On the first day of the Lunar New Year, a whole family gathered at Zhang Junsheng’s grandfather’s house. The little uncle told him: “Don’t make underground movies!”

"...Uncle, don't worry, I have acquired more than fifty theaters and want to make money!"

After thinking about it, Zhang Junsheng added: "I am very optimistic about the future film market in China, but I don't want to become a thorn in the eyes of the General Administration."

The little uncle smiled.

He could tell whether what Zhang Junsheng said was true or false...

...

The movie must pass the review of the General Administration before it can be started!

Many people may not be clear about the importance of review and think that as long as the movie is made, or the crew is prepared while submitting for review, this is a principled mistake!

Just like writing online articles, you must have an outline of your work, at least you must be clear about it, otherwise you will easily get stuck...

Many of the sixth generation directors do not do this, and of course the most typical one is Lao Jia!

It has been 13 years since I was filmed a banned "Destiny"...

I really don’t understand why Lao Jia made a movie like “Destiny”.

Of course, he is an idea-based director, and his films also focus heavily on the underlying masses and social issues...

However, just from the artistic and depth of the movie itself, Lao Jia's movies are really ordinary. In the early stage, they were all famous actors, and the shooting techniques were also very rough, which was destined to be a niche in the audience.

Many people think that Jia Zhangke made art films, but in fact, more of them should be called life films.

Although this unprocessed food is nutritious, it still makes it difficult for ordinary audiences to swallow - after all, most people are coming from the ups and downs, so why spend money to go to the cinema to watch these experiences of another ordinary person?

Movies, after all, in addition to light and shadow, also need artistic processing!

Old and old Jia have the ability, but they don’t care about the opinions of the film bureau. Even if they are banned, they have overseas markets!

"The Good People in Three Gorges" has maintained a record of Chinese-language movies in France, which seems to be 280,000...

The overseas copyright sales of "Destiny" are said to exceed "The Good People in Three Gorges"...

Art films operate well and the box office prospects are not bad at all, especially if they can win the three major European awards.

The global box office of King of Sunglasses' "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" exceeded US$10 million. Except for the sex service, no other Xiangjiang filmmakers have ever done this.

Commercial films mainly rely on theater box office, online copyright and disc distribution, while art film owners, underground films, rely on film festivals.

On the one hand, when winning awards in the film festival, there are bonuses. On the other hand, in addition to organizing movie viewing, award ceremony, and red carpet show, attending the film festival is actually a place where filmmakers and businessmen discuss business!

This is where underground movies make money. You can support this movie by selling copyrights, and maybe you can make a lot of money!

The stronger the ability and the higher the popularity of the director, of course, has stronger bargaining power. Directors like Lao Jia, who are very recognized by the Japanese and Korean film industry in Europe, Japan and South Korea, live very well in life and creation.

The overseas copyright of "The Good People in Three Gorges" sold a total of 80 million yuan, which was definitely more profitable than "Let's Watch Big Bo Mei".

However, no one would have thought that the Chinese film market would grow so quickly!

It has been the second largest market in the world in just ten years. Now, few people care whether you are shooting art films or whether you have won awards...

For ordinary audiences, there are only two criteria for judging whether a movie is good or bad.

It is obvious that Lao Jia's movies belong to the type of "I don't want to watch it for the moment I know his name"...

As for some people saying that overseas copyrights can probably support Jia, this is right, but it is nonsense to say that he doesn’t care about the box office in the mainland of the world’s second largest market!

Isn't the world really worth it?

Don't care, why did he change his style?

Keep shooting the underground movies that his fans like!

Facts have proved that no matter how many awards you win overseas, your achievements may not be able to reach the great directors who are involved in the domestic market.

For example, Ning Hao and Xu Zheng rarely win so-called awards, but they have exceeded 100 million in China and broke the box office record again and again. This is the best compliment.

The foundation of movies has always been the box office market for the masses, not the niche movie awards.

Spielberg's greatness is not because of the Oscars, but because of his box office ability. "The Great White Jaws" in 1975 opened a new era of Hollywood commercial films, and the subsequent "The Legend of the Lost Ark" series, "Ma Yun" in 1982, the "Jurassic Park" series that led the dinosaur trend, and "The Number One Player" were all famous in science fiction and thrilling commercial films!

George Lucas never won an Oscar in his life, but his "Star Wars" set a box office record of nearly 5 billion US dollars in North America. Every Star Wars fan is a god in his heart!

In essence, movies are a cultural consumer product, and consumers are mainly based on the native language market.

The native market is a lake and an ocean, and the creator is a fish. Fish cannot escape from water for a long time. Over time, they may die of thirst.

Therefore, directors must succeed in the mainland market or in the minds of the audience in order to stand at the top of the world.

Filmmakers who have given up their own market will never achieve great climate.

...

Just after the Spring Festival, Zhang Junsheng immediately entered the preliminary preparations for "A Chinese Ghost Story".

He knew that the drama "A Chinese Ghost Story" was particularly important to him - the first movie in his life!

The arrangement of Lan Ruo Temple is directly related to the success or failure of the movie. Zhang Junsheng must have made a real shot, so the scene props must be arranged...

There are many dilapidated ancient temples around Yanjing, but they are not very suitable. I just built one now. It is not very troublesome and the construction cost is not expensive...

Zhang's mother eventually invested 160 million yuan, accounting for 10% of the shares of its parent company Yuehua Media. This was already a bargain. If it weren't for the sake of her biological mother, Zhang Junsheng would definitely not have agreed to give 10%...

Things to note in the early preparation, especially new directors.

New directors rarely have their own fixed team of cooperation. They will feel that they have no relatives and are often worried about their partners introduced by others. At this time, you must remember one principle: don’t cooperate with people who are trying to be directors.

Many newcomers, especially photographers, actors, screenwriters, or others, have never figured out their position and always feel that they are moving towards the director no matter what they do. Such people always imply that they are the director in the future and are just staying in other positions for the time being...

It is terrifying to work with such people, because you can't tell which ones are really serious and responsible for their careers and which are director addiction attacks.

They often force themselves to talk to you about the so-called film techniques under the name of being responsible for art.

If you are a new director, you will be in a mess.

A qualified filmmaker will not do such a thing, and a mature photographer, no matter how big a brand, will not interfere with the director's work!

To be honest, there is only one person who is really responsible for the film, which is the director.

Since you are not responsible for art, don’t stand to be the person in charge.

The teams Zhang Junsheng selected were from the Xiangjiang team, a very mature team, including martial arts coaches. He was looking for Yuan Bin, who designed actions specifically for "Dragon Gate Flying Armor", "New Dragon Gate Inn" and so on.

The reason I looked for him is because the style matches it. The action design of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is just two words: clean and neat and has a certain sense of reality!

Cheng Xiaodong's action design is too elegant. The most important thing is that he is too expensive. Zhang Junsheng cannot spend 8 million US dollars to ask for an action guide!

For directors, the most important thing in the preliminary preparation is to make a good storyboard for the movie.

Zhang Junsheng can't draw, but he can have detailed conversations with the storyboard painter, describe the images he wants as detailed as possible, and ensure that the storyboard painter understands his ideas.

What this tests is the director's ability to interpret and express scripts.

Communicate with the storyboard artist and draw it, and then explain it to others, you can save a lot of effort.

Some of Yuehua are artworkers. As for communication skills, think about the abstract "Kung Fu Panda" that allows people to make them come up with their own memories. How difficult can a real-life movie like "A Chinese Ghost Story" be?

Of course, you have to communicate well with the photographer, attach a lens motion plan to each scene, and be as detailed as possible, for example, mark the shooting time, etc.

The storyboard itself is for the purpose of shooting or producing storyboard scripts.
Chapter completed!