Figure 1 International course graduation ceremony scene
On December 11, 2023, the graduation ceremony of the international course between Beijing Film Academy and Weta Studio, the world’s top film studio, was held at Beijing Film Academy. Attending the ceremony that day were Weta Studio founder Richard Taylor, Weta Creative Director Sam Gao, Weta Studio Department Director 김가륜 (Karyoon Kim), Beijing Film Academy Vice President Sun Lijun, Director of Academic Affairs Tong Lei, School of Animation Dean Li Jianping, Deputy Dean of the School of Animation Huang Yong, Deputy Dean of the School of Animation Ma Hua, Secretary of the Party Branch of the School of Animation Li Liang, Deputy Dean of the School of Digital Media Liu Mengya, School of Animation Wang Hao, School of Digital Media Wang Jinning, School of Digital Media National Tianyi, as well as undergraduate and graduate student representatives from the School of Animation and the School of Digital Media. Weta Studio is a world-leading comprehensive visual effects studio that has won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects five times. The physical special effects in the movies “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy”, “The Hobbit Trilogy”, “The Wandering Earth”, “Avatar”, “King Kong” and other films all came from this work room. International dignitaries such as Prince Charles of the United Kingdom and the Crown Prince of Brunei have visited the studio.
This is the first time that Weta Studio has opened international courses with an international school. The first batch of courses lasted for one semester. The five students selected were composed of undergraduates and graduate students from the School of Animation and the School of Digital Media. They came from animation majors, animation Ada experimental class, comics major, digital media major and other different subject areas. After two rounds of selection since April 2023, based on comprehensive assessments of professionalism, character, language ability, etc., we will finally go to Weta Studio Headquarters in Wellington, New Zealand for one semester of course study. Weta Studio has established a strategic partnership with the Beijing Film Academy in 2003. The founder of Weta Studio, Mr. Richard Taylor, and Professor Sun Lijun have established a deep friendship during the 20-year cooperation process. In 2023, Richard Taylor will serve as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The delegation’s speech mentioned the cooperation with Professor Sun Lijun and the Beijing Film Academy, as well as Gao Xia, an outstanding graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, who serves as a close colleague and close partner to establish a bridge between Weta and China. This time Weta has a teaching linkage with the Beijing Film Academy. , reached a consensus on the design of international talent training goals, taught students in accordance with their aptitude, demonstrated teaching, and collaborated to light up the highlight moment of Beijing Film Academy’s international cooperation.
Figure 2 The founder of Weta Studio, who has won five Oscars Mr. Richard Taylor
Figure 3-4 Richard Taylor’s speech during the New Zealand Prime Minister’s visit to China in 2023
Figure 5-7 shows the simultaneous viewing of the graduation ceremony of Beijing Film Academy and Weta Studio
At the ceremony, the international teaching teams from both sides watched the course completion videos of five students and listened to the students’ creative reports and experiences. Professor Sun Lijun gave the students’ evaluation of the course in his speech. This is an important teaching practice since the establishment of friendly cooperation between Beijing Film Academy and Weta Studio 20 years ago. It is of great significance to both parties and the five students sent to study have gained a lot. Different from short-term exchange visits, this one-semester international course adopts the international credit exchange system, which opens up the joint internship practice content of Beijing Film Academy and Weta Studio, which greatly enriches the teaching content of the Film School.
The three instructors of this international course, Richard Taylor, Sam Gao, and Karyoon Kim, spoke highly of the five students respectively. Richard Taylor said in his speech that the five students from Beijing Film Academy showed amazing talents and extraordinary enthusiasm during the course. Recalling the tense scene when the five of them reported for the first time in the early stages of their studies, Richard Taylor personally demonstrated how to “sell” their project. Richard Taylor not only taught them production techniques, but also taught them how to display and express in three dimensions. I am sincerely happy with the progress of the five students in the one-semester course, and welcome the five students to work in Weta Studio after graduation.
Figure 8 Vice President Sun Lijun of Beijing Film Academy delivers a speech at the graduation ceremony
Figure 9-11 Graduate students Ma Zidong, Wu Zihao, and Huang Ankang from the School of Animation, and undergraduate students Stallone and Fu Zixuan from the School of Digital Media respectively gave study report speeches
Figure 12 Teacher Tong Lei, Director of the Academic Affairs Office of Beijing Film Academy, came to the scene to listen to the students’ teaching reports and observe the digital printing model works
Figure 13 Vice President Sun Lijun, Director Tong Lei of the Academic Affairs Office, and Vice President Huang Yong are Richard Taylor, Sam Gao and Karyoon Kim issued letters of appointment as distinguished professors
The course graduation project short film “SYMBIOSIS” was released at the graduation ceremony. “SYMBIOSIS” takes the major issue of international nuclear pollution as its inspiration and background, and combines Weta Studio’s unique alien creatures and horror elements. It mainly tells the story of creatures that mutate due to water pollution and survive by parasitizing other creatures, thereby achieving symbiosis. the goal of. Pilot Zack unfortunately crashed during the investigation and was forced to live in symbiosis with mutated creatures in order to warn people.
Figure 14 shows the first batch of 5 students selected by Beijing Film Academy Group photo with Weta studio course instructor
Figure 15-23 shows part of the short film practical course
Figure 24-25 Five-time Oscar winner Richard Taylor personally teaches sculpture courses to his classmates.
With the strong support of the Beijing Film Academy, in 2023, the School of Animation, in collaboration with the School of Digital Media, the Graduate School, the School of International Exchange, the Academic Affairs Office and other departments, successively launched cooperation with New Zealand Weta Studio, Toronto Film School, and New York Film Academy. and a series of international exchange student projects with mutual recognition of credits and exchange practice projects with a credit system. Among them, in cooperation with Weta Studio, students were personally taught by Mr. Richard Taylor, Gao Xia (an outstanding graduate of our school’s School of Animation) and many experts from Weta Studio. Planned physical special effects characters, communicated and learned with top film professional visual effects personnel, explored cutting-edge international film concepts and technologies, and explored cutting-edge film concepts and technologies. Beijing Film Academy has always focused on talent cultivation and international synchronization. In the future, it will continue to deepen international teaching cooperation, strengthen the effective use of international educational resources, and actively keep pace with international advanced educational concepts.
