Huayu since 1980

Chapter 228 Seeds (This chapter is mostly introductory content! Do not order if you don't like it)

The lonely smoke in the desert is straight, the long river is setting the sun!
Among the thousands of volumes of yellow sand, a lonely inn stands there.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, even if this rivers and lakes are just a small inn!

Wu Jianye's thoughts have completely returned to the movie he once remembered. If the so-called Hollywood has its own western cowboy movie, then this "New Dragon Inn" is a Chinese western martial arts movie!
He doesn't remember how many times he has watched this movie. Zhou Huai'an, who is elegant but full of passion, Qiu Moyan, who is reserved but heroic, and Jin Xiangyu, who is cunning but charming, even if it is the one sitting on the top of the mountain, The insidious Cao Shaoqing
These people are like real people, living in Wu Jianye's mind.

But it is also because I am so familiar with this movie, so familiar that Wu Jianye knows every detail in the movie, but it is just like this, which makes Wu Jianye don't know how to write!

Wu Jianye once thought that it is enough to copy all the plots of the previous life, but Wu Jianye has his own ideas, and he wants to incorporate his own ideas into this movie
It was exactly like this, until the morning sun outside the house had risen, and the rays of light shone into the room. There were countless scrapped drafts in the wastebasket, but the paper drafts spread on the table still only had the words "New Dragon Gate Inn"!

Wu Jianye, who was a little irritable in his heart, habitually wanted to light a cigarette, but found that the cigarette case was already empty. He opened the drawer and wanted to take out a new one, but found that there was no more in the drawer. , there was only a pack of big white rabbits left, lying there quietly.

Wu Jianye pushed open the window, and a gust of cool wind blew in, which made his drowsy head wake up a lot.

"I'll go, Old Wu, have you ordered the house?"

At this time, Zhang Huijun was holding his own washbasin, just came back from the water room, passed by Wu Jianye's room, saw the window that was emitting smoke, couldn't help shouting.

Wu Jianye shook his head and said with a smile: "Don't worry, if you want to order, order your room first!"

"You are ruthless, let's have breakfast together?"

"Sure, I'll wash my face first!" Wu Jianye didn't refuse.

It feels very good to soak your face in cold water. From time to time, teachers who live in the school come in with their own washbasins and greet each other.

After returning to the dormitory, Wu Jianye and Zhang Huijun went to the cafeteria after changing into clean clothes. The breakfast in the cafeteria is still the same, and there will not be any changes in the past few years.

But Wu Jianye, who didn't sleep all night, was also in good spirits.

Zhang Huijun is different from Wu Jianye. Zhang Huijun is still responsible for the students of the Department of Fine Arts. These are all students who have been admitted to the Yanjing Film Academy. The training class at night has now been officially renamed as the training class for cadres.

To put it bluntly, these people came to Yanjing Film Academy to be gilded, but Wu Jianye will not slacken his work because of this. These people may not be well-known in the front and back scenes that everyone knows in later generations. But they are real people with real power. Even now, they are the middle-level leaders of various studios.

Wu Jianye came to the classroom with his textbook.

"Teacher Xiao Wu is here!"

Everyone didn't feel restrained after seeing Wu Jianye. Most of these people were older than Wu Jianye, so the title Xiao Wu teacher had become their exclusive term.

Wu Jianye also had no objection to this, and greeted everyone with a smile.

After Wu Jianye stood on the podium, the classroom became quiet. Wu Jianye was very satisfied with the situation. When he first taught this group of people, it was not like this. They all held their own identities. , not very fond of Wu Jianye, not to mention that Wu Jianye only starred in two movies now, even if Wu Jianye actually directed two movies, they wouldn't take it too seriously. Doesn't the one in his hand have a group of directors?

They also had the idea of ​​coming here to be gilded, so when they first started class, they gave Wu Jianye a slap in the face.

Clearly told Wu Jianye that everyone is usually very busy, so Wu Jianye shouldn't be too serious, everyone is rushing along and passing by, it's fine if you are good and I am good.

Wu Jianye didn't say anything at the time, he knew that even if he used the director's skills of later generations to talk to these people, he would not get any results. To put it bluntly, the job of these people is not to be a cameraman, but to be political!

So he was talking about the future of Huaxia Film Studio!
At that time, Wu Jianye's first sentence shocked everyone: If China's film studios can't keep up with foreign studios, they will become dust in history sooner or later!

One can imagine how much reaction Wu Jianye caused when he said these words at that time. Now that Huaxia movies are doing well, no one will think that what Wu Jianye said is correct.

Therefore, the reputation of being young and frivolous and sensationalist fell to Wu Jianye.

At that time, Wu Jianye also ignored them, but told them about the development history of Xiangjiang's film company and the development history of the seven major film companies in Hollywood.

This kind of knowledge has not been compiled into a book at all in the current country, which means that what Wu Jianye is talking about is a brand new topic.

It was also in this high-level situation that Wu Jianye gradually conquered everyone, and now they have begun to look forward to Wu Jianye's lecture.

"Mr. Wu, can you tell us about the Hollywood of America again?"

The quiet anger was quickly shattered. The person who called out was a production director of the official Xiaoxiang Film Studio, surnamed Liu, Liu Yuanjun. He died, but after listening to Wu Jianye's few classes, he is now a die-hard fan of Wu Jianye.

Previously, Wu Jianye told them a lot of stories about the eight major film companies in the golden age of Hollywood through the disparity between domestic and foreign information, and now these people hope to hear more.

Wu Jianye pressed his hand, signaled for everyone to be quiet, and then said with a smile: "Everyone knows Chaplin!"

"Of course!" More than a dozen students in the class said at the same time.

As an indelible figure in the history of global film, Chaplin doesn't talk about his character, but his influence is known even in China.

"Today, let's talk about the century-old history of United Artists, a top Hollywood production company that Chaplin participated in and founded!" Wu Jianye wrote the word United Artists on the blackboard after he finished speaking, and after thinking about it, he added The three words of history of defeat and death!
"The founder of United Artists is not only Charlie Chaplin, but also D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. These four were all famous Hollywood filmmakers at that time. It can be said that the deeds of each of them have been repeatedly written in Hollywood and recorded in history.

The original intention of United Artists was actually to resist the oppression of big companies for stars, but they could not maintain a purely independent identity. However, in the end, they became one of the eight members of Hollywood's golden age by virtue of this original intention, but they also Because of this idea, as well as its own unstable personnel changes and management strategies, this operation is in jeopardy, making independent production more possible. "

"Mr. Wu, didn't you say before that professional things should be left to professional people? It stands to reason that since the four Chaplin are film masters, why would they let their company get into trouble? What about unstable personnel changes and mistakes in management strategies?" Liu Yuanjun asked incomprehensibly.

"There is no conflict between these two things. It is true that the four of Chaplin are professionals when filming or acting in movies, but managing a company, even a film company, is still a brand new topic for them That is to say, these four people are not professional in this aspect, and it is precisely this unprofessionalism that made the initial stage of the establishment of United Artists not successful!" Wu Jianye said.

In the early days of United Artists, although these four people were full of enthusiasm, they wanted to establish a vertically integrated enterprise funded by the DuPont consortium with the functions of production-distribution-screening.

But they all have their own little calculations, or it can be said that they didn't think that much at all.

For example, when United Artists was founded, the copyrights of Pickford and Chaplin's works were still in the hands of First Nation.United Artists was founded in 1919, but as the founder, Chaplin did not release his first film "A Woman in Paris" until the end of 1923.

In order to increase his original shares in United Artists, Griffith signed a three-film contract with First Nations in one go in 1919. He worked hard for this, and he was relieved in the second year.

Among the four, only Fairbanks was the only one who was freed immediately, and his "American Majesty" naturally became the first film released by United Artists.

The terms at the beginning of the founding of United Artists also seemed that the four founders were very amateurish. They even asked each of them to independently produce five films a year and release at least twelve films a year.

We must know that the language of silent films was mature at that time, and the length of the film was fixed at about 10 minutes (about eight films). Even popular stars cannot complete five high-quality works within a year.

In 1920, United Artists' first official business year, it only released seven films, just halfway through its mission.To boost the business, United Artists created a subsidiary called Allied Producers, which focused on the productions of relatively minor directors and actors such as Charles Ray and Max Lindair , but it later proved to be unattractive.

At the same time, Chaplin and others were in fear of being acquired, so they unequivocally refused to go public, which made them encounter difficulties in financing on Wall Street.

United Artists also had a few box office successes in the early days, such as "The Marriage", "Robin Hood" and "The Gold Rush", but the value they created could not be offset by those money-losing products, and they could not reverse the trend of making ends meet. From 1919 to 1927, United Artists was profitable for only two years, and was in a state of loss overall. The so-called "profit" was actually not worth the salary that Adolf Zucker paid Pickford for one month.

In the end, Douglas took the lead in withdrawing from United Artists, and sold his shares in United Artists in 1924.

Later, Chaplin and others also realized their lack of management, and hired Joseph Schenk as the new chairman. "The Schenk Film Family": Norma Talamage, then-star wife Norma Talamage, who was worth more than Pickford at the time, and actress Constance Talamage, Norma's sister, and her director and star husband, Buster Key pause.

Chaplin also opposed United Artists' demands to merge with MGM during this period.

During this period, United Artists was on the verge of bankruptcy for a period of time, but then two lawyer-turned-producers, Arthur Colm and Robert Benjamin, saved the fate of United Artists and created its miracle and success in the 60s and [-]s. brilliant.

In 1951, Colm and Benjamin found Pickford and Chaplin and made a somewhat crazy request to them: They hoped to manage the shares of Pickford and Chaplin for a period of ten years. If United Artists is profitable in any one of the three years, the Colm-Benjamin team will be allowed to purchase 50.00% of the company's shares at a symbolic price of one dollar per share (approximately $[-]).

Pickford thought that he had nothing to lose, so he might as well give it a go and readily agreed.Chaplin initially opposed it, but he was entangled in private lawsuits and was investigated by the Committee on Un-American Activities, and he had no time to protect himself.In the end, Chaplin was forced to let go when he was disqualified from returning to the United States by the US government at the European premiere of "Stage Life" the following year.

By the end of 1951, United Artists had released a total of 45 films in just a few months, with an incredible net profit of $313000.

The agreement between the Colm-Benjamin team and Pickford and Chaplin was effective immediately, and they successfully became partners of United Artists.

So far, United Artists has ushered in its own brilliance. It was not until the 50s that in the eyes of major financial institutions, the image of United Artists changed, and it was gradually shaped into a rationally managed distribution company—— A chaotic page in history has been turned.

By February 1955, Chaplin had sold all of his shares worth $2 million to Colm and Benjamin.The following year, in 110, with the success of United Artists, Pickford thought she could retire gracefully. She sold 1956% of her shares and took away $25 million.Colm and Benjamin became the sole owners of United Artists, and soon after, United Artists was officially listed and became a joint-stock company.

In 1967, United Artists, which had reached its peak, had become the most successful company in the American film industry. Colm and Benjamin, who had gained both fame and fortune, decided to sell United Artists to the insurance giant Pan Am.

When capital participates in the operation of the film company, it is also doomed that the once glorious United Artists has once again ushered in its own period of decline.

After Pan Am acquired United Artists, it immediately began a drastic reform and quickly transformed into a diversified company, extending to the mass leisure industry and acquiring a series of chain restaurants, hotels, bowling alleys and service stations.

Pan Am's leadership team, who were good at selling insurance but inexperienced in making movies, were eager to prove that under their leadership, United Artists could also produce high-quality movies.They gave the green light to director Michael Cimino's big-budget western, Heaven's Gate.

Everyone knows the result later, "Heaven's Gate" made Lianyi feel like dying.

After Wu Jianye told the history of United Arts, the students in the audience fell into deep thought.

"The future of the film studio will not only have to deal with the system at that time, but also with the development of the country, the capital market will enter the Chinese film industry sooner or later. At that time, what should your studio do? This is a question that everyone needs to consider !"

When the bell rang for the end of get out of class, Wu Jianye's words also fell silent!
(End of this chapter)