The first International Documentary Week for Environmental Protection in China was held in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province from September 1-5.
"The price of outstanding documentaries overseas can reach 85 to 115 euros per minute. However, Chinese documentaries can only sell for 20-40 euros," Insiders from Chinese documentary said. "Chinese documentaries are still suffering from low rating and being unable to make ends meet. China should set up its documentary market as soon as possible. Documentaries should be commercialized while fully displaying the artistic power. Thus Chinese documentary can make its own stand in the international market."
"Commercialized documentaries have been commonplaces in the international circles," said Leng Yefu, vice director of documentary committee under the National Broadcast & TV Association. "There are special channels for documentaries in some commercial TV stations in Europe. Or they have time (mainly golden hours) particularly for documentaries. For example, the UK has seven documentary channels, but China has only two."
"Low-cost, small production and unshaped documentaries cannot enter the international market," said Zhang Yaoli, an initiator of the documentary week. "Those big budget documentaries produced by National Geographic Magazine of the US bring in huge profit. These documentaries have big investments, generally hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars for each program. They have not only been broadcasted over the world, but also been made into discs selling to corners in the world."
"Choosing the subjects with market potential is key to the success of a documentary," Zhang continued. "Too many domestic documentaries are produced by staff in TV stations. The stations provide all the fund and equipment. Thus the directors do not care about whether the documentaries can be sold out or not. What they care about is the productions with their own style. If we can commercialize the documentaries, then more and more people will like documentaries and we can maximize the profit."
Chinese TV documentaries have a 50-year history. At present, more than 5,000 people are directly involved in documentary production with more than 12,000 minutes of documentary footage shot per year. These works help the world know China better and some have met with world acclaim. Still Chinese documentaries are way below the international average in shooting skill and distribution channels.
According to Leng, CCTV will adopt related rules to enhance the development of documentaries within the year, and it will also open a documentary channel.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua, September 9, 2006)