hollywood melon man

Chapter 430 Lecture
“In your films, we can always see gorgeous visual spectacles, stunning scenes, and the most basic and beautiful qualities of human beings.

Courage, perseverance, kindness, determination and so on.

Some people say that movies are the embodiment of the director's thoughts. How do you view your success? "

Compared with the national teacher Zhang, Chen the Pigeon, who has always regarded himself as a cultured person, asked questions of a certain level, but little Gilbert's answer was beyond everyone's expectations.

Usually at this time other directors will talk about dreams, persistence, hard work and so on, in short, they will just give you chicken soup.

But Gilbert Jr. is different from others. He talks about the market: "I think it is the progress of the market."

"Oh?" Imperial Master Zhang asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

Yes, why do you say that?

Guo Fan has seen speeches by several so-called successful gurus. They all talked about dreams and persistence. Why don't you play by the rules?
Gilbert Jr. then answered: "I think it is the advancement of technology and the development of theaters. For example, in Pirates of the Caribbean, the shot of turning into a skeleton under the moonlight, and the bullet time in The Matrix.

I wonder if you have seen it?"

Of course the audience had seen it, so they all answered: "I have seen it, I have seen it..."

One fan shouted: "I've seen The Matrix three or four times..."

"Hahaha," Gilbert Jr. laughed when he heard this and expressed his gratitude: "Thank you for liking my movie so much."

He looked at the audience and said: "This is the wonderful visual experience brought about by technological progress. Usually we say that story is the foundation of a movie.

But everyone can tell a story, but how to express the story is extremely important.”

Guo Fan in the audience seemed to be thinking about something, but he disagreed with Gilbert's point of view: "I think the story is more important than the technology.

Because the development of technology is a matter for the entire film industry, but the story is very personal, and I can’t think of anyone other than Gilbert Jr. who could write such a brilliant story as The Matrix.”

Liu Ji admired his classmate: "I didn't expect that, Lao Guo, you have such insights. I admire you."

Guo Fan made a shushing gesture and said, "Continue to listen to Director Gilbert Jr."

Gilbert continued on the stage: "There is also the development of cinema chains. More than ten years ago, if a commercial film premiered in 3,000 cinemas, it was a good number.

But nowadays, a potential commercial film can easily premiere in more than 4,000 cinemas.

The increase in cinema chains and the number of screens is one of the basic conditions for a film to increase its box office.

Although television, the Internet, and even DVDs are developing rapidly today, the movie-watching experience in theaters will not be replaced for a long time to come.

Movies like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Pirates of the Caribbean are completely different when watched on a big screen and a small screen."

No one has ever analyzed the relationship between movies and the market from the perspective of technology and theaters.

Influenced by the New Wave film movement, these film industry practitioners attending the lecture have heard too many talks from other directors about dreams and art.

Today, Gilbert Jr. has a unique way of explaining the development of the film industry from a realistic perspective, based on the relationship between market and technological development.

Of course, he seldom mentions his own talent. In his words, the progress of market and technology is the key, and only on this basis can one realize his own talent.

Afterwards, Little Gilbert talked a lot with National Master Zhang and Pigeon Chen, ranging from Hollywood to European films, to the now declining Hong Kong films, and the mainland film market.

Gilbert Jr. made a very clear point in the lecture: “I think there is a lot of room for development in the future of Chinese-language films.

I see doubt in many people's eyes, but you should be confident.

Hollywood is popular all over the world because it relies on its strong domestic market, and its popularity in North America is equivalent to its popularity all over the world.

The future of Chinese-language films lies in waiting for the cost of the local market, so that there will be a stable basic base.

Even if they cannot become popular all over the world, the development of Chinese-language films will be very, very fast just relying on the local market.

I believe that in ten years or so, the Chinese-language film market will see a huge explosion.

Nowadays, it is very difficult for a movie to make over 100 million yuan, but in the future, it will not be difficult to make over 100 million yuan or even 1 billion yuan at the box office.”

At this time, the host asked a question: "If what you said is true, what will be the direction of Chinese-language films in the future?"

"I don't know about that. You have to explore it on your own." Little Gilbert said he didn't know.

In fact, he knew that Chinese-language films had taken a detour for a while. The development of the cinema market brought in many new audiences, but also gave rise to many bad films.

It's normal to have bad movies, but it's not normal for bad movies to become mainstream.

But he couldn't say that, after all, he still had to rely on these Chinese filmmakers to make money.

How can they highlight my greatness if they don’t make bad movies?
In fact, the future of Hollywood is almost the same rotten. The old model is gradually becoming boring, while the new correct model is not accepted by ordinary audiences.

Although the box office data looks good, it is actually a period of complete failure. I don't know what Gilbert can do to attract the attention of fans at that time.

At the end of the lecture, there was an interactive time for the audience to ask questions. The host asked Gilbert to point to an audience member for interaction. Gilbert randomly pointed to Guo Fan.

Guo Fan was very excited: "Director Gilbert, I am your loyal fan."

"Aha, I remember you." Little Gilbert looked at Guo Fan and smiled.

Guo Fan was stunned: "Do you still remember me?"

"Of course," Little Gilbert said with a smile, "You asked questions when I went to Beijing Film Academy to give a lecture. Your bubbling voice left a deep impression on me, so I still remember you."

Guo Fan was pleasantly surprised, and the other audience members looked at him with unusual eyes, filled with envy and jealousy.

I thought: How could this guy deserve to be remembered by Director Gilbert Jr. for so long?

Guo Fan suppressed his excitement and continued to ask, "Since you started to make movies, you have been making movies almost every year. How do you maintain your vigorous creative energy?"

Gilbert thought for a moment and said, "It's simple, because making movies is my hobby, I like the process of making movies and being with my team.

In this process, everyone generated all kinds of wonderful ideas and the collision of thoughts made me very excited. "

In other words, I'm addicted to making movies.

Hearing that one movie is made every year doesn't seem too fast. You know, it is said that Hong Kong films used to be able to make a movie within a week.

But this pace has resulted in the decline of Hong Kong films. Although it is not the main reason, the lack of respect for the objective logic of film production has made it difficult for Hong Kong films to produce high-quality films.

In the online novels of the past, a movie could be made in two or three months, and they were all big-budget, big-production movies, which is almost impossible to do in reality.

Filmmaking is not about a producer or director slapping their hands on their foreheads and saying, “Let’s go make a movie…”

This is so easy and simple, you can go take pictures.

It must follow the objective logic of filmmaking, have a well-coordinated team, perfect pre-production preparations, suitable actors, and an excellent script.

With the addition of excellent producers and directors, countless industry talents come together and work hard for a very long time to produce a truly commercial blockbuster.

If they were all low-budget productions, Gilbert Jr. could have shot one in two months, but the problem is, if it comes to a single film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, who dares to say it can be finished in two or three months?

Many bad movies are produced because of a lack of respect for the objective logic of filmmaking.

The script may be good, but due to the rush, it was not well prepared and filmed, which led to the bad ending of the film.

The lecture ended successfully after audience interaction. For Chinese filmmakers, as long as they listened carefully, they could gain a lot from this lecture.

Although much of what Gilbert said may not be applicable to Chinese filmmakers, it at least gave us some inspiration and thought, and that is enough.

The next day, it was time for the test session arranged by little Gilbert.

It was said that fifty people would be selected to join the crew of "Mystery of the Talisman" to study, but in reality it would depend somewhat on little Gilbert's mood.

The qualification for this test is related to whether these people can be selected by Gilbert Jr.

Liu Ji used his connections with the counselor, and as for Guo Fan, Liu Ji helped him get the qualification to take the test through social connections.

There were more than 300 people taking the test this time. They were divided into several large classrooms and took the test at the venue of Shanghai Drama Academy.

As you can imagine, it’s just like an art exam, testing various artistic talents!
But when they arrived at the scene, Guo Fan and Liu Ji found that it was not the case at all.

After arriving at the site to register and fill out the form, the two were divided into different examination rooms and then given the test paper. They had a time limit of two and a half hours to complete the test paper.

The test paper is certainly not a series of low-level questions such as multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and true-or-false questions. Instead, it is a series of conceptual questions that require the examinees to think and discuss.

For example, Guo Fan saw the discussion on the influence of the New Wave film movement on European films, whether there is room for science fiction films in Chinese films, and the development and application of technological progress in the film industry...

From ideas to technical applications, we have everything.

At the end of the test paper, there is a rather abstract question: Please imagine the Chinese film market in 20 years, describe it, and give specific inferences.

These test questions were given to the Chinese students by Gilbert Jr. after he discussed them with his team confidants in North America.

What he wants is not a set of standard answers, because everyone can do the questions.

He just wanted to use this test to understand the specific thoughts of these candidates and what kind of people they are, so as to select the right candidates.

Guo Fan bit the tip of his pen and thought for a long time, then quickly wrote down his answers on the test paper.

He knew what the standard answer should be, but he decided to answer it according to his own ideas.

(End of this chapter)