Chapter 432: Restrictions and Hot Discussions

As an emerging market with huge potential, the mainland has increasingly attracted the attention of Hollywood film companies.

Therefore, in the past two years, many creators of some Hollywood blockbusters released in mainland China have come to the mainland to promote them.

The biggest star of "Avatar" is James Cameron, who is also extremely popular in mainland China, so 20th Century Fox also brought him to mainland China to promote the movie.

During the promotion, James Cameron was asked a lot of silly questions, including which director he admired most.

Liu Zhou had met James Cameron once when he was in Hollywood, but the two were not familiar with each other at all.

In fact, let alone Liu Zhou, even Zhang Yimou and Li An, the two most famous Chinese directors overseas, are not familiar to people.

Although Li An won an Oscar and Zhang Yimou also won numerous awards overseas, they still cannot compare with others.

Moreover, the way the two became famous overseas is completely different from Cameron's direction. His is extremely commercial.

At the same time, the high-grossing commercial films that made Liu Zhou famous are not comparable to other people's films in terms of box office.

So Liu Zhou felt that some of the questions asked by those reporters were stupid and meaningless.

However, seeing the expectant expressions of the audience in the studio, Liu Zhou felt that he had wronged them a little. The reporters understood gimmicks, and everyone was very interested in this issue.

Everyone wants to know whether Liu Zhou really met Cameron and what they talked about after the meeting.

Chen Weihong also laughed at Liu Zhou's answer, but after laughing, she still insisted:
"We just want to know what you two great directors, both of whom are known as technical directors, will talk about when you meet? Will you talk about the recently popular 3D technology?"

"You are so sure that we have met before." Liu Zhou said with a smile, "Indeed, the day before yesterday, on the evening of the 24th, Wendi Deng held a dinner party, and I had a brief chat with James Cameron at the party.

But we didn’t talk much about movies. He mainly recommended the 3D photography system he developed to me. He knew I had shot a movie called “Interstellar,” so he suggested that I convert the movie into 3D.”

"Then Director Liu, are you planning to convert Interstellar into 3D? After all, 3D movies are so popular now."

“We at Golden Harvest bought two 3D photography systems from him, but I don’t plan to convert Interstellar into a 3D movie.

In fact, before the filming started, I also considered making "Interstellar" into 3D, but the overall tone of this movie is dark and not very suitable for 3D.

But I used 70mm imax film to shoot, and the effect presented on the imax screen will not be worse than 3D, so you can look forward to it.

Of course, I am still very interested in 3D technology and will definitely try it in the future."

At this time, Chen Weihong also said to the camera very respectfully:

"Seeing that Director Liu is so confident, we can look forward to Director Liu's "Interstellar"."

Then Chen Weihong asked:

"Avatar has been released for seven days and has already grossed an extremely high box office of 2.8 million yuan. The film has also sparked heated discussions in society, with people both inside and outside the industry discussing the film.

Many directors were hit hard by this, and some even said that the gap between Chinese films and Hollywood is 100 years. You are the most technically savvy director in China. Director Liu, how big do you think the gap is between us and Hollywood?"

Liu Zhou shook his head and said:
“This question is really difficult to answer. In my opinion, the gap between us and Hollywood is not only in technology, but at least in terms of equipment, we are not much behind Hollywood.

Even the equipment at our Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio is more advanced than that of many Hollywood companies, because as soon as any advanced equipment comes out from abroad, we buy it, while many Hollywood companies have not yet upgraded.

For example, we bought two sets of the most popular and technologically advanced 3D photography system.

So what is the real gap between us and Hollywood?

In addition to the fact that Hollywood has achieved a high degree of industrialization in the film industry, another very important factor is that we lack professional film talent.

The same equipment can work 100% effectively in the hands of others, but in our hands it may only work 50% effectively!

However, Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama are already training professionals in related fields, so we will catch up with Hollywood faster and faster in the future.

After all, Hollywood movies have been commercialized for nearly a hundred years, and our domestic film market has only been around for more than a decade, so there is no need to belittle ourselves.”

At this point, Liu Zhou couldn't help but think of some people's remarks, and couldn't help but continue:

"Avatar is a very good movie, and I understand the audience's admiration and praise for it, but I was surprised by the extreme admiration of domestic film critics and even film directors for Avatar, even at the cost of their own performance.

KFC is delicious, but you can’t just say that the pancake is garbage!
In my opinion, "Avatar" is excellent and awesome, but it is not terrible. What is terrible is the inferiority complex of us filmmakers.

I don't believe that a spineless director can make a movie with backbone, and I also don't believe that a director with low self-esteem can make a movie with spirit.

I like a sentence in "Drawing Sword". When ancient swordsmen met their opponents in a narrow road, no matter how powerful the opponent was, even if the opponent was the best swordsman in the world, they would draw their swords knowing that they could not win. Even if they fell under the opponent's sword, it was still an honor to lose!
We do have a big gap with Hollywood now, but as Chinese filmmakers, the most important thing we should do is to make good movies and do our best to narrow this gap.

At present, our domestic film market is growing rapidly, and more and more funds are being invested in the film industry. Driven by a large amount of funds, the level of our mainland films will also improve rapidly. In the future, we will also have our own "Avatar".

At the same time, I would like to advise some media here not to pretend to be knowledgeable and report some nonsense just for the sake of sales, and do everything possible to pull down and criticize. If you really want the best for Chinese films, just report objectively.

I am not saying that we cannot criticize our films and filmmakers, but we must be meaningful in our criticism and not randomly lead the trend, otherwise it will only seriously hinder the development of Chinese films. "

At this time, the audience couldn't help but applaud loudly. Liu Zhou is worthy of his name. He may be the only one in the country who has the confidence to say such words.

Chen Weihong was also applauding. He had always admired Liu Zhou very much. He had interviewed Liu Zhou twice, but this was the first time he only talked to him about movies.

But even as a director, Chen Weihong admires Liu Zhou very much, because he is the one who set the current domestic movie box office record.

After the applause, Chen Weihong looked at Liu Zhou and asked, "When can we make our own Avatar?"

Liu Zhou hesitated for a moment and replied:
“It’s hard to say. Everyone knows that phenomenal movies are hard to come by. Even if we have all the capabilities, it doesn’t mean we will be able to make a movie like Avatar.

In fact, what we should focus on is not when we can make a movie like "Avatar", but when we have the ability to make a movie like "Avatar".

Even Hollywood doesn't produce a phenomenal movie like "Avatar" every year. It takes several years or even more than ten years to release one.

Before "Avatar" was "Titanic", before that was "Jurassic Park", and before that was "Star Wars". Such movies are also very rare in Hollywood.

But I believe that the only country that can produce a new "Avatar" in the future, apart from Hollywood, is China.

This is particularly critical because we have a population of 13 billion. If the market is not big enough, it will not be able to support such works.

In addition, the Chinese film industry is developing very quickly. It is expected that in ten to fifteen years, a relatively complete film industry will be established. With these two foundations, it is only a matter of time before our own Avatar appears!"

The audience applauded again. Everyone was very satisfied with the answer. At least Liu Zhou's analysis was much more reliable than what some media and online professionals, or even film directors, said that it would take a hundred years to catch up. It also gave people more confidence.

"Director Liu, I have another question. I think there is a problem with our Chinese films right now. That is, they rely too much on big investments, big productions, big scenes, and big stars, but often ignore the plot.

And why don’t we make more movies that reflect life or have life philosophy? I think we ordinary people prefer to watch movies with Chinese culture.”

Liu Zhou smiled and replied:
“The problem you mentioned does exist, and it dates back a long time ago. However, one of the important reasons for this problem is that the status of our screenwriters is too low.

The script, as the basis of a play, is often tampered with by some directors, producers and even actors, especially in some big-budget movies, where the screenwriter has no status or say.

So even directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Shishi have made blockbusters whose plots were criticized by everyone.

However, we are still in the early stages of marketization. As we develop slowly, the importance of screenwriters will definitely become more and more prominent. This is how Hollywood went through the process in the past.

As for your question about making more movies of other types, a healthy film market should indeed have movies of all types.

At present, our Chinese films do have the problem of single genre. There are many reasons for this, including policy reasons and market reasons. I will not elaborate on them here.

But what I want to say is that blockbusters are important, really important, not only because audiences love to watch them, but also because they are our most effective defense against the impact of Hollywood blockbusters.

Currently, there are only four countries in the world that have a higher proportion of local films, namely China, Japan, South Korea and India. Other countries have been occupied by Hollywood blockbusters.

Last year, the proportion of British domestic films was 17%, Germany accounted for 21%, Italy accounted for 14%, and France accounted for 34%. Among this 34%, English films produced by Europa Films accounted for a large proportion.

The same is true for other countries and regions. Why is this so? Because they don’t have their own blockbusters to compete with Hollywood blockbusters.

There is another situation that people outside the circle may not know, and even most people in the circle may not be aware of it.

That was in August last year, under pressure from Hollywood capital, the WTO ruled that China must relax restrictions on Hollywood.

After the ruling came out, we filed an appeal. Just recently, two days before the release of "Avatar", the result of the appeal came out and the appeal failed.

The WTO has officially ruled that China must open its entertainment product market within 14 months, which means that the mainland film market will have a certain degree of liberalization policies after March next year at the latest.

By then, more Hollywood blockbusters will be released in mainland China, and our local films will be hit even harder. Then what can we rely on to resist Hollywood films?
Can we rely on the type of movies you mentioned? Definitely not. It must be a blockbuster. Otherwise, it won’t be long before our mainland film market will be handed over to Hollywood.

The present of the Italian and German film markets is our future, so we must make blockbusters and promote the development of the film industry, so that Chinese films will have a future!"

After hearing Liu Zhou's words, the audience immediately began to discuss in a low voice, but their expressions were different.

The audience at the scene this time are almost all movie fans and people working in the film industry. The former are happy to see more Hollywood blockbusters coming in.

They don't really care about the competition between local films and Hollywood films. They only care about whether the films are good, and most Hollywood blockbusters are good.

The latter are a little worried. The survival space for domestic films is already limited. If restrictions on Hollywood are relaxed, the survival space will be even smaller and everyone's life will become more difficult.

Chen Weihong heard this news for the first time and immediately asked:

"Director Liu, are you worried about the country relaxing restrictions on Hollywood next year?"

"Haha, of course not!" Liu Zhou laughed, "In recent years, our Chinese film industry has developed rapidly, but many shoddy films have also emerged.

Why does this happen? It’s because our domestic films are protected too well.

Because there is no external competition, you can make money even if you produce shoddy products, so why waste time and effort? Now we have the competition of Hollywood blockbusters, which encourages everyone to grow in the competition.

Moreover, disputes over film trade are not simply about winning or losing; what is good for Hollywood may not necessarily be bad for the mainland.

With more Hollywood movies coming in, Chinese audiences will be able to see more good movies, and cinemas’ revenues will also increase!"

Chen Weihong was a little surprised by Liu Zhou's answer. His perspective was completely different from that of ordinary people in the industry.

Afterwards, a few more questions were exchanged and this episode of the dialogue program came to an end.

The "Dialogue" program team was very efficient and aired Liu Zhou's program on Saturday night, the third day.

After the show was broadcast, the news that the country was going to relax restrictions on Hollywood also caused heated discussions outside.

(End of this chapter)