Middle Earth - China’s cultural industry podcast

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John Dietz of BangBang Pictures has worked on over 30 movies in China, ranging from blockbuster films to micro-budget independent projects. He has seen the domestic visual effects (VFX) industry grow tremendously since moving to China in 2009, and works as a third party who handles top-to-bottom implementation of VFX for film projects. He shares a few tricks of the trade, including how he finds success working with international teams, and provides details about the logistics of some of the projects that he has worked on. 

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Recommendations
-Animal World (动物世界 2019), a Chinese action-adventure film.
- Lost in Russia (囧妈 2020), a Chinese comedy that can be seen for free on Douyin.

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With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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For years, Chinese producers only had eyes for the “Hollywood model.” That is, big-budget projects and, hopefully, even bigger returns. After volatile times for the Chinese film industry, and events like the Fan Bingbing tax evasion scandal, producers realized that other business models can exist. We explore how this industry with Bridging the Dragon. This association has connected European and Chinese filmmakers since 2014, with the support of various Western film funds, production companies, and festivals (such as the FIRST International Film Festival

Featuring
Cristiano Bortone : Director & Bridging the Dragon Founder 

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

Link to other episode
- episode 23 about the FIRST International Film Festival

Recommendations
- Road Pictures (路画影视传媒 lù huà yǐngshì méi), a Chinese film distribution company that focuses on art house film.
- New Classics Media (新丽传媒 xīn lí chuánméi), a Chinese entertainment and media company that focuses on remakes.
- Mahua Fun Age (开心麻花 kāixīn máhuā), a Chinese company that focuses on comedy films and live theater.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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Key opinion leaders, or KOLs, have a strong connection to Chinese internet users and are now highly sought after to sell products to huge audiences on ecommerce websites and streaming platforms. We dive into the reasons why this growing industry works so well in China and how, eventually, live streamers may end up consuming the same brands that hired them in the first place.

Featuring
Elijah Whaley : Chief Marketing Officer at PARKLU

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Recommendation
- Lǐ Jiāqí 李佳琦, also known as Austin Li, a famous livestreamer
-  Melilim Fu, a beauty and makeup influencer.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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China’s culture and entertainment industry is bracing for serious challenges amid the COVID-19 epidemic. This particularly applies to the film and tourism sectors, which are facing significant headwinds. Yet while people remain quarantined at home, short-video apps and the gaming sector are seeing massive traffic spikes.

Featuring
Terry Mieremet : Entrepreneur in the Tourism Industry
Cecily Huang : Producer at Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Sebastian Francois : Gaming Industry Consultan

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Quiz's answers
- The Spanish flu was the deadliest flu epidemic ever recorded.
- The most viewed films in China right now are Contagion and The Flu.
- Battle of Pathogens is the game co-launched by the publicity department of Haidian District Committee and People's Daily and developed by Bytedance-owned Ohayoo.
- There have been 20,000 concerts canceled in China and Hong Kong since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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Dalian Wanda Group, led by billionaire Wáng Jiànlín 王建林, invested heavily in China's movie industry over the past decade. In 2014, at the cost of $8 billion, Wanda Studios Qingdao was founded. This move was aimed at establishing a dynamic supply chain that would be able to facilitate the creation of entire films, from production to distribution. After debt issues forced Wanda to sell its majority stake in the venture to Sunac, another Chinese property developer, the studios were rebranded as Oriental Movie Metropolis.

Gary Kho, the former chief technical officer and chief marketing officer of Wanda Studios Qingdao, worked for the studios throughout their construction. In this interview, he describes how the facilities were built, identifies some of the challenges that the film industry faces domestically, and expounds on his work in bridging divides between China’s film and TV industry and those abroad.

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

Recommended watching
- Wandering Earth (流浪地球 2019), shot at Wanda Studios.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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How do the Chinese government and companies engage with the public in Africa? Nillah Nyakoa (journalist at China Radio International), Eric Olander (managing editor of The China Africa Project), and Maria Repnikova (assistant professor of global communications) join host Aladin Farré to explore the different ways China sells, and fails to sell, its story to an entire continent.

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

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Recommendations:
- The TV series Mao Doudou and Her Sweet Days (媳妇的美好时代 2009), which was dubbed in Swahili.
- Two Chinese vloggers, Zhao Huiling and Fyjo Molly, who travel throughout Africa.
- The short-video app Vskit, which is made by the Shenzhen-based mobile phone manufacturer Transsion.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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Professor Federico Castigliano is the author of Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris, which was published in English and Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2018. he talks about the process of writing and publishing a book in China and how it compares with the process in Europe and the U.S.

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Like the podcast? Take a few minutes to fill out this survey.

Recommended reading
- Brothers (兄弟 2005) by Yú Huá (余华).

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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This week on Middle Earth, Aladin and his guests take a look at the film production industry in Europe. Li Boyan and William Wang, both industry professionals working and living in France, help provide some insight. They reflect on what they’ve experienced over their years shooting and producing film projects and advertisements, describe what it’s like working as middlemen for Chinese clients who come to France (a majority of which they are able to procure through WeChat), and share their thoughts on collaborating across cultures in Europe as young professionals from China. 

Featuring
William Wang : Producer & Fixer
Li Boyan: Photographer

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Recommendations
- The Map and the Territory, a book by French author Michel Houellebecq.
-Delicatessen (1991) and The City of Lost Children (1995), films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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Song Wen, founder of the FIRST International Film Festival, discusses the history of one of China’s most promising festivals for the visual arts. Once in danger of being shut down by the authorities in Beijing, the festival has found a new home in China’s west — the provincial capital of Qinghai Province, Xining. This year, hundreds of films were screened to more than 30,000 audience members, and 19 budding directors emerged from a highly selective process to pitch their films to China’s film industry elites. In this episode, Song Wen explains how the festival has evolved from a minor student event to one of the most important cultural events in China’s still-maturing film industry. 

Featuring
Song Wen | 宋文 : FIRST International Film Festival Founder

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Recommendations
- Old Beast 老兽 (2017)
- The Looming Storm 暴雪将至 (2017)
- An Elephant Sitting Still 大象席地而坐 (2018)
- Dying to Survive 我不是药神 (2018)
- Mosaic Portrait 马赛克少女 (2019)

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

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What is it like to work as a storyteller in the Chinese film and TV industry? What is the relationship between producers and scriptwriters? How can one write a story that will resonate with Chinese audiences, and what is the market looking for? This podcast, recorded live at the The SLab in Beijing, explores these questions and the trials and tribulations of writing for the big screen. 

Featuring:

Cai Jinru | 薄荷菜 : Screenwriter
Jordan DeFazio : Screenwriter & Lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy
Joey Wang : Screenwriter

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

Recommended watching:
- Jordan’s Music Video
- I Love My Family 我爱我家 (1994)
- Nothing in the Mirror 空镜子 (2002)
- My Own Swordsman 武林外传 (2006)
- Dwelling Narrowness 蜗居 (2009)
- Nirvana in Fire 琅琊榜 (2015)
-Burning Ice 无证之罪 (2017)

Answers to the episode quiz:-
- Yanxi Palace( 延禧攻略) is the TV show that has been the most Googled in 2018.
- There has been 29 cinematographic adaptations of Journey to the West  over 9 decades.
- Looper (2012) was the first film to make additional scenes for the Chinese audience. It was followed in 2013 by “Iron Man” and “21 and Over”.

With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.