Shooting mini-dramas with digital videos (DV) has become a new trend among university students.
"Relax. Two steps forward. Hang on. Perfect!" The director is Xiao Wang, a student at a university in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, who was recently busy shooting and issuing instructions to his cast of amateurs.
While there are no major film studios involved nor is there a possibility of success at the box-office, Xiao Wang considers the DV drama an important accomplishment. "I will graduate soon, and I want to shoot a mini-drama to record the days of our lives on campus here," he said.
The more technology develops, the less filmmaking becomes a privilege of the professional moviemaker.
And, college students, in spite of their relatively limited lifestyles, are curious about new technology and tend to try out new gadgets to spice up their lives.
In most film experiments, they write their own scripts and choose their own cast members.
A group of Tsinghua students shot a DV mini-drama, "Dormitory Talk", two years ago to record the conversations of students from two different dormitories.
That was followed by another campus drama, "My Golden Days", by students at Xi'an Jiaotong University. It was put on the Internet and sparked a minor revolution in DV drama making.
Amateur DV filmmakers have also turned their sights on broader social topics and have been making films on the living conditions of construction workers, the mentally disabled and other less fortunate people, and pollution.
Tsinghua student Xing Guangli made a small film last semester about an old man living along the Great Wall who picks up bottles, cans and other rubbish left around by tourists.
"In producing the DV film, I wanted to raise environmental protection awareness," explained Xing.
Fortunately, some of the student films reach a wider audience. Some, like "Dormitory Talk", are made available over the Internet, others, including Xing's short film, have appeared on TV.
Phoenix TV has a 12-minute programme called "DV New Age", running from Monday to Friday, where students provide original DV dramas to provoke discussions of social issues.
The channel held an awards ceremony recently in Beijing, with students from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Broadcasting Institute, Shanghai University, and Shanghai Theatre Academy gaining recognition.
"By shooting these films, students not only explore the vast potential of video in delivering messages and recording events, but also learn to observe society closely and express concerns about social issues seen from a young perspective," said Liao Xiangzhong, a professor at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute.
(21st Century Gu Chenjie and Chen Siyu 24-04-2003)
