"Someone would like to ask, the taste of the audience has changed now. If we make a movie about a grandfather and his grandson living together, even if they burst into tears, the audience will not come to see it. Because there are only two of you, and I will pay you dozens of dollars for one
Just buy a movie ticket and watch an old man taking care of a child. My tooth hurts?"
"Haha." There were bursts of laughter below, and some people were thoughtful.
"So, many filmmakers say that if the audience's taste is too strong, they should watch nonsense blockbusters. Even if there are two people, you have to be of similar age and make things happen in the same room. For example, if you invite a friend, a boy and a girl
We don’t limit it. If you tell your friends to watch the main theme, will your friends think you are sick? Because the main theme means it’s not good-looking.”
"This is indeed not a good phenomenon, because our audience cannot and should not hate the main melody. This society needs the main melody, and our next generation needs the main melody. We need Lei Feng, we need Jiao Yulu, we need Sister Jiang, and we need to use the power of role models
To educate and inspire, so that we will not pollute ourselves in the dye vat of society. I also said in "High-End Access" that there should be more main themes."
"It is true that we have filmed a lot of main themes in recent years, but why? Many directors think it is very simple when they shoot the main themes. If I film the main theme, I can win any award, I can get a national subsidy of one million, and then sell it to
The movie channel got another million, so it’s not a loss. I’m losing money when I shoot other movies, and I make money when I shoot the main theme and play around with it, right? So now we are facing the invasion of Hollywood blockbusters, and we ourselves
The films have not lived up to expectations, and what is hidden under the box office growth is the decline of domestic films."
Shao Shuaijun raised his eyes and looked at the students who were listening attentively and the unpredictable expressions of the filmmakers from all walks of life. He licked his lips and continued: "Think carefully about the question I just asked on behalf of the directors. Is it true?
The reason? The audience likes to watch blockbusters, so we naturally have to learn from blockbusters. If you can get paid by casually playing with the main theme, why should I elaborate on it? Then the rest is to talk about life, art and some inexplicable things."
"The directors have a point and their analysis is spot on, but is this just a way to fool the audience? Because we ourselves don't know what we need to do to put Chinese movies on the right track. Here we go
Let’s go, except for those few movies that make money every year, others are still losing money. Today, we cheated an investor, and tomorrow we cheated another investor. After cheating investors, we cheated movie theaters. In the end, many domestic movies were cheated.
Good movies won’t be shown to you in movie theaters anymore, they will all be changed to Hollywood movies!”
"Our film market has been reformed. Our five generations of directors have explored commercial paths. We seem to have found a way to save Chinese films. We want to be in line with blockbusters. We seem to have broken out of the domestic market and begun to go global, winning awards frequently.
.But looking back and looking at the origins, apart from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "Source Code", and "Painted Skin", which of our other movies has made money overseas or made a lot of money? We
We walked and walked and walked, thinking that we had embarked on a Chinese film path, but suddenly we discovered that we had actually been wandering around in front of our house and couldn't get out."
"We have done nothing, we have accomplished nothing. The success of our so-called Chinese films is not the success of one or two directors, but the success of one or two films. We have not gone out of our way. Because we have not let
We have become rich from the bottom of our hearts. No matter how brightly we dress, we are still poor! We have a cultural heritage of five thousand years. When we make movies, we have to follow the tastes of foreigners, and then we can step forward a little bit.
Take some steps. Many of us filmmakers sneer at Hollywood, but we have seen that Hollywood movies have conquered the world."
"Our movies have to follow the Hollywood formula in order to catch up with them. Many of our directors, including myself, why do we all go to Hollywood to make movies? Movies can be shot anywhere.
Movies? Why can we only succeed in Hollywood, gain worldwide appeal, and prove ourselves? Is it because the United States has a glorious history of two hundred years? Compared with our five thousand years of history, does the United States have a history? Why does Hollywood have such a good reputation?
Export culture to the world? We are one of the four ancient countries, with papermaking, gunpowder, compass, and printing. We should be able to use our splendid culture to show it to the world, right?"
"But, we didn't do it. We closed the door and lied to ourselves." There was no sound in the audience, except for Shao Shuaijun's indignant words, "I can already think that after today's speech, countless people will definitely come tomorrow.
Scold me. Say you, Shao Shuaijun, know nothing. Who are you? Why do you have to point fingers at Chinese movies? Yes, I, Shao Shuaijun, am nothing compared to the leaders, seniors, and colleagues who came to attend this ceremony today.
Compared with them, I am just a newcomer, a rookie who has just entered the film industry. In fact, I am just an angry young man."
"I just wanted to be the little boy who said that the emperor had no clothes. Of course, it is also possible that I am the emperor without clothes, so I am standing here in a daze. Please help me quickly to see if I have clothes on.
?”
There were only a few laughs, maybe the topic just now was too heavy.
Shao Shuaijun didn't care. Since he started, he continued what he wanted to say: "I have been in the entertainment industry for five years. I was lucky. I made money by making movies. I have a relatively large company, and today I can
Here, I talk nonsense without any restraint. If I look into it carefully, I have made no contribution to Chinese movies at all. Whether it is "Source Code", "Painted Skin" or "Inception", they are all done in the Hollywood way.
I am also one of the people affected by the shooting, and I can’t figure out how we can solve it so that Chinese movies can get on the right track as soon as possible.”
"Where is China's film going? It's very heavy. It's very heavy. We would say it's nonsense to say that foreign films are peacefully evolving for us. But we make a lot of money from foreign films every year. This is undisputed. At least, we haven't yet.
Earn money from foreign countries. The same problem has been encountered in Russia, India, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and other countries with relatively developed film industries, but they have various methods and countermeasures.
"
"For example, when Russia couldn't restrain itself, it canceled its film quota. With a very simple approach, all American films could come in. At the most, 280 of the 320 films released a year were American films. Soon Russia
The audience is tired of watching and begins to miss their own Russian movies. In the past two years, Russian movies have been recovering, and they have also made their own blockbusters, which are very popular with Russian audiences."
"Indian movies are very interesting. This is one of their pillar industries. I recently supervised the production of a movie in India. If you look at the posters at the entrance of Indian cinemas, there is no introduction of the main actors. They only introduce who sang the songs.
Who can dance, because their movie must have three songs and five dances."
The whole audience laughed. Indian films have begun to go global in recent years, and Chinese audiences are also familiar with them and know their style.
"This is a characteristic of Indian movies. It is difficult for Hollywood movies to be produced there. Hollywood has also thought of ways to co-produce movies with them, such as "Once Upon a Time in India". There is a lot of investment in co-production movies, and Indian filmmakers are very smart.
, they spent all this money, how did they spend it? It used to be 20 people dancing, but now it’s changed to 200 people dancing.”
"Hahahaha." Everyone laughed again.
"When I was making the film, I also talked with the Chinese ambassador to India. I asked him whether Hollywood movies have a big impact on India. He said they have no impact. Indians don't like to watch theirs, but Indians like to watch Indian movies.
And in the past two years, many Indian and Pakistani movies have been sold to the UK, the United States and other countries, making a lot of money. You can see this, Russians love to watch Russian movies, and Indians love to watch Indian movies.
It makes no sense that Chinese people only like to watch Hollywood movies?”
"In fact, many of the Hollywood movies we watch are also movies with American themes. It makes no sense to not watch Chinese themes. Why would you watch foreign themes? But the real situation is like this. There are also some domestic movies that have landed in the United States.
But what’s very difficult is that after our movie is sold, we don’t even have the right to edit it. American film producers want to edit it, and they mess it up and ravage it. The difference is a million miles, and then it’s released. Why is that?
Like this? Because they despise us, they don’t believe that our movies can be sold. In Hollywood, in the United States, how many Chinese directors have editing rights? Li Yu, Wu Yusen, Zhang Yimou and me, except the four of us
, is there any more? No more."
"Sometimes I feel really sad. Why can't our movies develop? We have an audience of more than one billion people, and we have a history of five thousand years. We can't make movies that are not good, but we can't make movies.
"It's very good." What does "making movies very good" mean? It means that our movies are not good, but the TV programs that are related to the movies are good."
"Because there are so many things that happen during the filming of the movie. There are scandals, fights, role changes, strikes, salary increases, director changes... there are all kinds of things. Some of them are planned by the crew.
There are some things that the crew can't solve. Stars' salaries are getting higher and higher, but their acting skills are still the same. Every big movie shooting is like a big gossip circle, where countless news will be generated, making everyone speculate enough. These
Blockbusters will spare no effort and spend huge sums of money to create a premiere. Usually the impact of the premiere is much greater than the impact of the movie itself. The experience of making a movie is far more complicated than the plot shown in the movie. This is the current situation of Chinese movies."
Shao Shuaijun was silent for more than ten seconds and exhaled: "Having said this, you may want to ask below, today is the entrance ceremony for the new students of the New Electronic Technology Research Institute, why are you going so far? I said that I am very concerned about China
The film has little contribution, and I personally do not have the strength to change the current situation of Chinese films. I think I should try to understand Chinese films, and then find a group of like-minded people to work together for the rise of Chinese films."
"Don't martial arts practitioners say the same thing, that is, 'train the muscles, bones, skin, and one breath internally'? In my humble opinion, can Chinese movies also be classified as muscles, bones, skin, and one breath? So we first established
I have formed the China Young Pioneer Directors Alliance to discover potential young directors and pioneer directors. This can be called a breath of cultivation in films. I don’t know exactly what a breath of Chinese films is, but I hope that in the Youth League,
In the process of digging, we can see this kind of existence in more and more young pioneer directors."
"It is better to teach a man how to fish than to teach him how to fish. No matter how many classic films we leave behind, it is not as important as allowing more Chinese directors to make classic films, which is more important to the development of Chinese films. The Youth League is such a platform
...So what is muscle skin? You all know this. The packaging of movies is muscle skin, and special effects and new technologies are muscle skin. I invested in the establishment of the Dream Chaser New Film Technology Research Institute, just to temper the muscle skin of Chinese movies.
.”
"I hope that a group of top special effects talents, top photography talents and technical talents can emerge from here. I also hope that the students and trainees who come out of here can use the technology here to serve Chinese films. We don't need
In the pursuit of surpassing Hollywood in a few years, we only need to do a solid job in ourselves, improve, develop and pass on the technology, and this will achieve the goal of a muscle-bone skin."
"Today, many leaders and filmmakers came, and our Prime Minister also made a special trip here. The country pays more and more attention to the film industry. We don't expect to be here. We are pursuing the dream of new electronic technology. How much have we done for the film industry?
What a contribution. I hope that ten or twenty years from now, Chinese filmmakers will look back at this place and be able to nod and say, 'Oh, this was once the technical source of Chinese films, and a group of outstanding filmmakers once came out.'
What could be more satisfying than this?"
Shao Shuaijun smiled and said loudly: "My speech ends here. Finally, I would like to transfer to you a piece of calligraphy given to me by Mr. Zhang Xianliang. "In ancient times, those who accomplished great things were not only extraordinary talents.
, you must also have perseverance.' On the road of movies, there are dense thorns that can destroy us at any time. When you are tired, think about this sentence, it will make you understand yourself more clearly,
Thanks."
He bowed, walked back to the podium, took a sip of water, and there was a brief silence.
then.
Hua la la la la, the applause was thundering and lasted for a long time. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!)
