OK folks so it’s Chinese New Year and the pig has chased off the chicken and now rules the roost.
Apparently anyone who is born in the year of the pig is studious and gallant, has tremendous inner strength, will not hesitate to strive for their goals, is quiet but well informed, kind, affectionate and loyal for life. Long story short, in China, being a pig is actually pretty darned cool.
Here at Mandarin Film, our annual Chinese New Year tradition is to share the ten most mind-blowing locations that we have had the pleasure of filming at this year. If you’re curious about filming in China or partnering with us on a project, please feel free to reach out!
Yes, floating solar farms are a thing, and of course, in China they are the biggest and the best.
The vast fields of panels that sit atop the Yangtze river are known as the largest floating solar project in the world. Having said this, given the brisk pace China is building more renewable projects, it’s unlikely to hold that title for very long.
The floating power plant will produce enough energy to power 15,000 homes. Building on bodies of water, especially manmade lakes that are not ecologically sensitive, helps protect agricultural land and terrestrial ecosystems from being developed for destructive energy use. The water also cools the electronics in the solar panels, helping them to work more efficiently.
The panels featured in Our Planet, a film for Netflix by Silverback Films in association with WWF. See the Trailer here.
Car shoots in Shanghai are pretty standard, but our client Final Frame in Germany wanted to make this one stand out – so we bridged that valley to get extra super-duper cool locations for the Hella shoot. Nanpu Bridge is as rad as bridges get in Shanghai – and of course you need to shoot it with a drone to get the full effect. This video recently won gold at the New York Festival TV and Film Awards. See our number one location slot below for Britain’s schoolboy answer to Nanpu Bridge.
The Beijing Swift is so famous it is the emblem of Beijing’s foremost beer. The swift nests in some of the city’s most spectacular locations – including the Summer Palace and Zhengyang Gate at Tiananmen Square, presenting tricky access challenges for the filming crew. In this film we worked with the BBC to overcome access obstacles and film these amazing birds that fly 30,000 kilometers a year and rarely touch the ground.
Wild Metropolis is a new landmark three part wildlife series made for the BBC with co-producers Tencent (China) and PBS (US).
Yes – virtual locations are still locations! In this case, shooting Genghis Khan battlefield plates and short scenes on the Mongolian Steppe for a huge computer game franchise.
This was our producer Shan Shan’s favorite ever shoot – even though it was foggy every day and the whole shoot needed to be squeezed into the few hours on the final day when the fog finally lifted. Phew!
In early 2018 US news site Upworthy, http://www.upworthy.com commissioned Mandarin Film to produce a short video as part of a global series about long term change-makers, entitled ‘the Long Game’.
We arranged at Heqing, Yunnan Province in China’s far South-West corner, to film TNC’s work around Plateau Wetland and Bird Habitat Conservation. We were blown away by what we witnessed. Amongst the rapid development of the area what we found was a quiet, clean heaven for birds of every stripe, and a paradise for bird watchers and nature-lovers.
Food is a national obsession in China, and food junkies will go to any extremes to get their gastronomic fix.
Food Unwrapped is a long-running popular Channel 4 TV show that travels the world exploring the industry secrets behind our favourite foods.
Highlights of the shoot included capturing Matt Tebutt opening a freshly fished clam to discover dozens of pearls inside, Jimmy Doherty making traditional soy sauce at a picturesque riverside with 3000 pots of fermenting soy beans and, the star of the show – a five year old boy showing our host how to forage bamboo shoots on the wild film set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
From JiayuGuan – The Great Wall’s westernmost watchtower in the desert, to the tropical lush waterfalls of Detian, these were some of the most challenging shoot locations in all of China. The journey led our multiple camera crews from the furthermost border of Horgos in north-west of China, to Pingxiang at the China-Vietnam border in the south west, Mandarin Film took these teams across half of China to make this challenging show happen.
The beautiful karst landscapes of south west China make a dramatic backdrop to the death defying free solo climbs of the langurs troupes. Move over Alex Honnold - Langurs, some as young as six months old, make these daily climbs from the forest floor to their citadels on the cliff tops.
Mandarin Film is co-producing a new one hour wildlife documentary with Earth Touch for CCTV9, Smithsonian and ORF. This 4K documentary will showcase these critically endangered langurs in their breathtaking karst homeland of Guangxi. Already in production, watch out for these cliff-climbing primates with white mohicans and bright orange babies in summer 2020!
Mandarin Film is producing a new TV and interactive webseries following travel adventurer Ash Dykes on his mission to be the first person to walk the entire length of the Yangtze River. The show is provisionally entitled Walking the Yangtze: Into the Heart of China.
Click here to see estimated timelines for when Ash is expecting to pass through the different stages of the journey and follow him in real time on the Live Tracker to see if he is on target to set a new world record..
From in-car saunas to goose-intestine hot pot, million-dollar luxury cars to three-wheeler stunts, the China episode of Amazon Prime’s ‘The Grand Tour’ is a sight to behold.
The show was Amazon Video’s most watched premiere episode, and although no viewing figures are available，it is generally regarded as one of the most watched TV shows in the world, even surpassing Game of Thrones in terms of ‘most illegally downloaded show’!
The shoot took place in several provinces in South China, and included scenes of the presenters exploring China, driving some amazing roads and performing dare-devil stunts. One of the many challenges of the shoot was to get temporary driving licenses for the cast and crew. Something that had never been permitted before. We filmed a million dollar car, and gained support from different local government bodies allowing the crew to film on the jaw-dropping highway and bridge constructions of China’s stunning southern mountain areas.
Watch out for the schoolboy bridge scene….
The Grand Tour is a British motoring television series for Amazon Video, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.
The show was Amazon Video’s most watched premiere episode, and although no viewing figures are available is generally regarded as one of the most watched TV shows in the world, even surpassing Game of Thrones in terms of ‘most illegally downloaded show’!
Mandarin Film worked with UK-based production company Chump Productions to create and shoot an episode on China for the third season of the series. A Mandarin Film team of producers helped source stories and characters and then worked on the laborious task of getting China-wide permissions for importing cars, obtaining driving licenses and getting permits for a crew of more than 80, with over fifteen vehicles for a two week shoot.
The shoot took place in several provinces in South China, and included scenes of the presenters exploring China, driving some amazing roads and performing dare-devil stunts. One of the many challenges of the shoot was to get temporary driving licenses for the cast and crew. Something that had never been permitted before. Mandarin Film also managed to gain support from different local government bodies allowing the crew to film on the jaw-dropping highway and bridge constructions in the stunning southern mountain areas. The shoot was a huge success and will be aired in early 2019.
“In winter, swifts hibernate all the way to Africa. And in Spring, they fly all the way back to Beijing and to this exact building where they had built their nest before. This means flying over 30,000 kilometers a year. No matter how harsh the journey, nothing can waver their will of coming back home. ” said Professor Gao Wu while holding a baby swift tenderly in his hand, during his recent swift ringing event once a year at the Summer Palace. Wild Metropolis covered this year’s swift ringing event, as part of the Beijing Swift story.
Wild Metropolisis a new landmark three part wildlife series made for the BBC with co-producers Tencent (China) and PBS (US). Mandarin Filmhelped with all aspects of the production to film the Beijing Swifts, at various swift habitats around the city.
The series will reveal the world’s most extraordinary wildlife living in the newest and fastest changing habitat on the planet – human cities. Filmed across the world, the series aims to experience the most-loved and familiar cities through fresh eyes… the eyes of the animals that live in them. The story filmed in Beijing focuses on the Beijing Swift, which has been associated with the city for hundreds of years, nesting in some of the city’s most spectacular locations – including the Summer Palace and Zhengyang Gate at Tiananmen Square.
Key challenges for the production were obtaining the permissions to access some of the most closely guarded national cultural relics like Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace, and moreover, to film wildlife’s living habitat in a busy city like Beijing.
“As a city resident, we rarely look into the sky of Beijing or ancient architecture, and pay attention to observe the birds this long. The Beijing Swift fly extremely fast and in various patterns. Unlike filming in the wild, to film animals in the city we need take people and traffic into consideration. The nests are often high and inaccessible. With a bit of problem-solving, coordination with key locations and NGOs and a lot of patience, we managed to get some amazing shots which perfectly embody the co-existence of human and animal. I can’t wait to see the final film!” Shan-Shan Wang, – Mandarin Film Producer.
“ I just wanted to say thanks again for all your hard work during our shoot in Beijing – everything went so smoothly and I know was down to your hard work behind the scenes. ”– Director/Researcher, BBC Wild Metropolis.
Working closely with CARFTE (The Chinese Association for Radio, Film and Television Exchange), Mandarin Filmwas able to obtain permissions for all of the filming sites and appropriate visas for the foreign crew.
Wild Metropolisis now in post-production stage, and will be released in 2019 on BBC, Tencent and PBS.
From tins of bamboo shoots and cloves of garlic to noodles and tea, in this food unwrapped China special Ricochet wanted to explore the origins of China’s amazing foods.
Food safety can be a sensitive subject in China so we had to navigate those sensitivities whilst dealing with complicated visas and permitting, always with an eye on researching great stories that would chime with a UK audience. Without giving too much away we found some incredibly entertaining and yet informative stories across China, filming simultaneously with two separate crews in 8 different cities across Beijing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu Provinces over 10 days.
Highlights of the shoot included capturing Matt Tebutt opening a freshly fished clam to discover dozens of pearls inside. Other great moments were host Jimmy Doherty making traditional soy sauce at a picturesque riverside with 3000 pots of fermenting soy beans and later foraging bamboo shoots on the film set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Mandarin Film provided full production services from research, location scouting, logistics and official permissions, to crew, equipment and production staff on the shoots.