film

The Chinese city of Qingdao was designated by UNESCO to join the Creative Cities Network as a "City of Film" in Oct 2017. [File Photo: dzwww.com]

The city of Qingdao on the east coast of China has recently been designated by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture to join the Creative Cities Network as a "City of Film".

Qingdao's application for being a city of film took more than two years from May 2015 to October 2017. Qingdao is joining 13 other cities around the world as a City of Film. CRI's Xu Fei has more.

Qingdao, born for film. That was the city's slogan in its bid to be a UNESCO City of Film.

Xu Hongwei is a local official in charge of Qingdao's application process.

 "We thought about a lot of slogans, like 'Qingdao in New Heights, International Movie Capital'. And I also considered 'Film is the bridge' as a proper slogan. Finally, we decided to use Qingdao is a city born for film, and we trimmed it down to "QINGDAO, born for film". The more we speak it, the more we get to feel this sentence may reflect Qingdao citizens' hopes to share their dreams and love with the rest of world."

Behind its successful bid was the vigorous and rapid development of the film and television industry in the city. Qingdao's film dream has grown into being an Oriental DreamWorks on par with Los Angeles, from simple beginnings as a star cradle and a natural film studio.

With a total investment of 120-billion yuan, the Lingshan Bay Film and TV Industry Park occupies a space of 44 square kilometers. Also, a 5 billion-yuan fund for film and television industry development was launched.

Over 100 cultural creativity companies have shown their interest in settling in the park.

All these facts have witnessed the rapid rise of the Qingdao film and  culture industry.

13 film and television companies, including WUZHOU FILM DISTRIBUTION and Wanda Film (Qingdao) have received over 20 million yuan of special funds.

WUZHOU FILM obtained the largest sum of money. Que Wenxiong is general manager of the Company.

"We've got 11 million yuan of development funding. We were involved in many film projects in 2016, including The Ghouls, Detective China Town, A HERO OR NOT and Go away Mr. Tumor."

Yuan Meilin is Chairman of West Coast Cultural Development and Investment Co in Qingdao.

"The companies that have obtained special funding all correspondingly made contributions to the economic development of our new park area. We calculate according to the value of the contributions they made and decide how much funding we may allocate to these respective film enterprises."

So far, the number of registered film and TV production companies in the Lingshan Bay Film and TV Industry Park has reached over 120.

Rao Shuguang is secretary general of the Chinese film and TV home association.

"The development of the film industry is in need of a lot of professionals, including not only directors and cinema photographers but also technicians, lighting engineers, art directors and so on. Even food suppliers are in big need. Only when these supporting businesses are all in place could the film industry's effect in driving the local economy become noticeable. Qingdao made a strategy in advance to lead China's film industry by planning to become a new base appealing to the film and TV talent in the country and promoting the cultural brand of the city."

Xu Hongwei says he thinks the city's successful bid for becoming a "City of Film" has planted a seed that has the power to grow and blossom.

"Now that Qingdao is a city of film, it means more opportunities: More film producers will likely come here to start their project. The shooting crew behind Wolf Warriors II will come here to shoot a new film God of Wind. With three-billion investment, the film producers could sign contracts with studios in the city. Film and television companies would successively arrive in Qingdao and they would push forward the development of the city's creative industry and help the city to realize its ambition in film industry."

The Creative Cities Network also builds a link from the Qingdao film industry to international filmmakers, which will help speed up the pace of Qingdao's cultural exchange with other nations.

A new film has begun shooting. A remarkable feature of this light comedy film is that the shooting takes place in all 13 Cities of Film around the world.

Zhang Da is one of the producers. He revealed they are about to select actors and actresses.

"It is a light comedy that depicts movie fans of 13 Cities of Film pursuing their dreams. We hope to stimulate the common development of the film industry in these countries. Along the Silk Road on the sea, this film is expected to reflect the young filmmakers' dedication to the film and television industry."

The city of Bradford is one of the ten largest cultural centers in the ancient U.K.

It has a time-honored history in film making, and is also the world's first city of film.

At present, Qingdao and Bradford have signed a memorandum of cooperation, and reached some film cooperation deals.

Having such a partnership may pave the way for the cultivation of local film talents. Yang Jianhua is a Professor of communication and animation with Qingdao University of Science & Technology:

"The University of Bradford and Qingdao University of Science & Technology are working together to advance the training of talents in the filmmaking industry. We plan to give a joint training for one hundred people per year."

Under UNESCO's request, Qingdao will open a special office dealing with the affairs related to the construction of the City of Film. In the future, Qingdao will host the civic Movie Festival, arrange a series of movie-related cultural activities such as "I accompany my parents to go to the cinema", as well as choosing a spokesperson among the general public for the City of Film.

In this way, the majority of citizens can openly express their feelings towards movies and arouse their enthusiasm for building Qingdao into a city of film together.