CHINESE filmmakers are exploring an out-of-the-box idea to pull in more audiences — live, pop-up commenting on films — though some think it is ruining the viewing experience.

    “The Legend of Qin,” a 3-D animated martial-arts film, ushered in the trend with live comments — think VH1’s “Pop Up Video” — on the big screen late last month in Hangzhou. It has since been screened 500 times with live commenting in 11 cities including Beijing and Shanghai (out of a total of about 50,000 screenings nationwide).

    Audience members can comment by logging into a specific Wi-Fi network on their mobile phones and opening a URL that leads them to a page where they can edit and post messages.

    However, not everyone in the audience is a fan of the live-chat screening. An online poll on Sina’s Weibo showed that just over half of about 400 users think the “all-over comments are very annoying.” Around 27 percent said “it’s fun to comment” and “it eliminates the loneliness of watching films.”

    In a similar poll of more than 1,000 users, 36 percent said they wouldn’t watch the screenings with comments, while 30 percent said it makes the theater experience more interesting.

    Some say that only lousy movies need to offer the live comments to woo audiences. The third installment of “Tiny Times,” a romantic comedy that has been harshly panned by critics, also launched screenings with live commenting earlier this month.

    “Some bad movies are suitable to be bullet-screened because the audiences get bored during the film and they can’t wait to give snarky comments,” Yang Weidong, president of Tudou, which co-produced “The Legend of Qin,” told The Wall Street Journal. “But some quality comedy and animated films for young people are also good material for bullet screening,” he added.

    Yang also said that some users find it novel to be able to see comments sent from a user in Beijing live on a screen in Shanghai. “Young people nowadays are eager for the sense of presence, which they can feel when seeing their own comments appear on the big screen.”

    In addition to complimentary or critical comments on a movie’s plot or main characters, a number of audience members have also posted personal ads in search of a spouse, a phone charger for rent and ones trying to arrange a hot-pot dinner after the film.

    Whether audiences like the tactic or not, chatting on the big screens seems to have boosted ticket sales for films that offer it.

    “The average attendance rate of the bullet-screen screenings of a film is above 50 percent, while the rates of other standard screenings are between 20 percent and 30 percent,” said Shen Leping, director of “The Legend of Qin” and president of Hangzhou-based Sparkly Key Animation Studio.

    “The Legend of Qin” had raked in 57 million yuan (US$8.98 million) as of Monday, higher than average for a domestic animated film.

    Though it’s new to China’s big screens, live commenting has been around for a few years on some domestic video-sharing sites including bilibili.com and acfun.com, which took the idea from Niconico, a Japanese video-sharing site set up in 2006 that is famous for its live-commenting system.

    Other animated videos in the “Legend of Qin” series, which are available exclusively on Tudou.com, have been viewed about 2 billion times so far in seven years, according to Tudou. Viewers can choose whether to live-comment when watching them.

    “We give viewers access to bullet-screening on some animated videos and Korean TV series, both of which are well-embraced by young people,” said Yang. He said the majority of bullet-screening users on Tudou are between the ages of 15 and 30 years old, and 60 percent are male.

    To keep up with young people’s demands, movie makers are eyeing an expansion of offerings targeted at the live commenting, including creating content specifically for the platform and even giving viewers a chance to choose a film’s outcome.

    “We are working on a polling system that will enable audiences to vote to decide the plot of the film they are watching,” said Sparkly Key Animation Studio’s Shen. “They will be given the rights to help the main characters make decisions and match couples in the film.” (SD-Agencies)