Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 888 You have a new nickname: Old Driver!
Best Film Award.

Me?

Zhou Mo paused for a few seconds, then realized what was happening and started clapping.

unexpected.

It was indeed unexpected.

Zhou Mo had previously speculated that there were many reasons why "Parasite" might not win Best Picture. For example, "Parasite" is a Chinese-language film, and the Oscars might not necessarily award it. Also, it had already won Best Picture once, and both he and Zhang Yimou are Chinese...

But the next second, he found the reason why Parasite could be chosen as Best Picture—

The three Mexican legends.

These three brothers, with their already impressive directing skills and by helping each other and boosting each other's reputations, managed to win several Oscars for Best Director and one for Best Picture within a few years.

Since the three Mexican stars were able to achieve this, he and Zhang Yimou naturally have the opportunity to win awards consecutively.

Zhou Mo gave Zhang Yimou a hand gesture.

"Director Zhang, congratulations! Please come in."

Zhang Yimou shook his head, saying there was no such thing as a "butt" (referring to someone who is unrelated to the main point about Zhang Yimou).

"Director Zhou, it's your turn this time."

"Ok?"

"Don't be surprised. I know very well that the reason Parasite won Best Picture is mainly because of you. I could never have won it on my own, so it was your turn."

Seeing his firm attitude, Zhou Mo nodded and, without further ado, got up and walked towards the award stage.

"grateful……"

There are many unique aspects to Parasite's award nominations this year.

For example, the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, which was also not in a European language, won the Best Original Screenplay award.

In fact, if Zhou Mo hadn't broken many records with "Firefighter" before, "Parasite" would have broken even more records.

For example, this is the first film in over a decade that hasn't won any awards like the Golden Globe or the BAFTA.

But all of these achievements were taken by Zhou Mo, who took the stage last time.

So this time, his remarks were a bit simpler.

After saying a few words, he was about to step down from the stage to share his joy with Da Tian Tian.

However, before they could even leave, a series of sounds came from below the stage.

After listening carefully, it turned out that everyone didn't want Zhou Mo to finish so quickly, but instead wanted him to say a few more words.

Zhou Mo was somewhat surprised; the enthusiasm of the guests below the stage was beyond his expectations.

Everyone's being so enthusiastic, it really wouldn't be right not to say something.

Zhou Mo suddenly remembered his thoughts from a certain day before.

He organized his thoughts in his mind and slowly picked up the microphone.

"I heard a question a while ago..."

As the microphone rang out, the commotion below the stage quickly subsided within a dozen seconds, and pairs of eyes were fixed on the upright figure on the stage.

The question is, where will movies go in the future, and what kind of content and themes will become the new trend?

After Zhou Mo finished explaining the problem, he paused for a moment.

This was a problem he encountered while promoting the film "Three Kingdoms".

The person who asked him the question was a junior from the directing department. He enrolled in 11, graduated four years ago, and then spent three more years as a graduate student. When he came out in 18, he found that he could no longer understand the market.

The materials my teacher taught me a few years ago, and the scripts I revised repeatedly, are now outdated and can't keep up with today's rapidly changing market.

This junior was confused, so he asked Zhou Mo this question.

At the time, Zhou Mo had not prepared any relevant materials.

So I only said a few words and that was it.

Now, this question has been brought up again and posed to the audience at the Oscars.

The guests' reactions were similar to his guess. After hearing the question, some fell into thought, while others continued to stare at Zhou Mo, waiting for his answer.

After pausing for more than ten seconds, Zhou Mo replied:
"As an art form, film often reflects the current state of society."

We are currently in a very special social period, with increasing social contradictions, slowing economic growth, and a surge of various ideologies...

In this context, the themes of our films will inevitably become more diverse and complex.

And our audiences, faced with such a complex market, will increasingly favor films that can realistically reflect social conditions, based on both personal preferences and cost considerations…

Zhou Mo said a lot, but the core message was very simple.

In short:

Society changes every day, and all sorts of surreal events are happening, but audiences' preferences mostly remain relatively simple. Who are movies made for, and whose needs do they satisfy? The audience, or the director himself? This is a question that all filmmakers need to consider.

……

The news that Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture spread to virtually the entire film industry overnight.

When Zhou Mo woke up the next day, his phone had received thousands of different kinds of congratulatory text messages.

He glanced at the dense list of notifications on the screen and immediately initiated a remote takeover.

I simply delegated the task of replying to the text messages to my assistant.

Then, he pulled out another, more personal cell phone from under his pillow.

The number of messages on this phone has decreased significantly, to about a few dozen.

However, Zhou Mo needs to personally reply to each and every one of these messages.

After washing up and waking up, Zhou Mo began to reply to the text messages on his second phone one by one.

An hour later, he finally finished replying to all the text messages. Just as he stretched, Da Tiantian came back from outside with two large bags of breakfast.

"Alright, hurry up and eat."

Zhou Mo put down his phone, picked up the breakfast, and looked inside.

"Hmm, why is there so much meat?"

"It's all because last night's dishes were all vegetarian. The Oscars are really something, they inexplicably started some kind of eco-friendly diet and served a bunch of vegetarian dishes at the event. I didn't even get full."

"No wonder you seemed hesitant to speak last night, was it because of this?"

"Yes, vegetarian food is one thing, but the worst part is that it tastes awful, I can't stand it." Da Tian Tian kept complaining about this year's Oscars. It seems she really dislikes vegetarian food.

Zhou Mo listened to her complaints while eating.

After a while, Da Tiantian suddenly asked a question: "By the way, I saw a while ago that an environmental organization here in America said that raising animals causes environmental pollution, especially cows, so they called on everyone to go vegetarian. What is the principle behind this?"

"Well... what they mean is that cows produce greenhouse gases, namely methane, during the process of digesting food, so they don't allow cows to be raised."

Ok? ? ?
Da Tian Tian always felt that this reason was ridiculous.

"So many rich people play golf every day, keep the air conditioning on all day, and fly private jets, and these organizations don't care about them. Instead, they're telling ordinary people not to eat meat. Are they sick in the head?"

“Hey, you can’t say that. The rich people paid for it in advance, which is called buying carbon, so they can produce it however they want, it doesn’t matter.” Zhou Mo’s lips curled down.

Da Tiantian raised an eyebrow: "There's such a way to play?"

"Well, this is just a basic situation. There are many other ways to play, but you haven't been exposed to them before, so it seems novel to you."

Da Tiantian suddenly blinked.

"By the way, I remember some legendary organizations that donate money everywhere, have they ever donated to you?"

"No, but I had a small online studio that they invested in. Later, those organizations felt that the studio wasn't doing its job properly, so they withdrew their investment, and I ended up acquiring the studio."

Da Tian Tian looked completely bewildered.

Not doing your job properly?

"What do you mean?"

"That studio used all the money invested by the organization to set up VPNs, and those users who used the VPNs basically all went to see that legendary website or to watch Little Bodhisattva on certain platforms. As for the original goal of 'opening their eyes to see the world,' it was not achieved at all, so they stopped investing and withdrew their investment."

Da Tian Tian was dumbfounded.

This kind of development is possible.

"So what's that studio under your management doing now?"

"I made a video series about Western lifestyles a long time ago, remember?"

"I remember, when your video was released, you also criticized that reporter Chai, which made her disappear again. I remember the content was about waste and instability in some parts of Europe and America."

"Yes, my team is still collecting this information and then posting it on the internet every now and then to stir up trouble."

Seeing Zhou Mo's excited expression, Da Tiantian suddenly smiled.

"What do you mean by this? You think I can go wherever Kou can go?"

"Pretty much. Anyway, they used to browse the internet a lot, so they're familiar with this kind of thing, so we let them do it."

Just then, Zhou Mo's phone rang, and the caller ID showed it was Director Tong.

connected.

"Zhou Mo, congratulations! You were the center of the world's attention yesterday. At such a young age, you've won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice. I'm so proud of your ability and achievements!"

"Director Tong, you're too kind. This time, winning Best Film had an element of luck, but also the hard work of Director Zhang and the others. My contribution was actually very insignificant..."

"Hey, you're being too modest. I couldn't get in touch with you before, so I called Director Zhang first. He spoke highly of you on the phone, repeatedly emphasizing that without you, 'Parasite' would never have achieved this success. So you can't refuse the title of the biggest contributor."

Zhou Mo grinned, pleased inside, but repeatedly uttered polite words.

After a short while, Director Tong finished talking about "Parasite" and its awards, then changed the subject to the domestic reaction:

"It must have just gotten to morning where you are. I guess you haven't checked the internet situation in China yet. Right now, the whole internet is talking about your record of winning two Oscars and wants to hear your thoughts... We happen to have a team from the station in America. If you have time during the day, see if you can do a short interview."

"Of course, that's no problem. I'll contact them in a bit."

The two then discussed the general direction of the interview. Tong Gang had always been confident in Zhou Mo's speaking ability, so he only gave a few instructions before ending the call.

Zhou Mo put down the phone and picked up his breakfast again.

Da Tiantian listened the whole time.

"Did Director Tong just say that 'Parasite' will be on tonight's 7 PM news broadcast?"

"Yes, in addition to that, there are also the Sixth Princess, CCTV News and other channels, and online accounts, which are basically mentioned to help promote our achievements."

"Wow, the last time we had this much excitement was when we won the Oscars. Even when we won the Palme d'Or, it wasn't this lively. Whether it's the official recognition or the audience outside the circle, the Oscars are still more recognized than the three European awards."

Zhou Mo thought for a moment and nodded.

"Pretty much, but rather than Oscar, it's more like Emily. The one most recognized in the country is still Amei."

"That's true..."

As they were talking, Zhou Mo's phone rang again.

Look at the caller ID:
Father Ma.

The call was answered immediately, followed by the priest's cheerful voice.

"Hahaha, Zhou Mo, congratulations! You've won Best Film again!"

"Thanks, Brother Ma... but why do I feel like your voice sounds a bit like a brigade commander's?"

"Hey, I was looking for a military drama to watch recently, and after searching for a long time, I found that 'Bright Sword' is still the best, so I watched it several times."

Zhou Mo suddenly realized that the priest's words had a hidden meaning.

"Brother Ma, may I take this as you urging me to update?"

The priest immediately confirmed Zhou Mo's guess.

"That's right. I also wanted to ask about your plans for the future. Everything you mentioned to the crew has been prepared for you, and we're just waiting for you to start work."

Zhou Mo calculated the time and realized that it was already mid-February, so it was indeed time to put the filming of "The Great Battle" on the agenda.

“Brother Ma, I’ll only stay here for another two or three days at most. After I go back, I’ll finish up the ending of ‘Three Kingdoms’. At the latest, we should be able to start filming ‘The Great Battle’ by March.”

"Okay, when you come back, I'll give you a welcome-back dinner."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Mo had basically finished his breakfast.

He first called a reporter from the bureau to arrange a time, then switched networks to read the online discussions about Parasite winning the award.

"Zhou Mo is still awesome. Two Best Films, one Best Director, one Best Producer, he's got it all."

"Zhou Mo is probably the youngest person in the world to win two Academy Awards now. At this age, this record is unlikely to be broken by anyone in the future."

"No, Zhou Mo is really amazing. It's one thing for him to win an award, which shows he's a genius, but the fact that he can lead others to win awards is truly impressive."

"While the fifth generation of directors in China are indeed talented, they can only promote actors at most. Zhou Mo, on the other hand, promotes directors directly. Just think about how many awards Zhou Mo has helped win. This ability is probably unique to Scorpion Papa in the whole world."

"When it comes to promoting directors, those three guys from Mexico are actually quite good, but they promote each other and create hype for each other. In China, only Zhou Mo can carry the whole show. I think this guy can be given a nickname in the future: Old Driver."

(End of this chapter)