Chapter 647 The Position of the Spirit River
To reiterate, while the status of the four major international film festivals is undeniable and their artistic value is widely recognized, it doesn't mean that they solely consider the films themselves when selecting films.
What is a film festival? A film festival is where the top film masters are willing to bring their new works, where the most promising filmmakers are promoted, and where the most popular movie stars are willing to come and promote their films.
Its very nature dictates that it is not so pure.
As a director, Huang Tianlin faces a significant challenge in getting his second film directly into the main competition, given that he has only made one film and that film was previously submitted to the Toronto International Film Festival.
It all depends on what artistic director Wintour Robbe thinks of this film.
Lu Yanhe did not expect that Wintour Robbe would send him an email asking for his opinion on director Huang Tianlin.
Lu Yanhe was extremely surprised.
Is this... compliant?
Lu Yanhe's first reaction was that it was inappropriate for him to be an actor in the movie "Tropical Rainy Season".
But upon closer inspection of the email, there was no mention of the main competition or the Sittor Film Festival. If Lu Yanhe hadn't known that the film "Tropical Rainy Season" was vying for a spot in the main competition at the Sittor Film Festival, it would have seemed like the artistic director of a major film festival inquiring about the situation of a new director.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment, and decided that since the other party didn't bring it up, he wouldn't either. He would just talk about the feelings Huang Tianlin gave him during the filming of "Tropical Rainy Season".
He replied to the email: He is a very personal and talented film director. Based on the filming of "Tropical Rainy Season" and the footage I have seen so far, I think this film will become a very noteworthy work in my acting career. Although I don't have many scenes in this film, he has shown me a side of me that I have never seen in other films.
Wintour Robbe quickly replied to his email: Thank you for your reply, Lu. Also, if I were to invite you to serve as a jury member for the main competition at next year's Citour International Film Festival, would you be available?
Lu Yanhe was taken aback.
To serve as a judge?
Lu Yanhe thought to himself, if he were to serve as a judge, would the film "Tropical Rainy Season" be unable to be nominated for the main competition?
Is Wintour Robb hinting at something?
Perhaps he is still unwilling to easily allow a new director to enter the main competition section of the Sittor Film Festival?
Lu Yanhe replied: Thank you, Mr. Luo Bei. I am very grateful for your invitation and I am very willing to accept it. However, I am sorry, I have four films to shoot next year, and it may be difficult for me to find the time.
Wintour Robbe: You've been incredibly hardworking; you've been very productive these past few years.
Lu Yanhe: I came across many good scripts and didn't want to miss them, so I had to accept them all.
Wintour Robbe: I hope you can bring more of your work to Sittor.
Lu Yanhe: Okay, I definitely will.
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The Cité de la Cité is held in February, and the films nominated for the main competition are generally confirmed by the end of January at the latest.
Now is the time when everyone is enthusiastically selecting films.
Not only "Tropical Rainy Season", but also "Raise the Red Lantern", directed by Wang Zhong, written by Lu Yanhe and starring Chen Bige, is in urgent post-production, hoping to make it to the Xituer Film Festival.
The reason for wanting to compete with Sittor is twofold: firstly, the style of this film is suitable for Sittor, and secondly, Wang Zhong previously won Best Director at Sittor, making him a close associate of Sittor. His film has a greater chance of winning an award at Sittor.
Lu Yanhe has not yet seen "Raise the Red Lantern" and doesn't know what the movie will be like.
After all, the director's films are the kind that seem easy to learn at first glance. Anyone with a basic understanding could probably copy them. His films aren't the kind where the technical difficulty is immediately apparent.
However, if his films were truly that simple, relying solely on grand scenes and visuals to succeed, he wouldn't have been able to remain a top director for so long.
Ultimately, all art films must be judged on their inner strength.
Lu Yanhe had no doubt that Wang Zhong could bring out the critical nature of the film; he was just curious about how much "ghostly atmosphere" Wang Zhong would imbue it with.
Wang Zhong's films have a "ghostly" quality, but not in the sense of a genius.
The film "Raise the Red Lantern" is precisely a film that, while seemingly about people, actually depicts the lives of the women in the courtyard as if they were living like ghosts.
Lu Yanhe always felt that the version of "Raise the Red Lantern" he saw in this world would have less of the realism of the original and more of a "ghostly" feel.
Just like "Three Mountains".
Lu Yanhe only truly realized one thing after becoming a creator himself—
Creating is a very personal thing.
Unless you can completely adjust your mindset and create from a commercial creative perspective (which often involves a gap between your perception and reality), no creation can escape the creator's own aesthetic preferences.
It can't be faked.
If Lu Yanhe's previous attitude towards replicating successful works was to replicate them exactly as they were, he has now accepted that it is impossible to replicate them exactly as they were; the same script can be interpreted differently by different people.
Lu Yanhe is now only trying his best to preserve the most successful parts of the original work.
For "2 Broke Girls," this is the kind of character relationship setting, and the biggest feature of this sitcom is the comedic effect created by the clash of completely different values between the two female protagonists and the people around them. However, the underlying tone is that no matter how different they are, they are all real people and warm people. No matter how sarcastic or mean they are, they always accept everyone.
For "Raise the Red Lantern," the two words are "cannibalism" and "alienation." These are the two biggest themes in the film's text, and the images of lighting lanterns and pounding feet are also retained.
This is something that truly requires time and experience to understand and accept.
Otherwise, compared to its predecessor, there will always be differences.
Lu Yanhe increasingly understood why, rather than looking at this or that, the more capable a person was, the more they looked at others.
Like many successful entrepreneurs, some investment gurus invest once, fail, then invest again, fail again, and so on until the fourth or fifth time, and then they succeed, their investments multiplying many times over.
This is especially true in the creative field.
Anyone who can make a good film, as long as they don't act recklessly, definitely has the basic skills. Even though Director Chen's later films still receive criticism, it's a different kind of criticism than for those money-grabbing flops. Essentially, people still appreciate Director Chen's cinematic aesthetics; what they don't approve of are certain values he inserts into his films.
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Lu Yanhe was thinking, if "The Sea, My Pah" was made well, could it also be submitted to the film festival?
Of course, the main competition segment is out of the question.
He was thinking about other units, even non-competitive units.
He had this idea because his interaction with Wu Chi this time, along with some materials he saw, made him feel that Wu Chi was actually like the directors he knew, such as Quentin Tarantino and Park Chan-wook. They were definitely not the traditional, well-known art-house film directors of film festivals. In fact, many of their works were quite commercial. However, they had their own unique style and were auteur directors, so they were also favored by film festivals.
It is said to have formed its own school of thought.
Lu Yanhe felt that Wu Chi gave him that feeling.
Of course, whether it will become a significant force is anyone's guess; we'll just have to wait and see.
But at least start by going to film festivals to build your reputation and experience.
Lu Yanhe then messaged Chen Yin and told him about the matter.
Chen Yin replied: Received, understood. Actually, I've also recently taken a liking to an art film and want to buy it.
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised and asked: "Buy it" means...?
Chen Yin said: "Once the film rights are sold to the company, the film will belong to the company, and the company will handle the subsequent operations. This film was directed by a very young director named Zeng Bo, and the film is called 'Picnic on the Balcony.' The actors are not professional actors. However, this film is very special. It has a kind of true poetry belonging to the people at the bottom of society. It is about people who are particularly impoverished by life, who still try to find a pure land for their spirit. It is the fragility of these people, the fragility of poverty and dignity, that is particularly sharp and makes people feel heartbroken."
Lu Yanhe: Can I come to the company to watch this movie sometime?
Chen Yin: Okay.
Lu Yanhe trusted Chen Yin's judgment. He initially appointed Chen Yin to manage the company's film and television production business because Chen Yin was knowledgeable and had an aesthetic sense. These are extremely rare resources for a senior executive in a production company.
Xu Tianming is the kind of person who understands business and management very well, but doesn't understand content and aesthetics very well. Therefore, he is responsible for product-related tasks.
Lu Yanhe asked Chen Ziyan to go see "Picnic on the Balcony" together.
Chen Ziyan was quite happy to hear that Chen Yin wanted to buy movies from outside.
“That’s good,” Chen Ziyan said. “I’ve long felt that since Linghe’s production projects are mostly small-scale and high-quality, besides our own films, there are actually many low-budget films in the industry—there are so many people in the industry who are willing to go bankrupt to make movies in order to realize their dream of becoming directors. Among these films, there are quite a few that are eye-catching. We can take a look at them, and if they are good, we can buy them. The prices aren’t actually that high. If they have some highlights, or if they are not entirely satisfactory but can be improved after evaluation, we can also buy them, invest some more money, and have the director reshoot some parts based on the feedback, and re-edit the film.”
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised.
"The most important point is that Linghe has established connections with overseas film distributors through 'Love Letter,' right? Moreover, we have good relationships with film festivals of all sizes around the world. Although we don't have distribution channels, we can act as copyright agents or directly buy the rights and become the copyright holder to operate them. Otherwise, if we keep relying on ourselves to make films, how many films can we make in a year?"
Chen Ziyan's words made Lu Yanhe thoughtful.
“You’ve always wanted to promote Chinese-language films to the world. What could be more effective than this approach?” Chen Ziyan said. “There are just too many low-budget films in China. Ninety-nine percent of them don’t get a chance to be shown in theaters or even to meet the audience.”
Lu Yanhe nodded: "I understand. I will tell Chen Yin and the others about this idea and let them study it. I'm just worried about whether we have that much funding. We almost ran out of money ourselves in the first half of the year."
“First, ‘Love Letter’ was a box office hit, quickly bringing in a large sum of cash. ‘Chinese Paladin’ will wrap up filming this year, and we’ll basically recoup our investment next year. Not to mention, the second season of ‘My Own Swordsman’ will premiere during the Spring Festival, which will also bring in a significant amount of money. In the short term, you need to consider that with such a large amount of cash on the company’s books, if you don’t spend it, the money will keep depreciating,” Chen Ziyan said. “Second, as I said, we’re going for a small but beautiful approach. We won’t buy anything that’s too expensive. We’re not a company that’s desperate to buy anything. We just have the resources and the idea, so we can slowly pick and choose.”
Lu Yanhe: "That's right, I understand."
"Home Alone, with a production budget of several million, but a projected box office target of over 100 million. If it weren't for the fact that you wrote the script and that you said the movie would definitely do well at the box office, I would definitely think that this is wishful thinking."
"In the film industry, I've always felt that bigger investments don't necessarily guarantee higher box office returns," said Lu Yanhe. "If a film's large investment is due to technological innovation or the use of money to create visual effects not seen in other films, then this rule might hold true. But if a film's large investment is due to the director's fame and a star-studded cast, frankly, I think it's more likely to flop. Not many viewers will actually go to see a movie because of a few people. It's the fame of a few key creators that makes the film known, and the film itself must have a good subject matter or something related to film that audiences like. Only by combining these two elements can you attract viewers to the cinema."
"It's not that I didn't want to increase the production cost of 'Home Alone.' In fact, I could have easily demanded an eight-figure payout for the script, which would have pushed the production cost over eight figures," Lu Yanhe said. "It's just unnecessary. I didn't cut corners on any aspect of production. Rather, the theme, the subject matter, the story—it clearly stated that it only needed to cost this much money. And this theme, this subject matter, this story—I had it, but others hadn't, yet the market loved it. So what's wrong with its box office success? Who checks the cost of a movie before watching it, deciding to go only if the cost is high, and refusing to go if the cost is low?"
“What you said makes a lot of sense, but not everyone who understands this principle dares to do it,” Chen Ziyan said. “At your level, there are very few people who still view film investment and box office with such a simplistic view. I’m afraid you’ve forgotten, so I’ll emphasize it again: for most film companies in China, movies don’t make money from box office revenue. Of course, we don’t need to learn from them; we’ll do our own thing. Our small workshop may be small, but it’s entirely our own.”
“Yes.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “I think so too.”
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I recommend the new book "The Demon-Slaying Sword".
(End of this chapter)
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