Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 164 Term Assignment Exhibition and Salon

The semester achievement presentation officially begins.

Knowing that many well-known directors and senior stars were coming this time, the students put in a lot of effort. It was obvious that some students were trying too hard.

Here, those who have experience in filming on a crew will be much better off.

At least they know that performing while being watched by others is completely different from rehearsing by themselves, so they can be relatively restrained.

However, these programs are already excellent works selected from each grade, and relatively speaking, they are quite acceptable.

Chen Linfeng's animated short film, as the highlight of today, was arranged at the end.

The quality of the short film successfully amazed the audience, and many great directors such as Zhang Yimou also nodded repeatedly.

No wonder it won the Silver Lion.

After presenting the study assignments, Chen Linfeng began his report.

The title is "The process and precautions for film festival application."

Because this semester's assignment exhibition has attracted so many top supervisors, and there are also activities scheduled afterwards, the report is not long.

The main content is to introduce some film festivals around the world, as well as the concepts and directions of each film festival.

Nowadays, information is not like in later times, where you can easily find it by searching on the Internet. Many people in the industry don’t know about the content related to this kind of film festival, let alone students in school.

Most people always think that film festivals are very high-end, but in fact, some film festivals other than the three major ones do not have such high requirements.

Students in film schools can take some niche film festivals as opportunities to try their hand.

After all, failure doesn’t have much impact. If success occurs, it will be more or less an experience for the future.

Students who work behind the scenes always have to go through a long period of hard work after graduation before they have a chance to get promoted.

If I could have a good resume while in school, I believe I could avoid some detours.

The students below did not expect that Chen Linfeng would talk about this topic, and many of them were eager to listen.

I feel that the film festivals mentioned are not very difficult to attend, so maybe you can give it a try.

Those who are interested have already started taking notes.

In short, the report was very popular. After the report, some students stood up and asked related questions, and Chen Linfeng answered them one by one.

Next comes the highlight, and the Sixth Princess is mainly here to film this.

Many great directors sat on the stage and communicated with each other in a salon-like format, sharing their own experiences and opinions.

It was impossible to invite too many people to this salon, and in the end only Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Dazhuang, Li Shaohong, Hu Mei, Zhang Li and a few others were selected. In addition, there were two leaders of the Film Academy, a dean and a director.

Chen Linfeng was also invited to perform. As an internationally renowned writer and Hollywood screenwriter, he was definitely qualified to perform.

It was difficult to arrange the seats after going on stage, so Chen Linfeng simply took the initiative to sit in the last seat. After all, he was in school and he was a student himself.

There were nine people on the stage, plus Tu Jingwei, the host of The Sixth Princess, making exactly ten people. Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige didn't need to rank each other, they could just sit together in the center.

Tu Jingwei started by giving an opening speech. The theme of this directors' talk was where film and television dramas in the new era should go.

"We have film directors and TV directors here, as well as the fifth generation of directors and novice directors who are still in school. Please stand in your own position and share your views."

Tian Dazhuang first said that as the earliest fifth-generation director, he was obsessed with making his own movies, and because of his persistence in his own ideas, he could no longer be a director.

Regarding his own experience, he simply gave the students in the audience some advice, "It's not that you have to shoot something that people don't understand, but I think that as a filmmaker, you should always have your own ideas and stick to them."

In this regard, several directors present were silent. Now is the era of commercial blockbusters, and no one can persist like him in making the pure author films of the past.

Chen Linfeng doesn't like Tian Dazhuang's movies. He thinks movies are made for others to watch, not for one's own enjoyment. If one wants to express himself, he can just write a book. Why must he waste public resources to make movies?

However, he admires Tian Dazhuang, who truly integrates knowledge and action and sticks to his ideals.

Not all Chinese filmmakers can be like this, but it’s not bad to have one like this.

Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are not as extreme as Tian Dazhuang, but they also believe that as a director, one must have his own ideas and cannot succumb to the public's ideas or the ideas of the screenwriter. In Chen Kaige's words, "Filmmakers must always have something of their own."

Because they were sitting around and chatting with each other, everyone basically said whatever they thought of, and here Chen Linfeng directly expressed his objection.

"Of course it's okay to have your own things, but the screenwriter's story must also be respected. Ideas can be reflected in the story, but the integrity of the story cannot be damaged because of the ideas."

"Hey, Director Chen expressed a different opinion. Is there anyone who supports this?" Tu Jingwei began to guide the topic.

If everyone just keeps chatting in a friendly manner, then there would be no point in filming this conversation.

The director of the TV series is relatively supportive of this view, and both Hu Mei and Zhang Li tend to support it.

Zhang Li said, "There is indeed a tendency now that some crews are beginning to ignore the role of screenwriters. I think this is not a good situation."

Chen Kaige was too disdainful to argue with him, and instead teased Chen Linfeng, "You think so as a screenwriter, right? Yes, we all forgot that there was a writer and screenwriter on the scene."

Several directors were laughing. Indeed, Xiao Chen was more of a screenwriter than a director on the scene. No wonder he disagreed.

Chen Kaige continued, "If you start making feature films, you will know that the director's persistence in his ideas can make a film better."

Chen Linfeng did not deny it either, "Indeed, directors should insist on it, but I think it depends on the time. When it comes to art films, the director's camera language is more important, while in genre films, the integrity of the script is more important.

In today’s era of blockbuster movies and genre films, the importance of screenwriters has increased.”

Zhang Yimou asked, "Like you are in Hollywood? Do the directors there respect you?"

Chen Linfeng shrugged, "At least judging from the money given, it's still quite respectful."

At this point, most of the directors present felt a little jealous. The adaptation rights for a movie cost 1000 million US dollars, which would take them several years to do.

The following topics also involved some of the operating rules of Hollywood. Chen Linfeng also introduced his own understanding, including the general process of public relations for his own animated short film.

Chen Kaige listened with great attention. He also wanted to win an Oscar, so Chen's words were wise words.

The students below, watching the big guys chatting and laughing, fantasized about the day when they could also go on stage in such an occasion instead of sitting below as spectators.

The salon lasted about an hour and a half. Everyone chatted with each other for an hour, and the remaining half hour was for students to ask questions.

Finally, all the directors and celebrity actors stood together and took a photo.

There are people who are already successful and famous, as well as people who will rise to prominence in the future. Chen Linfeng was standing in the first row, slightly to the side, and was recorded.

After the entire exhibition was over, Zhang Yimou found Chen Linfeng again and invited him to audition for his next movie "Curse of the Golden Flower", which will be released early next year.

Chen Linfeng refused on the grounds that he had no schedule.

The past two years have been the darkest time for Chinese films, with big domestic directors failing one after another, and this movie is one of them.

Considering his age, the most suitable person would probably be the Second Prince, the role played by Zhou Jielun in his previous life.

Even if he went for an audition, it was unlikely that Zhang Weiping would be interested in him. After all, a writer could never compare to a music superstar like Zhou Jielun in terms of the number of fans.

A pure businessman like Zhang Weiping doesn't care about anything else but commercial value.

So I'd better not get involved.

Chen Kaige invited him to attend the premiere of the movie, which was difficult to refuse, so he agreed.

……

A few days later, at night, Chen Shantong came to see his two sons.

He brought a bag of meatballs fried by Chen's mother, both meat and vegetarian, so that the two children could heat them up when they wanted to eat.

After asking a few questions about Shi Xiaolong's situation at school, Chen Shantong went to Chen Linfeng to discuss things.

"The company is about to start a new project. I'm not sure and would like to ask for your opinion."

(End of this chapter)