Chinese New Year ｜ After 36 years of showing movies, he once again ushered in a busy ＂Spring Festival file＂
On January 22nd, New Year’s Day, as usual, Pan Qiang came to the cinema around eight o’clock to get ready for the film screening. "The first thing to do in the morning is to start all the equipment, and then make a trial screening of the films to be shown that day. This process will take about thirty or forty minutes."
Pan Qiang, 57, is the director of Shanghai Duoyunxuan Dolby Panoramic Sound Studio, and has been engaged in film screening for 36 years. Most of the time at work, he stays alone in the narrow workshop behind the screen, dealing with monitoring pictures and various projection equipment, and eliminating abnormal situations in time.
After three years of epidemic, the Spring Festival in 2023 is both normal and unusual for Pan Qiang. According to the real-time data of Cat’s Eye Professional Edition, as of 0: 00 on January 24, the total box office of the new film "Spring Festival File" in the Year of the Rabbit exceeded 2.9 billion.
"Everyone comes out to watch movies, and it’s a lively New Year. This kind of viewing experience is the most original." In Pan Qiang’s view, going to the cinema to see a movie is one of the pleasures of watching a movie. As the Chinese New Year movie market heats up, he and his colleagues are at their busiest time again.
Duoyunxuan Dolby Panoramic Sound Studio, located on Tianyaoqiao Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai. The pictures in this article are all from The Paper reporter Xu Zhen Yao.
The movie "Spring Festival" started, and he stayed in the screening room.
"As usual, the New Year’s Day work is the busiest, because many new films can only be released at nine o’clock this morning. Before the official screening, there are a lot of preliminary work to be done. For our work, it doesn’t make much difference whether it is a festival or not, because cinemas are basically open to the public all year round. Usually, our schedule is for three people to take a break and two places to take a break, but I will always be on duty on the first day of the New Year’s Day to make sure that everything is working properly. " Pan Qiang said.
Pan Qiang is working in the screening room.
Pan Qiang is in charge of film screening in all five cinemas. He told reporters in The Paper that he usually arrives at work at eight o’clock in the morning and works at least until eleven o’clock in the evening. If there are many films, it is common for the last film to end at two or three in the morning. And after the end of the day’s screening, he can’t get off work immediately — — Because we still need to cool the machine and do some finishing work.
Surveillance screen in the screening room.
Most of the time, Pan Qiang stays alone in the narrow workshop behind the big screen, dealing with monitoring screens and various projection equipment. In addition to ensuring the normal operation of the equipment, daily maintenance and cleaning, he also needs to always pay attention to any abnormal situation in the process of film screening and eliminate it at the first time.
At three o’clock on the afternoon of January 23rd, the No.1 movie hall of Duoyunxuan Studios was full of audiences.
The Paper reporter learned from Shi Yifei, the director of Duoyunxuan Studios, that in the first and second days of the first year of the year, the cinema passenger flow increased compared with that before the festival, and the attendance rate of 610 seats in five cinemas could reach more than 75%.
"Since the epidemic was released in December 2022, the popularity of our offline cinemas has picked up, and these two days will be more lively, because ‘ Spring Festival file ’ There are new films released, and many people are waiting to see them. It feels that it is expected to return to the grand occasion of the Spring Festival before the epidemic. " Shi Yifei said.
During the Spring Festival this year, Duoyunxuan Studios released new films such as Wandering Earth 2, Man Jiang Hong, Unknown and Exchange of Life. Among them, Wandering Earth 2 and Man Jiang Hong were the most popular films in these two days. At about 8 o’clock in the morning, the number of people in the cinema has increased. The Paper reporter saw that all the theaters have been decorated with red lanterns, red blessings and other Chinese New Year decorations, which are full of flavor.
The cinema is decorated with Spring Festival decorations everywhere.
He has been working for 36 years and has used technological innovation to promote automatic digital projection of movies.
Pan Qiang’s career as a film projectionist began at the age of 21. According to his introduction, he has been a projectionist in the army since 1986. He joined the Shanghai Studios in 1991 and came to Duoyunxuan in 2015. He has been engaged in projection for 36 years.
Recalling the film screening in the 1980s and 1990s, Pan Qiang said that the earlier screening equipment was still a mobile projector, using 16 mm film. In 1996, after the Changsha National Film Work Conference, digital films gradually began to rise in China. At that time, there may be no more than three digital broadcasting devices in the country, among which Pan Qiang’s unit at that time — — Shanghai Studios owns one, and he has the honor to undertake the screening of digital movies.
In 2009, on the eve of the Shanghai World Expo, Shanghai Film (Group) Co., Ltd. invested in the construction of the Expo International Studios in the Shanghai World Expo Performing Arts Center, and applied the self-developed fully automatic digital projection and network management system for the first time in China, realizing the centralized control and management of functions such as projection, sound, indoor lighting and mutual transmission of multi-hall contents.
As one of the founders of this technological innovation project, Pan Qiang participated in the development of cinema control management system (TMS) and network system, and contributed to the development of radio, film and television in China. In November 2011 and June 2012, he won the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and Television Administration and the third prize of 2011 Science and Technology Innovation Award of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television respectively. Later, the system was gradually popularized nationwide, and now it has developed into a relatively mature industry. Pan Qiang said that at present, domestic cinemas have basically adopted similar automatic digital film projection management systems.
Pan Qiang participated in the research and development of fully automatic digital projection and network management system.
However, what has changed is technology, and what remains unchanged is people’s enthusiasm for movies.
Pan Qiang said that so many years have witnessed the development and changes of cinema films all the way. In his memory, every holiday, there are many people who come to see movies, especially during New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, May Day and November Day. When people have holidays and holidays, it is often the busiest time for Pan Qiang and his colleagues.
Be happy because of the audience’s happiness, and persist because of the feelings of love.
"I am 57 years old this year, and I have been doing this industry for a lifetime. It can be said that I have a special feeling for movies and screening work, and I have always devoted myself to this job. Whenever I see the audience walking out of the cinema happily after watching the movie, I will feel happy myself. " Pan Qiang said that during his break, he occasionally picked some films of special interest, sat in the audience and enjoyed them as an audience himself.
In the past two years, because of the epidemic, the number of film sources has decreased, and the offline cinema has experienced a long period of stagnation, which makes Pan Qiang intuitively feel that the popularity of the cinema is not as good as before. "I remember that in 2022, our theaters stopped all from January 23, and it was 6 months at a time. Even if it was reopened later, not many people came to the movies in the first two months. First, people didn’t dare to come because they felt unsafe. Second, there were no new films, and many films were not available. "
He added that over the years, in fact, many viewers’ viewing habits have quietly changed. "In the past, everyone basically went to the cinema to watch movies. While watching, they could eat a popcorn and have a drink. Now some people may prefer to watch it online." He feels helpless about this trend, but it is also inevitable.
In Pan Qiang’s view, going to the cinema to see a movie itself is one of the pleasures of watching a movie, which includes the immersion of sound, picture and environment. And every year during the Spring Festival, everyone comes out to watch movies, which also has a jubilant atmosphere.
"I call it a kind of cinema ‘ Big meal ’ , or ‘ Focus on watching movies ’ . Everyone came out to watch the movie, and it was a lively New Year. This kind of viewing experience is the most original. " Pan Qiang said that as an old filmmaker who has shown films for 36 years, he will continue to do his job well in the new year, and he also hopes that people can go into the cinema more often and come offline to enjoy new movies in the Spring Festival.