Baiting into Bait:Lessons for Future Australia and Singapore Co-Productions
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Transcript of Baiting into Bait:Lessons for Future Australia and Singapore Co-Productions
THESIS &PRESENTATION STRUCTURE
INTRODUCTIONWhy Take the International Co-production pathway?: What’s in it for Australia and Singapore
CHAPTER ONERoad to China
CHAPTER TWOAudience the Commander of Success: Thesis Methodology
CHAPTER THREE:“Like Putting Milk on a Burger”: Discussion of Results
CONCLUSIONThe Truth Between Policy and Reality
INTRODUCTIONWhy Take the International Co-production
Pathway: What’s in it for Australia and
Singapore
WHY FOCUS ON CHINA?
Based on Screen Australia Research:
• Australian filmmakers finding
difficulties in establishing business
relationships with Chinese
• Perceive China as a great opportunity
to grow Australia’s film industry(Screen Australia 2013)
WHAT THE THESIS WILL DO
Demonstrate the reality behind the
policy of Australia and Singapore
Co-Produced Film Bait (2012)
THE PROMISE
International Co-production Policy
• Strategy to develop national cinema
• Provide a viable and healthy
supplement to Hollywood cinema
• Compete with Hollywood productions
financially(O’Regan 1996; Collins et. al 1999; Khoo 2014)
THE PROMISE
International Co-production
• Unofficial
No government assistance
• Official
Government assistance provided
through formal agreements through
treaty or MOU
Film to gain “National Status”
THE PROMISE
TOP 3 BENEFITS:
• Financial pooling
• Subsidies from the Government
• Access to collaborator/s’ market(Collins et. al 1995)
THE PROMISE
International co-productions represent the participating nations’
national culture. (Collins et. al 1999)
THE PROMISE
National Culture“the body of values, practices and
identities deemed to make particular nations different from
others.” (Schlesinger 1997, p. 372)
THE PROMISE
OPENING CREDITS<Nirvana Sutra> Verse 19: “The worst of the Eight Hells is called Continuous Hell. It has the meaning of continuous suffering, thus the name.”
CLOSING CREDITSSays the Buddha: “He who is Continuous Hell never dies. Longevity is a big hardship in Continuous Hell”
INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002)
THE PARADOX
Problems in Reality
• Increase production cost & duration of
production
Disagreements between
management techniques
Need to deal with more bureaucracy
• Finding the right balance in film
cultural content
WHY WORK WITH SINGAPORE?
1. Singapore’s connection with the Chinese Film
Industry
• Financially and creatively collaborate with Chinese
film studios
• Number of productions produced from official
treaty with China.
2. Singapore’s hybridity culture
• Majority of Singaporeans are bilingual in English
and one other language (integrated into
Education system)
• Since 74% of Singaporeans are of Chinese
descents, majority speak, read and write Chinese
fluently
(Chan 2014)
THE CASE STUDY• In Australia: 860,000 AUD
• In Singapore: 160,000 AUD
• In China: 27 million AUD
BUT!
• Only shown in 16% of
Chinese Cinema
• Only 0.26% of the Chinese
population watched the
film at the cinema
THE CASE STUDY
• Special from other
International Co-
Production
• Focused on a market
not part of the co-
production
GAP IN LITERATURE
Previous literature main focus:
What government and producers
gain from co-production treaties,
focusing on financial benefits.
AUDIENCES largely IGNORED
METHODOLOGY
Cultural Studies Approach
• Seek to discover what audiences
understands
from the text and it’s use in context
• Audiences with a shared cultural
background
will interpret the given content in
similar
ways
(Shannon 1948; Hall 1980; Morley 1992; McQuill 1997; Thwaitesm et. al 2002; Mikos 2008)
METHODOLOGYDOUBAN
• Hybrid of Amazon, IMDb &
Myspace
• 92.5% of users 18 to 35
• White-collared workers and
students
• Encourages honest contribution
on creative content
• One of the largest social library
system(Angelmae701 2009; Zhao et. al 2011; Bakhshi & Scneider 2013; Jiang 2013)
METHODOLOGY
1. Scrapped data off Bait’s Douban page
2. 4,384 comments collected and stored
offline
3. Identified 20 keywords
4. Narrowed down to 12 keywords for
keyword segmentation
METHODOLOGYEnglish Chinese Key Reasons Count
Ashton Chen 释小龙 • Marketed as male lead (but only made cameo appearance)• Famous actor in China
594
3D •Opinion on 3D 522
Bad/Not Good/Do Not Like
烂/不好看/不喜欢
343
China 中国 • Discover opinion on Chinese elements 193
Good/Like 好看 / 喜欢 150
Australia 澳大利亚 /
澳洲
• Discover opinions on Australian elements and audience awareness
54
Hero 英雄 • Qi character was labeled as a hero in Chinese media
36
Qi Yuwu 戚玉武 20
Singapore 新加坡 • Discover opinions on Singapore elements and audience awareness
11
THEMES
1. Chinese Elements: “Like Putting Milk on a
Burger”
2. Representation of Singapore and
Australia’s National Film Industry
3. 3D Effects: The Film’s Highlight
CHINESE ELEMENTS
Using Star Power:
• Ashton Chen aka Shi Xiao Long
• Promoted as the main star of the film
• Only made a cameo appearance (less
than 10 seconds)
• 93% of Comments mentioning Chen
were negative
CHINESE ELEMENTS
“Chen’s bald head was only out for 10 seconds, I don’t even
know what the point was”.
“…How can Shi Xiao Long be mentioned as starring when he
only appeared for a few second?”
CHINESE ELEMENTS
Representation of Chinese People:
• Adrian Pang (Singapore-Chinese actor)
• Qi Yuwu (Chinese actor based in
Singapore)
• Qi Yuwu’s heroic sacrifice gained a
positive reaction among Chinese
Audiences
• But the early death of both characters
gained a large number of negative
reviews
CHINESE ELEMENTS“The director catered to the Chinese audiences by knowing that
the heroic death of a Chinese character can be accepted by the
Chinese audience as heroic and self-sacrificing.”
“Portraying the Chinese character as heroic by sacrificing his life
for others was written into the plot very smoothly.”
CHINESE ELEMENTS
“What a terrible film! All the
Chinese actors died!”
“Didn’t kill the Westerners, but
killed all the Chinese people”
“The death of the Chinese
actors were forced into the
storyline and so
unnecessary…”
REPRESENTATION OF AUS & SG
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS:
• Singapore mentioned 11 times
• Australia mentioned 55 times
Identified Australia through the Beach
and Lifeguards
• America mentioned 29 times
3D EFFECTS
Qualitative Analysis:
• “Singapore” was not mentioned in a
single
comment
• Chinese audiences unaware of
Singapore’s involvement
LESSONS LEARNT
• Cultural elements (including values and
ideas) weave into plot logically shows
positive reaction
• Cultural elements forced into plot can be
felt by audience
• Representation of ALL participating nations’
film industry is difficult
• Majority of benefits from International Co-
productions happens behind-the-scenes
Angelmae701, 2009 ‘Douban.com; China’s Amazon/Digg hybrid social media network’, Shanghai Expat, 2 June, <http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/article/doubancom-chinas-amazondigg-hybrid-social-media-network-923.html>, viewed 15 July 2014. Bakhshi, H & Schneider, P 2013, ‘Found in translation: Understanding Chinese demand for British content’, Nesta, 1 August, <http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/found-translation-understanding-chinese-demand-british-content>, viewed 10 July 2014. Jiang, T 2013, ‘An exploratory study on social library system users’ information seeking modes’, Journal of Documentation, vol. 69, no. 1, p. 7.
Collins, H, McFadyen, S & Finn A 1999, ‘International joint ventures in the production of Australian feature films and television programs’, Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 127-139.
Coonan, C 2014, ‘Domestic productions were the driving force for an increase of $760 million in movie box office over the previous year’, Hollywood Reporter, 11 July,< http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-s-radio-film-tv-717941>, viewed 21 August 2014.
Khoo, O 2014, ‘Bait 3D and the Singapore-Australia co-production agreement: from content to creativity through stereoscopic technology’, Transnational Cinema, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 2.
McQuail, D 1997, Audience Analysis, Sage publication, London
Mikos, L, 2008 ‘Understanding text as cultural practice and as dynamic process of making’, Watching the Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s World Audience, Baker, M & Mathijs, E edn., Peter Lang, New York.
Morley, D 1992, Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies, Routledge, London pp. 1 – 38.
O’Regan, T 1996, ‘Making a national cinema’, Australian National Cinema, Routledge, New York, p. 48.
Schlesinger, P 1997, ‘From cultural defence to political culture: Media, politics and collective identity in the European Union,’ Media, Culture and Society, vol. 19, no, p. 372. 369-91.
Screen Australia 2013, International co-production program guidelines, Screen Australia, Canberra.
Shannon, CEA 1948, ‘Mathematical Theory of Communication’, Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 623-656.
Thwaitesm, T, Davis, L, Mules, W 2002, Introducing cultural and media studies: A semiotics approach, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Zhao, J, Lui, J.C.S, Towsley, D, Guan X & Zhou, Y 2011, ‘Empirical Analysis of the Evolution of Follower Network: A Case Study on Douban’, Computer Communication Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), April, pp. 924 – 925.
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