6 November 2014
Recently, the nine departments, commissions and bureaus including the Publicity Department of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and TV jointly issued the Policies on Promoting the Development of Shanghai’s Film Industry, which aim to develop Shanghai’s film industry through a series of key initiatives, including but not limited to government funding support, preferential taxation policies, financing support policies and increased talent cultivation etc.
On 27 October, the Shanghai Film Work Symposium was held at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. Mr Xu Lin, Member of Standing Committee and Director General of Publicity Department, CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Ms Weng Tiehui, Vice Mayor of Shanghai attended the meeting. The meeting proposed that Shanghai should grasp the rules of the development of film and capitalize on the advantages of Shanghai to expedite the cross-board integration between film and education, finance, science and technology so as to enrich the players of the industry, forge the whole industry chain of film industry and produce excellent works, thereby continuously upgrading the influence, competitiveness, persuasiveness and appeal of the Shanghainese culture.
In the afternoon of 3 November, the Shanghai Theatre Academy held its own Shanghai Film and STA Film Studies Discipline Development Seminar. Members of the STA leadership, heads of the key functional department, colleges and department, and part of the teachers and guest professors of the film studies discipline, totaling over 30 people, participated in the meeting. STA Party Secretary Mr Lou Wei, President Mr Han Sheng, Vice President Mr Gong Baorong and Zhang Weiling gave important speeches during the meeting.
The meeting noted that the film studies discipline of the Shanghai Theatre is facing a good development opportunity. The establishment of STA’s new campus in Pudong will provide a new space for the development of the film and TV disciplines as well as the new media disciplines. The high level of importance that has been attached to the film industry at the national and Shanghai municipal levels has created a favourable social environment for the construction of the film studies discipline. The film studies discipline of the Shanghai Theatre Academy should be proactive in innovation and strive to be the pioneers of the new generation.
The meeting noted that the Shanghai Theatre Academy has historically held the responsibility of being the centre of high education in film in Southern China and that the Shanghai Theatre Academy should consolidate and upgrade this position, increase the core competitiveness and international influence of its film studies discipline and optimize its education system as a modern university. In China’s framework of high education in film, the Shanghai Theatre Academy focuses primarily on cultivating the content producers, which is supplemented by cultivating the technical producers. The Shanghai Theatre Academy takes the cultivation of leading performers, screenwriters, directors, stage designers and photographers etc as its core objectives. It takes such specialties as theatrical literature, directing, acting, stage design, cinematography, film recording and film editing as the upgrading points and takes such other specialties as digital media technology and visual communication as the new growth points. It aims to establish the “4 plus 7” film studies system and give prominence to the competitiveness of the core specialties. The meeting reached the following consensus: (1) the film studies discipline belongs to the whole STA, instead of just the Academy of Film and TV; (2) the STA graduates are not cultivated only for Shanghai’s film industry, but to serve the national and international film industries; (3) STA’s film studies discipline should develop its distinctive characteristics, while maintaining the traditions.
The meeting also noted that the film studies discipline should be designed systematically with a high baseline and in foresighted manner. It requires solid and effective implementation. It also requires deepened exploration and practice in the areas of collaborative platform, team and echelon building, organizational structure for teaching, differentiated development structure, optimized teaching system and humanistic quality education, as well as international cooperation, working studio and research centre system, “teaching in doing” set teaching model and project-based creation of works etc.
