An honest hero for young people: shaping worldviews through the film industry discussed at the National Centre RUSSIA
The shaping of a new type of civic identity through the development of the film industry and the creation of "the right" video content was discussed by representatives of the film sector, digital platforms and business at the plenary session "Heroes of Youth. The Struggle for a Strategic Resource of the State, Business and Platforms". The event formed part of the scientific and business programme of the National Film Award Forum "Heroes of a Great Country", which was launched at the National Centre RUSSIA on 11 February.
"We understand that media is already becoming a powerful systemic element in shaping thinking and the picture of the world. Today there are no unified standards in this sphere, yet they are very much needed. And we have the opportunity to speak with people who essentially manage the content creation process through entire teams, and to try to understand how possible synchronisation between them is in order to develop these shared standards," said the moderator of the session, Mikhail Kanavtsev, Vice-Rector for Media Education at the Senezh Management Workshop and Head of the New Media Workshop.
The Director General of VK Video, Marianna Maksimovskaya, drew attention to the fact that vertical videos and clip-based thinking are becoming a "bridge" to horizontal content. According to her, today audiences receive heroes through ready-made visual images, which engage different areas of the brain, yet children and adults alike continue to watch long-form horizontal video.
"People have been talking about clip-based thinking for a long time, and social networks did not appear yesterday. It is clear that this is a new phenomenon, a tool for delivering information to people. Neurobiologists and physiologists have said very little about it so far: on the one hand, social networks have existed for quite a while, but on the other, too little time has passed for scientists to see a real clinical picture and draw truly obvious conclusions about how this affects people’s cognitive abilities. In fact, it is a tool for delivering information. I think the brain is beginning to adapt to this type of content consumption. And it is not limited to it alone: children, in addition to those same vertical clips and short videos, study at school and watch films — that is long-form, so-called horizontal video. That is, people, including children, consume all types of content," Marianna Maksimovskaya said.
The General Producer of the Premier streaming service, David Kocharov, noted that young audiences are interested in slightly older heroes: for example, fourteen-year-olds want to see how eighteen-year-olds behave in films. He announced the project "Lukomorye" and emphasised that the image of the bogatyr Ruslan can become the basis for serious adult cinema. In turn, he explained that the success of the series "Taganrog" lies in the fact that it was made honestly, is based on real events and shows not "grandfathers", but young heroes of the wartime years.
Producer of the projects "Actresses", "Trigger", "The King and the Jester" ("Korol i Shut"), "Vasiliy", "Method 3", "Champion of the World", the "Major Grom" franchise, and Head of Original Content Production at Kinopoisk, Mikhail Kitayev, explained the phenomenon of "Major Grom" as a response to the demand for truth on screen. It is no coincidence, he noted, that zoomers actively form a fan base around the franchise. It is honesty and a contemporary language that have become the key components of the project’s success beyond the country as well.
The Content Director of the Wink digital video service, Alexander Kosarim, pointed out that the more complex a hero is and the more layers of meaning they contain, the greater the interest from young people. Teenagers quickly lose interest in characters who are "too straightforward" and seem fake to them. As an example, he cited the project "Teenagers in Space", where the characters turned out to be overly positive, which somewhat reduced audience engagement.
The director of the series "A Major Change" ("Krutaya Peremena") and producer of the series "Curious Varvara", Karen Oganesyan, drew attention to the priority of safety in children’s content. According to him, it is especially important that parents can calmly switch on a film for their child, knowing that it promotes the values of knowledge and the power of intellect. Using the project "Curious Varvara" as an example, he also noted that strong visual appeal and an emphasis on the connection between generations make such series in demand, with viewers enjoying growing up alongside the characters.
The discussion was summed up by Tatyana Tretyakova, director and producer of the NII VPK film platform and producer of the "Heroes of a Great Country" film award, who reminded participants that the struggle for young people is a struggle for the heroes who live in their souls.
The discussion was also joined by special military operation participant Vladislav Frolov. He spoke about which heroes from cinema and real life shaped him as a person, and which heroes he would like to see in contemporary films and media content.
"Young people are our strategic resource. It is they and their worldview that determine what our country will be like, whether we will succeed at all, and how we will withstand the challenges ahead. And the struggle for young people is, in fact, a struggle for the heroes who live in their souls. That is why we definitely need to continue working, and I am very grateful to the session participants and respected speakers who are on the short list of the film award and are doing this major work that helps build the right dialogue with young people and change things for the better. Thank you for your projects and for serving a huge number of people in our country," Tatyana Tretyakova concluded.
The Forum of the National Film Award "Heroes of a Great Country" was launched at the National Centre RUSSIA on 11 February. During the two-day scientific and business programme of the forum, representatives of the film industry, content creators, online platforms, education, business and the state will discuss how to convey important values and national goals to audiences without cliches or moralising, with the hero remaining at the centre of attention as a key element of dramaturgy and the formation of contemporary culture.
Event photobank
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