SotA Anthology 2015-16 | Page 78

SotA Anthology 2015-16

Writing for the media
©Yao Lu (both images)

Second-year BA Communication Studies student Zihe Chen wrote this blog post:

When the ‘bullet screen’ meets the traditional movie theatre
If you see people fiddling with their mobile
phone in a movie theatre when the movie is
playing, don’t be angry. Maybe they are not
guys without manners – they are sharing
their opinions with others and sending them
to the large screen. The “bullet screen” is an
emerging feature in cinemas in China and
Japan, which allows viewers’ text messages
to fly across the screen like bullets. This
function is usually used on video sharing
websites such as AcFun. On 3 July 2014,
it was first used in China’s movie theatres.
On 8 April 2015, the movie Tiny Times
became the fifth “bullet-screen movie” in
Beijing, China. Audiences walked into the
movie theatres still clutching their phones
in their hands. Everyone’s faces were lit up
with excitement, just like they were readying
for a party. Most of them were young
people; they were laughing, whispering and
texting on their phones. Lee, an 18-year-old
student, was one of them. “Actually I dislike

this movie very much,” Lee said, before the
movie started. “If there is no bullet screen, I
won’t spend my money on buying a ticket. I
have to admit that the bullet screen is more
interesting – I can send my snarky remarks
freely!”
The lights went out and the movie started.
Like most people in this screen hall, Lee
began staring at the large screen carefully.
It was not because the movie was attractive
to him – he just wanted to find some “key
points”, and send his feelings through his
phone to the screen. That is the meaning of
the existence of this special theatre. People
don’t care whether this movie is good or
bad, they just need to share, show and find
common feelings with others.
The most common type of bullet screens
were general comments, such as
“hahahaha” and “23333333” (laugh out
loud), and “OMG it is embarrassing”.
Helpful explanations are another important