Beijing to build sci-fi industrial complex for high-quality development

Economy

​Beijing plans to build an industrial sci-fi complex to help support the work of high-profile sci-fi writers as well as introduce products utilizing classic sci-fi intellectual property (IP), according to the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

China.org.cnUpdated: November 3, 2020

Beijing plans to build an industrial sci-fi complex to help support the work of high-profile sci-fi writers as well as introduce products utilizing classic sci-fi intellectual property (IP), according to the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

The announcement, which aims to enhance the city's sci-fi capacity, was made on Nov. 2 at a sub-forum during this year's China Science Fiction Conference held in Beijing's Shougang Park.

China's sci-fi industry has seen rapid growth over the years with sci-fi books, films, and video games becoming new driving forces behind the growing popularity of the genre. This has led to an urgent demand for developing next-generation information technologies, new materials, and artificial intelligence.

To help promote the combination of technological and cultural innovation, Sun Lijun, vice-president of Beijing Film Academy (BFA), introduced BFA's studio for interactive films and one of its latest films, "Harvest" (or Qiushi), the world's first 8K resolution water-and-ink animation.

Sun stressed that interactive filming and screening techniques coupled with layered narratives can provide audiences with a multi-sensory audiovisual experience, and even let them play a part in how the film ends.

"This will become a new trend in the future," said Sun at the forum.

BFA studio's in-house developed interactive filming system has been granted a number of national patents. Sun noted that the cutting-edge movie-playing technologies promoted R&D efforts among domestic 8K television producers, which, he believes, reflects the mutual promotion between technology and culture.

Scientists also shared their optimism regarding the future application of new techniques in film and TV. Tong Xin, principal research manager at the Internet Graphics Group of Microsoft Research Asia, explained that graphic design tools used during the shooting of sci-fi films can assist computers to reconstruct virtual scenes. Due to current technological difficulties in design and data processing as well as the continuing expense of using motion capture equipment, Tong hopes that the new generation of computer graphics will make it easier for the production, sharing, and consumption of content.