ilms are the fruits of joint efforts from all filmmakers, including actors, directors and film crews. Whether serious or vibrant, all filmmakers left their marks on the history in unique styles. Last Saturday, May 25, students from the School of English Studies Translation Association (SESTA) visited Shanghai Film Museum, aiming to learn more about the history of the Chinese film industry, filmmakers and how films are produced.

Shanghai Film Museum has four stories. From the first floor to the fourth, they are respectively named "Hall of Honor", "Film Workshop", the "Long History of Cinema" and Memories in Light and Shadows. Visitors can immerse themselves in the world of film and appreciate film art.

Memories in Light and Shadows

The first exhibition unit is the modernistic Walk of Fame. Walking through it, visitors can see hundreds of filmmaker's portraits that are exhibited in the "Galaxy of Stars". And dozens of their manuscripts, screenplays and props are displayed in the center of the hall. It is rather amazing that making a film is more complicated than others can imagine. Filmmakers are the souls of films. They jointly make impressive films and together improve the film industry.  Besides, visitors can see the different sides of the filmmakers and get a close look at their interests, ambitions, lives and enthusiasm for art.

The Long History of Cinema 

At the end of the 19th century, western adventures brought film projectors and cinefilms into Shanghai. Since then, film art was seeded and grew up in Shanghai. The 1930s was the first turning point of the Shanghai film industry. The emergence of private studios gave birth to a large number of masterpieces. Visitors can see manuscripts and props from the Top 10 Shanghai studios displayed on this floor and trace back to the golden age of film industry in the 1930s.

Hall of Honor

On the first floor of the Shanghai Film Museum, the glorious achievements of Shanghai films are displayed. The first floor consists of five exhibition units, namely, "A Century’s Splendor", the "Moments of Glory", the "Birth of the National Anthem", the "Shining Golden Trophies" and the "Many Firsts". Among them, the "Shining Golden Trophies" area is the most eye-catching, with all kinds of trophies displaying on a huge screen. The 600 trophies symbolize the awards won by various types of Shanghai films in different international and domestic film festivals over the past century. These trophies embody the perspiration and dedication of countless Shanghai filmmakers who deserve to be respected and imitated no matter they are on or behind the screens. The tree-like exhibition area of the "Birth of the National Anthem" is another highlight where the lyrics, music scores, and movie scripts related to the birth of the national anthem are displayed. There the film explaining the birth of the national anthem is played intermittently, which is of great learning value.

Film Factory

"Film Factory" is the theme of the Shanghai Film Museum’s second floor which consists of six exhibition units, namely, "Stage 1", "Sound Stage 1", "Animation Film Studio", "Post-production Studio", "Make-Up & Costume Studio" and "Film Encyclopedia". There are many interesting interactive activities on this floor and even adults will be attracted and cannot help but be absorbed in them. This floor also displays workshops of photography, recording, post-production, art design and costume which are all indispensable for filmmaking. Many novel equipment and devices are also on display. The “Animation Film Studio” is the most impressive unit, because it shows models and manuscripts of many classic animations, such as Avanti, Big Ear Tu Tu and so on which are the childhood memories of our generation.

The article is written and translated by the Translation Association of the School of English Studies (SESTA) at Shanghai International Studies University. For use of the content, please contact: ses_translators@163.com.