Acting school started in 1998

Chapter 465 A wake-up call

Li Tang looked at the troubled Ning Hao, pondered for a moment and asked, "Then what will you do if you don't come to Cannes this time and don't win this award?"

"..."

Ning Hao's eyes were confused, he lowered his head and thought for a while and said: "Then it must be the same as before, working as an assistant director, or else continuing to shoot commercials or MVs. If there is a chance, you can also shoot your own works or something... "

Halfway through his words, he suddenly woke up, looked up at Li Tang, and smiled sheepishly: "Teacher Li, look at me, do you feel like I was lifted up into the air all of a sudden and can't get down?"

"You just know it!" Li Tang scolded with a smile.

All great joys and sorrows will make people have some unrealistic ideas.

Let’s just talk about Ning Hao. Half a year ago, he was just a senior student of Nortel Photography Department taking on private jobs. Suddenly one day, he received a private job from an assistant director. In the process, he felt that the boss of this film company seemed a bit like being taken advantage of, so he tried to get the other party to invest in his graduation film, but he successfully defrauded the money.

The process that followed was like a fantasy drama for him. First, the company recommended his graduation film to compete in Cannes. Unexpectedly, it was actually shortlisted, and even more unexpectedly, it won the award, and it was still important. No small award.

The three major European film festivals are the holy places and dreams of countless directors, and he has also fantasized about them before. But it all happened so smoothly, which he didn't expect, and it even felt very unreal.

So, he ran to Li Tang and said a bunch of incomprehensible words.

In fact, this is a very simple truth, but he was temporarily stunned, or he enjoyed this dreamlike feeling very much, and did not want to return to reality, and needed someone to wake him up.

This is like a "wake-up call" in Buddhism.

At this time, Ning Hao breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling that his legs, which were still fluttering when walking, were finally able to keep their feet on the ground.

"Oh, by the way, I just said that you want to continue shooting your own works. Do you have any ideas?" Li Tang asked.

Ning Hao is a contracted director of Tang Dynasty Film and Television. Otherwise, Li Tang would not have invested in him to shoot the so-called graduation film.

Unexpectedly, the graduation film he produced was unique and experienced, so I later asked MK2 to help recommend it to compete in Cannes.

This time "Incense" won the Special Attention Award in the Un Certain Regard category. It can be expected that after returning to China, Ning Hao will definitely be a new young director sought after by the media, and maybe he will become the first of the so-called "seventh generation directors". people.

Just think about it, just last year Lu Chuan was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival with "Looking for a Gun". In the end, he didn't win any awards, but he was still praised in various ways. To paraphrase a saying that has become particularly familiar recently, "Being shortlisted for the three major European film festivals is an honor in itself."

So the company boss Li Tang came up with the idea of ​​striking while the iron is hot, taking advantage of Ning Hao's current popularity and launching new works as soon as possible. Just like Lu Chuan, currently owned by Huayi Brothers, last year's "Looking for a Gun" was a success. You don't care whose work "Looking for a Gun" is, after all, Lu Chuan is already famous. Not long ago, news came out that Huayi Brothers would spend tens of millions to invest in Lu Chuan's new work.

Another reason is that Li Tang is now scared of that guy Cheng Er. It should be said that when he became a blockbuster with "The Third Man", his starting point was much higher than that of Lu Chuan now. But this guy is really tired. It has been almost three years since "The Third Man". In the meantime, he has been looking for inspiration in various ways, but he still hasn't seen even the first draft of the script of a new work.

Sometimes Li Tang really wonders if this guy regrets signing a contract with his company, and just wants to wait until the five-year period expires, and then start his own business and launch his own new work.

"Yes, yes, I have written two books before, but now that I think about it, neither of them seems to be very popular." Ning Hao hesitated.

"What subject matter can't be put on the stage? Show it to me when you get back." Li Tang suddenly asked with interest.

Movies these days are still considered art. For example, this year's "Hero" has set a box office record for domestic films, but it is still criticized by many people. In addition to criticizing the movie, they also criticized the director for degenerating and compromising for the market.

But in Li Tang's view, movies are art, but they are also an industry, and making money is the way to go. If everyone engages in so-called art and movies make no money or even lose money, then it will become a waterless source. Then who will invest in movies?

As for the kind of art films he is making now, there is no other way. It is nothing more than being forced by the current extremely bad domestic film market. Just imagine, for a huge country with a population of more than one billion, the annual movie box office is less than one billion, and half of the contribution comes from Hollywood blockbusters.

In this environment, who would dare to take the risk to make a commercial film? And even if this year's "Hero" set a box office record of 2.5 million for domestic films, it would not be able to recoup the investment of up to million US dollars just based on the domestic box office. In the end, it would have to rely on the strong appeal of directors Li Lianlian and Zhang Yimou to win overseas The market recoups costs and makes money.

However, given that China’s domestic box office market has already grown into a huge market second only to the North American market, and sometimes even surpasses the North American market, the future domestic box office market in front of Li Tang is undoubtedly a huge blue ocean.

With the development of society and the improvement of various laws and regulations, even the piracy industry that "depends on the food and clothing of millions of workers" will eventually end one day, and then the domestic movie box office market will begin to take off.

Li Tang feels that he can now try to slowly transform into the field of commercial films. In fact, Zhang Baibai's "Going" had half of the elements of commercial films mixed in.

As for "The Third Man" and "The Road" both achieved good box office results in China, in fact, to put it bluntly, these two films were just a trip to Venice, and the flowers bloomed outside the wall and were fragrant inside. When it comes to real commercial value, it is far from being discussed. It is more about relying on foreign countries to rely on self-respect to make a big difference with a small gain.

In fact, the directors currently contracted by the company, whether they are Cheng Er, who is known as a "ghost", or Diao Yinan, they are all artistic directors. Cheng Er is to Lou Ye, and Diao Yinan is to Section Chief Jia. It is obvious at a glance that they have very similar styles to their respective idols.

Zhang Baibai can develop into the field of commercial films, but he seems to be lacking in talent or ability. But Ning Hao is different. You can see his humor and charisma from "Incense". Humor is an element of the movie, and charisma is the director's character. From the very beginning, he knew how to attract the audience's attention. Therefore, what he focused on in the movie "Incense" was not his so-called style, but the completeness of the story, so that you can understand it, make you laugh after watching it, and understand the core of what he wants to express in the laughter.

Hearing Li Tang's request to read it, Ning Hao showed hesitation again on his face and said: "I haven't thought about one of the books yet. The other book was written two years ago and has been revised one after another. I wrote several drafts, but, uh..."

He showed a sneer on his face and said coyly: "It's the same thing, but it's a bit unflattering."

The more this guy hesitated, the more curious Li Tang became, and he hurriedly asked: "What can't be put on the stage? What is the subject?"

"It's just a comedy... It's probably similar to a dark crime theme. I also think it's too good not to be a comedy. It's just some stories about a group of people who make mistakes."

Li Tang immediately became interested when he heard it. The best-selling one now is Feng's New Year's comedy. Although there are many followers, no one can copy Feng Xiaogang's success.

But you can't deny that what audiences love to watch most, apart from the so-called blockbusters with huge investments, is undoubtedly comedy.

As for saying that no one can replicate Feng Xiaogang's success, he feels that he still hasn't mastered his skills. Just like when Hui Guanwen, known as the "stern-faced comedian" in the Hong Kong film industry, was outstanding, but in the end he was replaced by Zhou Xingxing's nonsensical.

In the final analysis, it still depends on whether the quality of the movie can be recognized by the audience. And more importantly, the investment in comedy is usually not large, the cost of trial and error is small, and even if it fails several times, it is not a big problem.

So he hurriedly said: "Hey, isn't this good? What can't be put on the stage? As long as the audience likes to watch it, it is a good movie and a good story. There is nothing too great that cannot be put on the stage. The director's "Hero" has been People are scolding you, you just won a small award now, do you think you have surpassed Director Zhang Yimou?"

When Ning Hao heard this, he almost jumped up from his chair and said hurriedly: "Hey, Teacher Li, how dare I do this? Please don't say that. When I get back, I will show it to you right away, okay?"

This attitude is pretty much the same.

Li Tang snorted softly and pointed to the computer on the table: "If you have an electronic text, just send it to my mailbox."

"Hey, okay, I'll send it to you when I get back."

At this time, the room door was knocked again.

No need to ask this time, it must be Xiao Zhao.

Li Tang was about to get up and open the door, but Ning Hao had already stood up before him.

"I'll open the door. Just sit down."

After saying that, he ran towards the door.

"Director Ning, you are here too!"

As the door opened, Zeng Jia's voice was heard.

Then came Ning Hao's smiling voice: "Mr. Zeng, Yaoyao, good morning! Aren't you excited about winning the award? I can't even sleep. Why don't you come over early in the morning to chat with Teacher Li and ask Teacher Li to help? To enlighten and enlighten.”

Hearing Ning Hao's words, Li Tang couldn't help but smile. Compared with the directors he had met before, he felt more or less superior. Of course, except for director Zhang Yimou, he is of another type, the kind that is particularly sincere, giving people a particularly sincere feeling.

Ning Hao is obviously an alternative among the directors. On the surface, you may think that he is a bit too philistine and slick, and seems to be unsuitable for the profession of a high-end director.

But don’t forget that Feng Xiaogang, who was born as a third-level artist, was also said to be very good at patting horses, and he got where he is today by being Wang Shuo’s follower.

It is precisely directors like them who are down-to-earth that can accurately grasp the emotions of small characters, allowing the audience to see the sincerity in your work, and thus truly win the audience's recognition.

Li Tang felt that Ning Hao had the potential to become "Feng Xiaogang's second", or even better, to become "Zhou Xingxing's second" who defeated Xu Guanwen.

But he hopes that Ning Hao can become Ning Hao's number one in the future.

　Second update! It’s the end of the month, so I’d rather ask for a vote!

　　

　

(End of this chapter)