TikTok is the social network of the moment and influences different areas of society, and cinema is not excluded from it. Recently, some films have gone beyond expectations due to the platform, which appropriates them, collaborating with major 7th art festivals to expand its influence in this medium.
A great example of this influence is the film “Marks of the Curse”, a small Taiwanese production that took the world by storm thanks to TikTok. In addition to its overseas success, thanks to Netflix distribution, the film has become the highest-grossing horror film in Taiwanese history and the country’s highest-grossing film of all genres.
And speaking of genre, the film is considered a movie found – who goes through an amateur documentary – and follows Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), a mother trying to save her six-year-old daughter from a curse – which Ronan herself unleashed six years ago by breaking a religious taboo.
In an interview with Olhar Digital, Kevin Ko, the director of “Marks of the Curse”, explained in more depth what his film is about. “’Marks of the Curse’ is about curse and blessing, like two sides of the same coin, blessing the little girl in the film is the curse for the viewers. What perspective do we take on this? “
“So in the end it’s about two sides of humanity, do you sympathize with the character?” he wonders. “Or do you blame the character for cursing you? There is a line between these two feelings, this is the line of human nature that I want to touch, to make viewers question their feelings and ask themselves how we shape our inner world, “she added.
Since the topic is to curse the viewer himself, the film has won the world of TikTok, with users starting to create and participate in challenges, the so-called challengesto watch the movie until the end.
Kevin Ko was surprised that his film went viral on the platform and admitted that TikTok helped a lot with the promotion. “[Foi] the first time I saw the power of TikTok’s influence on my project, “he said.
“I wasn’t expecting that, so I’m very surprised that ‘Marks of the Curse’ went viral on TikTok. ‘Curse Marks’ continues to surprise me in many ways, “Ko said.
He made it clear that popularity on the Chinese social network was something completely natural. “I think this is one of the best ways to interact with the audience, it’s so organic and we don’t drive it, but people spread the attention through ‘word of mouth on the internet’ on TikTok. I’m really proud that ‘Marks of the Curse’ has the atmosphere for people who want to take on challenges, ”she commented.
Finally, the director believes that cinema must increasingly appropriate TikTok. “Well, filmmakers are trying very hard to interact with people while TikTok is growing and growing. I think it has become one of the main platforms that we need to explore and we need to think of something new to interact with the audience.”
Film festivals around the world certainly agree with Kevin Ko. They have begun to establish partnerships with the platform, which provides for the growth of the cinema theme among the users of the app.
While searching for cinema on TikTok, one of the videos you may encounter, as I did while writing this article, is the one published by the user Bárbara Favaretto (@bafavaretto), a fun realization of the short film “Third time”Produced in one of these partnerships – in this case, between TikTok and the Cannes International Film Festival, one of the most influential in the world.
@bafavaretto What is it like to be a film student?
#cinema #fy #student #tiktok short film #VozDoEvildao
Bárbara Favaretto, in addition to being an active TikTok user, is a film and audiovisual student at PUC in Curitiba and spoke with Olhar Digital about the experience of making the short film for TikTok. She also shared her thoughts on the relationship between cinema and the platform.
“I really enjoyed doing it because it’s a different format and TikTok is opening these doors a lot for people to learn more about cinema,” commented Favaretto. “There are a lot of things they are getting close to that, some time ago, were very difficult or different for you to see.”
“Now you have a little more sense of how people behave in movies, in big productions,” he said. She also commented on how different it was to make a short film vertically, a model used in productions on TikTok, but that this too is nothing new in the world of the seventh art. In fact, as the interviewee herself said, there is a festival in its own right only for feature films shot vertically, the Vertical Film Festival, in Australia.
Favaretto said he believes that the distance between cinema, something more classic and traditional, and TikTok, an extremely current social network, is getting smaller and smaller. For her the main reason is the public.
“They [produtores de filmes] they are seeing that it is now the young audience that is moving forward. Therefore [eles] they must know our language ”, reflected the film student. “I think it’s very possible, yes, in the next few years TikTok will be a platform to promote different films,” he concluded.
Is the post TikTok the future of Cinema? Understand how the social network already influences the seventh art that first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
