Soft Power, Cinema and 007

To celebrate the recent release of No Time to Die in China I was invited to deliver a guest lecture on Soft Power, Cinema and 007 to students at the Qingdao Film Academy last week. This is a write up of the event from the school.

In order to enrich the campus cultural life of students and better understand the cutting-edge dynamics of film and culture, on the evening of November 17th, the School of International Education of our school invited Professor David Wilson from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom to hold the "Film And soft power" online lecture.?Associate Professor Guan Yanqiu, the deputy director of the International Education Institute, Mr. Li Lei, the head of the English Teaching and Research Office, and Mr. Zhang Linyue and Wang Xu from the English Teaching and Research Office attended the lecture.?Some students from the English Elective Course and Management Department and the whole school attended the lecture.

This lecture was hosted by Director Guan. Professor Lei Ding from the University of Bradford and Professor Qun Shao from the University of Bradford also participated in this lecture online.

In the more than one hour lecture, Professor David Wilson explained the concept of "soft power" through the 007 series of films, and analyzed the film structure of the 007 series of films from the aspects of film style, shooting techniques, character modeling and character history.?In addition, Professor Wilson also used "Ye Wen" as an example to illustrate the role of Chinese films in promoting the country's soft power.?At the end of the lecture, Professor Wilson analyzed the ad placement in the 007 series of films, the application of special effects technology in the film, and its global influence through several videos.

After the lecture, the teachers and students of our school had a lively exchange and discussion with Professor Wilson, and raised many thought-provoking questions, such as "the similarities and differences between the 007 series of movies and the American movie "Mission Impossible"", short films" Queen Elizabeth and the 007" creative inspiration and the new elements that may appear in the new 007 series of movies, etc., Professor Wilson made professional answers one by one.?Teachers and students of our school have gained a lot from this lecture.