Chapter 464: Still Can't Think of a Chapter Title
The policy draft was not long. Liu Zhou first glanced through it and found that it was full of useful information.

The content is quite rich, and ten measures are proposed to accelerate the prosperity and development of the film industry:

First, while the number of films is growing steadily, we should pay more attention to improving the quality; Second, we should accelerate the transformation of state-owned film institutions into enterprises and into corporate and joint-stock systems;
3. Further deepen the reform of the cinema chain system; 4. Vigorously support the construction of digital cinemas in cities and towns; 5. Encourage financial institutions to increase financial support for film companies;
6. Actively promote scientific and technological innovation; 7. Vigorously implement the rural film digital projection project; 8. Actively implement the film going global strategy to enhance international influence;

9. Promote the establishment and improvement of a legal, regulatory and policy system to promote the development of the film industry, focus on promoting the formulation, promulgation and implementation of the Film Industry Promotion Law, and formulate and improve relevant supporting policies to deepen film reform;

10. Vigorously strengthen team building.

This draft is a typical example of official jargon, with many things hidden beneath the text. If you interpret it carefully, you can see that it covers the most important aspects of the film.

However, for Liu Zhou, he thinks the most important thing is Article 9, which focuses on promoting the formulation, promulgation and implementation of the "Film Industry Promotion Law."

If the draft is officially implemented, the legislative work of the "Film Industry Promotion Law" will also enter the fast lane.

Many people, even those in the industry, may not know that there is still no law in the country regarding the film industry.

Therefore, many things like film ratings, censorship, etc. do not have a clear basis.

Even the current reform of the cinema chain system is not due to legislation, but through documents issued from above.

It now seems that in the face of the impact of Hollywood movies, the country is also prepared to formulate a series of measures in the form of laws to promote the development of the film industry and protect domestic films.

Countries like South Korea and France have done the same thing, passing laws to restrict Hollywood films.

In fact, the "Film Industry Promotion Law" was already in preparation as early as 1984, and the first draft was ready, but it was difficult to implement due to various reasons.

Later, in the new century, with the issuance of documents from above to carry out market-oriented reforms in the film industry and the reform of the theater chain system, in 2003, a certain Ju took the lead in drafting the "Film Industry Promotion Law" again, which set off a wave of eager expectations in the industry.

According to the plan drawn up by Mou Ju, a draft promotion law was formed in May 2004, and then submitted and formed as the first draft of the Film Promotion Law in the second half of the year, and opinions were widely solicited from people inside and outside the industry.

By 2005, we will study and review the draft based on opinions from all sides, and strive to have it submitted to the meeting for deliberation and approval in 2006.

But later on, there was much ado about nothing. Later in 2008, Han Shanping secretly told Liu Zhou that the draft had not even been formed.

At that time, there were still experts arguing over the definition of film.

That’s right, experts are so rigorous that they can debate the definition of a movie for years.

After three or four years of debate, we finally decided to use film as the standard for shooting media, but now film is almost obsolete.

So sometimes Liu Zhou really finds it hard to understand how those people became experts. The arguments they make are so outrageous that it is really confusing.

Now that instructions have been issued from the top, those experts should not dare to continue arguing over the Film Industry Promotion Law.

Liu Zhou didn't know whether this was a change brought about by himself. In the original time and space, the "Film Promotion Law" was not promulgated and implemented until 2017.

But no matter what, this is a good thing for the industry. At least the film industry will have laws to follow in the future.

In fact, after seeing this draft, not only Liu Zhou, but others also saw various benefits. For example, Han Shanping and Ren Zhonglun were probably most interested in the second article because they saw the possibility of their units going public.

The leader saw that everyone had put down their documents and said with a smile:
"Everyone has read the document. Now let's talk about your own opinions. Feel free to raise any good suggestions and ideas you have!"

However, no one said anything, especially those who were in the system, such as Zhang Hongsen, Tong Gang and Han Shanping, who had to think carefully before speaking in front of their leaders.

You can't talk too shallowly, otherwise it will seem that you are not good enough. You can't talk too deeply either, for fear of stepping into the forbidden zone by mistake, which will be more counterproductive.

Liu Zhou was not worried about this, but he felt that there was too much useful information in it and he needed time to digest it.

The leader was not surprised to see that no one spoke. This was not the first time he had encountered such a situation. He smiled and encouraged:
"Don't worry. I invited you here today to give me your suggestions. Just say whatever you want to say."

After hearing what the leader said, Zhang Hongsen from a certain Ju, as the person with the highest position except the leader, knew that if he didn't say something, the atmosphere would become awkward, which would also make the leader lose face.

So Zhang Hongsen said:

"Leader, let me say a few words. Since the reform and opening up... we have made breakthrough progress... and overcome many... upward trends... This is an important milestone and an important turning point!"

Liu Zhou was speechless after listening to this. He talked incessantly for nearly five minutes but said almost nothing substantial. It seemed that he understood the art of language.

In short, what is meant is that the draft is very good, and we, General Ju, will understand its spirit and contribute to the prosperity of China's film industry.

The leader did not show any impatience after listening to it. He nodded slightly and said:

"Your work is very important. You must do a good job of overall control."

With Zhang Hongsen's proof, others came forward to speak enthusiastically, and they all used almost the same routine as him, praising the draft and talking about the benefits it could bring to Chinese films.

Then talk about how you will implement this document and implicitly praise your work achievements.

Only Li Xuejian's speech offered some constructive suggestions. He believed that film is a creative industry, the core of which is human thought, and creativity is extremely precious.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen supervision, respect creativity and innovation, speed up the legislative work of the "Film Industry Promotion Law", and use the law to protect creativity and domestic films.

At this moment, the leader looked at Liu Zhou and said with a smile:

"Xiao Liu, you are the owner of a film and television company and a famous film director. Tell me what you think."

In fact, Liu Zhou had made some preparations before coming here, mainly wanting to talk about the issue of censorship.

Now that I have seen the content of the Film Industry Promotion Law, I have become more convinced of this idea.

He knew that film rating should be impossible and it would be useless to talk about it. Until Liu Zhou was reborn, he had never heard any news about film rating.

However, film censorship now has an opportunity to speak directly to the higher authorities, and he feels that there is hope.

Because the draft clearly states that "we must accurately grasp the dual attributes of films as ideology and cultural commodities," this statement can be said to be unprecedented.

In the past, when the government mentioned movies, it always emphasized ideology and ignored the commodity attributes of movies. Now it has clearly stated that movies have the attributes of cultural commodities, which provides the possibility for relaxing censorship.

Liu Zhou cleared his throat slightly, organized his words, and said:
"At the end of last year, the Hollywood movies 2012 and Avatar achieved good box office results in China.

"Avatar" achieved a box office of over 13.4 billion, breaking the domestic film box office record and raising the box office of a single film to the billion level, which gave a great shock to the domestic film industry.

These two movies have one thing in common, that is, they are both top science fiction special effects blockbusters. In fact, if we look at the history of movies, we will find that top blockbusters have a great driving force on the film industry.

Hollywood fell into a trough in the 1950s and 1960s due to the impact of television. Later, George Lucas's "Star Wars" not only saved Hollywood, but also rebuilt the film industry.

In 1999, South Korea produced a movie called "The Cop", which surpassed "Titanic" in domestic box office, allowing them to regain their confidence. Now South Korean films are developing better and better.

Our domestic film market has also been sluggish. It was the movie "Hero" directed by Zhang Yimou that opened the curtain of commercial films and gave everyone hope.

If you look at modern history, you will know that if you want to become a strong country, you must develop heavy industry, and the same is true for movies.

If we want to transform from a big film country to a strong country, we must vigorously develop heavy industrial films and improve the film industry, so that we can complete the upgrading of the film industry."

At this time the leader suddenly asked:

“What is heavy industry cinema?”

"In the industry, there are light industry films and heavy industry films. The so-called light industry films are mainly low-cost films such as dramas and comedies, and the representatives of these are South Korean and French films.

Heavy industrial films are high-tech, high-investment top-level commercial blockbusters mainly based on science fiction, fantasy, and action films, and Hollywood is the representative of them.

Heavy industry films are easier and more suitable for global distribution, which means they can export culture to the world. Films like 2012 and Transformers are typical heavy industry films.

The leader nodded slightly, then signaled Liu Zhou to continue explaining his ideas.

“Just as it is difficult for a light-industrial country to defeat a heavy-industrial country, it is also difficult for a light-industrial film to defeat a heavy-industrial film. So if we want to become a real film power and compete with Hollywood, we must develop heavy industry.

We should fight science fiction films against science fiction films, only then will we have a chance of winning.

Apart from Hollywood, we are the only country in the world that can build heavy industry locally, because we have a population of 1.3 billion and the market is large enough.

At this time, Liu Zhou took a deep breath, and then he got to the point:

“Building heavy industry is not something that can be done overnight. In addition to the efforts of everyone in the industry, it also requires support from above.

Not only in terms of policy, but also in terms of censorship.

Because the censorship in our country for science fiction, fantasy and even action movies is particularly strict, stricter than for general subjects.

So I think the higher authorities could relax the censorship on these types of films. As long as they do not violate the law or the country's major policies, they could be given more support.

Why can't our troops fight aliens? Can't they fight monsters? Can't they save all of humanity?

Even our troops can go abroad in the movie and fight aliens together with the armies of other countries and save the world together.”

At this time, Zhang Hongsen of a certain chrysanthemum took over and said:
"This aspect of the review involves the General Zheng He Foreign Affairs Department."

The leader also understood Liu Zhou's meaning and said:

"There is no trivial matter in diplomacy, and it is right to be cautious. However, as long as it does not involve laws and policies, I think it is still okay to film the PLA fighting aliens and monsters!"

"Can we ask the troops to cooperate with the filming? And we may also need to export some of our weapons and equipment."

"That should be no problem. Then I can go and communicate with the troops."

"Good leadership."

Hearing what his leader said, Liu Zhou couldn't help but smile. In the future, the subject matter of science fiction films will be much broader and the obstacles will be much smaller.

Liu Zhou then continued:

"Leader, I have another suggestion."

The leader smiled and said:

"You said."

"The current film censorship process is very complicated. It takes at least a month for a film to be sent from other places to Beijing for review, and the procedures are also quite cumbersome. I suggest that the censorship power be delegated to the local level and the local optical and electronic bureaus be allowed to conduct the review.

In this way, after we finish shooting a movie in another place, we can review it directly on the local site, which can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and also facilitate modification.

Of course, major historical themes and mainstream films still need to be screened in Beijing.”

The leader looked at Zhang Hongsen and asked:

"The review is handled by your department. What do you think?"

"Leader, I think this suggestion is very good. In fact, we have already tried this. In 2004, the Zhejiang Film Review Center was established in Hengdian to review some films shot in Hengdian.

The reason why Hengdian has been able to develop so well in recent years is related to the decentralization of censorship. The decentralization of censorship power can indeed revitalize the film market."

"And now local governments are also actively cooperating with film and television companies or film studios to make movies. If the censorship is decentralized, it will also help the development of regional characteristic films," added Tong Gang, director of the Film Bureau.

Liu Zhou was not at all surprised by the two people's statements, and neither were the others. They would definitely not object to the review of Xia Mou Ju.

Because nominally the power to censor movies lies in the hands of a certain group of people, but their actual censorship power is very small.

Here, a film is reviewed by the department that determines the industry it involves.

If a movie involves the police, the Ministry of Public Security will be asked to review it; if it involves the military, the General Political Department will be asked to review it; if it involves minors, the Education Department will be asked to review it.

Many times they don’t care whether the movie will pass the review or not, as long as good things are said about themselves in the movie, and not even a single bad word is allowed.

So they will be very strict, even one-size-fits-all.

Therefore, it is often said that connections are needed to submit a movie for review, so it is indeed amazing that Han Shanping was able to successfully operate the movie "Dying to Survive".

There are many times when a movie fails to pass, even though it is obvious that the people in other departments did it, but it is always Mouju who gets blamed. Therefore, Mouju has always felt wronged and has long wanted to pass the buck.

Now that the movie is under censorship, they can’t wait to be happy.

(End of this chapter)