The reading of this week basically introduces the five minds, which are: Disciplined Mind, Creative Mind, Respectful Mind, Ethical Mind and Synthesizing Mind. These are, according to the author, very helpful and essential minds that we should have in order to improve our working efficiency especially in the future.

Synthesizing Mind is considered important in 21st century, as the ability to “survey a wide range of sources; decide what is important and worth paying attention to; and then put this information together in ways that make sense to oneself and, ultimately, to other persons as well” (pp.13). Respectful minds basically means welcome different and diverse ideas and show respect and trust to other people. The ethical mind requires people act strictly according to their ethical values and even when “such behaviors clash with self-interest” (pp.21) which seems quiet hard to do. The other two, Disciplined Mind and  Creative Mind, are usually easily understandable according to their literature meanings.  It is equally important to have discipline and at the same time not forget about creativity.

These minds are usually seen in our working places. For media industry, creative, respectful and ethical are more obvious due to its nature. To be creative on works, to be respectful for others and most importantly, if you are a journalist or writer or even filmmaker who have the power and bigger voice to speak to the public, to be ethical.

Judy Wajcman, 2015, ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’ in Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, ch.7.

This chapter introduces the concept of saving time in digital age. The author tries to explain the idea of how to effectively manage limited time from daily works and make them more flexible for people. She also emphasizes the machines takes up most of our time should have been, however, liberating more time for us through the improvement of productivity. Therefore, finding time in digital age can also be considered how to deal the machines which we have to face every day effectively.
There are lots of things we can learn in terms of managing time effectively. Media works usually require people to have certain level of flexibility of working time because of the nature of this industry. It can be a very busy month of shooting and editing, and then after it you are suddenly released from the heavy works. The irregular timetable requires us to have the ability mentioned in the chapter, which will be eventually useful when our careers reach a certain level.

Cal Newport, 2012, ‘The Clarity of the Craftsman’ in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work, NY Business Plus, ch.4.

In the Chapter four, the author introduces the concept of craftsmen mindset and its opposite passion mindset through telling the story of Jordon Tice. It is basically a guide for people to find their suitable jobs and improve their chance to be employed.

Personally, I’m most interested in the concept of craftsmen mindset. I think this idea is what the filmmakers and people doing any other creative arts need to develop. A craftsman always persuades the best quality of his work, no longer how much efforts it will cost and how long it will be done. Through focusing on details, the skills of the creator can also be improved and as well as his patience.  Just as the title suggests, be so good they can’t ignore you. When you have a portfolio including your most polished and careful works, you are not easily got ignored in an interview for employment. When you have proven that on a same topic your work is always exquisite, you are not easily got ignored as a craftsman.

Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas, 2015, ‘Work’ in The Informal Media Economy,Polity Press, Cambridge UK, ch.3.

In this chapter, the author tries to explore the work situation nowadays in media industry. According to him, there are formal and informal media, and people who are doing these two work models have significantly different work experiences. Even though the informal work always refers to low payment, exploitation and bottom of the food chain, but there are also good things compared with those formal ones: more flexible and leisured. However, for those most in-demand elites, the boundary between the formal and informal is becoming blurred: they have creative positions which are crucial, and at the same time also pursue the flexible and less routinized work style to make life more enjoyable.

Referring to myself, it is worth discussing which way I will go after graduation. As I know, media graduates in Australia may start doing freelance and other kinds of informal works and this is common here. But if go back to China, there are less freelance opportunities for graduates. Most of them will go to local TV station or film studio which offer them a very busy life but not relatively high salary. It is a kind of tradition in China that the most capable person should do the most works. As the article indicates, the creative jobs are still growing overall and those creative workers are better educated, and thus have more options (pp.78). The options here in Australia seems allow them to choose which work model they prefer, but as I know in developing country like China, it is a matter of salary, which means they will be better paid for their creativity, but still the timetable is usually fixed since the companies want to see progress every day to ensure profits.

Barraclough, E., 2016. The rise of China’s film industry. [Online]

Available at: http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2016/02/article_0004.html

This script from “Rising in the East” tries to explain the incredible growth of Chinese film market in recent years. The success of box office of Chinese film industry has already drawn lots of attentions from the others, even like Hollywood which has dominated the world film market for half a century but will face the fact that it is losing the position as the biggest film market in the world. This source, not just giving the numbers and data, but also trying to discover the details behind this growth. It indicates the existence Hengdian World Studios which is the largest film lot on the planet and its great contribution on the industry. It tells about the story of a one-time Chinese food deliveryman in New York, Dennis Wang, now the chairman of Huayi Bros which is one of the largest studios in the country. In the interview with Wang, he shows his very ambition of making English-language films to compete with Hollywood in next five years as a move of expanding the business. It also includes interviews with other popular figures in the industry like director Lu Chuan, who directed a very controversial film ‘City of Life and Death’ about the story of the capital Nanking after being occupied by Japanese Imperial Army during the WW2. In this short but interesting interview, issues like censorship, ideology and history which are all sensitive but inevitable for the industry are mentioned. In sum, the people being interviewed here are all significant contributors and participators of the Chinese film market. Studying their opinions with the data will be helpful.

 

Williams, Holly, 2016. Rising in the East. [Online]

Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-china-film-industry-booming/

This article written by Emma Barraclough tries to give a full-scaled image of the booming film industry in China. She divides her main arguments into three ‘subplot’: Movie ticket sales surge, Government policy and Technological ecosystems. The first one is also about the success of box office, while what I find interesting is the second and third part. In the part of government policy, the author gives credits to the government for the efforts of intellectual property (IP) protection, which she thinks is significant for making China creative in terms of culture in order to compete with those developed countries. This is something I don’t usually see from the foreign comments on the government policy in China. There are many criticisms both inside and outside the country saying the censorship system of films and TVs restricts the creativity. However, it is worth discussing now that whether the government always plays a negative role on this. The third part introduce some new trends of watching films nowadays in China. The BAT (search engine Baidu, ecommerce business Alibaba and social media company Tencent.) tries to offer more choices for people to watch films: not only buy ticket for cinema, but also watch online through their platforms. This will certainly make the competition more intensive and various. Is this the future of film in China? A debate can be started for this.

 

Bibliography

Barraclough, E., 2016. The rise of China’s film industry. [Online]
Available at: http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2016/02/article_0004.html
[Accessed 1 August 2016].

Rosen, S., 2015. How Hollywood and the Chinese film industry are eyeing each other off. [Online]
Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/how-hollywood-and-the-chinese-film-industry-are-eyeing-each-other-off-20150603-ghfly9.html
[Accessed 1 August 2016].

Sun, R., 2016. Hollywood and China: A Fad or Future of the Film Industry?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-china-a-fad-future-887134
[Accessed 1 August 2016].

Williams, Holly, 2016. Rising in the East. [Online]
Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-china-film-industry-booming/
[Accessed 1 August 2016].