rising director

"Using the prosperity of the disc market in exchange for profits makes the film market increasingly depressed. Isn't this a way to kill the chicken and get the eggs?" the reporter asked.

Liu Xiaoyang shook his head and laughed: "Piracy is so powerful, we can't do anything about it. It's not something our company can do. Everyone is doing it. Now we can only hope that a few famous directors will save the market. Last year there were Wan Xiaohu's "Infernal Affairs" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero". All that can be done."

In 2003, the DVD has been developed to replace the VCD with fuzzy images, so the number of people going to the cinema to watch movies has dropped to freezing point again.Piracy is becoming more and more rampant, making everyone afraid to invest in movies. This year's domestic movies have dropped to the lowest number since 2000.

It is also under such circumstances that the success of Zhang Yimou's "Hero" has brought great confidence to the filmmakers. If they can't play pirated versions with a small cost, they will make blockbuster films.

Zhang Yimou will continue to shoot "House of Flying Daggers", Chen Kai also started to prepare "The Promise", and Feng Xiaogang is also unwilling to be lonely and started working on "A World Without Thieves". These are three blockbuster films.However, the three directors are all waiting for a result.

That is Wan Xiaohu's "The Wind".

The original investment of "The Wind" was 5000 million. Because of the fine special effects, an additional 1000 million was added. The total investment has reached 6000 million yuan, which is a rare large-scale film.

If "The Wind" loses, other people should be cautious. If "The Wind" wins, the era of Chinese blockbusters will truly come!The focus of the market's attention is not on "Infernal Affairs 2", but on "The Wind".

All eyes in the mainland are on "The Wind".

Wan Xiaohu turned his attention to North America.

On October 10, "Saw" was released in North America, and Lionsgate Films placed great importance on it, and arranged 31 theaters for the film. This is the first time in North America that a Chinese-language film has arranged for the premiere of more than 2315 theaters.

"Tger, are you really not coming to America?"

Lionsgate Film Company arranged the premiere of the film, and Jessica, as the heroine with few roles, was also invited to attend, but Wan Xiaohu did not fly over, so Jessica called regretfully.

"I'm not well-known in the United States, so I went to join in the fun. "The Wind" is about to premiere in China, and I can't leave now."

In this way, the North American tour of "Chain Saw" began, and Wan Xiaohu's Hollywood debut~female work set sail.

0223 [Shout Your Slogan] Second Update

When "Saw" was released, Wan Xiaohu also got busy.

On November 2003, 11, the No.1 Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival was held in Jiaxing.

This year's Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards had nothing to do with Wan Xiaohu. The organizing committee invited him to present the awards, but he refused.When he came to Jiaxing, one was to participate in an academic seminar, and the other was to prepare for the premiere of "The Wind".As for the academic seminars, Wan Xiaohu only participated in two.

These are two academic seminars entitled "Exploring the Development Strategy of Fantasy Films from the Characteristics of Ghost Films" and "Resource Integration and Market Operation: The Key to the Take-off of Chinese Animation".

As for other clichés such as the reform of nationalized enterprises, the upgrading of the film industry, and breakthroughs in challenges, etc., which are discussed every year, Wan Xiaohu refused all of them on the grounds that he did not have time.

We talk about it every year, and there is a lot of nonsense every year. As a result, there is no black and white talk every year.

It doesn't matter if you don't go to this kind of seminar.

On the morning of the 2nd, Wan Xiaohu participated in the first fantasy film seminar and started as the first speaker.

"If we use real life as a reference, we can divide conventional movies into two forms: realistic movies based on reality and fantasy movies based on fantasy and deviated from reality. The latter generally include science fiction movies, fantasy movies, myth movies, ghost movies and Part of a martial arts movie."

"As a big movie country, before 2000, we were basically all realistic movies. After 2000, there were also very few fantasy movies. This is a very abnormal phenomenon, and it is also an extremely deformed movie market."

"We have developed realistic films for a long time. Although its achievements cannot be erased, the negative impact cannot be ignored. Because we suppress the author's creative spirit. It has caused the lack of audio-visual expression in the imaginary world, and led to the singularization and deformity of the film manufacturing industry. The development has also seriously suppressed the audience's consumption of fantasy movies**."

"In Hollywood movies, realistic movies have gradually been reduced to a minority, and fantasy movies are increasing day by day. Especially since "Star Wars", blockbuster special effects movies have gradually become the main force in the box office, and Hollywood special effects have been developed. The effect of indistinguishable characters from real people."

"So in recent years, Hollywood blockbusters are pressing harder and harder. Although there are only a few imported films, they account for half of the domestic box office. Does it mean that Hollywood must tell stories? No, but Hollywood movies have released the audience Imagination. A spectator, who sees bullets shooting in a straight line every day, suddenly sees that bullets can turn, must be pleasantly surprised.”

"But our domestic films are still in a realistic style. It seems that if a film is not realistic and does not pay attention to people's care, it is not a good film. This is tantamount to giving up the country, and it has caused fantasy films to be rare and expensive. Hollywood is coming. , easily stealing our market."

"Everyone has curiosity. Americans have it, and Chinese people have it too. But our filmmakers don't have it. The limit we can only imagine is martial arts, holding a sword, and flying over walls. Wuxia is indeed the pride of Chinese movies. But such We started the subject matter in the 50s, decades have passed, and it is still leftovers.”

"Our domestic films are in the stage that urgently needs a breakthrough. Piracy is becoming more and more rampant. How to resolve it? Is there any piracy in Hollywood? Yes! But their audiences prefer to go to the cinema, because the blockbuster visual effects must be placed on a large screen one floor high. It looks more interesting on the screen. Over time, they have the consciousness of going to the cinema, and spontaneously cut off the pirated version."

"Today I won't talk about special effects, but I want to say something impolite. I talked about special effects, and you here don't know much about it." Wan Xiaohu used a relaxed tone to stimulate the filmmakers present. It’s not exciting. When we talk about it next time, they still don’t know what special effects are. “So I want to talk about the ghost movies that everyone is familiar with. White Lady and King Yama are ancient legends, and Happy Ghost and Zombie are Hong Kong movies. product of."

"There are no ghosts in the world. Ghosts are imagined by human beings according to their own needs. The prototype of ghosts is people. The images of ghosts in movies can be roughly divided into four categories: evil ghosts, good ghosts, happy ghosts, and complex ghosts. They collectively embody The collective imagination and creativity of different nations are endowed with different aesthetic characteristics and cultural functions."

Next, Wan Xiaohu explained the characteristics of ghost films from the aspects of narrative, structure, action and emotional endowment of ghost films.

"Fantasy movies are a kind of product. Chinese concepts about virtuality and reality, form and spirit, realism and freehand brushwork are all beneficial to creating the image and artistic conception of fantasy movies. Filmmakers should try to fully reflect them through special effects. , showing the rich heritage of nationalization and the special oriental national spirit."

"From the perspective of the development strategy of Chinese films, only realistic films are flawed. The development of non-realistic films, especially fantasy films, will provide an opportunity for the leapfrog development of Chinese films. If we can seize it, it will not only be possible to drive film The development of high-tech production creates a fresh image to meet market demand, and at the same time may initiate the development of the subsequent film industry.”

"Toys, book publishing, computer games, clothing, tourist souvenirs and other related industries related to fantasy movie images are likely to be driven, and these will definitely bring infinite vitality to the comprehensive and balanced development of Chinese film in the new century. Chinese film There is great hope."

After finishing his eloquent speech, Wan Xiaohu picked up his cup and drank tea silently, waiting for others to express their opinions.

Fantasy movies are the biggest shortcoming of Chinese movies. Since 2000, among the sci-fi movies that have been officially released, there is only one "Butterfly Effect" made by him.Without fantasy movies, there would be no development of special effects in China, and Wan Xiaohu hopes to reverse this situation.

However, at the seminar, it seemed that the situation was not objective. Many filmmakers still wrote a lot about ghost movies and zombie movies, and they really didn't talk much about science fiction and magic.

"It seems that there is a long way to go if we want to develop the country's epic and fantasy blockbusters!" Wan Xiaohu leaned back in his chair, thinking boredly.

After the meeting.After chatting with a few familiar directors, Wan Xiaohu went back to the hotel to rest.

the next day.Another seminar, about the animation industry.

As a reborn, Wan Xiaohu knows the development direction of future movies, magic, science fiction, and animation, these are the three treasures of movie hits.

At the seminar, Wan Xiaohu was sitting with Duan Jia, an associate professor at Beidian Animation Academy. Professor Duan Jia is a female professor who is almost 50 years old.Wearing a pair of eyes, very scholarly. In the 80s, she worked on animation at CCTV. In the [-]s, because of the lack of animation teachers in Beidian, she began to return to school to teach, and has been committed to promoting the development of the animation industry in China.

"Hello, Teacher Duan, I've wanted to attend your class for a long time." Wan Xiaohu greeted very politely.

"You can go to listen to the teacher's class, the teacher is very honored."

"I'm serious. Teacher Duan, I'm currently creating "Qin Shi Mingyue". To be honest, the technical content of cartoons is no worse than that of live-action movies. From the perspective of production cycle and technical rendering, the gold content is higher. There are too few animation talents in China now, which is why "Qin Shi Mingyue" has been created for more than a year and has not yet come out. So I have always wanted to communicate with Teacher Duan."

"I've been paying attention to you too. At first you wanted to make a cartoon, I was very supportive. But then I heard that you resigned as the animation director. I still feel it's a pity, but I didn't expect you to not give up on this idea."

"Animated films have always been my research direction."

"There are too few people in China who want to make animated films like you. They all regard cartoons as mentally handicapped children, alas."

"Yes."

After chatting for a while, the seminar started, and everyone expressed their opinions.

Wan Xiaohu also expressed his opinion.

"I remember, Mr. Disney, the founder of Disney Animation 70 years ago, said something like this..."

I don't make movies primarily for kids.It's about making movies for the innocence of all of us, whether he's 6 or 60.This is called innocence.The worst thing is not that we don't have our naivetés, but that they may be deeply buried.In my work, I try to realize and express this kind of innocence, let it show the fun and joy of life, show the health of laughter, and show the realm that human nature must strive for even though it is sometimes absurd.

"70 years have passed, how has Disney developed? How far has the animation film in the United States, the world's largest film country, developed? I think many people, including our fellow filmmakers and art circles, will not be ignorant of animated films. But too little is known.”

"Let me tell you a statistic. The box office champion in 95 was the animated movie "Toy Story", "Pocahontas" ranked fourth, "A Bug's Life" ranked fourth in 98, "Mulan" No.13, and "The King of Egypt" Tenth, "Toy Story 99" came third in 2, "Tarzan" came first, "Shrek" came second in 01, and "Monsters, Inc." came third. This year, so far, "Finding Nemo" is expected to win the championship. "

"Everyone knows that I have also started to get involved in the animation field in the past two years. I still remember that when I announced that I would direct an animation, many people laughed at me, saying that Wan Xiaohu went back more and more. This is a very embarrassing thing. I Now I am also the chief director of "Qin Shi Mingyue", and I deeply feel the urgency and embarrassment that the animation industry is not taken seriously."