Master Placement Report

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Master Placement Report

 

Student:

Manqi ZHAO

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Arts, Culture and Media

Placement supervising lecturer:

Annelies van Noortwijk

Placement providing organization:

Name: Kicking Cultures B.V. Supervisor: Michiel Ebbing Address: Sarphatistraat 660, Postal Code: 1018AC

City & Country: Amsterdam, the Netherlands Phone nr.: +31646250677

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Internship Report

Manqi Zhao 

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I. Introduction

Finding an internship was a struggle for me at the beginning. As an international student who does not speak Dutch, it seemed impossible to find an opportunity in the Netherlands in an area that I am most interested in: the production of a documentary. Yet, life is full of surprise. Following some advice from the internship advisor and different professors, I first contacted the director of the Confucius Institute Groningen, who later introduced me to a Dutch producer, Michiel Ebbing. Michiel was working on his first documentary: kicking cultures. It turned out that they were looking for a Chinese-speaking intern for the project. The documentary is about Chinese football development, and the intern was expected to translate footages from Chinese to English and to bring a Chinese perspective to the project. To be honest, as an art, culture, and media student, football has never been of my biggest interest. Nonetheless, after meeting Michiel, I learned that this documentary does not merely focus on Chinese football as a game, but it rather uses football as a lens through which one could discover and understand the cultural, social, educational and economic aspects of China. Such perspective immediately caught my attention. Intercultural communication has always been my passion since I arrived in Europe in 2010. How to understand a different culture? What is in lack to reach a mutual understanding? A strategy is to find common grounds, on which we could first connect and then touch on the differences. Art can play this role, so as football. Realizing this was the moment when I am convinced that this is an opportunity that I should not miss. However, when I present my placement plan to our study advisor Lucia van Hetelen, her direct feedback challenged me to re-examine the value of the experience: Was this truly a valuable experience? Alternatively, was I simply blinded by my enthusiasm? A documentary about football does not associate with art, culture, and media, but the making of a documentary is a creative process per se. Moreover, the documentary covers other cultural aspects which are relevant to the Master program.

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II. Description of placement provider

Kicking Cultures B.V. is a company founded by Michiel Ebbing in 2016. As a start-up business, the company currently focuses on producing a documentary about Chinese football development and on organizing

children camps. Making a documentary and organizing camps for kids both serve the vision of the company: to improve mutual understanding between China and Europe. Michiel has studied and worked in China for years. His enthusiasm for China and football inspired him to start the Kicking Cultures project. Through this documentary, he would share his unique journey to understand the mysterious, maybe queer for some, China. His experiences, knowledge, and connections in the country stimulate the key ideas of the project. On the other hand, Kids are the future. What would be better than providing them the opportunity to experience firsthand the culture, life, and weather in a different country? Camps for children seem to be a logical, creative, and suitable means.

Yiro B.V. is a production company founded by Neal Petersen and Joris Boerhof. They specialize in producing mainly sport-related online video contents: interviews, talk shows, reportages, etc. The founders worked in the Dutch television industry for many years. They thus gained valuable experiences and built up extensive networks in the field. Joris Boerhof is the director and editor of the documentary. They are a pivotal partner for the documentary project.

III. The Documentary project

The embryonic stage

The idea of the documentary project arises from Michiel’s personal experience in China and his passion for football. He arrived in China for the first time in 2006. As every foreigner, Michiel encountered difficulties in integrating into the Chinese society due to the language barrier and cultural differences. But football made it possible. Football became the common ground where he built up connections with locals and got to know and understand the outlandish but attractive culture. His connections and experiences in China, more precisely in the Chinese football world, gave him the possibility to have a different insight over what is really going on in China: an insider view of the country. Although news about China and Chinese football covers the media in the western world, the information available is rather limited, or even inaccurate sometimes. A different image need to be revealed. That’s why this documentary is worth being made.

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In the making

The research for the documentary started in 2015 and lasted for around one year. In October 2016 and in May 2017, the film crew, holding a J-2 Visa issued by the Chinese government, travelled to China for shooting. In China we had the opportunity to follow local Chinese children and adults, visit schools, conduct interviews with professors, doctors, football trainers, government officials and other people responsible for the football reform. The documentary is shot in Beijing and Dengfeng (Shaolin Temple).

Post-production

With the footages from the first trip, we made a trailer for exclusive use. The trailer gives a preview of the documentary so that the potential investors can judge the quality of the image and the story. The producers of the documentary have never ceased promoting the project. They have been in contact with companies like Nike, Campania, and main television channels in the Netherlands. They are also considering and designing an innovative channel to release the movie so that it can reach its full potential. After the second trip to China last May, the documentary is currently in the editing phase. It is expected to be released in September.

IV. Learning goals and outcomes

My first and only experience with making a documentary was for the purpose of a course during the last year of my bachelor program; together with three other fellow students, we made a 8 minutes documentary: the Anonymous. Such a student project gave us a first taste of what a film-making experience could be like, but it is still unparalleled to a real professional experience. Therefore, my main goal for this internship is to become familiar with the creative practices of making a full-length documentary and to learn by the sides of experienced professionals. I wished to be part of a small team in order to be involved with in

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every aspect of the documentary project; on the other hand I wished to have concrete tasks to accomplish so that I could not only learn but also contribute something to the project.

One aspect that I underestimated was the amount of time and efforts one needs to put into the repetitive and boring tasks in order to bring the most brilliant and glorious ideas to life. When I thought of creativity, I often visualized the lightning bulb moments when your mind was brimming with genius ideas. Many times during the internship, we were brainstorming about what could the storyline be like, which music could fit to the image. It was always exciting to talk about ideas and most ideas add to the final documentary project. But the moment when Michiel asked: “Could you write down in one page the ideas you just mentioned?”, the excitement vanished; because a yes to this question equals another two hours of tedious writing. The same goes to editing; playing with different scenes and put them in order seems enjoyable, but going through hundreds of hours of footages, and selecting the scenes that could be played with was very draining. Translating was one of the main tasks that I had to carry out independently. Although it was time-consuming and tedious, it was valuable as it is indispensable, fore and foremost, for Joris, the editor, to understand what he is editing; and it also allowed me to get familiar with the topic and the material. Being creative is not only about having ideas but also about working hard to embody those ideas.

Finally, it was my desire to experience firsthand a documentary shooting trip. The desire was fulfilled at the last part of the internship: I traveled to China with the film crew for two weeks. During the trip, we worked with a Dutch cameraman, Michel Molder and a local sound engineer, Li Shuo. They both excel in their jobs. Personally, I conducted a few interviews, contacted the local government office to obtain approval for shooting in a school, and I also had the opportunity to observe how crew member perform their work and made sure that I could be available at all time. In these two weeks, I recognize the importance of being careful and enjoyed being flexible, tactful and patient.

V. Description of tasks and outcomes

The internship took place one day a week in the office in Amsterdam. Besides, I was regularly translating footages from Chinese to English, following the update on social media regarding the development of Chinese football, and contacting Chinese cooperator from home. Moreover, I also participated in the shooting trip to China for two weeks in May. The total working hours per week were estimated to be 10 hours to 16 hours, but in reality, I invested

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beyond estimation as I was interested in the topic and the translation or transcription of footages are time-consuming. During the time, I was assigned varied and specific tasks, including:

- _{Researching for the documentary}

As I mentioned earlier, I regularly followed the updates on Chinese social media regarding the topics discussed in the documentary. For examples, pollution problem; health issue; the development of Chinese football; new policy documents released by the Chinese government or other official institutions; The research helped me to be familiar with the football world and thus understand the content and perspective of our documentary.

- Translating or transcribing Chinese interviews 

Translating was one of the main tasks that I had to carry out independently. Although it was time-consuming and tedious, it was valuable as it is indispensable for Joris, the editor, to understand what he is editing; and it also allowed me to get familiar with the topic and the footages. Knowing the importance of translation for the documentary, I tried not only to translate the meaning of the words but also the emotions hidden in between the lines. I would not say that I succeeded in convey both in my translation, as I am not a trained translator, but I have tried my best. As the current translation is only for the editing, I first transcribe the audio into text which might facilitate the work of professional translator in the end. Besides the interviews, I also translated the pitch book and the company’s website.

- Contacting Chinese partners and organizations 

Another task which was new to me was to contact Chinese partners and organizations. I have not yet worked in or with Chinese companies or government official. Even as a Chinese, I knew little about how things work in the country. I was assigned to contact a school to get approval to shoot during the PE class. However, I was told several times that it was impossible to get an approval even before I started. Indeed, it turned out to be a long battle, as we had to contact different persons, received contradicting indications regarding the alleged official procedure of getting an approval. In the end, we also had to adjust our shooting plan, but we got the approval at the very last moment. It was an interesting experience for me to see how important is for the producer to be creative, flexible and persevering.

- Selecting background music and scenes 

As I was involved in all aspects of the project, it was also my task to search for suitable background music. I found a song from a Chinese folk singer which fit the documentary very well. To get the license of the song, I contacted first the manager of the singer, who

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later referred me to his colleague in the Universal Music Group in China as the song has been bought with the full right by Universal. It was the first time for me to deal with music copyright with professional companies. I learned that there are several types of license for music in a film. The price could reach to tens of thousands of euro depending on the range of distribution of the movie.

- Preparing materials for and participating in the fundraising process   Preparing materials for and participating in the fundraising process  

The main materials used to present the documentary project to potential investors and buyers are the exclusive trailer and the pitch book. The trailer contains quotes and images from the main characters and briefly shows the quality of the picture and the relevancy of the story. Almost everyone who has watched the trailer was enthusiastic about the final documentary. Among these people, there are Chinese football experts, Dutch media groups and marketing managers of companies who have an interest in football or China. I participated in a meeting with a Dutch official in the embassy of the Netherlands in China, where Michiel presented the documentary project and the trailer. The pitch book is another element for promoting the documentary. I selected the music and a few quotes that I found interesting for the trailer. I was also asked to give feedback on them.

- _{Participating in the shooting trip to China}

In May, I traveled with the film crew to China for the second shooting. The trip lasted for two weeks which gave me sufficient time to observe and learn different aspects of shooting a documentary. This shooting experience was unique and unconventional. The schedule was spontaneous but substantial. Many decisions were made on the spot. The producer and the cameraman often discussed and designed certain scenes during the trip. My tasks were to conducting interviews, thinking about new scenes to shoot, and being available at all times.

-Designing the storyline 

The documentary covers a wide range of topics: educational, cultural, environmental and economical. How to incorporate all these topics into one storyline? How to represent each topic, through interviews, images, or figures? To answer these questions, Michiel made a wall filled with pictures of selected scenes and put them in a certain order. I was asked to analyze the wall and try to understand his version of the story. In the end, I also wrote down in one page my own version of the story.

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VI. Evaluation

Grierson defined documentary as ‘the creative treatment of actuality.' After doing some reading, I could understand and analyze from an intellectual level what a creative treatment of actuality means. However, during the shooting trip in China, the creative treatment became concrete practices. For instance, once we were filming the scene of our main character visiting his university. To our surprise, he ran into his old coach. We failed to capture audibly and visually the exact moment when they met each other. Therefore, we asked them to re-create the encounter. This is just one of many other examples. Was that a lie? Certainly not. It might not completely be what has happened the first time; it is a representation of what we have actually seen. It would be naive to believe that all documentaries are unedited, raw footages adding up chronically one after the other. Making a documentary is about making a story which represents a certain reality. It is less about the reality than the angle which is used to perceive the reality.

I have always wished to pursue a career in the creative industry, ideally in an intercultural setting. My main goal was to experience first-hand how a full-length documentary is made alongside experienced professionals. Without a doubt, I can say that this internship has concretized my wish and showed me more possibilities. The working environment has been delightful and empowering: my feedbacks have been taken into consideration; I gained more confidence in sharing my ideas and learned to value the tedious work during a creative process. There were also moments of frustration as not knowing Dutch sometimes limited my integration and understanding of the situation. I also recognize some of my weaker points during the internship period; for instance, the level of my English, the lack of experience in the field as well as my negligence sometimes. These are to be improved. Although I am convinced about the direction of my future career, the challenges in reality stay. For now, I would say: life is full of surprise.

VII. Conclusion

In retrospect, this internship is indeed an invaluable experience for me. It not only provided me a first-hand experience of making a documentary alongside the professionals but also opened up a new horizon for me. I could not say that I am a football fan ever since, but it indeed enriched my world and my opinion about football, or sport in general. I would recommend an internship in Kicking Cultures to every student who is interested in China or in intercultural communication. I believed that interning at Kicking Cultures will broaden

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one's knowledge and perception of China, and thus challenges the way one approaches cultural differences.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Jingyi Liu ( the director of Confucius Institute Groningen), Lucia van Heteren and Annelies van Noortwijk for guiding me and helping me to find such a special opportunity. I am especially grateful for Michiel for giving me this opportunity and valuing my input. Thank you for being inspiring, patient, reliable, and for your creativity and hard-working spirit. Thanks for the efforts you put in to keep me informed with and involved in all aspects of the project. You have been an exemplary leader during the whole internship. Thanks the nice lunches as well, I have never been disappointed. I also want to show my high regards to Joris, Neal and Michel for your enthusiasm and expertise.

Master Placement Report