After the release of the main visual poster for the 11th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), the conception of the theme of “Make Concerted Efforts to Create Light” as well as the design of the sophisticated poster in details are credited as “creative and considerate” among social media platforms. Behind the BJIFF’s main visual poster with good faith effort is a young design team, Yitongchuangyi, which also responded to the call for posters for the previous BJIFF in 2020.

 

Upon receipt of an innovation from the Organizing Committee of the Beijing International Film Festival this year, Yitongchuangyi wasted no time and efforts to kick off a "brainstorming". With the majority born in the 1990s, the team members are quick-witted, sure-footed and even "detail oriented." Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, one of the three greatest Old Masters of Renaissance art, once said, "In the realm of art, detail is God." It is for its intricacy in details that Yitongchuangyi impressed the organizing committee.

 

As for the orientation of the main visual poster, Yitongchuangyi and the organizing committee conducted multiple rounds of discussions and tried different themes. In the end, based on the idea of expressing "inheritance" put forward by the organizing committee, the two parties unanimously decided to continue the use of windmill projector, a core element of the poster for the previous BJIFF, as the main vision for this edition. The design of windmill projector is closely related to the Beijing-style paper windmill the team bought from a windmill craftsman. This hand-made paper windmill features a bamboo pole and paper blades, and the texture can stand the test of the discerning eye. The film rolling out the projector wheel is 35 mm in accordance with the standard professional film gauge in filmmaking. The 35 mm film has accompanied audiences around the world through different stages of the film history. In spite of being gradually replaced by digital technology, it is still favored by many directors nowadays. This is not only a tribute to the history of the film industry, but also the root of a collective memory.

 

The curtain for medium shot (MS) of the poster was carefully selected by the team through the comparison of four fabrics in different dynamic conditions. Creative and courageous, these young designers constantly saw a meeting of the minds in exchanges and discussions. "Failure is common and success is occasional." After a month of trials, the design team finalized the most ideal selection scheme, and then framed it in the poster using the integration of shooting and hand-painted methods.。

 

“The poster is a piece of work created by making concerted efforts to create light with the participation of a great number of people,” said the team leader Zhou Xiaoyi. Along with the design team, the organizing committee of the BJIFF also shared their insights into the poster design, striving to make it the most perfect. The modality for cooperation between the two sides has shifted from originally the delivery of a proposal by the design team to the organizing committee for approval to co-creation and joint modification now, also a manifestation of the theme of "Make Concerted Efforts to Create Light". From the first draft to the final draft, a total of nearly a hundred versions of design schemes were iterated, including five versions of colorway scheme alone. After discussion, the reddish violet tone in the first draft jointly designed by the organizing committee and the Yitongchuangyi team, which looked warm but not mighty, was adjusted to the bluish violet tone that represents the sunrise, symbolizing that the film industry is full of vitality and prosperous toward the sunrise. The colorway features the sense of a mix of history and future and harbors good expectations for the film with a history of more than 100 years.

 

The BJIFF Organizing Committee and the Yitongchaungyi team have also made a great adjustment to the characters in the poster. After careful conception, the personalities of the monotonous and simple characters in the first draft have been greatly enriched. This basically covered the efforts of the main types of work in the film industry chain, including the screenwriter, director, cameramen, script supervisors, actors, recording staff and lighting staff. For the first draft, the design team performed a 3D modeling first, made a prototype and then mapped it to the poster. It meant to break the gender stereotypes of the film industry, specifically highlighting the role of female filmmakers. Ordinary yet extraordinary, the filmmakers of different types of work performed their own functions and made concerted efforts to create a magnificent film world.

 

The Chinese film industry, where concerted efforts are made to create light, entails the nourishment of the fertile soil of the Chinese nation's culture. With this in mind, the team decided to add Beijing’s cultural elements to the poster to address “where the Chinese film industry stems from”. In the selection of an iconic element of the Beijing culture, there were multiple “brainstorms” between the Yitongchuangyi team and the organizing committee. The Bell and Drum Towers, a "memory of ancient Beijing”, came to their mind first. Matin bells and vesper drums, which remind people of going to bed with the lamb and rising with the lark, best characterize Beijing. However, despite good messages, it is expressed with slightly micro-picture thinking. Therefore, at the suggestion of the organizing committee, the team replaced the Bell and Drum Towers with the Great Wall, which embodies the constant vitality of Chinese national spirits, and the Red Building of Peking University, the place where the red flame of Marxism was lit in China. The red of the Red Building of Peking University and the stretch of the Great Wall symbolize the revolutionary tradition of the Communist Party of China and the spiritual strength of the Chinese nation, which needs to be passed on by film art.

 

The images on the filmstrip in the poster have also undergone a "rip and replace" process. At the very beginning, the team envisioned selecting the films recommended by the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, such as The Pioneer, The Battle at Lake Changjin and The Sniper. Subsequently, they broadened their vision to replace with the films for the BJIFF’s film screening series activities marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, such as The Creation of a World, The Birth of New China and The Eternal Wave. Out of fear of the list far from being complete, the team, after several rounds of "brainstorming", finalized the use of Beijing swifts. This is the only bird in the world named after Beijing, and it is also a unique embodiment of the harmonious co-existence between human and nature. The design team uniquely engraved the ethereal flying posture of the Beijing swift inside and outside of the filmstrip. The cameraman leaves every wonderful moment of the swift spreading wings on the filmstrip, which symbolizes that art comes from life. The swift's flying from the filmstrip to the real world means that art feeds back to life. At the same time, the film is virtual, while the real world is real; the Great Wall and the Red Building of Peking University on the curtain are virtual, while the world outside the curtain is real. The combination of reality with virtuality is applied through the dynamic swift.

 

By putting ideas in mind to practice again and again and reinventing the wheel, the design process was hard but full of sense of achievement. The members of the Yitongchuangyi team often stayed up late and worked until the early hours of the morning once inspiration came. According to the team leader Zhou Xiaoyi, in the last five days before the final draft was delivered, the team was still improving the details of the poster all night long. "For the work, we remained vigilant until the last moment." 

 

They hope to leverage their expertise to make the poster as best as possible. It is thanks to the concerted efforts everyone made to work on the details with great care that created the measureless brilliance of the main visual poster for the 11th BJIFF. From the visual design of the poster to the behind-the-scenes production, the conception of the theme of "Make Concerted Efforts to Create Light" has been expressed in the most satisfactory way.