Made in Hollywood

Although this is a Sino-US film forum, it inevitably evolved into a Chinese film forum in the end. Duke sat here quietly and listened carefully to the speeches of these top figures in the Chinese film circle. fully understand.

In the discussion, the quality of Chinese films is low, and the director can hardly be blamed.

Because since Chinese films have entered the commercialization mode, they have basically implemented the director-centered system passed down from Hong Kong, rather than the popular producer-centered system in Hollywood. Now the most popular in China is to start or end the film Finally, when the subtitles came out, the words "director XX's works" were typed on, and it seemed that except for the director, everything else was floating clouds.

No matter how poor the quality of the movie itself is, when interviewed by reporters, most of the directors will swear by how much painstaking efforts they put into this work, how much they like the script, and how sincere they are in making this movie.

Corresponding to this kind of "excellence", almost without exception, these directors will also complain: how difficult the shooting environment is, and how dangerous the actors are... But for the audience, how can hard work and danger be tolerated? What is the reason for the movie's incomprehensibility?

After this kind of "bitter tricks" can no longer continue, many directors of bad films have begun to complain. The most classic way of saying is that the director will shift the responsibility to the actors in private, such as complaints about the actors' remuneration. At the end of the year, there was news that a certain actress had offered a film salary of 10 million yuan, which scared away many people who wanted to ask her to make a film.

A director complained privately that he originally wanted to hire a certain big name in the film industry, but the other party’s asking price was too expensive, and a large part of the production funds was used to pay the film salary, resulting in a small budget in other aspects, which made the original plan Some special effects and scenes cannot be completed. Naturally, the video quality cannot be very high.

In the recent period, "high pay" has become a phenomenon that has been criticized by thousands of people, causing many actors to respond, claiming that this is also a "market behavior": "The price of pork can still increase, why can't the actor's pay increase? The asking price is high , that’s because the market demands it.”

The actors' complaints are of course justified. Some star actors and directors have accumulated word-of-mouth from previous movies, which has become a guarantee of their box office appeal. Some young idols are even envied by 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. The few remaining screenwriters with good quality were too expensive, and the manuscripts were delivered in a hurry, and the lines and the like were not polished at all.

Some directors analyzed that the wave of commercialization of Chinese films actually started only at the beginning of this century, and in the past ten years. The creative thinking of the older generation of screenwriters can no longer meet the needs of existing commercialization, and the younger generation of screenwriters simply do not know how to structure dramatic conflicts and conflicts. The book that was written was basically nonsense, and the directors had to rework. But basically few of the directors themselves are from the literature class, so in many details, the stories made in this way will also be picked out.

From the screenwriter's point of view, the directors' statement is simply making trouble for no reason.

Wang Xingdong, president of the Chinese Film Literature Society present, repeatedly emphasized the importance of screenwriters' rights protection. In his view, it is precisely because the current directors tamper with the scripts of the screenplays all day long that many wonderful stories have been messed up. In many movies including his own, the directors have not obtained the consent of the screenwriters. Tampering with one's own will not only loses a lot of meaningful content, but even damages the script itself.

Moreover, Wang Xingdong is also complaining that the screenwriter himself has the lowest asking price in many aspects of film production.

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

He almost stood up and denounced the producer, "This phenomenon is already very common in the industry. Which screenwriter has no debt collection case on his back? Therefore, the reason why Chinese movies are poor is not because the screenwriters are not good or the prices are expensive, but because It is because the entire industry does not respect the work of screenwriters, which leads to the lack of enthusiasm for screenwriters to do something."

None of the problems were caused unilaterally. Duke has struggled in the film circle of this country. In addition, since a few years ago, he has been paying attention to the Chinese market and collecting relevant information. understand.

At present, regarding the 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", and the pursuit is Short-term profit returns.

Judging from the current situation of Chinese films, it usually takes half a year to a year for a film to be produced. If the pre-production does not require setting, it usually takes only a few dozen days from getting the script to project approval. However, the post-production stage of the director's production and the review by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television can usually be completed in about four months.

After the movie is released, it will be 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 really good, investors in a movie can get their money back in a year and a half at most.

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

But for this "short, flat and quick" way of making money, many private capitals also seem plausible: We are here to invest, and the investment naturally depends on the return. The quality of the film is the artist's business. Whether the audience's reputation is good or not is also the director. It is enough for the businessman to make money.

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

Just like Hollywood, the investment in thrillers is generally very small. There was a saying in the circle here: thrillers will not lose money.

The same goes for love stories, as long as you find the right idol actors and do a good job of publicity, even if it is a remake of a Korean drama, it will attract the love of many young girls. As for comedies, the requirements for the schedule are relatively high, and Hong Kong directors like Huang Pak-ming, although every comedy movie attracts a lot of criticism, but because they rely on the Lunar New Year file, they almost never lose money.

It is precisely because such low-cost and low-grade works can make money that many domestic investors have gradually lowered their requirements for domestic commercial films. After all, commercial investment is risky. A well-produced commercial blockbuster is worse than spending a little less money to make a bad movie. Although the content is not good, it can make money.

The most prominent counterexample in this regard is Zhang Guoshi's "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins". Previously, 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 who are businessmen. , began to think about another routine with lower risk.

It is understandable for businessmen to seek profit, but this investment idea will inevitably have some adverse effects on the development of Chinese films. Everyone knows that if Chinese films want to truly enter the world film market, thrillers, romances, and comedies will not play much role at all.

This line of thinking has begun to affect the diversification of Chinese films. The most typical example is that there are basically no authentic sci-fi movies in China, and judging from the fact that Hollywood movies can really circulate all over the world, at least half of them have obvious sci-fi concepts or characteristics.

The sci-fi films that can truly circulate in the world have not been able to appear for a long time. Apart from the lack of scientific and technological literacy among the directors, the most important reason is that various investors are not willing to take such risks.

Because the special effects and post-production time required for science fiction movies are very long, and after two to three years, it is impossible to predict what kind of opponents they will encounter in the same period, and computer special effects, no matter how you look at it, are indeed "You get what you pay for", if you want to get away with low cost, it will only become a "fifty cents" special effect, and it is impossible to produce excellent special effects.

"Watching planes fly overhead all day long, but have never been on a plane. This is the situation of Chinese movies."

Jiang Xiaojun's words are undoubtedly very representative, "Our technical cognition level can only move on the ground, not because we don't want to fly. It's because we have no technology, no concept, no money, and we can't fly without any of them!"

Although these statements are somewhat exaggerated, they are not unreasonable. If Chinese films want to truly go global, it is by no means a result that can be achieved by a single effort, let alone a problem that can be solved with a few Hollywood-style scripts.

Just like what Duke said, Hollywood movies can run rampant all over the world, never because of the script, let alone the result of creativity and innovation, this is an all-round and comprehensive phenomenon.

Later, someone brought the topic to Duke, and he said a few words in a timely manner, "I am just a director, and I can only look at things from the director's point of view. In my opinion, many new commercial directors on your side , to avoid some bad habits..."

Some words are not suitable for Duke to say too deeply, otherwise, as an outsider, he will definitely be regarded as provocative.

In his opinion, the bad habits of many bad Chinese film directors are all infected by some Hong Kong directors. (to be continued ~^~)

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