But as Li Xiaole's understanding of movies became deeper and deeper, he began to feel that his understanding of "film art" had deviated, those art films seemed to have some doorways, and he felt that those award-winning unpopular movies were really good, but the problem was that he just "felt" that art film was good, but he couldn't say it......

is like this "Slumdog Millionaire", he feels that he will definitely be able to shoot one shot at a time according to the original, but he will definitely not surpass Danny Boyle, because he can feel that there is an invisible and intangible atmosphere in the original movie, and it is that inexplicable atmosphere that makes him feel that he is inadequate, and there seems to be something missing in his film language......

For the first time, he felt that his directing ability had reached a limit, and if he wanted to go up, there was an invisible force blocking him below, to put it simply, he encountered a bottleneck period for directing......

Thinking about this, Li Xiaole also knows the problem, he needs an "art director" now, he needs someone who has much more experience and film perception than him to guide him and let him cross this bottleneck.

And his first reaction was to find old Charlie, hoping that this friendly old British gentleman could serve as his art director, to his surprise, old Charlie actually rejected him, the reason was: "Lee, the best art director in the whole of Britain is indeed in the Drama Council, but it is not me, but Fred, for everything in film art, no one in this world knows more than him." ”

That old-fashioned old Englishman who has a straight face every day, like everyone owes him a million pounds? Li Xiaole felt a little headache just thinking about it, but after careful consideration, he still decided to focus on movies and asked the president of the drama council to join the crew of "Slumdog Millionaire".

He believes that Fred will not refuse, because any movie that has seen this script will know that this film will be very good, and it will definitely be shortlisted for many awards, and everyone will understand that the huge film honor of joining the crew will be at your fingertips, so Li Xiaole never thinks that anyone will refuse this work, and Fred is no exception.

But what he didn't expect at all was that after Fred heard this, he rejected him without hesitation, and the reason for the refusal also made him very sad: "If you make this movie, you will definitely get a lot of nominations, but at most you can only win some technical awards, and you will never get the best director and best picture." ”

This Fred not only saw his purpose, but also directly concluded that he would not get his wish, which made Li Xiaole feel a little furious, and when he asked this old fashionista, he pretended to be deep and didn't want to say anything...... Damn it...... This British just loves to sell off.

Fred's words also made Li Xiaole entangled in the past two days, so he immediately agreed to the invitation from Cambridge, in addition to meeting Peter Jackson, and more importantly, he wanted to relieve the tension during this time.

After the security guards dispersed the congested crowd, Li Xiaole ended the tour of Cambridge University, and after a lunch break, they went to the multi-purpose hall of the School of Drama in the afternoon to attend lectures and seminars on film and drama, and the director of his dialogue was Peter Jackson, the great director of New Zealand.

Peter Jackson's directorial experience is as legendary as Li Xiaole, this New Zealander with no professional film education, after graduating from school, he worked as a sidejob reporter for a magazine, and then with the savings of 100,000 pounds accumulated in five years, plus subsidies from the New Zealand government, he and his friends spent more than four years filming a "Cosmic Monster" movie on the weekend.

At that time, Peter Jackson, who was not literate, took his own film, which he wrote, directed and acted, single-handedly rushed to Cannes to participate in the screening, and sold millions of dollars. Since then, he has embarked on the road of professional director.

After he established Weta Digital with several New Zealand filmmakers in 93, he developed the New Zealand film industry bit by bit, until he entered the United States to shoot "The Lord of the Rings", and he really entered the ranks of the world's top directors and became the world's admired director.

In fact, during the filming of "Saidek Bale", Li Xiaole developed a lot of Maya's special effects plug-ins, met Peter Jackson very early, and talked a lot on the phone, Peter Jackson gave him the impression of a very crazy and energetic person, no matter what aspect of the movie he can talk about, he is a very good interlocutor.

In front of the multi-purpose hall is a stage with a red carpet and pleasant plant-on-pot plants, and two people sit on mahogany chairs in the center of the stage, each holding a microphone and mineral water on the ground next to it. The wide hall under the stage was full, and there were media reporters who were invited to come happily, and behind it were filled with young students from the Cambridge School of Arts and Drama, the Department of Film Arts, the Department of Fine Arts, and the Department of Playwriting......

Everyone listened to the conversation with great interest, especially the film art students, who were very excited and engrossed in not allowing themselves to miss a word, if George Lucas and Spielberg influenced a wave of college students in the 80s and 90s, then Peter Jackson and Li Xiaole were two of the most enthusiastic directors among young students after 2000.

After a brief presentation, the atmosphere in the hall became more enthusiastic, and everyone finally entered the long-awaited discussion and dialogue session.

And now the host provoked a more acute question: "Both of them are the best filmmakers in Asia and Oceania, how to make their domestic films more worldly and compete with Hollywood films?" ”

Peter Jackson, who has lost more than 60 pounds, looks much more handsome than before, he took the microphone and said: "If you want your country's films to be recognized by the world, the first thing is to need excellent local film actors." ”

"Movie actors are very important." Li Xiaole nodded, he deeply agreed with this, he also took the microphone and said: "Let's not talk about whether a movie is successful or not, at least one point is to judge whether this movie is England belonging to the Commonwealth or China, first of all, which country's actor you use to play the leading role, Hollywood has made a lot of stories with Chinese themes, but in fact, they are all American movies." ”

"In this regard, I admit that the Commonwealth has an advantage, we have a large number of good actors." Peter Jackson analyzed with a smile: "And France and Germany are relatively pitiful, they have too few actors, no matter how good the culture is, they can't make world-class movies." ”

"So is there anything else necessary besides being an actor?" The moderator continued.

"I think there are two more conditions." Peter Jackson stretched out two fingers and said:

"Secondly, if you want to make a world-class movie, then you must have a strong film industry support, no matter how extreme the art film within a small range is, it is always unable to affect popular culture, and it is necessary to turn art into a story that the public understands, which involves a huge amount of capital investment, for example, a scene, in an art film, you can be freehand to only shoot a street corner, and the main characters can be filmed finely, because people who understand film look at the actor's costumes, his conversation, lines, he roughly knows the background of the story.

But if you want the general audience to understand it, then at least you need a long lens to shoot the entire street, or even a panoramic view of the city, so that he can see a complete world of the world, through a complete visual impact, he understands when and where the movie takes place, this kind of construction of a complete world of the world, you must have a huge film industry, this is hard power.

And the third point, and the most important, is that for a good world-class movie, you must have the cultural heritage of your country, and the theme of the film must be both traditional and connected with the culture of the world, and the world must have a clear cultural impression of the country.

For example, "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Harry Potter" were originally loved by people from all over the world, so everyone knows that there is such a story in the United Kingdom, there is magic, there is the Middle-earth world, there are wizards, there are dwarves, there are elves, these things can only be filmed by the British, and American filmmakers can never shoot them, this is the cultural heritage of the country, which is also the core element of the difference between other countries' films and Hollywood. ”

Speaking of this, Peter Jackson turned to look at Li Xiaole and smiled:

"There are not many countries in this world that have all three conditions at the same time, except for the United Kingdom, only India, Japan and China, so ...... I believe that director Li Xiaole will definitely be able to make world-class Chinese films in the future, and I think it will not be more than ten years at most. ”

"Well, I think we still need time in China in this regard, after all, an industry also needs to be accumulated." Li Xiaole looked at the many faces in front of the audience, looked at him expectantly, and couldn't help but feel a little surprised, nodded and admitted:

"But no matter what, I will shoot my own films like director Peter, and I hope that one day, I can conquer the Oscar and win the best picture award with pure Chinese films, just like director Peter won the Oscar with "The Lord of the Rings."

Some of the British students in the audience applauded after listening to it, some disagreed, and many students even ridiculed, although "The Lord of the Rings" is a British movie, but after all, it is English-speaking, and a foreign-language film that speaks Chinese wants to win the best picture at the Oscar? This is simply impossible, although Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the pinnacle of Chinese cinema that year, was nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film at the same time, it didn't only win Best Foreign Language Film in the end......

In this talk, Li Xiaole listened to Peter Jackson's feelings, and he also had something in his heart, yes, Chinese films meet the conditions of being able to make the world's top movies, but the question is whether he can do it...... Everything depends on whether he can break through the bottleneck this time.

As soon as this meeting ended, Li Xiaole received a call from Lei Ting, and he was very surprised by the content.

"Good news, Todd Hardy, the representative of the Big Six Board of Directors, contacted us and he wanted us to join the Hollywood Major League system, and promised to let Black Pearl take a cross-stake in the Board of Directors of the Big Six, on the condition that you immigrate to the U.S. ...... first."