The day before Christmas, other senior executives of DreamWorks arrived in China with the drafted contract, preparing for a formal signing ceremony with Li Mu. The cooperation between DreamWorks and Makino Imaging officially opened the first in-depth cooperation between the Chinese film industry and Hollywood. .
The entire DreamWorks attaches great importance to this cooperation. They and Li Mu each get what they need. They want to use the Muying ticketing system to enhance their influence in the North American film industry, and Li Mu hopes that DreamWorks and Spielberg can work together for the film industry. While China is doing a good job in promoting Gongzu, it can also improve the overall level of China's movies.
For this signing, Li Mu summoned Ning Hao, Teng Huatao, Tang Wei, Huang Bo, Zhang Kexuan and Du Wei to Shenzhen City. Before signing the contract, Li Mu had detailed discussions with several big bosses from DreamWorks including Spielberg. talk.
The detailed talks were arranged in the banquet hall of a five-star hotel in Shenzhen City. Although the signing ceremony will be held here tomorrow, today's meeting was not open to the outside world and the media.
For Ning Hao and Teng Huatao, both are new directors. Although the box office of "Those Years" has reached 400 million and continues to create box office history for Chinese movies, Teng Huatao is still very humble because he himself I know very well that the reason why this movie has such a high box office is that 40% comes from the story itself, 30% comes from publicity and promotion, and 20% comes from the cast. If I can account for 10% of the influence, it is already very good.
Ning Hao's "Crazy Stone" has not yet been released. He is currently a newer director than Teng Huatao, so he is more humble and cautious.
The big guys at DreamWorks, especially Spielberg, may not necessarily have much money, but their influence in the film and television industry is definitely world-class. For Ning Hao and Teng Huatao , the two of them felt as if they were players from second-tier domestic clubs meeting big names like Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, excited and humble.
During this interview, Li Mu put forward relatively specific requirements for DreamWorks: "First of all, in future movies jointly produced by both parties in China, actors from Makino Imaging must be used, and the ratio of important Chinese and Western actors should be about 5:5;"
The bosses of DreamWorks immediately stated: "No problem, just follow the 5:5 ratio. If there are special themes, we can also give more preference to Chinese actors."
Li Mu made other demands: "In exchange, for the movies that DreamWorks produces in the United States and other parts of the world, from the crew to the cast, Makino Imaging must be given a certain guaranteed quota, and Makino Imaging has the right to play in DreamWorks in the future." For each live-action film produced by the factory, no more than two Chinese actors and no more than two crew members will be provided.”
This request is, on the one hand, to allow Makino Image's production team and actor team to learn from Hollywood experience, and on the other hand, it is to help Makino Image's actors break into Hollywood. Li Mu knows the awesomeness of the Chinese film and television industry's export-to-domestic sales. Actors go to Hollywood to star in a movie for free, and after returning to China, they can become a front-line actor or even a front-line actor. He doesn't want to miss this opportunity.
DreamWorks did not bargain with Li Mu's demands and accepted them all. The only target was the Muying ticketing system. As long as Li Mu did not propose to reduce their shareholding, they would never raise any objections to Li Mu's demands. After all, Li Mu's 20% shares are not given for free. Even if they don't need money, they still have to be exchanged for resources.
Seeing that DreamWorks' attitude was very good, Li Mu was also very satisfied and said to Spielberg and other DreamWorks bosses: "In the future, if our Makino Pictures directors have no films to shoot, I will send them to DreamWorks." Learn in the factory and see how movies are made in Hollywood, from scripting to preparation to casting, to shooting, editing and post-production, these are all things they need to learn."
Spielberg smiled and said: "Mr. Li, don't worry about this. Every crew of DreamWorks will be open to you for observation in the future, and during the observation process, our staff will definitely tell you everything."
Li Mu nodded, looked at Ning Hao and Teng Huatao who looked excited, and said with a smile: "If you go to Hollywood to study in the future, you must calm down and learn the most advanced production experience in Hollywood. This will reflect on our Makino , which will have a great role in promoting the development of the domestic film and television industry."
Both of them nodded, too excited to be attached.
At this time, Spielberg said: "Mr. Li, during the past few days in China, I deliberately looked for some Chinese film DVDs and watched them, and found that there is a very serious problem, which is the uneven quality of actors. In every movie I watch, most of the actors in them give me the feeling that they don’t understand acting at all. It seems that most people look very fake in front of the camera. They either don’t exert enough force or use too much force. It’s not just the extras. , even many leading actors have this problem. If this problem cannot be solved in the future, it will definitely affect the quality of our joint films in the future to a great extent."
Li Mu smacked his lips and sighed: "To tell you the truth Steven, this is where I have always been very helpless. The biggest problem in the country is the overall lack of quality of practitioners. There are only a few authoritative film and television schools in the country, and the rest Most of them are art schools that mainly focus on making money. In this case, let alone these money-making art schools, even the authoritative film and television schools are all hidden rules and behind-the-scenes operations. Really capable people You can’t get in, and you can’t get out even if you get in, this is the biggest problem!”
As a veteran angry young man, Ning Hao heard Li Mu talk about this issue and immediately said in agreement: "Before I entered the film school, I thought this was the palace and cradle of the film and television industry. After I entered, I realized that this cradle is too damn filthy. Students in the acting department of the Film and Television School don’t really understand acting, how much development can they expect in this industry?”
As he spoke, he pointed at Huang Bo, who was slightly reserved and silent, and said: "It doesn't matter that Huang Bo has never received any real professional acting training, but his acting skills are enough to instantly defeat more than 90% of the so-called so-called actors in the country. An academic actor."
Huang Bo waved his hand hurriedly: "I can't bear what you said, Director Ning..."
At this time, before Ning Hao could speak, Li Mu had already spoken: "I think Ning Hao is right. Huang Bo's acting skills are indeed better than most academic actors. This is not only a compliment to Huang Bo, but also a compliment to the industry. When asked why such a situation occurs and why people from first-class film and television schools are becoming less and less good at acting, in my opinion, it is because everyone no longer has the craftsmanship to do things to the extreme."
Speaking of this, Li Mu sighed: "Why were the ancients so skilled in making ceramics, and why are many classic works so advanced that modern technology cannot be reproduced indiscriminately? To put it bluntly, our current generation has lost the craftsmanship of the ancients. , although the film and television industry is an industry that only existed in modern times, it still requires a craftsmanship to do things well. The success of Hollywood is not only a commercial success, but also the promotion of the ingenuity of countless masters. This is what our film and television industry lacks. Spiritually, everyone is pursuing fame and fortune, and even if they are not skilled in business, they dare to go out to film and make money. In the final analysis, the industry environment is not healthy enough. If the industry is healthy enough, such people will have no chance to get ahead."
Spielberg nodded and sighed: "From my personal point of view, the quality of many practitioners in China is indeed not enough. Of all the movies I have watched in the past few days, none of them have reached the level of perfection. The most intuitive The problem is the level of actors, so I think we must pay more attention to this aspect in the future. If possible, I hope Makino Image can cultivate a group of extras with passable acting skills."
Li Mu frowned slightly, then his eyes lit up: "Yes! It is very important to cultivate a group of extras with passable acting skills! Among other things, we must train at least a hundred extras with passable acting skills, so that no matter what team we use in the future, Whoever directs, writes, and stars all has a group of extras who are capable enough to not bring down the production level of the entire drama or affect the audience's sense of involvement. This is a huge asset."
Thinking of this, Li Mu slapped his thigh: "That's right! We want to make users happy! We need to use exquisite production and excellent products to improve users' aesthetics and broaden their horizons. In this way, if those bad movies that are just a mere sham in the future will If they dare to use it to fool the audience, they will end up losing a lot of money and lose all their money. As long as they can’t make money anymore, they will be forced by the market to change their ways. Either change or die!”
Spielberg looked at Li Mu and said seriously: "Mr. Li, I think your theory is very correct. The main reason why the industry is turbid and stagnant is that there is little competition pressure in professional skills. If the starring role will If people don’t know how to act, there will be people paying for it, so the industry will naturally not develop in the future, but if the taste of market demand is improved, practitioners will be forced to comply with market demand, otherwise they will be eliminated by the market.”
With that said, Spielberg added: "In fact, with your strength, I think you can set up a film and television training school in China. At that time, I can help you invite the best talents from Hollywood to be professors and provide Chinese film Cultivate a group of new talents, especially actors, who are free from the influence of the existing Vanity Fair and have a completely Hollywood-style education. If we cultivate dozens or hundreds of extras with passing acting skills, then such an extra group will have an overall impact on a movie. It’s definitely huge!”
Spielberg's words gave Li Mu a huge reminder.
Opening a film and television training school was something he had never thought about before, but now that he thought about it carefully, he realized that China's film and television industry was really bad.
Now that the overall box office is in a slump, directors just want to win awards. In order to win awards, they will not hesitate to sell sheep over others and use gray operations;
Actors just want to be famous, and they are willing to accept all kinds of hidden rules in order to become famous, and they even have to make secret deals to get into film school;
However, film and television companies only want to reduce budgets and increase income, so that they can save as much scenery and props as possible in the movie; extras do not need to be good at acting, only the cheapest ones; post-effects can be fooled if they can...
Employees in the film and television industry are fooling around in all aspects of production. Very few people will calm down and study how to make a truly good movie. How can a truly good movie be made under such circumstances
(End of chapter)