This director needs to apologize

Chapter 352 The wedding director is also a director
Lan Yu glanced at Tika and then asked, "Anyway, the original idea for "The Usual Suspects" came from you. How do you come up with so many endless ideas? Netizens say you are a kaleidoscope director. You can come up with something new every time.”

This is another question that makes Chen Yiming find it hard to answer, because he can't tell the answer, and no one would believe him if he did.

"To be endless is an exaggeration. Inspiration is never unlimited. The bottleneck period will come sooner or later. I have been in the industry for less than five years, right?
Moreover, it is not a natural thing to go from an idea to a finished film. Many ideas cannot be turned into movies, and even if they are barely turned into movies, they will not look good. There is a process of trade-offs. In a sense, this is what the director focuses on.

That's why I say that "The Usual Suspects" is Wang Wei's work.

As for the praise from netizens, I deserve it.

No director wants to be defined or labeled. It’s just that making a movie itself is a costly and risky job, and it takes a long time. Most directors are never qualified to be willful and indulgent.

I was lucky enough to have a partner who completely delegated power, and I also caught up with the rising period of the industry. Of course, the people I should express my gratitude to most are the movie fans who trust a newcomer without hesitation and are generous. And inclusive. "

After listening to Chen Yiming's answer, Lan Yu asked keenly, "I have collected some doubts and criticisms online and offline about your new film scheduled to be released during the Spring Festival. There are experts and netizens. They think the science fiction theme you chose is too risky. , do you feel that you are squandering the trust of movie fans?”

Chen Yiming was calm on the face but shocked on the inside. Miss Lan Yu's interviewing skills had improved after a year. Not only was she better at picking out the right words, but she also worded her questions very cleverly, just in the twilight zone between bold and offensive.

The point is, people really asked about the joints. Isn’t Chen Yiming’s idea of ​​​​making soft science fiction-themed cinema movies in China just “to be proud of being favored”? Don’t do things that cross the line while the sun is at its peak. Then there will be no chance to do it again.

Chen Yiming pursed his lips, paused for a moment and replied, "I think a director should really take the fans into consideration. After all, they are the parents who live and feed them. However, you can't think about it all the time. When making a movie, you need to follow According to its own rules, during the production process, additional things such as word-of-mouth and box office cannot be used as standards, otherwise it will only create a cocoon.

The Chinese film market is experiencing a wave of rapid growth, the speed and magnitude of which are unprecedented. Therefore, the effectiveness of many summaries and judgments based on past history is highly questionable.

In the next few years, all film practitioners in our country will face a huge industry change, which is the formation of a considerable number of fixed movie-watching groups.

This has brought about a huge increase in demand. In the first ten years of the new century, the world is a vast area. It can be described as a pyramid, which means that the top corner is as high as the sky and the bottom is just short. Why is this happening? Because audiences only follow blockbusters and go to the theater a few times when there are blockbusters, they have no need to go to the theater to watch movies.

So at that time, the entire industry was fragmented. Blockbusters were the best-selling market, and huge investments meant big profits. This led to uncontrolled growth in the cost of large-scale productions. Blockbuster movies and below were the slow-selling markets, and most projects had no possibility of making a profit from the time they were established. , being able to maintain capital is a success.

Obviously this model is unsustainable. Project costs should have a scientific, reasonable and risk-controllable accounting standard, instead of the top only rising but not falling, and the bottom only falling but not rising.

Fortunately, we still have the opportunity to solve the problem through growth. Now the audience is changing. The group of movie fans who watch movies regularly every month or even every week is forming and growing. The development of the industry will gradually return to the normal value law.

This is what I want to remind my colleagues. The rigid demand of these movie fans determines the future of the entire industry. It does not depend on how many more blockbusters are produced every year, but on whether they can continue to provide stable supply every month, every week, and every day. Give them mid-budget movies that are above par. "

Chen Yiming's statement aroused Lan Yu's interest. Taking advantage of Chen Yiming's pause to drink water, she interrupted and asked, "Director Chen, is your conclusion the original intention of making "The Thirteenth Floor"?"

Chen Yiming nodded and said, "Absolutely. Some people always say that there is no market for this or that in China and it is not profitable. I think they have ignored that we are facing an emerging market, and consumers in emerging markets do not necessarily know what they want and what they don't want." What, more often than not, is that they get what you give them.

Of course, the things you put on the shelves must be of high quality and quantity, and they can’t all be discounted and defective products. "

Lan Yu was very excited when she heard this. As a reporter from a movie channel, she was of course happy to hear optimistic predictions about Chinese movies, not to mention that these words came from top director Chen Yiming.

So she continued to dig for more information, "Director Chen, I noticed that the next movies to be released by Platinum Jue are all niche themes. "The Usual Suspects" is suspense, and your "The Thirteenth Floor" is science fiction. This is Doesn’t it mean that Bo Jue will say goodbye to blockbusters and focus on small and medium-budget films?”

Chen Yiming retorted, “Type is type and investment amount is investment amount. These are two unrelated concepts and cannot be confused.

Besides, Bo Jue has never followed a blockbuster route, so why say goodbye? Only "Mulan" is a relatively high-cost movie among our productions, but whether it's in absolute or relative terms, it's not only inferior to Hollywood, but it's also not up to par with domestic counterparts.

It can only be said that the error tolerance rate of previous movie investment was relatively low. Everyone could only get together to shoot romance, war, costume history and other types of movies, including myself.

And now we feel that the audience's needs are expanding, and it's time to introduce some new dishes. After the audience's taste is cultivated in the future, maybe suspense, science fiction and other niche genres will also see large-scale special effects productions with large costs. Don't we Chinese like Hollywood science fiction blockbusters? "

Lan Yu was confused, "Have you ever imagined the result of the box office failure of "The Usual Suspects"? Will that affect your judgment and Bo Jue's subsequent actions?"

Chen Yiming spread his hands and said, "The movie hasn't even been released yet. Isn't it too early to talk about box office failure? Of course, I won't blatantly say that "The Usual Suspects" is a guaranteed profit. No director can guarantee this.

As I just said, project establishment and production are two different things. The former is a commercial act, which requires detailed investigation, reasonable evaluation and sound decision-making. The latter is a literary and artistic creation. Even if it is a commercial film, its production process must follow the rules of creation. There are many cases of failure to violate it, so I won’t list them here.

"The Usual Suspects" is born with the quality endorsement of Platinum's production. Thanks to the favor of previous movie fans, the cost and risk of our misdeeds are lower than those of our peers."

Lan Yu smiled and said, "So are you traveling for Chinese movies?"

Chen Yiming waved his hands repeatedly, "I don't dare to say that. Bo Jue is all a young man, and he is always a little ignorant. And there is a saying that God will forgive young people when they make mistakes. For filmmakers, fans are God, and they all Forgive us, if we don’t be bolder, it would be unreasonable.”

The two laughed together, and Lan Yu changed the topic, "Director Chen, I noticed that some netizens mentioned that you haven't participated in a film festival for a long time since "1951", whether it is foreign or domestic. Why is this? Are you satisfied after winning the Palme d’Or and Oscar?”

Chen Yiming scratched his head and said, "There's no particular reason. I just don't like the rhythm of the big cycle."

Lan Yu asked strangely, "Great cycle? What do you mean?"

Chen Yiming explained, “The work of a director follows the project. From the official establishment of a project to the release of the film, I call it a cycle.

The time for this process is not fixed, ranging from half a year to half a year, to one or two years, or even three to five years for some super projects.

But regardless of the length, the entire period is very tight, busy and fulfilling. You can devote yourself to the movie without any distractions. Every day is a matter-of-fact working relationship. Occasionally there will be worries, but they will be quickly diluted by time.

If you add the participation in and awards, this cycle will be doubled and extended immediately. It took more than two years to complete the entire process of "1951". You will have to participate in one after another film festivals, dinners, cocktail parties, seminars, and the ensuing events. There are so many media and public relations activities. To be honest, for me, it is a kind of torture that lasts for a long time.

Of course, these exchange activities have allowed me to meet many outstanding people in the industry, and I still keep in touch with many of them, such as Tony, but if I were to have the experience of "1951" again, I would say forget it. "

Lan Yu said with regret, "But you only won the Oscar for foreign language films, and you have not yet won the highest honor of the Oscar. You have only collected one of the three major European films. Netizens have always hoped that you can continue to create new history for Chinese films."

Chen Yiming could only laugh about this, "I'm sorry to live up to the expectations of netizens. My energy is really limited now. Between directors, producers, screenwriters and company affairs, it's hard to have enough time to run around."

Lan Yu still remembered the purpose of this interview, so he returned to the topic again, "Director Chen, how do you evaluate Wang Wei, the director of "The Usual Suspects"? It is said that you discovered him first-hand and was working on "Mulan" for you. "The assistant director has never made a movie before."

Of course Chen Yiming wanted to brag, "It's not about discovery, I prefer to call it mutual achievement. He was indeed one of the best candidates in that round of recruitment. His subsequent performance on the crew of "Mulan" was also Full proof that his first-line abilities extend far beyond his meager resume.

So what? Many great directors started out with even less serious jobs. Tony was a disc seller, and there was a famous truck driver. How could Wang Wei be considered an insider? A wedding director was also a director.

There is no doubt about Director Wang's creative talent, but what is even more valuable is his excellent control, which is particularly critical for a commercial film. "

Okay, Chen Yiming is talking nonsense again. If Wang Wei really has such a thing as control, the prefix can only be weak, otherwise he wouldn't have shot so many cuts beyond the storyboards.

Even so, Wang Weidu is already the one with the most conservative style among the three assistant directors, which is the main reason why Chen Yiming asked him to fly solo first.

(End of this chapter)