Increasing Demand For Video Content Is Driving Creativity In China

The Chinese public is spending an increasing amount of time visiting the cinema and watching videos online. In December 2013 alone, China spent an aggregate of 1.78 billion hours watching online videos. The increasing demand from the public begs the question; can videographers fill their viewers’ bandwidth with high quality, creative videos? Or are we doomed to drudge through hours of online chaff?

The potential that comes with viewing figures of such magnitude has brought in huge investment, initially with Bruno Wu’s “Chinawood” film complex in Tianjin, and, more recently, Wang Jialin’s plans to build a 10,000 square meter film studio in Qingdao.

With an increasing number of movies being co-produced between China and Hollywood, there is no doubt that Chinese cinema will bridge the gap in quality between itself and its North American counterpart. This boom in the video industry is not confined to the big screen - far from it. In Shanghai especially, we are rarely deprived of the opportunity to gaze at a screen.

Directors and producers haven’t been shy in answering the growing call for content. Since 2011, over 500 new production houses have opened around China. As social media becomes increasingly important, small businesses,

artists and entrepreneurs are coming to realise that they need regularly updated video content on their websites and blogs.

The goal of releasing asteady flow of creative and high quality music videos has been top priority for us at Redstarr Studios since our foundation in November, 2013. Since then, we’ve completed three music videos; Come On Now, I Can’t Stop (release date March 3rd) and Superheroes (release date TBA).

To achieve this tempo, while ensuring engaging content, Redstarr, and fellow production houses, have benefited from the evolution in camera technology over the past few years. Whilst RED and ARRI cameras are the preferred choice for a director, they’re still expensive. However, the release of the Canon 5D MKII in 2008 brought the dawn of DSLR video. This is an essential camera for filmmakers creating timely online content. The full frame sensor inadvertently gifted filmmakers with the ability to shoot full HD, cinematic videos at a drastically reduced cost.

Now add Shanghai to the equation: rapid growth; constantly changing topography; illuminated night scene; dilapidated (soon to be high-rise) slums, as well as its desolate, abandoned factories, malls and construction sites, make it outstandingly photogenic. That is without even considering venturing to China’s bamboo forests, ice festivals, stunning mountain scenery, expansive plains and historic wonders. Stunning locations and dramatic scenes are everywhere you point a lens, ready to be incorporated into whatever imaginative and innovative visión filmmakers can possibly dream up.

This combination of factors: the rising demand due to growing viewing figures and increasing video outlets, the technological advancements in camera gear as well as the limitless photo opportunities Shanghai and China offer, points to positive development in video production here. This seems even truer for the indie filmmaker and small production houses in the city. In the midst of this perfect storm, talent and creativity dictate the value and calibre of what we are exposed to, not budget. For the first time, we can emulate and, maybe sooner rather than later, even challenge our idols from the silver screen.

Dan Rafei and Cian Greaney are videographers at Redstarr Studios. Their recent production of Spencer Tarring’s latest release, I Can’t Stop, saw the boys crawling through overgrown wilderness in Songjiang, jumping over walls into abandoned construction sites all around Puxi and bribing bao’ans with cigarettes in Putuo to recreate a Shanghai-based apocalypse. Redstarr Studios. Room 2A, 325 Changhua Lu, near Changping Lu. Web: www.redstarr.asia. Twitter: @redstarrstudios