It is not difficult for young directors to ＂find money＂ ｜ Dialogue with famous director JASON ZHANG
Dull | Wen Zhouchu, Yi Qing | Editor
"Today’s young directors are actually quite happy, much happier than we were then. Every year, there are a lot of venture capital projects all over the country, and all kinds of feature films and short films are exhibited. This IM Cross-Strait Youth Film Festival has given a total of 3 million bonuses. Once winning the prize, there will be funds to continue shooting short films or start a feature film shooting plan.In a sense, I think young creators are very lucky."
At the second IM Cross-Strait Youth Film Festival,Entertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)I met the director JASON ZHANG.
JASON ZHANG is the representative figure of "the sixth generation director" of China films. In 1997, he started his career as a director with his first film "spicy love soup", and won the Best Director Debut Award in the 18th China Golden Rooster Award and the Best Director Award in the 5th Beijing University Student Film Festival.
Since then, his films "Bathing", "Sunflowers" and "Leaves Back to Roots" have also won awards at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.In 2017, the drama "Gang Rinpozzi" directed by JASON ZHANG was released, which won the Best Film Award at the 2nd Italian China Film Festival and won a "phenomenal" box office of 100 million yuan.
Source: Douban
In 1992, after graduating from the Central Academy of Drama, JASON ZHANG was assigned to the Beijing Film Studio, he told me.Entertainment thorn (id: yici-er),"At that time, it was very difficult for you to make a film in the system of the film factory. Without a record of about ten years and the qualifications of an assistant director, it is impossible to be a director."
Fortunately, JASON ZHANG got to know the producers who came back from the United States at the initial stage, and also found investment and started his own creation. But he bluntly said that this opportunity was very rare at that time.
In JASON ZHANG’s view,"Finding money" is not very difficult for young directors nowadays.Many companies are paying attention to the creation of young directors. Once the film enters venture capital, it will be signed away by the company and the funds will be implemented quickly.
JASON ZHANG told.Entertainment thorn (ID:yuci-er)"A few years ago, some of the works that started in venture capital had already been made, and the cinemas were all on. There are so many opportunities that talented creators will not be buried. "
How does the director adapt to the industrial system? How to "handle" the distance from the market? How can I make a qualified work? In andEntertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)In the dialogue, JASON ZHANG talked about the plight of young directors facing the market.In his view, the most important thing for a young director is not to find money and resources, but to shoot his first work well.
Art and market can’t have both.
JASON ZHANG’s point of view is very clear. You can’t have everything in a movie. Art and business have different demands for movies.
As a director, you must first make clear what you want to shoot in this film.If you want to make a commercial film, then focus on the business. "Keep your mind flat and stop thinking about the film festival every day. These have nothing to do with you."In JASON ZHANG’s view, commercial films are not easy to shoot. "It doesn’t mean that you can get a good box office by shooting commercial films, and commercial films also have many failures."
If you look for literary films, you may face losses in business. But as long as you go far enough in art, it will bring another kind of harvest, "winning prizes or word of mouth, these things are natural. The key is how far you can go in art. "
No director doesn’t want the box office word-of-mouth award to have a bumper harvest, but it is not easy to "eat all three". JASON ZHANG thinks that only two or three so-called dark horse movies can achieve a double harvest in box office and word of mouth in a year, and most movies can’t achieve this balance.
At the beginning of the release of "Gang Rinpoche" in 2017, JASON ZHANG thought that it would be good if the box office only exceeded 10 million. Eleven actors in the film are ordinary villagers from Pula village, Tibet. The whole film uses documentary to restore the scene of Tibetan pilgrimage. In his eyes, non-professional actors and documentary expressions are not very "audience-friendly" types.
(Still photos of Gang Rinpoche)
Source: Douban
In the end, the box office of Gang Rinpoche exceeded 100 million. "The announcement, or any other reason, made the audience in other circles besides the art audience pay attention to the film, and the word of mouth was also very good, so it created a box office miracle in the literary film. But there is no way to copy this, it is very luck. " JASON ZHANG said bluntly.
More often, literary films are faced with the dilemma of "not being a box office".JASON ZHANG revealed that for most literary films, 10 million box office is a very important threshold. If the box office can reach 30 million, it will be considered as "the box office ceiling".
According to Yuemu’s statistics, among the 44 literary films released in 2019, only 14 films earned more than 10 million at the box office, and 13 films earned less than 1 million at the box office.
Xiaowei, released in early 2021, won three nominations and two awards from four film festivals, including the 2nd Pingyao International Film Festival and the 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival, with a box office of only 1.452 million. With the double blessing of director Lou Ye and actor Gong Li, the box office of "Lanxin Grand Theatre" released in October has not reached 22 million, which can be seen from the box office of literary films.
Literary films with poor box office performance will naturally not be favored by cinemas. In order to solve the problem of fewer times and poor performances of literary films, producer Fang Li once knelt down and begged for arranging films, and director Pema Tseden also called for more arranging films in Weibo, hoping to "give every film a fair chance".
Although there will be concerns about film arrangement, JASON ZHANG is very open-minded. "When a film is put into the commercial market, it must conform to the laws of the commercial market.Whether or not to arrange films and how to arrange them are not only the business of the cinema manager, but the cinema is adjusted according to the preferences of the audience, and in fact the audience is voting."
As a director, JASON ZHANG feels that he can shoot anything. When his identity is transformed into a producer, his interest will not be limited to a certain type when evaluating the scripts of young directors."Whether it is a literary film or a commercial film, it actually has its own basic laws. Good things can be understood at a glance."
"The director doesn’t have to control the market trend."
"Many young directors have been very good in recent years, such as Gu Xiaogang, Bi Gan, Huo Meng and Wei Shujun." JASON ZHANG XiangEntertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)Say a few names.
In his view, the young director’s first film should shoot what he wants to shoot and try to express what he wants to express most. This is also the shooting direction of the young director’s first film, which is very encouraged by the industry.
Generally speaking, when making the first film, young directors will apply what they have accumulated and learned in the first twenty or thirty years of their lives. Most directors’ first works are often records and expressions of personal experiences and opinions.
But every director is different, so how to shoot the first film depends on the director himself. "You are like director Muye Wen. He can make a very mature commercial film in the first film." JASON ZHANG XiangEntertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)Give examples.
The first film directed by Muye Wen was Dying to Survive, which won the third place at the box office in 2018 with a box office of 3.1 billion yuan. It is the fifth film in the history of China movies with a box office exceeding 3 billion yuan, with a Douban score of 9.0. With this film, Muye Wen won six director awards.
On the one hand, it is the director’s personal choice, on the other hand, it is maturity. In JASON ZHANG’s view, maturity and vocational skills are very important.
Source: Douban
After the director really enters the film industry system, he must have feelings, but he should also have professional skills as a director."A script is put in front of me. Can I be competent and can I shoot it?"Easier said than done, JASON ZHANG bluntly said, this is a problem that many young directors are facing now.
"Especially the second and third films, it is no longer a question of the director’s self-expression.If a director wants to enter the industrial system and get in touch with different contents, it depends on your professional skills at this time."
In 2015, director Bi Gan became famous in the director circle with his debut novel "Picnic by the Road", and the second film "The Last Night of the Earth" received an investment of 20 million (later increased to 50 million), and the filming process of this film truly reflected the confusion of inexperienced young directors facing the industrial system.
Producer Shan Zuolong wrote in the article "The Darkness of the Earth", "It cleared up in the afternoon, and the art scene didn’t meet the requirements in the end, but the coordinated boot time has arrived. Bi Gan, who is usually unwilling to compromise, tried to shoot hard, but in the end he couldn’t get past his own level, so we decided to stop.The direct economic loss of downtime for one day is hundreds of thousands, and two directors and producers with no industrial experience are instantly knocked down …"
The progress lingered, the actors’ schedules were exhausted, and the funds were constantly overspent. Under all kinds of problems, the film was difficult and dangerous to finish.
Although it is emphasized that the director should adapt to the industrial system, in JASON ZHANG’s view, the director only needs to consider how to finish the filming best, without grasping the "wind direction" of the market.
Source: Douban
Modern society is originally an industrialized society with a very clear division of labor. If it is a purely commercial film, the preliminary work has been completed from screenwriter to producer to investor. In particular, many films have adopted the producer-centered system, and investors and producers control the business and market issues. The only thing the director wants to think about is how to shoot the film well.
However, if the director is more author-oriented, likes to create his own works and shoot the works he wants to shoot, which are more personalized, then this kind of film is doomed to have a far distance from commercial films.
JASON ZHANG is an author-oriented director. He prefers to find themes, write scripts and make films himself, he told me.Entertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)Basically, it is done in my framework, so it is relatively easy to control.
He didn’t think about the market when he filmed Gang Rinpoche, because it was just a story he wanted to tell from his heart.
"movies with only traffic are not lasting."
In JASON ZHANG’s view, no film can be finished easily, and any film can be called "time is tight and tasks are heavy", which requires a "complicated and painful" process.
Whether the film can be completed within a reasonable budget range is a very important indicator to test the director. "If it is overdue or overspent, it means that you are not a qualified director, or all the plans made in the early stage are unreasonable and out of your control."
When preparing for shooting, a really good director should foresee the overall shooting difficulty and shooting cycle of the film."In fact, it is necessary to make a reasonable plan in the early stage. As long as the plan is done, it can basically be completed step by step."
"The so-called tight budget means that the film that was originally filmed in 50 days must be finished within 30 days. This requirement is unreasonable." JASON ZHANG told.Entertainment thorn (id: yuci-er)In the face of this situation, the director must first try his best to fight with the producers or investors to explain the rationality of the film shooting cycle setting, and can’t promise what he can’t do. "You can’t finish shooting in 30 days, but you have to promise others to finish shooting. This is unreasonable."
On the other hand, JASON ZHANG thinks that the director can adjust the cycle appropriately. "If it can’t be finished in 50 days, can it be finished in 45 days and 42 days? The director should be in a reasonable framework of 42-45 days, which will save some costs and meet the basic artistic requirements." But he also stressed that artistic requirements are the most important."If it’s at the expense of the quality of the film, it’s meaningless. Why shoot it?"
Source: Douban
The producer of Gang Rinpoche successfully shared such a story in an interview with the film and television industry network. When Gang Rinpoche was finished, JASON ZHANG wanted to wait for a snowfall and get a more perfect picture, but he told JASON ZHANG that the budget was insufficient, and the remaining money was only enough for two days. Moreover, if it really snowed, it would be a huge expense to transfer the crew from the mountains to the mainland. After comprehensive consideration, JASON ZHANG abandoned the original plan.
In choosing actors, JASON ZHANG also holds the view that the quality of the film should not be lost."Choosing an actor is a concept. Choose the best and most suitable one, regardless of others. It has nothing to do with whether the actor has a name or not. If he is a good actor, there is nothing to do with traffic."
JASON ZHANG feels "indifferent" to those films that didn’t cost much time and money to shoot, but the actors gained a good profit by enabling streaming. In his view, everyone has their own understanding of movies, and the industry is mixed. How others operate is someone else’s business. He judged, "this kind of film will not last long, because it does not conform to the laws of the film market, and may occasionally make one or two movies, but this is not reproducible or sustainable."
As for his own film, JASON ZHANG toldEntertainment thorn (id: yici-er)I have never used a traffic actor before, and I have no idea about it.The key to choosing an actor lies in the actor’s "right way". We should not arrange it in the movie. We should consider whether the movie is finally presented on the screen of the cinema, whether the audience thinks the actor is suitable or not, and whether they believe his performance.
Aside from all other factors such as flow, funds and resources, the most important thing for young directors is to shoot according to their own understanding of the film. After all, no director will voluntarily make a bad film.
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