Film company shoots for global role
By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-08 15:04 SHANGHAI: In his light blue short-sleeved shirt
and dark trousers, the slim and athletic Ren Zhonglun looks more like a
university don than a movie producer and the senior executive of an
entertainment empire in Shanghai, the nation's most cosmopolitan city.
His quiet voice and unassuming manner are a true reflection of the
pragmatic strategy that has laid the foundations for the entry of Shanghai's
movie and entertainment industry onto the global marketplace. As the president
of the Shanghai Film Group Corp (SFG), Ren oversees the production of more than
20 feature films, cartoons and documentaries and 300 episodes of TV dramas every
year. With total assets in excess of 2 billion yuan (US$250 million), the SFG is
China's second-largest movie production house, after Beijing-based China Film
Corp.
In the greenhouse-style conference room at the SFG's headquarters,
Ren says there is no magic formula for filmmaking. This former professor of
Chinese literature at Shanghai Normal University said that although movies
belong to the arts, "everything we do must be commercially viable."
To
ensure that this is the case, Ren has been responsible for a number of
innovations. The most important of these, according to him, is to have started
co-operating with "non-mainland" directors, producers, artistes and specialists
in many different aspects of filmmaking.
In an industry where the major
players are known to have massive egos, seeking outside help is not something
that can be discussed casually. But Ren was obviously persuasive enough, as he
convinced the SFG's board of directors and his colleagues that outside expertise
was required to help the company break into overseas markets. In the past couple
of years, "we have produced several box office hits that were directed by Hong
Kong directors," Ren said.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
|
