On the afternoon of November 13, the Future Cinema event on the screen adaptation of Henan Radio and Television’s cultural IP and virtual reality technology, together with the launch of the animated film Wonder Journey: Tang Palace Night Banquet, was held at the InterContinental Xiamen. The event announced the [Global Film and TV Development Plan for the Chinese Festivals IP Series], built on Henan Radio and Television’s “Chinese Festivals” IP series. The plan covers animated films, live-action films, XR virtual reality films and other fields. Positioned around “new era, new culture, new communication,” it combines new technology with art to tell stories from China’s traditional culture and explore new models and directions for the cinema of the future.
Future cinema refers to new forms of film shot and produced with AR, VR, XR, MR and other virtual reality technologies. Wearing virtual reality headsets, viewers enter the film world from a first-person perspective and experience the story immersively. As a new trend in cinema worldwide, future cinema has developed quickly in China in recent years. Henan Radio and Television’s launch on this theme drew strong interest from guests at the Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival. In his speech, Qin Zhengui, Deputy Director of the Film Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the department’s Film Script Planning Center, said the launch of the “Tang Palace Night Banquet and Future Cinema” projects is an important strategic step for Henan Radio and Television in building quality cultural IP. The “Chinese Festivals” film lineup includes three categories: animated films, virtual reality films and live-action theatrical films. In particular, the virtual reality film Tang Palace Night Banquet combines fine traditional Chinese culture with modern technology to offer audiences a new immersive viewing experience. The China Film Administration is promoting technical documents on virtual reality films and encouraging their integration into the film industry system. The resulting virtual reality film industry will be a large new market, and Henan Radio and Television’s Elephant Metaverse is already ahead in this field. It will release five virtual reality films, including Hidden Qin Mausoleum and Longmen Vajra, and more content producers, IP licensors and cinema investors will work with it to advance the virtual reality film industry. Virtual reality technology will expand the forms of cinema and create new business models, and is worth exploring together.
At the launch, Wang Gang, Director of the General Editorial Office of Henan Radio and Television and Chairman of Henan TV Media Development Co., Ltd., gave a speech titled “Three Begets All Things,” presenting the global film and TV development plan for the “Chinese Festivals” IP series and its three series of film projects. The concept trailer for Wonder Journey: Tang Palace Night Banquet was also unveiled, presenting a fantastical “cultural relics universe.”
The high point of the launch came when all the guests put on VR glasses to experience an XR virtual reality film. Finally, as the guests jointly opened the door to future cinema, Henan Radio and Television’s [Global Film and TV Development Plan for the Chinese Festivals IP Series] was officially launched.
