Chapter 430 Lecture
“In your movies, we can always see gorgeous visual spectacles and shocking scenes, and we can also see the most basic and beautiful qualities of human beings.
Courage, perseverance, kindness, determination, etc.
Some people say that movies are the embodiment of a director’s thoughts. How do you view your success? "
Compared with the national teacher Zhang, Pigeon Chen, who has always regarded himself as a cultural person, is still somewhat competent in asking questions, but little Gilbert's answer surprised everyone.
Usually at this time, other directors will talk about dreams, persistence, hard work, etc. In short, it is just chicken soup.
But little Gilbert is different from others. He talks about the market: "I think it's the progress of the market."
"Oh?" National Master Zhang curiously asked, "Why do you say that?"
Yes, why do you say that?
Guo Fan has watched several speeches by so-called successful masters. They all talked about dreams and persistence. How come you don't follow the routine?
Little Gilbert then replied: "I think it is the advancement of technology and the development of theaters. For example, in "Pirates of the Caribbean", the scene where the skeleton turns into a skeleton under the moonlight, and the bullet time in "The Matrix" .
I wonder if you have seen it? "
Of course the audience in the audience had seen it, so they all replied: "I have seen it..."
One fan yelled: "I've watched The Matrix three or four times..."
"Hahaha," little Gilbert laughed after hearing this and expressed his gratitude: "Thank you for liking my movie so much."
He looked at the audience and said: "This is the excellent visual experience brought about by technological progress. Usually we would say that the story will be the foundation of the movie.
But everyone knows how to express the story, and technology is extremely important. "
Guo Fan in the audience was thoughtful, but he did not agree with Gilbert's point of view: "I think story is still more important than technology.
Because technological development is a matter for the entire film industry, but stories are very personal. Except for little Gilbert himself, I can't think of anyone who can write such an exquisite story as "The Matrix". "
Liu Ji admired his classmate: "I didn't expect you, Lao Guo, to have such an opinion. I admire you."
Guo Fan made a shushing gesture: "Continue to listen to Director Gilbert."
Little Gilbert continued on the stage: "There is also the development of theater chains. More than ten years ago, a commercial film could open in 3,000 theaters for its premiere, which is a good figure.
But nowadays, a commercial film with outstanding potential can easily premiere in more than 4,000 cinemas.
The increase in theater chains and the number of screens is one of the basic conditions for a film to increase its box office.
Although television, the Internet, and even DVD are developing rapidly nowadays, the cinema viewing experience will still not be replaced for a long time to come.
Movies like "The Matrix", "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and "Pirates of the Caribbean" have completely different feelings when watched on the big screen and on the small screen. "
No one has ever analyzed the relationship between movies and the market from a technical perspective or from a theater perspective.
Influenced by the New Wave film movement, these film industry practitioners who attended the lectures heard too much about dreams and art from other directors.
Nowadays, Little Gilbert is unique in explaining the development of the film industry from a realistic perspective and from the relationship between market and technological development.
Of course, he rarely mentioned his talents. In his words, the progress of the market and technology is the key. On this basis, it is time to realize his talents.
After that, little Gilbert talked a lot with the national teachers Zhang and Ge Gechen, from Hollywood to European movies, and then to the declining Hong Kong movies and the mainland movie market.
Gilbert Jr. made a very clear point at the lecture: “I think there is a lot of room for development in the future of Chinese-language films.
I see doubts in the eyes of many people, but you should be confident.
Hollywood is popular all over the world because it relies on its strong local market. Being popular in North America is equivalent to being popular around the world.
The future of Chinese-language films is to wait for the cost of the local market, so that there will be a stable basic base.
Even if it doesn't become popular around the world, Chinese-language films will develop very, very fast just relying on the local market.
I believe that in more than ten years, the Chinese film market will usher in a big explosion.
Nowadays it is difficult for a movie to exceed 100 million, but in the future it will not be difficult to achieve a box office of 100 million or even 1 billion. "
At this time, the host asked: "If you follow what you said, what will be the direction of Chinese-language films in the future?"
"I don't know about this. It's up to you to explore it yourself." Little Gilbert said he didn't know.
In fact, he knew that Chinese-language films had taken a detour for a while. The development of the theater market has brought many new audiences and also spawned many bad movies.
It's normal to have bad movies, but it's not normal for bad movies to become mainstream.
But he can't say this, after all, he still relies on these Chinese filmmakers to make money.
If they don't make bad movies, how can they highlight my awesomeness?
In fact, Hollywood in the future is almost as rotten. The old model is gradually getting bored and the new correct model is not bought by ordinary audiences.
Although the box office figures look good and the film is blooming like a flower, in reality it is in a state of complete failure. I don’t know what else little Gilbert can do to attract the attention of movie fans by then.
At the end of the lecture, there was an interactive time for the audience to ask questions. The host asked little Gilbert to interact with the audience. Little Gilbert clicked on one casually, and he clicked on Guo Fan.
Guo Fan was very excited: "Director Gilbert, I am your loyal fan."
"Aha, I remember you." Little Gilbert looked at Guo Fan and smiled.
Guo Fan was stunned: "Do you still remember me?"
"Of course," little Gilbert smiled: "When I went to Nortel to give lectures, you asked me questions. Your bubble voice impressed me deeply, so I still remember you."
Guo Fan was pleasantly surprised, and the other viewers looked at him with unusual eyes, with a feeling of envy in them.
I thought to myself: How virtuous and capable is this guy? It was actually remembered by Director Gilbert Little for so long.
Guo Fan suppressed his excitement and continued to ask: "Since you started acting, you have been making movies almost at a rate of one per year. How do you maintain strong creative energy?"
Little Gilbert thought for a while and said: "It's simple, because making movies is my hobby, and I like the part of making movies and working with my team.
During this process, everyone came up with all kinds of fantastic ideas and the collision of ideas made me very excited. "
In human terms, I am addicted to making movies.
From the sound of one movie a year, it doesn't seem very fast. You know, it is said that Hong Kong movies used to be able to shoot one movie in a week.
But the result of this speed is the decline of Hong Kong films. Although it is not the main reason, the lack of respect for the objective logic of film production makes it difficult for Hong Kong films to produce high-quality films.
Those in the online novels in the previous life were a movie in two or three months, and they were all big-investment and big-production movies, which is almost impossible in reality.
Filmmaking is not about a producer or director tapping their head and saying, “Let’s go make a movie…”
It's so easy and simple to take pictures.
It must follow the objective logic of film production, have a well-coordinated team, complete preparatory work, suitable actors, and an excellent script.
Coupled with excellent producers and directors, countless industry talents have gathered and worked hard for a long time to produce a true commercial blockbuster.
If they all make small-budget productions, Gilbert Jr. can shoot one film in two months. But the problem is that if the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is produced alone, who dares to say that it can be completed in two or three months?
Many bad movies are produced because they do not respect the objective logic of filmmaking.
Maybe the script was good, but because of the rush, it wasn't prepared or shot well, and the film ended unfinished.
The lecture ended successfully with audience interaction. For Chinese filmmakers, as long as they listen carefully, the lecture will be quite rewarding.
Although a lot of what little Gilbert said may not necessarily apply to Chinese filmmakers, at least it has brought some inspiration and thinking to everyone, and that is enough.
The next day came the test session arranged by Little Gilbert.
It is said that 50 people will be selected to join the crew of "The Mystery of the Spell", but in fact it depends on little Gilbert's mood.
The qualifications for this test are related to whether these people can be selected by Little Gilbert.
Liu Ji had the relationship with the instructor, but on Guo Fan's side, Liu Ji helped him find a social path and obtained the qualifications to participate in this examination.
There were more than 300 people taking the test this time. They were divided into several large classrooms and used the venue of Shanghai Drama Academy to take the test.
According to the imagination, it is just like the art test, testing various artistic talents!
But when they arrived at the scene, Guo Fan and Liu Ji discovered that it was not the case at all.
After arriving at the site to register and fill out the form, the two were assigned to different examination rooms, and then were given test papers. They had a time limit of two and a half hours to complete the test paper.
Of course, the test paper is not low-level questions such as multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and true-false questions. These are conceptual questions that require candidates to think about and discuss.
For example, Guo Fan saw the impact of the New Wave Film Movement on European films, whether Chinese-language films have room for survival in science fiction films, and the development and application of technological progress in the film industry...
Everything from ideas to technical applications.
At the end of the test paper, there is a rather abstract question: Please imagine the Chinese film market twenty years from now, describe it, and give specific inferences.
These test questions were given to these Chinese students by Gilbert Jr. after discussing them with his team confidants in North America.
What he wants is not a set of standard answers, because anyone can do the questions.
He just wants to pass this test to understand the specific thoughts of these candidates and what kind of people they are, so as to select suitable candidates.
Guo Fan bit his pen and thought for a long time, then scribbled down his answers on the exam paper.
He knew what the standard answer should be, but he decided to answer it in his own way.
(End of chapter)