Light and shadow player

Chapter 407 About co-production

The new China-U.S. film agreement is mainly to be negotiated with the Motion Picture Association of America, which is commonly referred to as the Big Six in Hollywood: Walt Disney, Sony Columbia, Paramount, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox.

Yes, the so-called American Motion Picture Association has only these six members.They monopolize Hollywood resources and control distribution and screening channels.

And very strongly reject any new members, because joining the association means entering the Hollywood gambling table and becoming a big banker of the entire world's movies.

In 1989, Sony acquired Columbia and successfully joined the association. In 2005, MGM went bankrupt and withdrew from the association.

In the future, Netflix will become the only new member of the MPAA in half a century.

By coincidence today, most of the people from the Association who came to negotiate, Cheng Yu'an, knew each other.

Chairman and CEO of the association Christopher Dodd led, executive vice president Michael O'Leary and the trade representatives of the six major parties attended.

When we met before the meeting, several friends greeted us warmly.

For this agreement, the two sides have met countless times, and they have become familiar with each other for a long time.

Tong Ju also invited Christopher Dodd to have a cup of coffee and had a good chat.

The Universal Pictures representative also asked if Liu Yifei was confirmed to star in "Now You See Me," which is distributed by Universal.

"Crystal is too busy next year, we will choose an equally good actor." Cheng Yu'an promised with a smile.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the negotiation officially started, and more than [-] people from both sides entered the hotel conference hall.

Cheng Yu'an was only a consultant with the group, and he didn't have much opportunity to speak during the formal negotiation, so he just listened and took notes honestly with the last seat.

The new film import agreement has been negotiated for a year before, and the basic framework has been finalized. For example, 14 special imported films will be added, mainly 3D and IMAX films; the proportion of American films will be increased from 13% to 25%.

Today we mainly talk about the issue of Sino-US co-productions.

Really don't think that meat eaters are contemptible, at least the members of today's negotiating team are all bigwigs in the industry, and they all have real materials and abilities.

There are leaders from the General Administration, leaders from the Ministry of Culture and the Propaganda Department, people in charge of importing films from China Film and Huaxia, senior professors in the film industry, and invited filmmakers from outside the system like Cheng Yu'an.

It is not an exaggeration for the entire negotiating team to say that it is a Chinese film troupe.

The negotiations in the morning did not achieve substantive results, nor did they reach a consensus. The two sides have great differences in the definition of co-productions.

"You can't use their definition." Tong Ju asked Cheng Yu'an's opinion during the lunch of the Chinese delegation, and Cheng Yu'an decisively rejected the definition of co-production in the United States at the meeting, "Let me give you an example for the leaders. , OK, what would I do if it were me. I would let the protagonist board the plane in Beijing, fly to the United States, and then the story will all happen in the United States. What should we do if this happens?"

This extreme situation is something that many people here did not expect.

"Then there is the issue of actors. If you want to use domestic actors, it's easy to handle. I will give domestic actors one or two shots, but I will not give any lines. When the time comes for the co-production version in China, I will cut all the scenes of Chinese actors abroad. , does not affect the plot. "Looper", which was launched at the beginning of this year, was called a Sino-US co-production and invited Xu Qing. I know this film. Xu Qing doesn't have a word in it, and even only appears in the protagonist's dreams and memories. In this movie, can we also qualify for co-production?"

"Xiao Cheng, tell me your opinion." The leader of the Ministry of Culture asked Cheng Yu'an to talk.

"Leader, it's like this. I don't think co-productions need to be too stuck in the framing of the scene. Instead, we need to make more fuss about funding and production."

"This is my ideal. Tell me your seniors for reference. Co-productions are fine. The domestic participation investment must not be less than one-third, and you must participate in global distribution. Of course, we do not have global distribution capabilities, and we need to discuss in detail how to divide it." .”

"Second, our actors not only have to play the role, but also play the main role, and we can't fool our audience with the so-called Chinese special edition."

"In addition to the actors, I would like to focus on the post-production here. In fact, it is the behind-the-scenes staff that contribute the most to the development of the film industry. Therefore, I think it is very necessary to add similar clauses to the new agreement. The crew should account for at least one-third, and the post-production, including special effects production, should be done in China as much as possible. We must let co-productions truly cultivate talents for us.”

The leader of the Ministry of Culture nodded: "Xiao Cheng, your suggestion is very good. We didn't consider it before. The past few years have not been in vain between China and the United States."

"Thank you leader."

"You keep talking."

"Another point is very important. If we can achieve what I said before, then we will add one more point. We must supervise and review the accounts of the crew and the shooting process." This is to prevent some people from co-producing XQ or transferring assets.

"Well, that's a good suggestion, too."

"Leader, there is one more thing. We can try to establish a talent exchange mechanism with the United States. We send several young filmmakers to exchange and study with major American companies every year. We can't let them take so much money from us for nothing."

"Hahaha." The leader smiled, "That's good, no matter what the agreement is, in the end it all comes down to the industry and the talent. Xiao Cheng's suggestions are very good, and we can test their words in the next meeting. "

In terms of increasing the number of imported films and the proportion of accounts, Cheng Yu’an is really not good at these two aspects, but when it comes to co-productions, domestic filmmakers now almost have to go through Cheng Yu’an if they want to go to Hollywood. No one knows Sino-US co-productions better than Cheng Yu’an.

Cheng Yu'an still has a say in the co-production.

These points he said are also very reasonable, and are of great benefit to the development of the entire industry.

But there is still someone sad at the bottom: "Who doesn't know that the largest special effects company in China is in your hands, and you say that special effects for co-productions are done in China, isn't it just to take advantage of the opportunity to make money?"

But he also didn't think about how the remote support Tiangong Yicai, the technology in the initial stage was not good, and he licked his face and stuffed people into Industrial Light and Magic to follow and learn, "Kung Fu Panda", "Inception", "Tron: Legacy", "Iron Armor" Steel Fist all required in the investment agreement special effects producers with extraordinary craftsmanship to join the team, let alone for animation production and CG technology, etc., Cheng Yu'an established an animation company in the United States.

This is not counting the R&D expenses of more than 5 million spent on the acquisition of Tiangong Yicai in the past few years.

Tiangong's extraordinary splendor was really made by long-distance hard money.

After the lunch break, the two sides started a new round of negotiations.

As a consultant, Cheng Yu'an didn't need to be there all the time. He asked the leader for leave and flew to Vancouver to see his girlfriend.

(End of this chapter)