independent filmmaker

The next day, Xie Lansheng woke up, still a little dizzy.

Xinye supported the bed again, and asked with a smile, "Are you going to be carried to eat breakfast again?"

Xie Lansheng was also happy, lifted the quilt and got up: "I don't need it today."

"Ah."

Breakfast is still relatively westernized.Xie Lansheng explained the details of the meeting to Mr. Xin, and Xin Ye nodded. In fact, he had already guessed very well.

In the end, Lan Sheng talked about the words of the leader, "In the future, you will not be abandoned by the film bureau, but you will be abandoned by the market." He was a little melancholy, and said: "I am very happy on the one hand, but also very worried on the other hand. At first, the producer The factory makes literary films, and China Film is responsible for promotion and distribution, but now...the film is completely market-oriented, and everything has changed. Will audiences watch literary films? Will capital invest in literary films? Can literary directors really gain a foothold in the market? ?”

Xin Ye said, "Lan Sheng, you..."

Xie Lansheng interrupted Xin Ye, because he knew what the other party was thinking: "Yes, I should not worry, after all, I have two golden bears in my hands. But what about other young directors? The film market has just been liberalized, and capitalism is inevitable. There are still very few film companies, and there are very few film works. The capital has not reached the level of market segmentation in Europe and the United States. I don’t think that it is better to focus on niche groups than to fight to the death and lose everything. About some time in the future , even for a long time... as long as you make a blockbuster movie, you can make money. Moreover! The term "commercial" and "literary" in China is very annoying. There is no "commercial" and "literary" in Europe and the United States, only comedies, action movies, and romance. Movies, sci-fi movies, etc. What about us? Once a movie is more realistic, it will be tagged as a "literary" movie.

Xinye knew that Xie Lansheng had something he wanted to say, so he just listened.

"Xinye," Lan Sheng shook Xinye's wrist, "there are some film funds in Europe, America, and Japan to support and encourage good films. I thought about it, can I also set up a film fund? Let those who have no funds A good director can make his films. The rights I've sold over the years should last me a while."

Xin Ye laughed when he heard the words: "Finally there are two steel coins, just throw them all out like this?"

"Part of it... part of it." Xie Lansheng's eyes were clear, "I want to ask you baby, do you know how to open a fund?"

The corner of Xin Ye's mouth was still smiling: "I really know."

"That……"

After Xin Ye finished eating, he crossed his fingers: "To establish a foundation, the original funds must arrive in the account. You sort out the funds, and I will prepare the materials."

Xie Lansheng nodded: "Okay."

After a pause, he continued: "Xinye, I had a chat with Wang Jinjin and a film curator yesterday after a meeting. We all felt that these young directors still need some audiences—like them, For the real movie audiences who support them, light energy is not enough to make films. Xin Ye, you are smarter. Do you think that if you learn from Europe and the United States and open a literary theater, is it possible for this literary theater to continue to operate? Even earn money? A little bit? Show literary and experimental films that have no place to show, including classic old films and moving new films."

Xin Ye looked up at Xie Lansheng and said, "It is impossible to continue the operation."

Xie Lansheng: "..."

"There is no audience for literary films in China. In Europe and the United States, literary films have always had a group of fans. Some people like a certain master, and some like a certain newcomer. They will screen new movies in magazines, websites, etc., search for If you are interested in the subject matter or content, take the initiative to watch it. Art theaters like Landmark Theaters have regular customers. They check the film list every week and are extremely loyal to the theater. What about here? Take a look, this year, The box office of the big directors who can enter the theater is only a few million, not more than a thousand. They also have stars to join, have capital to help out, and they have 600 screens across the country. Let alone those unpopular ones. A movie earns [-] to [-]. It's impossible to cover the cost. Don't be fooled by the forum, the audience may be all on it."

Xie Lansheng: "..."

He really hopes that China can also be born and have a literary theater.

But Xinye was right.

Those literary theaters in Europe and the United States are not charity, but can make money.Although the audience is very small, they can support operations.For example, Landmark Theaters, the largest literary theater in the United States, was established in 1974. It is a chain with 50 theaters and 200 screens. Japan also has theaters such as Waseda Shochiku, which have existed since 1954.

Can……

He flattened his mouth and said in frustration: "Oh..."

Xinye stared at Xie Lansheng, and suddenly asked, "Do you really want to open a literary theater?"

"Well," Xie Lansheng lowered his eyes, "I asked. If the movie theater is not large, it can be opened with a few million yuan. There are 4 small halls and 400 seats. Then pay the cost every month, including water, electricity and equipment. , Rent. But...it’s not good to lose all the time, the operating expenses are too much money.”

Xinye's eyes didn't blink for a moment, and after a long while, he suddenly said, "Then open it."

"...Ah?" Xie Lansheng didn't understand, "Isn't it impossible to cover the cost?"

"Of course it can't be covered only by literary and artistic movies, but we can think of a way, find a way from other sources, and use other operating income to make up for the deficit in the theater's books." Xie Lansheng will give him whatever he wants.Even if it sounds like a powerful and unconstrained style, he will try his best to give it to him.

"Showing commercial movies at the same time? I don't really want to do that..." Xie Lansheng said, "Fans of literary and art movies have always been arrogant, even self-righteous. They will go to literary and artistic theaters. Let’s watch literary films in the living room.”

"It's a pure literary theater." Xin Ye replied, "You don't care about it. After the literary theater is built, you can participate in some work."

"Oh……"

"Don't rent it either." Xin Ye said, "Just buy it."

"what???"

"You should buy it directly in this year."

"Okay..." Xie Lansheng had no idea, but he felt that he needed a lot of money.

"However," Xinye changed the subject at this time, "Lan Sheng, you are not in your 20s. It takes a lot of thought to prepare and make movies, and now you have to manage forums, hold film festivals, hold exchange meetings, and manage funds. , Managing theaters...too tiring."

Last year, because DV directors without factory standards needed audiences, and it was not enough to just get together to watch and discuss, Xie Lansheng and an old artist named Zhou Weiwei had a side-by-side relationship and organized a "social observation" at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Peking University. Video Exhibition", to put it bluntly, in essence, it is an independent film exhibition. DV directors brought documentaries and a little reality film to the film festival for the audience to watch, listen to people's comments, and discuss with people.Xie Lansheng is in charge of film selection, and he is also the chairman.This independent film festival was qualified under the banner of "Humanities, Society and Academic Exchange". Xie Lansheng has gained a lot of experience in practicing Tai Chi with the officials over the years and has become an expert.This first independent film festival attracted more than 1000 people.

"It's okay." Xie Lansheng put his feet on the stool, crossed his legs, touched his ankles with both hands, and said, "The forums are all small board directors. The film festival is once a year, and, It’s mainly done by Zhou Weiwei, and there have been fewer exchange meetings since the film festival was held. As for the art theater, it must still be managed by Deep Blue. I might just look at the fund, look at the investment, and it’s gone.”

Shino sighed softly.

"Xin Ye," said Xie Lansheng, "art directors are relatively lonely, especially in China. But I am not tired, I am very happy."

Xinye: "..."

"After the meeting yesterday afternoon, the dozen or so directors said that this era does not need profound things. I can't think so. I think that any era needs profound things."

"..."

"They also say that culture is about entertaining the public, and the world is about entertaining to death. Similarly, I can't think so. Culture has a mission that it must undertake from birth. People in the camera are paid attention to, and people outside the camera begin to think. Some themes It is possible to find a balance between commerce and literature. I support it, but some themes and stories cannot be commercialized. They also need living space. Sometimes, movies and novels are more artistic and powerful than news. They cannot be submerged. Of course, at present, these literary and artistic films in China are basically naive, even inexplicable, but they need space to develop well.”

"I know." Xin Ye said, "I fully support it."

"Baby," Xie Lansheng laughed again, "You are so kind."

Xin Ye's eyes moved: "You know this the first day?"

Xie Lansheng said: "No. I have known about it for more than eight years."

Shen Ye spread his legs left and right, pulled the cross-legged Xie Lansheng's wooden stool, stuck it between his knees, leaned over, and then pinched Xie Lansheng's chin with the thumb and index finger of his right hand, raised his neck and kissed him Very full lips.

The sun shone on their long eyelashes.

…………

Xin Ye has always been quick to do things.

Two months later, just after the Spring Festival, "Deep Blue Films" announced its reorganization and set up a branch company.

This branch also purchased a commercial building in a square. The unit price of the house was 8000 per square meter, the building area was 25000 square meters, and the total contract value was 20 million yuan, a total of 000 million yuan. The seller was called "Jiamei Real Estate Company".

The contract stated that within 10 days after signing the contract, Deep Blue would pay half of it, and the rest of the house would be mortgaged. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China agreed to provide a maximum mortgage of [-] million yuan.

Xin Ye originally planned to acquire a subsidiary of a real estate company, including all equity and creditor's rights, so that he could independently acquire land in the market and develop it by himself, but later he felt that he didn't have much energy now, so he settled for the next best thing and directly Purchased commercial housing.

However, after the payables of the commercial house were paid, Deep Blue's funds were basically gone, leaving only 3500 million yuan in the account.

This is also thanks to the release of a movie in 2003, and another movie in the Spring Festival of 2004, with a total net income of 6000 million.

Xie Lansheng was frightened by the numbers.

He knew that this was used to open a theater.

However, [-] million is too exaggerated!

And the construction area of ​​the house is much larger than the needs of the theater!Xie Lansheng thought, is Xinye planning to use those other places to raise movie theaters?

Feeling a little guilty and worried, for a moment, Xie Lansheng wanted to make a commercial film and try it out. Anyway, the progress of the literary film that is currently being prepared is slow.During the years of being banned, he will definitely come up with some ideas for commercial films, but he can only hold back because he cannot be released.

He wanted to pay his own money to make the film, but let Shenlan be the producer and get the share, helping Xinye and Shenlan Pictures to fill the shortfall in their accounts as soon as possible.

On the other hand, he also wants to use the opportunity of public screenings to promote the "Literary Cinema". You must know that the two gimmicks of "the first film after lifting the ban" + "commercial film" can cause the greatest effect and make more people curious and concerned.Another thing is to gain fame and cultivate audiences, so that some people are willing to watch his future literary films and watch his "boring films".Besides, he liked stories too.

Xie Lansheng told Xin Ye one by one about his thoughts, and Xin Ye supported him as usual, 100%.

"Okay." Xie Lansheng said, "Then, Xinye, I'm going to join the crew soon, we won't see each other for a long time.

"Yeah." This happens quite often.

Xie Lansheng put his arms around the opponent's waist, pressed his chest against Xinye's, raised his eyes, and looked at each other: "Don't forget, you usually talk on the phone every day, and send a text message every two hours."

"Of course." They've always been like that.

"You must not miss it." Xie Lansheng smiled, tiptoed to kiss the other party's chin, learning the classic lines of the movie co-produced by Hong Kong and China, "The agreement is for a lifetime, and the difference is one year, one month, one day, one hour , It’s not a lifetime~”

The author has something to say: The overlord is here! ! !Mr. Xinba! ! !

The last sentence is "Farewell My Concubine".

Seems like I forgot to mention it earlier.In this article, basically, all the directors and movie names that have appeared in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Europe, Japan, etc. Lies", "Graduate", "Seven Samurai"... All mainland/inland directors and movie names are all fictional...

We don't know what qualifications are required to manage a shopping mall, so let's just leave it at that.

Opening a literary theater is the dream of all literary directors, but it cannot be realized today.At present, the market for Chinese literary and artistic films is too small and the audience is too small, and there is almost no fixed audience group (there are some in Europe, America and Japan). Although there are occasional literary and artistic films that can do well at the box office, they basically rely on overwhelming publicity to create momentum, which is still a capital operation. result.

Now there is a Broadway, Beijing has it, and Shanghai seems to have it too, but it still depends on the commercial side to support the art side.

But since 2017, the National Art Film Alliance has launched an event. There are 100 or even hundreds of cinemas that will set up a hall dedicated to showing literary films. If you are interested, you can check the franchise list.

There is no competition between business and literature~ But the protagonist is the director of an independent film, and the focus of this article will definitely not be commercial films.Business definitely needs to be catered to, the essence of independence is not here.But it doesn't mean that a film made by an independent director will definitely be boring, and it will definitely not have a box office. It's hard to say.

In 2003, there were three major independent film festivals: Yunzhinan Documentary Film Exhibition, China Independent Film Festival, and Beijing Independent Film Festival.It was done on the sidelines.

Several large movie forums (such as the once largest "Rear Window Movies") have declined at this time, and NetEase has a movie section that has gradually become prosperous, because many famous directors have been invited to open columns and post posts.