Under the influence of the epidemic, the film industry has been greatly impacted, unable to start production, the crew has been shut down, and the company has not been able to operate efficiently due to the problem of resuming work. Writing a script has become the best choice for many directors and screenwriters during the quarantine period.
When the epidemic passes and the film market picks up, the demand for good scripts by film companies will only increase, not decrease. The scripts born during this period are most likely to appear on the venture capital platform in 2020 waiting for "review". Although 2019 is called the winter of film, the number of venture capital meetings at various film festivals throughout the year has increased significantly, and some large domestic film companies have also participated in the search for excellent projects and excellent young creators. The number of venture capital activities in 2020 may be reduced, but for film and television companies that lack excellent works, the demand for good content may be more urgent.
How to get more judges and companies in the venture capital market in the second half of 2020 with the script, and start the next stage of film shooting and production? In December 2019, at the 2019 Film Script Exchange Conference hosted by the Southern Press Media Group, the interface entertainment reporter talked to the judge Nai An and listened to her share her feelings and understanding of participating in many venture capital conferences as a judge in the past year.
As early as 1994, Nyan began to enter the film production industry as an independent producer. She has worked with director Lou Ye for many years and has produced well-known works including "Weekend Lover", "Suzhou Creek", "Spring Breeze Drunken Night", "Tuina", "Clouds Made of Rain in the Wind" and so on. She also has co-production experience in numerous European markets.
2019 is Nyan's "Year of the Venture Capital Judges", and in her words, she has been participating in judging activities almost every month since the Berlin Film Festival in February, until the 2019 film script exchange meeting in December, "without interruption". In this year's review and observation, she saw the attempts of different venture capital platforms to create styles and positioning, and also saw the pursuit of young creators in establishing their own personality.
"Whether it is a cold winter or a hot summer, what makes me feel relieved is that this year's running, at least let me understand that my peers are still trying to do what they should do, and the young new forces they come into contact with will bring you a confidence to overcome the cold winter." I hope that as Nai An said, after the epidemic has passed, China's young film creators can come up with more diverse and wonderful works to overcome the cold winter.
Interface Entertainment Dialogue Nean:
Interface Entertainment: You have participated in many film festivals and film festivals this year, why did you choose to focus on being a judge this year?
Nyan: I basically participate in the selection or judging of various film festivals once or twice a month, including the judging of venture capital conferences and other supporting work, probably from the beginning of the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of the year, until December now, without interruption. For example, venture capital such as FIRST or Golden Horse may be more familiar to everyone, and some new activities are not well known at present, but the operation and organizational work also wants to work harder to be more professional and mature. Specific to serving as a judge, there is a lot of preparation to be done in advance, in addition to the need to see each shortlisted work, usually I will take time to see each author's previous works, want to know more about them, so it involves more energy and time. Still, basically every month. This was the last time before the end of the year, ready to stop.
Being a judge is relatively simple for me, that is, to take out enough time, because when filming, there is no such possibility. It was hard to do the film before, so this year it took a year to adjust the state and then prepare to fight again. (On January 6, 2020, the new film "Yanagawa" supervised by Nai An was launched, directed by Zhang Lu and starring Ni Ni, Zhang Luyi and Xin Baiqing.) ）
Interface Entertainment: Is it for the cultivation of young directors?
Nyan: Yes, that's clear, the main purpose is to support young directors, hopefully to help young directors and their work. The whole year has been working around this theme, very clearly.
Interface Entertainment: How do you feel about the venture capital at various film festivals this year?
Nyan: Impressions, it may be very personal... It is worth mentioning that in any case, no matter how big or small this venture capital conference is, the number of periods held is more or less, the length of time we serve is longer or shorter, for all the film-related work, I see that everyone is fully engaged( dedicated), and this is not an easy task.
Interface Entertainment: What about the project? I looked at a few of them and found that there are still many similar projects, and some projects will appear in several venture capitals.
Nyan: You mean to ask, why is it more concentrated and homogeneous? No way, this may not only involve the limitations of creation. However, the reason why these projects can be selected, in addition to having a certain degree of future development potential, or have a basic professional level, in fact, there are not many. The jury I have participated in, the cooperation process is relatively harmonious, no matter what the difference in everyone's film taste, but the judgment of a thing is still very consistent, I think this is also a kind of verification. This phenomenon you said may occur in any region or platform, and the film selection is also the same, for example, we sometimes say that which film I watched in Cannes, Venice, Berlin this year felt good, and finally found that what can impress you, or can be appreciated and respected by most people, is actually only a few. The number of venture capital projects is the same, the number of basic applications this year is very large, the first is nearly 800, hainan also has five or six hundred, but after layers of inspection and screening, the final can enter the scope of the final judges' vision, nothing more than these. All I can say is that it's normal.
Young directors are important to them even if they are initially recognized in the process of creation and project advancement, even if they are only in the text stage, and have a positive role in financing subsequent projects and attracting partners. So we can understand why most directors and producers, when given the right opportunity, will try to cast more. Each venture capital club has restrictions on the registration and selection rules, some requirements must be the first time, and some are allowed to be less than three times.
Interface Entertainment: Has the project itself ever won an award, and has it had an impact on the judges' consideration of participating in the venture capital conference later?
Nyan: This is not absolute, the only constant criterion is that the final winning work should be able to represent the level and quality of this year's venture capital conference. Judging is a very complex and deliberate process, and the positioning of each venture capital club is also different, and in recent years, with the establishment of awards in venture capital activities and the addition of market judges, it has sometimes had to be weighed. Although I want to help more people, Ning Que is not indiscriminate, and the situation of award vacancies has not happened. In short, it is not possible to proceed according to the principle of equal distribution.
Interface Entertainment: What kind of works will make you want to have the opportunity to participate and cooperate?
Nyan: Various genres are possible, first of all, personal interest, I pay more attention to the director's audiovisual language ability and creative personality. For the new director, because [their] experience and ability are not very mature, to be tolerant, there is no way to require him to be good enough in all aspects, and some things need to be cultivated and trained. This is also the significance of holding venture capital conferences, where young people have the opportunity to further learn, including being taught their experience, obtaining resources or financial support, while industry-related institutions and investors have more channels to find projects and discover talents. In this case, the characteristics of the work and the personality of the creation are particularly important. Of course, I also hope that through this process, I will find new directors who I want to work with.
Interface Entertainment: Will you see some imitations of the style of some well-known directors in these young directors? Wouldn't such a project be easier to shoot?
Nyan: At least the authors I have come into contact with, no one wants to deliberately imitate anyone, and directors with strong creative intentions and personalities will not be willing to do so. In a broad sense, imitating the master style is also a kind of learning and tribute, so I suggest that young directors may wish to do imitation as training and homework, nothing more.
Interface Entertainment: So many film festivals and film festivals in China now have venture capital units, basically what kind of style they have, in fact, it is relatively clear, right?
Nyan: A venture capitalist definitely wants to establish its own style or characteristics, but this is something that takes years of cultivation to form, and we don't care whether it is successful or not, as far as I know, this desire is clear. Many well-known venture capital platforms at international film festivals generally have their own distinctive characteristics, which is also one of the signs of their success. In the past two years, many new venture capital platforms have gradually emerged in China, which is the natural demand and inevitable result of industrial and market development. At this stage, of course, the more the merrier.
These venture capital platforms have their own advantages, but there are still many areas that need to be improved. I'm more concerned about whether they're really helping young people, and that's the most important thing. Don't worry about which venture capital gives more money and less money, as long as you have this heart and do your best, I think it is good.
Interface Entertainment: The venture capital club can also see the figure of some large domestic film companies, they actually have a mature project incubation process, what prompted them to start to venture capital to find projects? Film and television winter?
Nyan: From the perspective of market richness and diversity of works, it may not be enough for large companies to incubate projects on their own. As for other reasons, I am not qualified to conclude that things are constantly changing... I predict that more companies will come in after that, no matter how it is, no less than in 2019 anyway.
Interface Entertainment: It can be said that whether from within the industry or our media attention, the venture capital unit has received more and more attention in recent years.
Nyan: It's a bit of a storm. Some of the venture capital conferences I have attended have only started this year, such as pingyao is the first one, and Guangzhou is also the first one. In addition, like the "new studio" has released the news of the launch of the venture capital activity next year, there are some others are also in the planning.
Interface Entertainment: There are many producers who have also grown up with directors. In today's venture capital, everyone pays a lot of attention to young directors and screenwriters, so how can young producers grow up in this process?
Nyan: In fact, the activities of the VC are not only to help young creators, but also to help producers, as well as young people who are interested in making films. I have personally experienced that the effort, time and energy spent helping and nurturing young producers is comparable to helping young directors.
The growth of young producers, more need to accumulate experience in actual combat, if you can go down with two or three projects in the whole process (pre-production, shooting, post-production), generally you can independently do some less complex small projects, relatively safe. There are many ways and paths to learn, just find a way that suits you. It can be done with a director who has been working closely for a long time to help each other make progress together, or it can be done by cooperating with different directors and absorbing the strengths of all. Most young people who want to become producers can try to enter the crew internship first, and have the opportunity to work with a professional production team, and the process is equally effective.
Interface Entertainment: There seems to be a lot less relative attention to them.
Nyan: Yeah, it's natural, the producers are supposed to be behind the scenes, and a lot of times they should be hiding behind. In addition to the necessary professionalism, the position of producer can also be simply understood as: being a leader and a waiter. Personally, this means that you simply don't have time to be in the limelight, sober and low-key, and you should understand this from the beginning when you are working as a producer.
Interface Entertainment: Did you have difficulty doing projects as a producer in your early days? Is there any difference between doing an ordinary project and a project directed by Lou Ye?
Nean: Of course, not only in the early days, but now it is also difficult.
Every project is different, the director is different, the idea of operation will be different, but some of the steps are still very routine, because you need to work in a way that conforms to the habits and rules of the industry, whether it is at home or overseas. The general situation is that after the script is completed, according to the different content and type of works, the project book is sent to the target investment company and investor, ask them to see if they are interested in it, whether they can do it, and then build a suitable capital structure and production team for the project as much as possible to integrate resources. As a professional producer, according to the different circumstances of the project, under the premise of understanding the director's creative needs, he will configure the combination that will help the project the most, which is only the first step. The work of the producer is to carry out the project throughout, from creation to operation, to production, and even to publicity. I would like to emphasize that pure money is never a guarantee of whether a director can make a good work.
Interface Entertainment: After so many venture capital review experiences in a year, what kind of impression have these young people made for you?
Nyan: Whether it's a cold winter or a sweltering heat, I'm relieved that this year has come down, at least to understand that my peers are still trying to do what they should do. I have the privilege of being exposed to many young new forces who bring you the confidence to overcome the "cold winter", and the newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. It's not a pretty thing, sometimes it seems like I'm helping them, but in fact, in turn, I'm drawing a lot of strength from them, and they're the hope of Chinese cinema.