Shanghai's Science and Technology Museum and Media Group have jointly launched 'Golden Monkey', China's first domestically made documentary-style 4D science film.
The parties say that the film is a prelude to competing with western film companies that provide almost all of the IMAX and other special-effects science movies.
The movie, which is about endangered wild monkeys in rural Hubei Province, only lasts 15 minutes, but it took a 16-member production team a month to shoot and cost 2 million yuan.
A 4D movie goes beyond 3D to use a theater equipped with movable seats, artificial wind and other interactive devices.Several audience members who saw the film’s debut were impressed.
"This movie is pretty well made. I have learned quite a lot about wildlife from it," Wang Yu said.
"Compared with a normal animal documentary, this new movie looks more real and vivid," Ren Yizhou said.
The film’s producer said that the purpose of making a Chinese science film is not just to meet the demands of Chinese viewers.
"I used to be quite obsessed with documentaries on the Discovery Channel and other foreign documentaries. Now we have our own movie about our own endangered animals. Several foreign countries have expressed interest in our film and footage. I know one Australian company is planning to import the movie," ‘Golden Monkey’ producer Xu Wei said.
The Science Museum has the city's biggest special movie theater. Since 2001, it has shown some 20 IMAX and 4D science movies, but almost all were imported. While such films do well at the box office, museum officials want to reduce the cost.
"If we import a foreign-made IMAX science film, we have to pay an annual rental of more than US$100,000. You see given a budget that is the combined rental for two such movies, we can simply make a 4D movie of our own and show it at various theaters. That way, we will greatly reduce our costs," Li Wei, Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, said.
Li says that making an IMAX movie would cost the museum a lot more than ‘Golden Monkey,’ and producers say that it would cost nearly US$10 million to make a science movie to be shown on Shanghai's biggest IMAX screen. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum officials say that they will conduct careful market research before starting production, especially when choosing a suitable subject for a 40-minute film.