Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2015

2015

Journal of Beijing Film Academy, Hiu Man Chan

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781783206056
• eBook ISBN: 9781783206070
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

The Beijing Film Academy (BFA) is one of the most revered film institutions in the world. Since 1984, the BFA's Department of Film Studies has been publishing the Journal of the Beijing Film Academy, the only journal of film theory that integrates film education in higher learning with film theory studies. Now, coinciding with dramatically increased interest in Chinese cinema, comes the Beijing Film Academy Yearbook, showcasing the best academic debates, discussions and research from the academy in 2015 – all available for the first time in English. Aimed at narrowing the cultural gap for cross-cultural research, the book contributes not only to scholarly work on Chinese cinema, but also to film and media studies more generally.

Chapter 1

An Analysis of Education Characteristics and Developments of Beijing Film Academy: A Reflection of Film Education on the 120^th Anniversary of Film

HOU Guangming¹

Film schools and institutions around the world have their own characteristics and advantages, while the necessity to innovate and develop further always remains the same. In this sense, experiences of other film schools are valuable in promoting the development of higher education film theory and practice. Since its establishment in 1950, Beijing Film Academy (BFA) has gradually formed a unique academic characteristic of film education by means of learning from other film schools. After more than 60 years of development, BFA demonstrates the highest of achievements for Chinese higher film education. This paper aims to share BFA’s experiences with its international counterparts in order to promote film education developments worldwide.

A Wide Range of Academic Settings

There are a total of sixteen departments (schools) in BFA: screenwriting, directing, cinematography, sound, fine arts, management, film studies, academic foundations, schools of performing arts, animation, photography, film and TV technology, continuing education, institutes of digital media and audio-visual media as well as the international school. The ten bachelor’s programs are screenwriting, directing, performing arts, photography, art design for film and television, sound recording, management for film business, animation, advertising and film studies. In terms of master’s and doctoral degree programs, there are art theory, drama and film studies and fine arts as the first-level disciplines, under which there are art theory, film studies, radio and television arts, film production, performing arts, management, animation and fine arts. Meanwhile, BFA also provides Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs, recruiting graduate candidates in film, radio and television, fine arts, drama, music and art design areas.

Founded in 1950 with only three majors at the time, BFA had experienced the expanding of academic settings from very early screenwriting, directing and performing arts to cinematography, sound recording, fine arts, and later management, film studies, film and TV technology and animation. Covering the whole process of film-making, the knowledge and expertise of BFA’s academic subjects are becoming increasingly extensive and specialized.

The academic settings of BFA have the following three features. Firstly, the majors are designed according to the film production process, with subjects relating not only to film production but also to film history and theory, film technology and film management. In this way, BFA gradually formed five positively interactive discipline groups of creation, production, management, audio-visual technology and film studies. The second feature is the specialized disciplines; by 2014, there were a total of 28 specialized orientations under the ten bachelor’s programs. Thirdly, the school simultaneously combines theory with practice in film education, demonstrating a different approach to other film schools that prefer to focus on academic and practical areas separately.

Presently, BFA is implementing a reform of academic setting from ‘film-production-process-based’ to ‘film-industry-chain-based’, trying to push the boundaries among every single discipline and consequently form multidisciplinary setups. According to the Smiling Curve Theory, BFA will strengthen the ‘creation’ majors that are at the forefront of the industrial chain, and the ‘market’ majors that at the other end. The school will build a comprehensive system of drama, film and art disciplines to support its sustainable development. The year 2014 saw the foundation of the institutes of digital media, audio-visual media and social studies; now two first-level disciplines of music and dance and fine arts and design are also under construction.

A Rich and Solid Talent Cultivation System

BFA creates a multi-layered film talent training system, which takes both undergraduate and graduate education as the main body, covering degree education levels of bachelor, master, doctoral, post-doctoral, higher vocational education, continuing education, overseas student education and also film business training. Within BFA, there is the High Vocational College (training junior college students), the School of Continuing Education (training college students and non-degree students) and the International School (training international students). Vocational students’ education concentrates primarily on skills, while undergraduates focus on creation, graduates (post graduates) on both creation and research and doctors (post-doctors) on research only, while the focus for non-degree students is on ability to adapt to the film industry. It is in this way that BFA has formed skill-based, creation-based, production-based, research-based and also elites-based talent training programs.

Before 1956, BFA was only a technical school, after which it became an undergraduate school. Postgraduates were recruited from 1984, doctoral students from 2006, and post-doctoral researchers from 2014, with the level of talent training constantly improving. In order to adapt to the market, BFA established the School of Continuing Education in 1987, High Vocational College in 2003 and the School of Creative Media in 2010 following the economic reform in China. For film practitioners, BFA established training centres in other parts of China, as well as in the United States and Europe, offering a variety of training courses. The steady improvement of talent training levels and forms of training has the realistic target of meeting the development needs of higher education and film production in China.

Focusing on the future, gaining experience from international film schools and combining them with its self-reality, BFA develops its own conception of talent training. This is achieved through reinforcing the scale, structure, quality and features of undergraduate education; developing post-graduate education; focusing on MFA and academic doctoral programs; supporting continuing education, vocational college education and distance education; and finally combining academic with non-academic education.

Based on a win–win cooperation, BFA supports the Institute of Creative Media to become a well-known film education institution for the public. Meanwhile, BFA is exploring ways in which to build affiliated middle and elementary schools. It is undertaking the project of launching ‘the affiliated high school – undergraduate school’, a kind of training lasting for seven years, with the aim of training film-reserved personnel. Additionally, high-level training for various levels will be run in order to meet the evolving needs of the film industry. The academy eventually hopes to achieve a newly-cultivated structure for five different kinds of potential: skilled, creative, productive, academic and high-end.

An Interactive Academic Pattern of Teaching, Research and Creation

Based on different discipline groups, BFA has set up the China Film Culture Institute, China Film Industry Institute, China Film High-Tech Institute and China Film Education Research Center, each dedicated to film innovation and applied research. The Journal of Beijing Film Academy is one of the most influential film journals in China, while the department of film studies is a department engaging specifically in film theory. In fact, China’s theoretical film system is based on the efforts of generations of film-makers from BFA. Furthermore, the school strongly encourages film research, through which teachers can nurture their research into teaching.

BFA attaches great importance to the construction of a creative environment. As early as 1953, the internship office, responsible for teaching internships and practice, had been set up based on the performance section. In 1958, the internship office was renamed the Experimental Film Studio of BFA with a more expansive scale and scope of teaching practice. Invested in by BFA in 1979, the Youth Film Studio was established with independent legal qualifications. It is a state-owned, school-run enterprise based on the former Experimental Film Studio, combining film production, teaching practice and artistic practice. The school hosts a regular ‘creating holiday’ to encourage teachers to create, and to include their creative achievements in the evaluation system. In this way, teachers are also able to incorporate their many practical experiences into their teaching.

Research uses creativity as a basis, while creative practice follows research as guidance, thus forming an ethos that aims to create a positive teaching–research–creative interaction pattern. In the 1980s, BFA exercised a ‘Triangular System’ in teachers’ work, which comprises three years of teaching, three years of production and three years of research. In terms of the general international paradigm, film schools are responsible for the task of teaching, industries are responsible for the task of production, and universities are responsible for research. However, BFA is responsible for all three functions, demonstrating a unique exception to the traditional framework.

Similar to that of America, current Chinese film education has formed the all-round structure that takes one or several professional film institutions as the core (BFA in China). As a discipline, China’s film education has been carried out in more than 700 colleges and universities since the 1990s, 76 percent of which have set up professional film majors, while middle and elementary schools also have begun to offer film lessons. In the fiercely competitive surroundings of higher film education, it is important that film schools look to the future, not only concentrating on production and research, but also on the positive interaction of teaching, research and production, of which teaching is the core, scientific research is the foundation and production is the supporting strength.

Therefore, BFA positions itself as a comprehensive school for teaching, research and production. To further improve the discipline’s ecosystem, and to enhance the original innovation ability, BFA proposed to transform from a single-discipline construction to multidiscipline one, from undergraduate-education based to both undergraduate- and graduate-based, which, in turn, consolidates and expands the school’s academic strengths.

A Specialized and Versatile Training Mode

BFA’s utilizes the ‘multi-skill’ training mode, which means students specialize in one major, while simultaneously including other subjects. On the one hand, subjects are refined according to the film-making process so as to meet the needs of different degrees. On the other hand, the subjects have been fully integrated and thus support one another, forming a curricular system of public fundamental courses, professional fundamental courses, professional orientation courses, graduation co-work and exhibitions. The school is always committed to the professional fundamental courses, while continuing to provide general education with the possibility of film study as an implementation. Students, when studying their own professional courses, are therefore also able to use the influence of various other professional courses.

There are two fundamental kinds of film teaching systems in the world: (1) the professional education system common in Europe and Asia which, similar to the Moscow Film Academy (VGIK), primarily cultivates professional training; and (2) the general education system, mainly adopted by schools in the United States such as the Film & Television School of New York University (NYU). BFA’s system progressed through the Soviet Union’s political and artistic influence before China’s economic reform, as well as learning from Europe and the United States. By absorbing the experiences of both Soviet and Western education systems, it has developed its own unique style; it is not just the American way, nor the Russian way, but rather a combination of the two.

With the goal of reaching an excellent level, the school will continue to put more emphasis on enhancing students’ qualities in humanities, international communication, and ability to adapt to the market on the basis of solid film-producing techniques. To this end, the school will provide more humanities and management courses, creating more internship opportunities and furthering the reform of the credit system. This measure will also make it possible for students of varying backgrounds, levels, schools and even countries to communicate with one another.

A Standardized and Effective ‘Double Practice’ (Social and Art Practice) System

The general consensus of film schools worldwide is that film education has to orientate itself to life and society. In terms of practice, each film school has its own features, such as the School of Theatre, Film & Television of the University of California, LA (UCLA), which attaches great importance to the practice of training, building its curricular system in accordance with the market. The teaching staff, especially teachers of practical courses, are also front-line experts within the film industry. Many teaching sections and teaching facilities are integrated into the Hollywood industrial system, allowing students access to practical training throughout the film industry and subsequently arming them with excellent hands-on skills.

BFA is one of the film schools worldwide that possesses its own unique set of characteristics in practice. It has its own practice bases on campus – the Youth Film Studio and the television laboratory, both of which are equipped with advanced facilities – in addition to a selection of off-campus practice bases. The Youth Film Studio not only acts as an organizing and guiding unit for students’ film-making practice, but also as a production unit for BFA teachers’ innovative practices. The studio is available for regular commercial film production, having already produced a large number of outstanding films as well as many graduate students’ works, comprising different variations of 35-mm Dolby digital productions that form a new kind of short film in China’s film market. In recent years, HD digital feature films, HD documentaries, HD digital experimental films and the practice of converting digital animation to film in the Youth Film Studio have all increased significantly. From 2010 to 2013, the Youth Film Studio produced a total of 67 graduate works, 34 of which participated in international film festivals and exhibitions, winning a combined total of 58 awards. Furthermore, more than twenty feature films won awards both at home and abroad. Students have their in-class practice as well - by taking advantage of school equipment as well as their own resources, most of the students have opportunities to produce their own works during school hours.

BFA places equal value on art and social practice, again differing from the approach of many other more art-centred film schools, through building a two-level social practice system of school and department, and taking September as the ‘social practice month’. In the future, BFA plans to further combine education with industry. Based on China’s ‘2011 Plan’, and in conjunction with a number of film-related enterprises, the school will carry out a school-enterprise co-production project and a scholarship program to encourage active practice for students. The Youth Film Studio has also made a three-step ‘start by number, fight by quality, win by reputation’ plan, with the goal of laying a solid foundation for the future cultivation of talent.

A Comprehensive and High-level Platform for International Exchange

BFA is a member of Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinema de Television (CILECT), establishing a relationship of cooperation and exchange in professional film education, academic research and academic visiting schemes with 40 film institutions across more than ten countries and regions. The International Students Film and Video Festival (ISFVF) has become the largest and most influential student film festival in Asia. Every year, students from more than 40 film and television institutions in 30 or more countries and regions participate in ISFVF, which has received high evaluation and active participation from all around the world.

Before China’s reform, BFA learned primarily from the Soviet Union. In the 1950s, in order to meet the needs of teaching, the school sent students to the German Democratic Republic to study screenwriting, cinematography, fine arts and other film projects, as well as sending specialists to the Soviet Union to study film education and inviting Soviet experts to give lectures in China. In the 1960s, the department of cinematography accepted students from Vietnam, Cambodia, Algeria and Indonesia, and the department of directing accepted students from Algeria. World-famous film-makers and theorists such as Joris Even, Georges Sadoul, Thira Philips and Yamamoto Sarver have visited and given lectures at BFA. Following the reform, the school inceasingly gained influence from Western film schools, gradually building up a world-class film education system with Chinese characteristics and establishing a network of international exchanges.

BFA is committed to a transition of the way in which the school is run, from an open education system to an internationalized education system. It has formulated an internationalization development strategy, encouraging teachers and students to study abroad, inviting international film-makers to China and promoting the ‘2+2’ and ‘2+3’ cooperation of education, research and film-making. The branch school in Singapore has been established and the construction of the Confucius Institute is currently being planned. Based on the China Film Education Research Center, the school carries out research and evaluation of the top film schools across the globe, with plans to create an official ranking of international film schools. BFA hosted an International Film Educational Forum in 2014, and will also host the International Film Schools Chancellor Forum in 2015 to discuss the establishment of an alliance between the world’s top film schools.

Strong Guarantee of Elite Education Conditions

Most film schools implement elite training programs, recruit a small number of students, and teach in small classes, all of which are features of BFA. The student–teacher ratio in BFA is about 10:1, and each major has an average number of eighteen students. Teachers at BFA all have a rich creative background, and both domestic and international film-makers are invited to give lectures as adjunct professors, ensuring that the quality of teaching remains as high as possible.

Furthermore, BFA has a number of excellent advantages, one of which is the system funding advantage. The vast majority of colleges and universities in the world are private, such as UCLA and NYU, and either charge exorbitant tuition fees to ensure the upgrading of equipment, or depend on donation...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgement
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: An Analysis of Educational Characteristics and Developments of Beijing Film Academy: A Reflection of Film Education on the 120th Anniversary of Film
• Chapter 2: Annual Report on the Development of China’s Film Industry 2013
• Chapter 3: On Cinema Operation and Management in the Context of the Cyber-Era
• Chapter 4: The Present State and the Problems of Chinese Cinema
• Chapter 5: How Will Art Film Make a Real Breakthrough: An Analysis of Several Trends in China’s Art Film Promotion
• Chapter 6: An Emic Study of the Impact of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
• Chapter 7: The Lens of an Intertextual Era: Reinterpretation of the Film A Twig of Plum Blossoms
• Chapter 8: Surpass Stereotypes: Study on Li Wei’s Seventeen-Year Villain Performance
• Chapter 9: Cut-throat Rivalry, Who Will Be the Winner?
• Notes on Contributors
• Editorial Board Information
• Back Cover