China is set to release their first ever documentary filmed in space on board their space station.
If you haven’t had your fill of space news from Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s ISS mission and recent spectacular return, China is set to film its first-ever documentary aboard an $8 billion space station.
The upcoming film will follow the Shenzhou 13 mission journey journey from lift-off on 15 October, 2021 to landing on 15 April, 2022 and it's hoped it will break new ground in Chinese cinema. Viewers will get an up-close look at the daily lives of astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, including spacewalks to station maintenance.
The entire documentary will be filmed by the space crew themselves using specially designed cameras installed by China Media Group.
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“Filming a documentary with narrative standards inside a space station was an extremely challenging creative endeavour,” said director Zhu Yiran. “The team from China Media Group Television Series and Documentary Center had to break away from almost all traditional production models and faced a variety of difficulties — even the weight of the memory cards that had to be carried back to Earth became a problem.”
Since the film had to be directed remotely here on Earth, Zhu admitted that the process was pretty 'daunting'.
“The biggest challenge was our inability to be present at the filming site, which cast a shadow of uncertainty over the entire project," Zhu explained. "However, this also made the film more authentic and closer to the true inner world of the astronauts.”
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Shenzhou 13 is being showcased as the centrepiece of the China Film Pavilion at Hong Kong’s Filmart, co-hosted by the China Film Administration and the China Film Co-production Corporation (CFCC).
It's hoped the documentary will ignite new frontiers in Chinese Cinema Charts and create a buzz around Shenzhou 13.
Chinese filmmakers are heading into Filmart with renewed optimism as the domestic film industry gradually returns to pre-pandemic levels.
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“We redesigned every part of the camera system to withstand rocket launch vibrations, simplify operation for astronauts, maintain handheld stability in zero gravity, allow fixed shooting from any angle, and enable power charging in the space station,” explained Zhu.
He pointed out that the crew were 'granted permission to train the three astronauts over a month' before the launch of Shenzhou 13's mission: "They were highly intelligent and quickly mastered the use of these specialised equipment. To ensure the film’s completion, backup astronauts and crews for subsequent missions also received training in filmmaking.”
Zhu added: “Beyond cinematography training, we spent more time discussing documentary filmmaking and space aesthetics with the astronauts. This was not only to break their habit of formal news interviews but also to inspire them to passionately express Chinese-style space aesthetics while maintaining the rigour of their mission.”