Although this is a Sino-US film forum, it inevitably evolved into a Chinese film forum in the end, and Duke sat here safely, listening carefully to the speeches of these top figures in the Chinese film industry, which can be regarded as a full understanding of the Chinese film market. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the discussion, the directors of Chinese films are to blame for the low quality of Chinese films.

Because since Chinese films have entered the commercialization mode, they have basically implemented the director-centered system that has been passed down from Hong Kong, rather than the producer-centered system popular in Hollywood.

No matter how poor the quality of the movie itself is, when interviewed by reporters, most directors will swear that they have worked so this work, how much they like this script, and how sincere they are in shooting this movie.

Corresponding to this kind of "performance", these directors will almost without exception complain: how difficult the shooting environment is, how dangerous the actors are...... But for the audience, how can hard work and danger be a reason to tolerate a movie that doesn't know what to do?

After this kind of "bitter r" can no longer continue, many bad movie directors have now begun to complain, one of the most classic sayings is that the director will put the responsibility on the actors in private, such as complaints about the actors' salaries, at the end of last year, there was news that a certain actress offered a salary of 10 million, which scared away many people who wanted to make films with her.

A director privately complained that he originally wanted to invite a certain big name in the circle for this movie, but the other party's asking price was too expensive, and a large part of the production funds was used to pay for the film, resulting in a small budget in other aspects, resulting in some of the original special effects and scenes could not be completed, and the quality of the film could not be very high.

In recent times, "high salary" has become a phenomenon that Qianfu refers to, causing many actors to also respond, declaring that this is also a "market behavior": "Can pig R still increase its price." Why can't actors' salaries rise? The asking price is high, and that's because there is demand in the market. ”

Of course, the complaints of the actors are also reasonable, and the reputation of some star actors and star directors because of the accumulation of some previous movies has become the guarantee of their box office appeal. Some young idols are the envy of many production companies because of their huge fan base.

In addition to putting the responsibility on the actors, many directors also habitually put the responsibility on the screenwriters, and many directors say that there are no good screenwriters in China at present. The few remaining screenwriters with good quality ask for too expensive, and the delivery is hasty, and the lines and the like have not been polished at all.

There are also directors who analyze that the commercialization wave of Chinese films actually only started at the beginning of this century, and in the past ten years, the older generation of screenwriters has been unable to meet the existing commercial needs with their creative thinking, and the younger generation of screenwriters simply do not know how to structure dramatic contradictions and dramatic conflicts, resulting in the written books basically talking nonsense. The directors had to rework, but few of the directors themselves were from liberal arts classes, so in many details, the story that did so would also be faulty.

From the screenwriter's point of view, the directors are simply vexatious when they say this.

Wang Xingdong, president of the Chinese Film Literature Society, who was present, repeatedly emphasized the importance of screenwriters' rights protection, in his opinion, it is precisely because the current directors tamper with the script of the adapted drama all day long that many wonderful stories are messed up, including many movies, including himself, the directors have tampered with the plot according to their own wishes without the consent of the screenwriter. Not only did it lose a lot of meaningful content, but it even damaged the script itself.

And Wang Xingdong is also complaining that the screenwriter himself has the lowest asking price in many aspects of film production.

"A movie with an investment of tens of millions. can only give the screenwriter only two or three hundred thousand, which is already very high, but compared to the salary of the actor and director, this is almost a fraction, and it is even better than the cost of holding a press conference. Even so, there are still many crews who owe the screenwriter money that has not been fully paid. ”

He almost stood up and denounced to the producer, "This phenomenon has become very common in the industry, which screenwriter has not carried the case of collecting arrears?" Therefore, the poor quality of Chinese films is not because the screenwriters are not good or expensive, but because the entire industry does not respect the labor of screenwriters, resulting in screenwriters not having the enthusiasm to do some things. ”

None of these problems are caused unilaterally, Duke has struggled in the country's film industry, and since a few years ago, people have been paying attention to the Chinese market, collecting relevant information, and understanding many situations.

At present, there is another argument about the low quality of Chinese films, which is that the general environment of Chinese films is very good, resulting in a lot of social funds being concentrated in film and television investment, and most of this hot money is from the perspective of "investment", and what is pursued is short-term profit returns.

Judging from the current situation of Chinese films, from the start of a film to the completion of production, it is generally about half a year to a year, if the preliminary preparation does not need to set up the scene, it is generally only a few dozen days from getting the script to the project, and the director's post-production stage and the review by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television can generally be completed in about four months.

After the movie is released, it will be offline almost within a month, so if it focuses on the mainland market, does not involve overseas sales, and the box office is really good, the investor of a film can return the funds in a year and a half at most.

Judging from this schedule, there is very little time left for creators, and it is almost impossible to create a masterpiece in a short period of time.

But for this "short, flat and fast" way of making money, many private capitals also seem to be vibrant: we originally came to invest, investment is naturally to see the return, the film is the artist's business, the audience's reputation is good, that is also the director's business, businessmen can make money enough.

Judging from the types of bad movies in China in the past two years, most of the movies are concentrated in the three categories of thriller, romance, and comedy, because according to market research, these three types of movies are basically the types with the lowest input cost and the easiest to generate box office returns.

Just like Hollywood, thrillers generally have very little investment, and there used to be a saying in the circles here: thrillers don't lose money.

And the love story is the same, as long as you find the right idol actors and do a good job of publicity, even a remake of a Korean drama can attract many of little girls. As for comedy, the requirements for the schedule are relatively high, and Hong Kong directors like Huang Baiming, although every comedy movie has attracted a lot of scolding, but because they are on the Lunar New Year, they have almost never lost.

It is precisely because such low-cost, low-grade works can make money, so that many domestic investors have gradually reduced their requirements for domestic commercial films, after all, commercial investment is risky, rather than shooting a well-made commercial blockbuster at a high cost and high cost, it is better to spend less money to make a bad movie, although the content is not good, but you can make money.

The most prominent counterexample in this regard is Zhang Guoshi's "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling". Previously, it was rumored that the reason why his investors broke up with him was because "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" did spend hundreds of millions of yuan on production, but the final box office result was a fiasco, which made the investor as a businessman unacceptable, and began to think of another low-risk routine.

It is understandable for businessmen to pursue profits, but this kind of investment idea will inevitably have some adverse effects on the development of Chinese films, everyone knows that if Chinese films want to really enter the world film market, thrillers, romance, and comedy will not play much role at all.

This line of thinking has begun to affect the diversity of Chinese films. The most typical example is that there are basically no authentic science fiction movies in China, and from the perspective of Hollywood's movies that can really circulate the world, at least half of them have obvious science fiction concepts or characteristics.

In addition to the lack of science and engineering literacy in the director community, the most important reason for the delay in the emergence of science fiction films that can truly circulate the world is that investors from all walks of life are unwilling to take such risks.

Because science fiction movies require special effects and post-production time, and after two to three years, it is impossible to predict what kind of opponents will be encountered in the same schedule, and computer special effects, no matter from which point of view, are indeed "you get what you pay for".

"Watching planes fly overhead all day long, but never taking a plane, this is the situation of Chinese films."

Jiang Xiaojun's words are undoubtedly very representative, "Our technical cognition can only move on the ground, not that we don't want to fly." It's that one has no technology, two has no concept, three has no money, and one can't fly without it! ”

Although these statements are somewhat exaggerated, they are not unreasonable, if Chinese films want to really go to the world, it is by no means the result of a single effort, let alone a problem that can be solved by a few Hollywood-style scripts.

As Duke said, Hollywood movies can run rampant all over the world, and it is never the result of scripts, let alone the result of creativity and innovation, which is an all-round and comprehensive phenomenon.

Later, someone brought the topic to Duke's side, and he also said a few words in a timely manner, "I am just a director, and I can only look at the problem from the perspective of the director, in my opinion, many of your new commercial directors should avoid getting contaminated with some bad habits......

There are some things that Duke is not suitable to say too deeply, otherwise as an outsider, he will inevitably be seen as provocative.

In his opinion, the bad habits of many Chinese bad film directors are infected by some Hong Kong directors. (To be continued.) )

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