Made in Hollywood

PS:  I’m getting married today, this is an automatic release set N days ago, the web is going through the most brutal blow, holding hands and the above are all illegal, I don’t know if this book will be in stock until today, if the book is still available on the day of marriage Alive, Thirteen has nothing else to say, I just want to thank everyone for your continued support!

Today's Hollywood movies have already opened the market in most countries, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are ravaging the world. The first question raised by these students, as Duke expected, is related to this.

"Hello Director Rosenberg."

The question was from a girl with glasses in the third row. "My name is Zhuang Qiwen, a student of the Academy of Social Sciences. I would like to ask, why are Hollywood movies so successful in the world?"

After taking the microphone from the staff, Duke did not answer immediately, but instead said in Chinese, "What do you think?"

A boy in the first row said, "Keep innovating! Keep turning imaginative ideas into movies!"

The girl next to him said, "There are a lot of hardworking people in Hollywood!"

"There's no denying that what you're saying is one of the reasons for Hollywood's success, but not the key."

After a short pause, Duke quickly organized the language, and in countless curious eyes, he said, "In my experience of working for many years, the industrialized and procedural shooting production mode and the whole industry chain from production to screening to the surrounding area. Marketing operations are the key to the success of Hollywood movies. In other words, the success of Hollywood movies is inseparable from its pipeline production model.”

This answer was obviously a little unexpected. The students in the front row were stunned for a while, and suddenly one of them said, "You are also one of them?"

"You're absolutely right." Duke laughed. "The professional critics in North America didn't like me. They slammed me and my films. It's all a product of the assembly line."

"Hollywood movies have never been developed as an artistic creation," Duke said without shyness, "but as an entertainment industry."

"Hollywood entertains audiences by presenting a range of elements that the public likes to see, such as the soothing traumatic experience of good and evil and all things being happy, and the 'Cinderella' and 'Grey Boy' stories of lovers who end up together. Provide collective fantasy, stimulate people's audio-visual habits with spectacle scenes and strong sound. It has formed the unique dream mechanism, melodrama structure, spectacle style, sensational rhetoric and popular narrative tradition of Hollywood movies, which constitute the assembly line a part of."

"Decades have passed, and society is changing, one generation is getting old, and another is growing up, but Hollywood has always adhered to the mass movie assembly line model."

One raised his hand, and Duke nodded at him. He picked up the microphone in his hand and said, "But there are also art films in Hollywood."

Duke said as simply as possible, "Hollywood can use art films to package popular films and use popular films to promote the popularity of films, which allows Hollywood films to maintain a certain degree of artistry while maintaining the mainstream. So as to adapt to the audience's psychological maintenance of consumption. !"

Hollywood is recognized as the world's film factory, it is indeed a factory worthy of the name!

"The male student with glasses in the second row."

The host selected the second official questioner, and he stood up and asked, "Director Rosenberg. Chinese films are still very backward, how can they rush to the world as soon as possible. There is a saying on our side that national It belongs to the world, is this the only way to succeed?"

"Do you know Mr. Li An?"

Duke said when there was a response in the auditorium. "I believe that as a Chinese, Mr. Ang Lee knows more about Chinese films than I do. When he visited Warner Studios two years ago, he had an interview, and many reporters from China had asked this question. , I believe his views are more convincing than mine."

Duke then began to repeat Ang Lee's words at the time, "Mr. Ang Lee has visited all major Hollywood companies, including Warner, and wherever he goes, he asks a question, that is, why American films can go straight to any corner of the world. ."

"I remember very clearly, when he was interviewed by Chinese reporters, he said this - I got almost the same answer, they said that they didn't think about the issue of having American characteristics when they made the film, that is to say, Hollywood does not Acknowledging the view that 'the nation is the world'. Many people have been emphasizing that films should be made with national characteristics. This is a conceptual difference, but it is a phenomenon worthy of our study. It does not mean that we do not want national characteristics, but It is impossible to make national characteristics for the sake of national characteristics, and the films produced in that way are like experimental films, and no matter how much attention is paid, they can only be niche films.”

"There may be some words I didn't express very accurately," Duke added, "but the meaning is not wrong."

In that interview, Duke was there because Ang Lee was picking the right studio for The Hulk.

Although he knew that Ang Lee was not suitable for this film, Duke couldn't stop it. Long before he invested in Marvel, the film rights of the Hulk were sold to Universal Pictures. Now that superhero movies are getting more and more popular, Marvel is willing to take it back. Copyright, where would Universal Pictures easily give up.

The film did not escape the fate of hitting the street in the end. According to the supplementary terms of the adaptation agreement between the two parties, if the response of the film is too poor, Marvel has the right to recover the copyright at a relatively small cost. The two sides are currently negotiating, and the Hulk will return. Not too difficult.

In fact, this is a very simple question. As far as movies are concerned, the nation is not the world's in many times.

Cultural differences are definitely not that simple.

Anyone with a little brain can understand that China is rising rapidly, but it is still a world dominated by Western culture.

Duke borrowed Ang Lee's words, but just wanted to express it in a more euphemistic way.

Zuo Qiang and Jiang Qingfeng raised their hands a few times before, but they were not selected. They couldn't help winking at the host. The host was their acquaintance, and the two sides had communicated beforehand, so when the next question was asked, Jiang Qingfeng was named.

"Director Rosenberg, my name is Jiang Qingfeng, I come from the Faculty of Arts and am an avid movie lover."

Looking at this short boy, Duke nodded, "Hello, classmate Jiang."

Jiang Qingfeng asked the question he wanted to ask, "I have the intention to develop into screenwriting, but as far as I know, the status of screenwriters in the Chinese film industry is not high. In Hollywood, will screenwriters and screenplays be taken seriously?"

"Of course, all the people who contribute to the success of a film will be valued."

Hearing this, Jiang Qingfeng quickly added, "What about new screenwriters? I've read a lot of rumors and articles. After a screenwriter writes an excellent script, it can often lead to competition from big Hollywood companies. Is this true? "

"There is indeed such a possibility, but the premise is..." Duke raised a finger, "This screenwriter is a gold medal screenwriter in the industry! Newcomer screenwriter..."

Duke shook his head, "In other words, I am a shareholder and executive director of Warner, and I understand some of this. There are about 5,000 to 6,000 scripts delivered to Warner every year, and Warner's adoption rate is less than zero percent. Point 5, the works of new screenwriters may be activated by less than 1 in 10,000..."

"Hollywood is never short of scripts, and Warner Bros. has at least 30,000 scripts waiting to get moldy. There may be many new ideas and pioneering ideas, and their chances of being adopted are very low, let's just say it. , Wanting to impress the film company with the script is basically a dream."

"You may not be aware of one thing. When looking for funds for many projects in Hollywood, it is just an idea and plan, and there is no script at all. Those famous producers only go to famous producers after they find interested investors and partners. Screenwriters write appropriate scripts, and every Hollywood project will go through a very strict review, and even the CEO of a film company does not have the power to decide on a project alone.”

"So, don't expect to impress Hollywood with a script, let alone think that because of a script, Hollywood will treat someone as a genius."

Zuo Qiang grabbed the microphone from Jiang Qingfeng and asked, "If it was your company, if you met a very creative script by a newcomer, would you adopt it?"

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, no!" Duke said calmly, "My company only shoots commercial films, and for Hollywood-style commercial films, innovation equals huge risks, which means Investments in the tens of millions of dollars may not be recovered."

This is arguably the reality of Hollywood, where studios would rather use the mediocre ideas of well-known writers and producers than the creative scripts of newcomers.

The famous creative script list - script blacklist. Many scripts have been hung on it for many years, and no company is willing to take over. Very few scripts have been made into movies, and the commercial performance can only be said to be mediocre.

This is China, and Duke is a world-renowned film director. The topic of Chinese films is always inseparable.

So, the next male student asked, "Who is your favorite Chinese film and film director?"

"My favorite movie is "Farewell My Concubine", and the actor who plays Yu Ji still amazes me." Duke thought for a while, "My favorite director is Zhang Yimou, who filmed "Hero" The colors used are impressive.”

Another person stood up and asked, "Director Rosenberg, will you shoot a purely Chinese-style film in the future?"

"probably not."

Speaking of this, Duke's tone changed, "More and more Hollywood movies are now trying to integrate cultural and national elements from all over the world into their creative styles, diversifying and integrating other excellent cultural elements, and it has always been a Hollywood movie. I like Chinese culture very much, and I am also absorbing elements of Chinese culture and applying them to movies, such as the kung fu in The Matrix, and I will continue to try this in the future.”

The on-site interaction lasted for about 20 minutes. With the end of this event, Duke's trip to China also came to an end, and he was ready to return to North America to start the preparations for "Batman". (To be continued ~^~)