'Shoestring crew' puts drama and passion back into videos

Change of direction

After that, the team decided to base their videos on Chinese-language textbooks.

Their second adaptation, The Monument, involved a great deal of effort but the final product was as unpolished as the first.

The story draws on the Red Army's crossing of snowy mountains as part of the Long March (1934-36). Their version was a dramatized account of the true story of a courageous soldier found frozen by a poorly equipped unit trying to cross the icy landscape.

To recreate the key scene, the team rented a greenhouse, put up a backdrop, moved in a large tree and used a snow machine to make artificial snow.

However, dogs next door kept barking and could be heard in the background of the video.

After the two videos were shot, only 10,000 yuan remained of the startup capital.

The crew weighed up throwing in the towel; however, a private message changed their minds.

A Chinese-language teacher said she had played The Monument in class, and a boy who rarely sat still cried after watching it. He sent a voice message through the teacher's account: "Grandpa, (the) Red Army had such a hard life. I want to study hard."

Zhang said he was deeply touched and that message became the motivation for the team to keep going.

For the first time he felt that their videos, though still rough, had the ability to reach people. The team members began to push themselves harder, paying closer attention to video quality. After shooting several more episodes, the number of comments on their videos increased noticeably.

"If we were not in such a hurry to rush through life, the Chinese language would be the most beautiful subject," one netizen wrote.