An actor checks his mobile phone on a Chinese film set. (Photo : Reuters)
As the development of longtime practices changes rapidly through the disruptions caused by 21st-century technology, the film industry is not immune to a process that has left established practitioners of all kinds of disciplines confounded and shaking their heads.
While "auteur" is still a prestigious term reserved for a particular niche of directors among academic and critical film circles, in the realm of Chinese movie production, such titles are not so precious: enter the "product manager."
While the notion of a product manager taking over the director's chair would be considered blasphemous on some production lots, the industry in China is simply using the development to represent the changing face of media marketing.
A broader analysis reveals that U.S. production companies have already been making strides in the area. For example, Netflix used the data from its users' preferences to recruit actor Kevin Spacey for the successful "House of Cards" adaptation. Not only do consumers exert more influence in the new era of media, but filmmakers can attain greater creative control.
A key milestone in China is the appointment of author-director Guo Jingming as the country's first movie product manager. Le Vision Pictures CEO Zhang Zhao sees Guo as a product manager who carefully oversees the areas of product development and marketing, in addition to the creation of the film product. Furthermore, Guo is acknowledged as the person who knows his target audience better than anybody, and this has led to the casting of certain young actors and the shooting of humorous behind-the-scenes footage.
Meanwhile, the director of last year's "Fleet of Time," Zhang Yibai, realized how helpless a director can be in the production environment, so he became more actively involved. He told the media: "I feel like I made two movies this time--the first was the film 'Fleet of Time' itself, and the second was the film presented during marketing."
Similar to the music industry, those who are slow to adapt will not only be left behind commercially, but they might also fail to realize the benefits of the new economy.
