Host: Wang Yu, Founder of Chinese Film Market, President of Ray Production, Producer
Guests:
Lu Wei, Founder and CEO of Sky Film
Guo Ke, Chinese Film Director and Scriptwriter
Zhao Hantang, Actor and New-generation Director
Quality is most important for art films
Zhao Hantang: Just now, some of the guests mentioned that there are no standards for Chinese films. This saying is particularly appropriate for me. There is no precedent for the film SEVENTY-SEVEN DAYS. We photographed in an unpopulated area between 4,800m and 7,200m above sea level. From my personal perspective, the sense of faith must be strong enough to hold on to what you want to express. Only by taking something coming from the creator’s experience of life can it resonate with the audience. Our film has gone through various difficulties. When it finally met with the audience a few years later, it maintained what we originally wanted to express. The audience resonated with our expressions, so it did not fail to meet our investor who supported us four years.
Guo Ke: When I was making a documentary, it was also “not following the rules”. Shooting a documentary couldn’t bring a full set of equipment and recordings as well as and a powerful film production team like shooting a film. I thought my documentary film TWENTY TWO would just have a one-day tour in the cinema line. I just hoped that the film would be able to enter the theater and let everyone know the group of “comfort women”. In August 2017, TWENTY TWO received a lot of support from the public. I feel that the achievement is actually very accidental. We are now making summarizations that in the future, we may also make documentary films. When we do it, we will pick out these accidental factors, and we can’t refer to it. We should focus on making a good film strictly.
Lu Wei: I used to study finance. Later on, I spent a few years in finance. Then, I discovered that doing finance is not as fun as making films. So I turned to films. I didn’t know where to start when I first entered the industry. Because we are optimistic about the type of animation, we made MONKEY KING: HERO IS BACK in 2015. We had a good luck, earning RMB1 billion at box office for a cost of tens of millions of yuan. Last year we did PATHS OF THE SOUL and I didn’t expect it to sell so well.
I believe that the success of a film depends on the integration of internal and external factors. It is especially true for those small-mass genre films. The quality of the product itself is particularly important, but the film itself also needs a particularly important opportunity. This opportunity may be a work, a producer, a market, or distribution, etc. But in the end, it still needs the support of the audience. And build up good relationship with your friends, no matter they are director, producer, or other participants.
Stay true to the initial mission for film production
Wang Yu: There’re three categories for worldwide films: The first is the visual experience. For example, SEVENTY-SEVEN DAYS provides a good visual experience; the second is the emotional resonance. The film should interact with the audience. For example, Guo Ke’s film finds the emotional resonance with the audiences; The third is home entertainment, the whole family watch the film together. If these three things can be combined, both commercial films and art films can find its audience.
Guo Ke: I have been summing up and preparing for a new documentary. For me, it takes more emotions. The dissemination of Twenty Two in the new media was very important. However, every new film may demand new ways to promote. In the early period, TWENTY TWO was called THIRTY TWO which accumulated a certain audience. At the final release stage, because of the box office performance of PATHS OF THE SOUL, we obtained golden-chance screening arrangements. So, TWENTY TWO actually benefited from PATHS OF THE SOUL and THIRTY TWO.
Audiences who have watched TWENTY TWO know that I am not a very skillful director, but I am a person willing to spend time on something. I am willing to spend time, thoughts, and feelings to observe a group or a character, and find emotional resonances from the character and further on, form up a complete film. I can spend time and energy communicating with these people and let them merge into a very good creative environment, but I clearly know that my directorial ability is not strong, and it is more appropriate for me to make a film with a small team of several dozens of staffs. Through TWENTY TWO, I have come to understand myself more clearly. I will choose to do more suitable films from now on.
Zhao Hantang: When I acted as an actor earlier, I had lots of limitations. My youthful life was spent at Hengdian. I spent almost ten years driving a car to Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang. These breathtaking rivers and mountains had not been presented on the big screen. So I slowly came up with an idea to present the magnificent landscape on the screen myself. However, I did not have precedents to follow. With so many people going to high-altitude shooting sites, how could we solve the problem of logistical support? What would happen in an uninhabited area? Everything was unknown.
During the filming process, we experienced many hardships and difficulties. But now it is so sweet to recall it. However, when we had no money, it was really troublesome. I did sell the house for the film, but I still had to insist on what I want to express in my heart. There were also many people in the course who gave us their opinions, including in the stage of distribution. Some distribution companies expressed interest in the film. But there was no market data for reference. No one came to pick us up. At that time, I felt quite desperate. Later on, I encountered the Qi Tai Culture Development Group which involved in WOLF WARRIORS 2. In view that I was so stupid to make a film, they decided to help us.
Therefore, we must hold on to our initial mission, and do not be affected by market factors. Only in this way can we get the audience’s resonance and recognition. If the creator started out in a hope of having more viewers. It might simply go contrary in the end.
Lu Wei: As Director Guo Ke just said it, our company specializing in art films has a particularly big consensus, that is, “using time to make a film”. The creation of an art film requires a state of meditation and spontaneity. I am very optimistic about the type of documentary. Nowadays, the viewers’ demand for art films is increasing, and the viewing taste is very high. Some fans of our films have better understanding of the films than many of our professionals. This is a particularly good time. Artistic films have a core audience and film enthusiasts in the whole world. I will continue to invest in art films. I am willing to make less commercial films but produce more art films.
Guo Ke: In fact, these films have the same characteristics. They were shot for more than three years. Why to choose to shoot in such a stupid way? SEVENTY-SEVEN DAYS did not have any new technology or special effects. It is the same with PATHS OF THE SOUL and TWENTY TWO. Shoot the picture in the simplest way, and then clip them together, without using any of the current popular techniques. If you want to do a niche and emotional film, you should still use the most primitive method. Now that the technology is powerful, it is a good thing, but it is also a means to hide the weaknesses of creation. The most challenging thing for the director in the course of creation is the cognition of the picture’s interior. How does the screen convey emotions to the audience? Nowadays the films are being produced very fast. An online film is churned out in just a few months and it may have a good market return. However, I think that they can’t stay long. They are fast food products. If you want to make something nutritious for the audience, it will take time. Maybe the film won’t have a good box office immediately, but it will stay in the history of Chinese films. Even if it does not make name in the Chinese film history, it will be remembered by the audience.
Art films need to find niche population
Wang Yu: The documentary films I made in the early years were art films. The art films need to control costs. It is necessary to find niche population in the market, instead of competing for the commercial film market. The value of an art film is sometimes not measured at the box office, and it is not fair to have it measured at the box office. We discussed film big data for many years. What is film big data? It is not only the issue of box office and attendance. What’s more important is that it has segmented the crowd. What has the various online ticketing terminals brought about? It knows where the audience lives, where their active area is, what their likes and dislikes for the film are, and the audience’s gender and age range. Applying big data to film marketing can accurately find out where the audience is distributed. This kind of big data has more practical value than just looking at the box office or the curve. Earlier at the film CROSSCURRENT promotional campaign of film CROSSCURRENT, I and the film director made tight road show schedules. Many viewers not only came to watch films, but also wanted to know what the filmmakers were thinking. What’s more, they want to communicate with the main creators of the film. This shows that the audience of art films must exist, but can not be found due to the current screening arrangement mode and distribution mode. Currently, there are only up to 2% screening arrangement in the weekend. Then, on Monday or Tuesday, the film will be gone. In fact, this type of problem can be solved.
Lu Wei: I particularly agree with Mr. Wang’s saying because the Internet has locked in the accurate people. How to find the audience of the film through the Internet? This is actually a particularly good route. And we have also tried to find a new path for the distribution of art films in the context of the mobile Internet, helping the films to build box office and word of mouth at the same time. This should be a task for us as a producer.
Zhao Hantang: The most comforting thing about the film SEVENTY-SEVEN DAYS is that not only outdoors men liked to see it, but also many mothers took their children to see it. This made us especially surprised. When overseas screenings were made, many Chinese audiences responded enthusiastically. Many viewers who like the outdoors activity were shocked about such breathtaking places in their home country. This is actually my original intention.
Wang Yu: There are specialized cultural funds overseas to support film projects. However, the Chinese genre films face the challenge of commercialization. Can we establish a similar fund or model in China so as to let art films go further?
Lu Wei: I really thought over it previously. I also talked to the successful people around me who were doing finance and the Internet. They responded that this is a good matter. But when we tried to push this fund model down, we found it particularly difficult because we were lacking in the professional people for picking film project. If there is such a group of professional people available, this matter can continue to be done, but currently the mechanism of film picker is still difficult to establish. If there is a feasible method, I am very willing to participate in such a fund project.