Chinese Scriptwriting for OTT Movie
COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of the course, participants will be able to: Understand the trends and development of over-the-top services (OTT) in China Understand the principles of scriptwriting and storytelling Develop techniques of screenwriting Develop and write treatment for screenplay Create the specific component of scripting for OTT: structure, dramatic composition, characterization. Develop and write a screenplay for a full-length fiction for the China OTT market
COURSE CONTENT Trends in China over-the-top services (OTT) and content development Principles of scriptwriting and storytelling Ideation and story development Introduction to treatment Treatment development and writing Treatment practice Visualisation and screenplay structure Theme & characterisation Story Bible Scene breakdown Scene writing From treatment to scene breakdown From screen breakdown to script
Trainers’ Profile
Workshop Trainer
XIAO JI XIANG TIAN 小吉祥天
Xiao Tian is best known for creating, supervising and writing the supernatural suspense drama “The Ferry Man”《灵魂摆渡》, which won the Best Internet Drama
Award in the 2014 Internet Drama Research Conference. The series was produced by iQiyi and Beijing Changxin, with Zhang Yu Xin as Producer and Guo Jing Yu as Art Director.
In 2015, he supervised and wrote “The Ferry Man II” series which gained 100 million hits in the first three days of online release. Eventually, it crossed 1 billion hits at the end of the season. In 2016, he supervised and wrote the third franchise of the online series “The Ferry Man III” and also created the theatre edition named “The Ferry Man: Absolute Beauty”. The three seasons were big hits in the country and crossed 2 billion viewership in aggregate.
His recent work “The Ferry Man – Manjusaka”《灵魂摆渡- 黄泉》became the first online movie to break the revenue sharing record of RMB 40 million with 170 million views in just 120 days.
The film generated RMB 61 million (S$12.7 million) in its first month of release. This small budget online movie was made with less than S$2 million budget and telecast on iQiyi.
Xiao Tian won the Best Scriptwriter Award in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the iQiyi Scream Night.
Workshop Trainer
SUO YABIN 索亚斌
One of the top film experts in China. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Peking University and Ph.D. in Film Studies from the Communication University of China. He is currently a professor at the Communication University of China. His works include The Aesthetic Style of Hong Kong Action Films, Appreciation of Classical Film & Teleplay Works, History of Chinese Animation Films, Types and Authors: A Study of Commercial Aesthetics of Contemporary Chinese Films. He worked as the planner, the host and the guest of film channel’s programme such as "A Good Film Contract" and "Today's Film Review". He also participated in the script and project planning for Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen’s well-known film works. He served as the judges of Shanghai International Film Festival, Beijing University Film Festival, and Ten Chinese Film Selections.
Workshop Trainer
LI ZHI CHAO 李志超
A young and renowned scriptwriter in mainland China and the founder of Hong Hai
Er Creative Team 红孩儿创作组. He graduated from the Communication University of China with a Master's Degree in Film and has rich experience in scriptwriting.
His script “Love You, Love You”《很爱很爱你》was selected under the 2nd Season:
Support For Youth With Outstanding Film And Drama Project Plan organised by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. He was selected as a member of the youth working committee of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association. He also served as the assistant director on the sets of drama series
“Red Lady” 《红娘子》, “Dog Stick” 《打狗棍》, and the scheduler of the drama series “Yangko Dance” 《大秧歌》. He was the scriptwriter for the drama series
“Deep Brotherly Love”《兄弟情深》and “STB Super Teacher”《STB 超级教师》.
In 2019, he completed the scripts for iQiyi’s period action drama “Fearless”《霍元
甲》, due for release in the third quarter of the year.
You Xiaoguang 游晓光
You Xiaoguang has a Doctorate degree from Beijing Film Academy and is currently a lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University. His research is based on overseas film and television communication. Several of his papers have been published in China's most authoritative academic journals, including Contemporary Cinema, Film Art, Journal of Beijing Film Academy, and Modern Communication. He has also participated in the behind-the-scene planning of many domestic movies and TV series in China.
Online Trainer
WU DE 伍德
Born in 1988, Master of Arts, Communication University of China, Wude currently is the vice president of Beijing Changxin Culture & Media Co., Ltd. Since 2011, he has been devoting to film and television industry. Besides being a film critic, he has also worked as a director for television, and as project manager for film and TV drama projects. His experience in project planning and co-ordination is solid.
In 2011, he joined Guangzhou Television as the television director and quickly became the main drive. Since 2012, he has been selected as a member of several national research projects and completed research on English-American dramas, type films, and film directors. His related achievements are assembled into publications. Since 2013, he has been the special reporter and author for magazines such as Popular Film, Universal Screen and Movie Expo Impact, and has published dozens of articles.
In 2014, he joined Tencent as a short video and network drama project manager who was responsible for the complete process of project evaluation, docking, quality monitoring, operation and marketing, and formulated the "network drama dividend policy" system. He led nearly 300 network drama, including "Addiction", "Chen Ergou's Evil Life" and "Don't Kiss Me" and so on. These projects have become blockbusters at that time.
In 2017, he joined Tencent Film Industry as a project manager, leading the team of 5 people to complete the product design, set up operation rules and carry out marketing activities of "BiKan APP". He has joined "Jianxin picture" since 2018, and has made the promotion and distribution work of network film "Huangquan", "Niangdao", "Perfect Youth" and participated in the programming of the TV series "Huo Yuanjia", "The Little Nyonya" and "Handsome Siblings".
Clinic Trainer
WANG LIN 王林
Master of Arts, Communication University of China, Wang Lin is the film producer, creative director currently in Tencent Penguin Film Culture. She was the special author of "Global Screen" and "Movie Watching". She became promotional director of Yao Chen's studio. She also worked for famous director Peter Chen and producer Jo Jo Hui as the creative director. In recent years, She has participated in the film planning and promotion work of “Soulmate", "Love You”, “Better Days", "Li Na:My Life". Her latest work is the online movie "Secret Service Elite" series, which has more than 62 million online hits.
Clinic Trainer
BORIS BOO 巫培双
He made his directorial debut in 2009 where he co-directed "Where Got Ghost? " with Jack Neo. Prior to his film debut, Boris conceptualised and scripted numerous sitcoms, short films and variety shows in MediaCorp Studios and J Team.
In 2007, "Just Follow Law", a film that Boris wrote was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 44TH Golden Horse Awards 2007. Boris also directed features such as, "Aku Tak Bodoh" (Malay remake of I Not Stupid 2), "Phua Chu Kang The Movie", "Greedy Ghost", and "Filial Party". In 2017, he directed comedy film "Lucky Boy".
Boris recently bagged the Best Short-form Drama Serial Award in the Star Awards 2019. He was the Head Scriptwriter for the series that are broadcast on MediaCorp’s online content provide Toggle. Boris is also an Associate Lecturer in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, teaching modules related to directing and scriptwriting.
COURSE SCHEDULE 1st Lesson (Workshop) 7 SEP 2019 (SATURDAY) China film market overview Trends in China over-the-top services (OTT) and content development Introduction to storytelling and scriptwriting
2nd Lesson (Workshop) 8 SEP 2019 (SUNDAY) Research and story development Introduction to treatment Treatment development and writing
3rd Lesson (Clinic) 14 SEP 2019 (SATURDAY) Review and feedback on draft treatment
4th Lesson (Clinic) 15 SEP 2019 (SUNDAY) Review and feedback on draft treatment
EMAIL 21 SEP 2019 (SATURDAY) Submit Treatment to be reviewed by China writers
5th Lesson (Workshop) 28 SEP 2019 (SATURDAY) Review final treatment The script writing process Theme & Characterisation
6th Lesson (Workshop) 29 SEP 2019 (SUNDAY) Media platforms for the target audience and the relevant engagement Scene and dialogue writing After class consultation
ONLINE 6 OCT 2019 Submission of Final Treatment to Chinese Pitch Writing 1st script draft
7th Lesson (Clinic) 19 OCT 2019 (SATURDAY) 1-on-1 script consultation
8th Lesson (Clinic) 20 OCT 2019 (SUNDAY) 1-on-1 script consultation
ONLINE 13 OCT 2019 (SUNDAY) 2nd Script draft submission to be reviewed by China script writers
9th Lesson (Workshop) 2 NOV 2019 (SATURDAY) Script review and feedback
10th Lesson (Workshop) 3 NOV 2019 (SUNDAY) Script review and feedback Participants to revise their script after consultation
EMAIL 5 NOV 2019 (TUESDAY) Final draft submission to the ATF Chinese Pitch 2019 at the Asia TV Forum