Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 201 [Film Symposium, Director Chen’s New Poetry]

This morning, around eight o'clock.

Li Yishu followed Han Sanping to the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, which would later become the famous Radio, Film and Television.

This time I came here mainly to attend the symposium.

"Jurassic Park" achieved a global box office of 9 million US dollars, which also greatly stimulated the radio and television departments.

To many people, this may just be a movie, but from above, it is the result of the rampant expansion of American culture around the world.

In the commercial film sector, the domestic industry has not done very well in recent years, and now has to face the challenge of importing ten foreign films to compete with domestic films in the market.

If "Jurassic Park" is released next year and arranged by Hollywood as an imported film, it will probably bring huge disaster to the domestic film market.

If we don’t find ways to promote the reform of domestic films, the harm it will cause in the future will probably be even greater.

Even though the country can control the import list, it is impossible to block all American blockbusters from being released in the mainland.

Therefore, taking advantage of the window of officially introducing overseas blockbusters next year, we closed the door in advance and held an internal meeting to discuss the impact of the introduction of overseas films, including the subsequent reform of mainland film categories.

In the conference room.

Those who came were all insiders in the industry, leaders of the radio and television departments, leaders of major film studios, as well as some film directors and veteran producers.

It can be regarded as a symposium to deal with imported films for next year.

Among these people, Li Yishu also saw the familiar face Brother Chen Kai, as well as Zhang Yimou who hurried over from the crew of "To Live", and director Xie Fei who won the "Golden Bear Award" this year.

"Cough cough!"

The leader in charge of hosting the symposium coughed twice, and the scene became much quieter. He then said, "Ladies and gentlemen, today's symposium is mainly about the current sluggish film market and the import of foreign films next year. It has basically been confirmed that foreign films will definitely be imported next year, ten films per year..."

After briefly talking about the theme of today's symposium, the leader said, "Now let's talk about the sluggish film market and the introduction of overseas films."

The deputy director of a film studio said: "I don't think there is any need to worry too much. The sluggish film market is an inevitable trend. In the past, movie tickets were cheap, everyone could go to the cinema, and there were many projection teams going to the countryside to show films... With the beginning of the marketization of the film economy, I think it will recover sooner or later."

“You are just worrying too much! Is it because the industry has become completely stagnant that you are thinking about reforming it?”

Another studio manager nearby angrily said, "We didn't even have 2 million moviegoers in the first half of this year. How much less than last year? Don't you have an idea?!"

In the first half of last year, the number of moviegoers was 50 billion, but in the first half of this year it was only 2 million. The reduction was not a small one, it was almost dried up.

The deputy director of the film studio was unconvinced and said, "Didn't I just say that? The current sluggish movie market is due to rising ticket prices. In addition, since the beginning of the year, the number of moviegoers from the projection teams in the countryside has been excluded. Now, the less than 2 million moviegoers are the truly effective number of moviegoers."

"But this drop is too much. According to this trend, I don't think there will be even 1 million moviegoers next year!"

"..."

Originally, a group of people were supposed to be able to speak freely at the symposium, but these two seemed to be arguing with each other. Others around them could not get a word in for a while, and they could only listen to the two of them talking back and forth.

The leader frowned and coughed, "Okay, okay, let's discuss the sluggish market later. Now let's talk about introducing foreign films."

"There's nothing to discuss about this. There are only 10 movies a year. How much impact can it have on us?"

"That's right. Those Hollywood commercial films are just like Hong Kong entertainment films. They are full of vulgarity and are not worth mentioning at all."

"I think we should still be vigilant. Jurassic Park, which was released in June this year, has achieved a global box office of $6 million, which shows that the vast majority of audiences in the world recognize Hollywood movies. I don't think our audiences will dislike such American blockbusters."

"..."

When it comes to importing foreign films, some people talk big, some people look down on Hollywood's commercial films, and some people think we should be wary of these films.

But after listening to these people's comments, Li Yishu felt that they were still too optimistic and a little too conservative.

During the time she was in Yanjing, Li Yishu clearly felt the sluggishness of the film market. Yesterday was Sunday, and a movie theater on Chang'an Avenue was completely empty.

A few years ago, when Li Yishu was studying at the Beijing Film Academy, not to mention Sundays, even on weekdays, there were people entering and leaving the cinema from morning to night.

The only good place to fall in love these days is the movie theater, because it's dark inside and you can do some embarrassing things.

Later in "Kung Fu", Feng Dapao, who played the boss of the Crocodile Gang, blurted out "No matter what business I do, I won't run a movie theater. There's no one there on Sundays." In fact, he was mocking the fact that no one had gone to the theaters to watch movies in recent years, which had forced state-owned theater chains to carry out large-scale privatization reforms.

This year's film market is still relatively good, but when VCDs and pirated discs become popular next year, things will be even worse.

Almost no ordinary audience would spend more than ten or twenty yuan to buy movie tickets. Young couples who wanted to do naughty things during their relationship were no longer willing to go to the cinema because they had better places to go, such as dance halls, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.

Ultimately, it is because movie ticket prices are too high. According to a survey, the average monthly salary in 1992 was more than 220 yuan, and the average movie ticket price was about 5 yuan.

Since the cancellation of the unified sales of movies in early 1993, movie ticket prices have been rising all the way, from a few yuan to more than ten yuan, which naturally cut off a group of people from going to the cinema.

Spending a few dollars is a pastime, but spending more than ten dollars is a pain.

Secondly, the homogeneity of movies is too serious. For feature films produced by major studios, audiences are more willing to buy Hong Kong film discs and watch them at home rather than go to the cinema.

When American blockbusters were introduced, a wave of movie-watching was triggered, mainly because the subject matter was novel and filled with sensory stimulation such as big explosions, high technology, and erotica.

The reason why "Titanic" was able to achieve a box office of 3.6 million yuan was not because of the big scenes. The main reason was that the film was not cut at all, and the erotic scenes of "meaty shreds" greatly stimulated the audience to go to the cinema.

If 3D Meat had been released in mainland China, it would have probably earned 10 billion earlier than Lost in Thailand. No one is going to the cinema now, it is the general trend of the market, and Li Yishu cannot go against the market, which is why he wants to cooperate with Qiong Yao and prepare to transform the mainland film company into film and television production.

"What does Director Li think about the imported overseas films next year?"

Zhang Yimou looked at the mess around him and couldn't help but look curiously at Li Yishu beside him. He is the first domestic director to enter the international film market. A single film of his has achieved a global box office of 4 million US dollars. Compared with the directors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is no exaggeration to say that he can be described as a crushing defeat.

Li Yishu thought for a moment and uttered two words: "Catfish."

"Catfish?" Zhang Yimou was slightly stunned. How is this related to catfish?
"It's the catfish effect to be exact!"

Li Yishu nodded. "This word comes from Norway. People there like to eat sardines, especially live fish. However, most sardines die due to lack of oxygen during transportation. Later, someone put a catfish, which mainly feeds on sardines, into the fish tank containing sardines. When the sardines saw the catfish, they hid everywhere. In this way, the problem of lack of oxygen was solved, and most of them returned to the fishing port alive and kicking."

"Overseas movies, or more precisely American blockbusters, are the catfish thrown among the sardines!"

Hearing this, Zhang Yimou nodded thoughtfully, and subconsciously looked at the group of directors around him.

Li Yishu followed his gaze and saw that most of the people sitting around were older directors, although there were also some middle-aged directors in their thirties and forties.

But at present, the only two directors who can truly cross the millennium are Zhang Yimou and Chen Kai. The other directors will most likely be eliminated by the waves.

This is precisely the result of the catfish effect, which eliminates some "sardines" that are unable to survive in the market economy and allows those vibrant fresh fish to return to the "fishing port" alive.

In fact, the relevant departments also had this intention to some extent, but they underestimated the influence and entertainment ability of American blockbusters. Secretary Li Yi knew very well that the next few years would basically be an era dominated by Hollywood blockbusters.

The first imported film, The Fugitive, won the box office championship that year, followed by the familiar "Terminator Schwarzenegger" True Lies, The Lion King, Toy Story, The Rock, and Mission Impossible 1...

Until "Titanic" dominated the domestic film box office record for 11 years.

Starting from next year, in the seven or eight years until the millennium, American blockbusters will surely sweep the domestic box office and occupy the majority.

The fundamental reason is that it is difficult for domestic blockbusters to make a profit, which also leads to everyone preferring low-cost film production.

After all, American blockbusters can recoup their production costs in their own country, and all the overseas box office revenue is profit.

This also means that even if Li Yishu wants to make a big-budget film to boost the entire domestic film market, she can only choose to shoot a "Three Kingdoms" theme, because there is a box office that can support the film's recovery and even profit - Japan.

"Everyone's suggestions and ideas are very good. I have asked the recorder to write them down and will review them in the internal meeting later."

After saying that, the leader turned to look at Li Yishu and said, "Director Li Yishu, as a representative of young directors, what are your personal thoughts on the introduction of foreign films next year?"

In an instant, everyone around looked over.

The feeling of being watched the whole time gave Li Yishu a headache, but he knew he couldn't avoid it.

After all, if we only consider the box office, then Lee Yi-su is enough to beat all the directors in the field, and there is no one in China who can compete with him.

After Li Yishu sorted out his thoughts, he stood up and said, "Since the leaders have already decided on the issue of importing overseas films, there is no point in saying more. What we need to do now is to industrialize the film industry as quickly as possible."

Industrialization of film?
People around me frowned. Can movies be industrialized?
Only Chen Kai, who was studying in the United States, understood what Li Yishu meant, but he felt that the idea was a bit unrealistic.

The leader became interested: "Industrialization of film? Tell us more about it."

"Everyone should know what industrialization means. Film industrialization actually means dividing the work, projectizing, standardizing, and streamlining the process of making films, and building our own film and television industry base..."

There is currently no truly large-scale film and television city in China. Most of them are either built on the spot or are small studios inside major film studios. This includes the later famous Hengdian Film and Television City and the Yanjing Huairou Feiteng Film and Television City, but now there is no trace of them.

This is actually not conducive to the development of the film and television industry.

The rise of film and television cities is due to the fact that, on the one hand, it reduces the production costs of the crew, and on the other hand, it can also develop the tourism economy. In the future, Hengdian Film and Television City will receive hundreds of millions of tourists every year, and the economic value it will bring will be huge.
Hengdian Film and Television City can make a lot of money just by relying on tourists. During the filming process, they can completely waive most of the fees for renting the venue, thereby making the film and television city more and more famous.

As Li Yishu briefly talked about the benefits and results brought by the industrialization of the film industry, some people were disdainful, some were thoughtful, and some thought it was a fantasy.

"That's a good idea, but Director Li hasn't answered my question yet."

"Well... I am a young director. The seniors here are more experienced than me. I listened carefully to what they said just now. They all said very well."

Seeing that Li Yishu didn't seem to want to answer, the leader nodded and didn't continue asking questions. Instead, he asked Li Yishu to sit down and began to call out Brother Chen Kai.

Although there is no "Farewell My Concubine" now, Brother Chen Kai's fame and prestige cannot be compared with the previous life, but there is no doubt that he is still the leader among the fifth generation of domestic directors in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, with his resume of studying in the United States, it is natural that he was named the second one by the leader.

"I think that introducing foreign films will have little impact on us. On the contrary, it will greatly stimulate our film industry to have all-round exchanges with foreign filmmakers. When I was in the United States, I came into contact with many outstanding directors there..."

Brother Chen Kai enthusiastically shared his experiences in the United States and his experience attending film festivals, including that he is planning to create a new film to compete with imported American blockbusters next year.

Chen Kai got himself excited by the babble and the impassioned speech, and uttered a poem to set the scene: "The sword energy spans 30,000 miles, and the sword light chills the 19 continents!"

"Good!" The leaders of the radio and television were very satisfied and applauded, just because Brother Chen Kai expressed the spirit of facing challenges head-on.

The leaders of other film studios and senior directors in the surrounding area also smiled with satisfaction.

Brother Chen Kai said this very well. What's wrong with foreign blockbusters? Each of them has been working in the film industry for almost their entire lives. Are they not as good as those foreign directors?

Li Yishu forced a smile, worthy of being the poet Chen.

(End of this chapter)