Movie Town’s Starring Role
New Tv and film center in north china promotes its advantages to movie makers
it’s not every day you happen to see a dead wolf, an elephant and a horse just lying around. But then this is no ordinary location. The animals are just some of the weird and wonderful props used at a special effects makeup studio located in the Dachang Movie Town, Dachang Hui Autonomous County in Langfang City, north of China’s Hebei Province.
Xiao Jin Special Effects Makeup Studio, founded by stylist Xiao Jin in 2010, has participated in the production of the 2014 fantasy film The Ghouls and made over 30 wolves, 40 sheep and 10 horses for the 2015 Sino-french co-production Wolf Totem.
Xiao decided to move his studio in Beijing to Dachang as his studio at that time could no longer satisfy the expansion needs of his business.
After some initial hesitation, he visited Dachang following a friend’s recommendation. “I never imagined such a beautiful place so close to Beijing,” said Xiao, more than satisfied with the environment and facilities on offer. More importantly, the town’s strong industrial chain proved to be the decisive factor in his decision.
“For instance, the movie The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, in which Jackie Chan plays the leading role, was shot in that town while we were responsible for its special effects. It’s very convenient,” said Xiao.
Ideal film location
Established in 2016 by real estate developer China Fortune Land Development Co. Ltd. (CFLD), the town covers an area of 148,667 square meters with six worldclass film studios and three TV studios. It has attracted over 100 enterprises forming an industrial chain incorporating innovative project incubation, shooting, post-production and copyright trading. In addition to films, TV shows such as Impossible Challenge and National Treasure broadcast on China Central Television were also filmed in the town.