AWARD-winning Chinese filmmakers Zhou Hao, 48, and Zhao Qi, 40, were in Malaysia to talk about their documentary, The Chinese Mayor, which won the Special Jury Award for Unparalleled Access at the Sundance Film Festival 2015.
Here are seven tips they have for aspiring filmmakers:
1. Don’t go into documentaries until you’re older than 30. Why? So you’ll have more financial backing and life experience. Zhou Hao said he can’t see a 20-year-old persuading a 50-year-old to fund a movie.
2. No film is worth losing your life for, which leads back to the point about not doing documentaries before you’ve hit 30, when you’d be able to better judge what you should and shouldn’t do.
3. Having a mentor is always useful but life experience is more important. Skills can be learnt at school, but going through trials and succeeding may teach you more.
Zhou Hao (middle) and Zhao Qi (right) speaking about their documentary, The Chinese Mayor, during a Q&A session in Kuala Lumpur
4. Zhao Qi said in order to connect with your audience, you must first be honest with yourself and create a film you genuinely believe in. To make an impression at film festivals, however, you must first understand the objectives of the different festivals, and figure out which will work best for your films.
5. Both men said they prefer smaller crews, as it means less distractions and “interference”. But smaller crews also mean less support, so it really depends on the scale of your production.
6. Zhao Qi said it’s important to see both sides of every story and get as many different perspectives as possible. Both he and Zhou Hao were former journalists, and they believe this makes them more balanced as storytellers, and it also helps them connect better with their characters.
7. If you want to earn a fortune, don’t do documentaries. There’s not a lot of money in it, but you will gain a lot of experiences that money can’t buy.
by
Tell us what you think!