BITING INTO BAIT (2012):Lessons for Future

Australia and Singapore Co-ProductionsBy: Kai Ruo

Soh

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

US $3.6 billionin 2013 (Coonan 2013)

Signed a Treaty with China and Started Producing Films

Together for the Chinese Market Since 2008

OFFICIAL SINO-AUSTRALIA CO-PRODUCTIONS

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)

CHAPTER ONERoad to China

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

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 PROMISE

THE DEPARTED (2006)

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

CHAPTER TWOAudience the

Commander of Success: Thesis

Methodology

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)

METHODOLOGY

Focus on CHINESE AUDIENCE on

Chinese social networking site

DOUBAN

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

CHAPTER THREE“Like Putting Milk on a Burger”: Discussion

of Results

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

Quantitative Analysis:

• 522 Comments

• 51% Positive

• 32% Negative

• 17% Neutral

3D EFFECTS

Qualitative Analysis:

• “Singapore” was not mentioned in a

single

comment

• Chinese audiences unaware of

Singapore’s involvement

CONCLUSIONTHE TRUTH BETWEEN POLICY AND REALITY

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

THANK YOU!

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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