China Entertainment started in 2004

Chapter 145 Claims to be the best commercial film director in China

Wang Shu knew the meaning of Han Sanping's words very well.

Thanks to China Film Group Corporation, the censorship and screening approval of "Space Traveler" will be given the green light.

It takes much less time and effort than his One Tree Company to handle this matter.

"Okay." Naturally, Wang Shu would not refuse such a request.

Han Sanping asked with a smile: "The box office of "Crazy Stone" exceeded 200 million in the first three days of its first weekend. Are you confident about the box office of "Time Traveler"?"

Although he had read the script of "Time Traveler", he also felt that there were some outstanding settings.

But...it is a love movie after all.

Before seeing the finished film, he was a little worried about overturning based on what was presented in the script.

Wang Shu also knew that Han Sanping was worried, so he immediately said: "Director Han, "Time Traveler" seems to be a romance movie, but it is not as simple as it seems."

"When I first watch this movie, I subconsciously thought it was a romance film. In the middle, I thought it was a comedy film. At the end, I thought it was a philosophical film."

"Oh?" This was the first time Han Sanping heard Wang Shu say this, and he was a little surprised.

However, he did not ask in detail, but asked with relief: "It seems that you are very confident in this film?"

Wang Shu smiled and said: "I just saw someone today commenting that domestic commercial movies are wearing the emperor's new clothes."

"It is said that it is a mixture of martial arts masterpieces and boring myths."

"My film "Time Traveler" is not only a modern film, but also has elements of traveling through time and space."

"It combines comedy, love and family affection into one."

"I think it should be able to dazzle domestic audiences like "Crazy Stone"."

"Haha." Han Sanping was delighted when he heard the words and couldn't help but sigh: "You young directors should be more in line with international ideas."

Wang Shu thought that Han Sanping would comment on Zhang Yimou and others, but he didn't expect that it would stop abruptly here, and he couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

Seeing that Wang Shu didn't answer, Han Sanping smiled and said: "Since you have confidence, then I can rest assured."

Wang Shu heard this and joked: "Don't worry, Director Han. You can wait until the finished film comes out and you've seen it."

Han Sanping was amused again, and then asked along the lines of this: "You said... the finished film, I heard that you didn't seem to be editing this film?"

"Uh, yes and no." Wang Shu responded, and then explained, "I will indeed leave the editing work of "Space Traveler" to the team in the company."

"However, the finished film they edited was only the first cut."

"I will optimize it based on the content in the first cut."

"The optimized version is the final film."

Hearing Wang Shu's explanation, Han Sanping instantly understood what he was thinking, and then smiled and said: "No matter how you do it, you still have to control the quality of the film yourself."

"Don't worry, Director Han. The cost of "Space Traveler" is not high, and the cast is not strong. Like "Crazy Stone", it relies on word-of-mouth fermentation."

"If I don't carefully check the quality of the video, wouldn't I be in trouble with myself?"

"Sending the film to the company's team is just a rough cut."

"I still do the fine cutting myself."

The rough cutting is handed over to the company's team, who is only responsible for the subsequent refinement.

The purpose of this approach is nothing more than to save time and effort and squeeze out more time for him.

"Okay, as long as you control the quality of the film." Seeing that Wang Shu explained so clearly, Han Sanping said no more.

The two chatted for a while before hanging up the phone.

Wang Shu was sitting in his office, looking at various reports on the Internet about the box office success of "Crazy Stone".

I know that no matter how high the box office of this movie is, the only ones making money are the three producers, including Andy Lau, and the distributor.

Ning Hao, despite providing the script and being the director, didn't actually make much money.

For this play, the producer gave him 100,000 yuan for the script and director's salary.

This hundred thousand is the buyout price.

Although there was a shortage of funds during the filming of "Crazy Stone", Ning Hao paid all of his RMB 100,000 salary into it.

However, the investment share of 100,000 yuan is very small. Even if "Crazy Stone" finally grosses more than 20 million yuan at the box office, he will not get much money.

At most, one hundred thousand would be doubled.

Of course, with the success of the movie "Crazy Stone", if Ning Hao makes a movie in the future, it will not be such a "cabbage price" if he not only provides the script but also serves as the director.

"This guy seems to have gone to Hong Kong to set up a stall, and then he was spotted by Andy?"

Wang Shu couldn't help but feel happy when he thought of this.

In 2005, the Asian Film Investment Conference was held on Hong Kong Island for young Asian directors to promote themselves.

The organizer provides each person with a small room and a stack of scripts on the table, waiting for interested investors to pick from.

Ning Hao also went to "set up a stall" with five scripts and two film works.

He sat there for six days in a row, and the movie discs were released, but the five scripts had not yet been sold.

Just when Ning Hao was about to close the stall, Liu Dehua's "appreciation" came. At that time, Andy Lau was working on a project called the "Asian Rising Star Director Project", which was looking for 7 young Asian directors to direct 6 feature films.

The mainland took a fancy to Ning Hao and took the initiative to contact him.

Regarding the film, Andy Lau's requirements were relatively simple. The company would be responsible for investing the money, and the director would find the subject matter himself.

However, the story must be strong and able to pass the review in the future.

However, for the five scripts that Ning Hao brought to Hong Kong Island, Andy Lau felt that the investment would not be very small, so he asked him if he had any other scripts.

Ning Hao remembered the first script he wrote, which was "Crazy Stone".

Although Liu Dehua liked the script after reading it, he still had concerns.

I think "Crazy Stone" is more like the Hong Kong Island script.

At Liu Dehua's reminder, Ning Hao made changes to the script and tried to localize the story.

Finally, there was the movie "Crazy Stone".

In fact, Ning Hao and Wang Shu once walked the same route.

After his first film "Incense" premiered in Roccaro, Switzerland, it successively won the Tokyo Ginza Film Festival Grand Prize, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Asian DV Competition Unit Gold Award, and was named "The Best of 2004" by the Hong Kong Island Arts Center "One of the Best Movies" and became the jury selection of seven international film festivals including San Sebastian, Vancouver, Munich, Manila, Sydney, California, and Taiwan Southern Film Festival.

In order to save money, all the characters in "Incense" were played by Ning Hao by middle school classmates, and he forfeited a penny of the salary.

After the movie won the award in Tokyo, Ning Hao gathered his classmates for a big meal and then divided the prize money equally.

However, even though they won the award, they were still relatively "pheasant", so there was nothing more.

In 2004, he filmed his second film "Green Grass", which was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Island International Film Festival, and won the Asian Most Popular Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

It was just selected for the Berlin Film Festival, rather than winning an award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Also.no then.

As for the Most Popular Award in Asia won at the Shanghai Film Festival
  Although the Shanghai Film Festival is also a Category A film festival, it is still a "pheasant".

That is, there is no more.

If Ning Hao's "Green Grass" was not only selected for the Berlin Film Festival, but also entered the main competition and won the award, then his fate would inevitably be different.

However, the difficulty of entering the main competition, or even winning an award, is not comparable to that of a film simply being selected for a film festival.

The former can attract much attention, but the latter is not even a foil.

Qualified films are at least films that were selected for the main competition but did not win the award.

Just being selected for a film festival is nothing.

Wang Shu's "Buried Alive" was not only selected for the Berlin Film Festival, but also entered the main competition and won the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear Award.

After the movie was released in China, the box office revenue exceeded 10 million.

Ning Hao shot the commercial film "Crazy Stone" with a cost of more than 3 million yuan. With a box office of more than 20 million yuan, he was able to become a "first-line" director in the mainland. Since then, there has been no shortage of investors.

Wang Shu's art film, which cost 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, not only won awards in Berlin, but also grossed more than 10 million yuan at the box office in the Mainland.

With such achievements, how can there be a shortage of investors? ! !

Ning Hao actually walked the same path as Wang Shu.

It's just that his strength is not enough.

Wang Shu browsed the news on the Internet and couldn't help but laugh when he saw the news that "Crazy Stone" would apply for the Hong Kong Film Awards and that the lead actor Guo Tao would compete for the Hong Kong Film Awards.

There is a prerequisite for participating in the Hong Kong Island Film Awards, which is that you need to have a Hong Kong Island household registration.

Although with Andy Lau's relationship, "Crazy Stone" may be included.

However, even if he is selected, he will only sit on the bench with his face licked and be looked down upon.

Because, the Hong Kong Island Film Awards awards are only awarded to Hong Kong people.

"Haha, the pioneering work of mainland commercial films."

"Sina. Another flowery job of flattering one and trampling on the other."

Wang Shu saw an article on Sina.com, saying that in people's minds, mainland movies are either positive and uplifting films with a main theme, or they are art films that win awards from abroad and are not well-received. Even those who call themselves "China's most popular movies" The works of Feng Xiaogang, a good commercial film director, still have the prototype of art films.

For example, Hong Kong director Wang Jin said that if Feng Xiaogang's films were screened on Hong Kong Island, they would be regarded as art films. This shows that Feng Xiaogang's films still do not simply take commercial factors into consideration and still try to express some views and opinions in the films. Thought.

Then again, "Crazy Stone"... is generally considered to be the pioneer of Chinese commercial films.

And once again, after this movie appeared in the film industry, many people exclaimed, "This is a commercial film through and through."

"I wonder what Feng Pants thought after seeing these news?"

"The sentence of this self-proclaimed director of China's best commercial films knows how to manipulate people's mentality."

He continued to tour for a while and found that there wasn't much news about him.

Wang Shu knew in his heart that this was because the films he had made before were all "award-winning films" rather than "commercial films."

In the field of commercial films, only Feng Xiaogang in the Mainland can pull it off.

(End of this chapter)