Made in Hollywood

Although this is a Sino-American film forum, it will inevitably evolve into a Chinese film forum in the end. Duke sits here calmly and listens carefully to the speeches of these top figures in the Chinese film circle. It is also a time for the Chinese film market. fully understand.

In the discussion, the director cannot shirk the blame for the low quality of Chinese films.

Because since Chinese films entered the commercialization model, they have basically implemented the director-centered system passed from Hong Kong, rather than the Hollywood-popular producer-centered system. The most popular in China now is before the film begins or ends. Later, when the subtitles came out, the words "Director XX" were added, and it seemed that everything except the director was a cloud.

Regardless of the quality of the film itself, in interviews with reporters, most directors will vowed to declare how painstakingly their work is, how much they love the script, and how sincere they are to make this film.

Corresponding to this kind of "performance", these directors almost without exception will complain: how difficult the shooting environment is, how dangerous the actors are... But for the audience, how hard and dangerous can be a tolerance What is the reason for this movie?

After this kind of "bitterness" can no longer continue, many bad film directors are now complaining. One of the most classic sayings is that the director will push the blame on the actors in private, such as complaints about the actors' pay. Last year At the end of the year, there was news that a certain actress paid 10 million for a film, scaring many people who wanted her to make a film.

A director complained privately that he wanted to hire a big name in the circle for this movie, but the other party asked for too high a price. A large part of the production funds was used to pay for the film, resulting in a small budget in other areas, resulting in the original plan Some special effects and scenes cannot be completed. Naturally, the quality of the film cannot be very high.

In the recent period, "high pay" has become a phenomenon pointed out by Qianfu, leading many actors to respond, claiming that this is also a "market behavior": "Can pork go up in price, why can't actors pay? , That’s because the market has demand."

The actor's complaint is of course reasonable. Some celebrity actors and celebrity directors have become the guarantee of their box office appeal because of the accumulative reputation of some previous movies. Some young idols are the envy of many production companies because of their huge fan base.

In addition to shifting the responsibility to the actors, many directors also habitually shift the responsibility to the screenwriters. Many directors say that there are currently no good screenwriters in China, and the few remaining screenwriters with good quality are too expensive and have been rushed to deliver. The lines and the like have not been polished at all.

According to the director’s analysis, the wave of commercialization of Chinese films actually only started at the beginning of this century, and in the past decade or so, the older generation of screenwriters’ creative thinking has been unable to meet the existing commercialization needs. The younger generation of screenwriters do not know how to structure drama contradictions and drama conflicts, resulting in the writing of books that are basically nonsense. The directors had to rework, but few of the directors themselves came from a literary class. Therefore, in many details, the story of doing this will also be singled out.

From the screenwriter's point of view, such statements made by directors are simply making trouble.

Wang Xingdong, the president of the Chinese Film and Literature Society present, repeatedly emphasized the importance of screenwriters' rights protection. In his opinion, it is precisely because the current directors tamper with the screenplays all day long, which has caused many wonderful stories to be messed up. In many movies, including himself, the directors tampered with the plot according to their own meaning without the permission of the screenwriter. Not only did they lose a lot of meaningful content, they even damaged the script itself.

And Wang Xingdong is also complaining that the screenwriter is involved in many aspects of film production. The asking price is already the lowest.

"For a movie with an investment of tens of millions, only two to three hundred thousand can be provided to the screenwriter. This is already very high, but compared to the actors and directors, this is almost a fraction of the money, and it is even better to do it once. The cost of the conference, even so, there are still a lot of money owed to the screenwriter by the crew that has not been fully paid.

He almost stood up and condemned to the producer, “This phenomenon is already common in the industry. Which screenwriter has not carried the case of asking for arrears? Therefore, the Chinese film is poor. It is not because the screenwriter is not good or the price is expensive. The whole industry does not respect the labor of the screenwriters, and the screenwriters have no enthusiasm to do something."

No problem is caused unilaterally. Duke has struggled in the film circle of this country. In addition, since a few years ago, people have been paying attention to the Chinese market and collecting relevant information. This is also true for many situations. Understand.

Regarding the current low quality of Chinese films, there is another saying that the current Chinese film environment is very good, which has led to a lot of social hot money concentrated in film and television investment, and most of these hot money are from the perspective of "investment." Short-term profit return.

Judging from the current situation of Chinese movies, it usually takes about half a year to a year from the start of the production to the completion of the production of a movie. If the preliminary preparations do not require setting up the scene, it usually takes only a few dozen days from getting the script to setting up the project. In general, it takes about four months to complete the post production by the director and the review by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

After a movie is released, it will go offline almost within a month. Therefore, if the main focus is on the mainland market, overseas sales are not involved, and the box office is indeed good, the investor of a movie can return the funds for up to one and a half years.

Judging from this timetable, there is very little time left for creators, and it is almost impossible to create a boutique in a short time.

However, many private capitals are also plausible for this "short, flat, fast" way of making money: we have invested in it, and the investment is naturally dependent on the return. The fine film is the artist’s business, and the audience’s reputation is good, that is also the director. It’s enough for a businessman to make money.

Judging from the types of bad Chinese movies in the past two years, most of the movies are concentrated in three categories: thriller, love, and comedy, because according to market research, these three categories of movies are basically the ones with the lowest input cost and the easiest to generate box office returns. species.

Like Hollywood, investment in thrillers is generally very small. There was a saying in the circle that thrillers do not lose money.

The same is true for love stories. Just look for idol actors and promote them. Even remakes of Korean dramas can attract many little girls' nympho. As for comedy, the requirements for schedule are relatively high, and Hong Kong directors like Huang Baiming, although every comedy movie attracts a lot of scolding, but because of the Lunar New Year stalls, they almost never lose money.

It is precisely because such low-cost, low-grade works can make money, so many domestic investors have gradually reduced the requirements for domestic commercial films. After all, commercial investment is risky, instead of high cost and high cost to shoot A well-made commercial blockbuster, on the contrary, it is better to spend a little less money to make a bad film, although the content is not good, but you can make money.

The most prominent counterexample in this regard is Zhang Guoshi's "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins". Earlier, there were rumors that the reason why his investors broke up with him was because "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" did cost hundreds of millions of yuan to produce, but the final box office result was a disastrous failure, which made it unacceptable for investors as a businessman. , Began to think about another low-risk routine.

There is nothing wrong with businessmen’s pursuit of profit, but this investment approach will inevitably have some negative effects on the development of Chinese films. Everyone knows that if Chinese films want to truly enter the world film market, horror, love, and comedy will not play much role at all.

This kind of thinking has begun to affect the diversification of Chinese films. The most typical example is that there are basically no authentic science fiction movies in China. Judging from the fact that Hollywood can really circulate the world's movies, at least half of them have obvious science fiction concepts or features.

Science fiction films that can truly circulate in the world have been slow to appear. In addition to the lack of scientific and technological literacy in the director community, the most important reason is that various investors are unwilling to take such risks.

Because sci-fi movies require a long period of special effects and post-production time, and after two to three years, it is even impossible to predict what kind of opponents you will encounter at the same time. Moreover, computer special effects, no matter how you look at it, are indeed "You get what you pay for", if you want to get through with low cost, it will only become a'five cents' special effect, and it is impossible to produce excellent special effects.

"Watching airplanes flying overhead, but never in an airplane, this is the situation of Chinese movies."

Jiang Xiaojun’s words are undoubtedly representative, “Our technical awareness can only be on the ground, not that we don’t want to fly. It’s that we don’t have technology, we don’t have concepts, we don’t have money, and we can’t fly without anything!”

Although these claims are a bit exaggerated, they are not unreasonable. If Chinese films want to go to the world, it is by no means the result of a single effort, and it is not a problem that can be solved by a few Hollywood-style scripts.

Just like what Duke said, Hollywood movies can run wild all over the world, never because of the script, let alone the result of creativity and innovation. This is a comprehensive phenomenon.

Later, someone brought the topic to Duke's side, and he also said a few words in a timely manner, "I am just a director, and I can only look at the problem from the perspective of a director. In my opinion, many of your newly emerging commercial directors , To avoid some bad habits..."

There are some things that Duke is not suitable to say too deeply, otherwise, as an outsider, it will inevitably be regarded as provocative.

In his opinion, the bad habits of many bad film directors in China have been infected by some Hong Kong directors. (To be continued.)

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