Presenter :
Li Bin is a reporter of Contemporary Shaanxi Magazine
Guests:
Shi Xiangli, Director of the Film Division of the Propaganda Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee
Meng Yaoyue, General Manager of Xi'an Film Studio
Zhang Zhonghua is the vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Film Association, an associate professor and director of the School of Arts of Northwest University
Tian Bo is the director of the Shaanxi Young Filmmakers Committee and the director of the movie "Liu Qing".
Bai Zhiqiang is a member of the Council of the 7th Shaanxi Film Association and a young director of Western Film
Zhang Ke is a teacher at the School of Design and Art of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, and a screenwriter of "My Motherland and Me", "King Kong River" and "Revolutionary".
In recent years, in terms of films, Shaanxi has won many international and domestic award trophies; In terms of TV dramas, Shaanxi's TV drama output ranks fifth in the country, and CCTV's prime-time TV series account for 29% of the country.
For some provinces, such a report card is enough to satisfy, but Shaanxi film and television people who have experienced the highlight moments of the Shaanxi Army in film and television will inevitably have the feelings of "once the sea was difficult to water" in their hearts.
With a deep heritage, sitting on a rich "bonanza" of film and television themes, talents and related elements, will the new generation of film and television Shaanxi Army be able to better take over the baton? How should Shaanxi make better use of film and television resources?
Mature industry talents and a strong cultural atmosphere are rare attractions
The cultural industry is based on talents, and this is especially true in the field of film and television, the industry needs to be supported by an efficient chain to mature, and the industrial chain is a gathering of various craftsmen.
Meng Yaoyue: In the highly concentrated cultural attribute industry, after the development of the market economy deepens, the film and television industry is also reforming. In any industry, excellent talents and resources will be more concentrated. The film and television industry is the same, just like in the 80s of the 20th century, outstanding talents concentrated in the west, and later gradually concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen with the development of the market. In recent years, it has also changed, with the strategy of revitalizing Western Film and Television put forward by Western Film, coupled with the continuous construction of the Western Film Park and various projects that support the development of talents and the development of the main film and television industry, such as "Western Film Chunguang Youth Film Festival" and "Western Film Young Director Support Program", more and more young film and television talents are gradually concentrating on Western Film. The young directors we signed will gather in the West Film Park from time to time to focus on discussion, communication, and creation, and will bring more peers to come together. These may lead to better ideas, projects, and more talents, which will play an important role in the revitalization of western film and television.
The scene of the Silk Road International Film Art Festival held in Xi'an
Tian Bo: I started my career in Beijing more than ten years ago, and now I live in Songzhuang, which is known as the "Silicon Valley of Culture". Most of the literary and artistic resources are concentrated in Beijing, which is the result of a combination of factors, and with the largest concentration of cultural industries and art institutions, Beijing can indeed provide more opportunities and nourish the soil and ecology of artists. In addition to the unrivaled resource advantages of other cities, the rich cultural atmosphere is actually a more rare attraction.
Zhang Ke: Tian Bo lives in Songzhuang, Bai Zhiqiang moved to Yanjiao, and I still belong to the "North Drift" that has not taken root, we often gather at Tian Bo's big brother's house to eat mutton, and joked before that we have not entered the sixth ring road of Beijing in the so-called film and television Shaanxi army, but we are still full of hope for the future, because we are all dreamers who "look west to Chang'an" in order to seek better development. This kind of irregular gathering in other places, so that we always have endless topics to talk about, the film and television industry is an industry where individuals lift people, we recommend friends in the industry to each other, dock resources, supervise each other, and discuss creation...... Let us, who used to fight alone, find a sense of huddle for warmth.
Zhang Zhonghua: I also went through the stage of Beijing investment in the past, recalling it is still very painful, the more unhappy the experience, so I decided to return to Shaanxi to start my own business, fortunately, I set up a company to shoot the first film "There is a good place in the tree" after winning the award, was seen by many investors, now I have to meet two groups of investors every week on average, so the so-called film financing environment is a paradox, I believe that as long as you settle down to do things, you will eventually attract outside funds to Shaanxi.
Bai Zhiqiang: I actually don't dare to agree with the statement that the new generation of film and television Shaanxi Army organized a group to crusade eastward, because compared with the previous collective creation peak of the fourth and fifth generations of directors in Shaanxi, we still have too few people and not enough works, I just hope that more new generation directors from Shaanxi will emerge quickly, and we can make good movies with more height and depth, so that we can really take the baton of the "Film and Television Shaanxi Army" signboard well.
Seek a balance between quality and quantity, artistry and commerciality
Although the success of a film cannot be based solely on the box office, it is an important indicator of public popularity, an affirmation of film practitioners and the cost of continuing to create new films. The film and television industry, which once made Shaanxi people extremely proud, has not had a box office of more than 100 million for too long, which may be a knot in the hearts of many Shaanxi people. "There are plateaus, but there are no peaks" and "whether they are applauded or not" are also the lamentations of many experts on the current situation of western film and television.
Bai Zhiqiang: We used the phrase "deafening is difficult, but the reverberation is still happening" to describe the cold situation of "Rattle Drum" in theaters, but we always believe that the more than 50,000 audiences in theaters are the first batch of "drummers" in the film, which will make the drums spread farther. Indeed, such box office results are inevitably frustrating, but I do hope that the box office can rise a little more, at least so that the promoter can try to return to the original cost, so that they have the opportunity to support the next "rattle".
Residents watch open-air movies
I would like to quote a quote from my master, Mr. Lu Wei, who is also the producer of this film, that is, the grand narrative of Chinese films and the excessive proliferation of commercial films have become a disaster, but the real life of China is absent on the screen.
With "fatal truth", discussion of social topics and humanistic care, this film, which was almost stopped due to lack of funds, is often defined as a niche literary film, but in my eyes it is actually a real popular film, because the perspective is aimed at the public, and at the same time, it is also made for the public, hoping that the public will watch it and then influence the public.
Tian Bo: People chase dramas, and capital also "chases dramas". Looking back at the works of our directors, it is not difficult to find that they basically follow the path of realism and low-cost vegans, and these genres themselves are not very commercial, and they are niche themes that capital is unwilling to contaminate. Making such a film in such an environment and being brutally baptized by the commercial film market is not so much an "encounter" as a "choice". But it is an aesthetic pursuit and creative belief for us.
Just as philosophical works are never as popular as saliva books, the deeper you want to shoot things with historical missions, the less popular they are. Our creations conquered the judges, but not the audience. In the current box office market, there is basically only one flower of commercial films. We look forward to the reform of the track with a hundred flowers, the establishment of art theaters across the country, so that the artistic content created with heart is greater than the commercial film has its own stage.
Shi Xiangli: At present, Shaanxi film is in a breakthrough development period of expanding advantages and overcoming difficulties, in the face of outstanding social benefits but poor economic benefits, small and medium-cost film production ranks among the top in the country but the creation of head films represented by new mainstream blockbusters is weak, and the strength of film creation and production is strong but there are shortcomings in investment, financing, distribution and screening, etc., we will take the initiative to connect with the financial, financial and other departments to appropriately adjust the industrial policy, from giving full play to the role of the leading enterprises of Western Film, optimizing the setting of film awards and subsidies, Optimize the structure of Shaanxi's film industry structure, improve the industrial chain, and promote the high-quality development of Shaanxi's films. At the same time, we will further clarify and highlight the characteristic advantages of Shaanxi's film industry, build a relevant mechanism for Shaanxi films to actively integrate into the national film industry cycle, and make Shaanxi's due contribution to the development of Chinese films.
Meng Yaoyue: The Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee has vigorously supported high-quality projects, issued a series of policies, and also has special support funds. But for the project that now exceeds 100 million yuan, it is indeed the icing on the cake, and it is more of an encouragement and affirmation. It is still necessary for our film and television companies and creative personnel in Shaanxi to fully improve the quality and marketability of the project, so as to obtain more funds and support in the market.
Inherit the artistic spirit of the pioneers of western film and television
Western films have created many classics for the Chinese film industry, and their rich cultural background, diversified spatial presentation and realistic aesthetic expression have attracted the attention of the industry. As a theoretical concept in the history of Chinese film, it should be said that western cinema is an endless cultural phenomenon and an evolving trend of film art.
Shi Xiangli: Western films in the 80s of the 20th century laid the foundation for the creative style of Shaanxi film realism. In recent years, more than one-third of Shaanxi's main films are serious realist themes, focusing on the grassroots, paying attention to the shaping of artistic character and cultural character, and "small but beautiful" has become a major feature of Shaanxi's film creation in recent years.
Meng Yaoyue: The glorious history of "Film and Television Shaanxi Army" and "Western Film" is our unique resource advantage in Shaanxi, and it also gives us confidence and belief in the goal of reviving the glory of "Western Film and Television". The market also has a certain confidence in our Shaanxi and Xiying to produce high-quality projects.
However, the glory of the past is also easy to produce baggage, and many young directors in Shaanxi generally have a relatively high starting point, and they all choose to benchmark classic western films, and pay too much attention to artistry, which may be relatively weak in terms of marketability. In the past, the works of Shaanxi Army in film and television showed a sense of power for life in different lives, but now many young directors who have returned from overseas may not know and understand the traditional culture and the texture of life enough, and their works emphasize more self-expression, which is difficult to truly empathize with the audience. We hope that young directors can jump out of their personal perspectives, go deep into life, experience and perceive life with their hearts, so as to better understand the texture of life, and then project it into their works, so that the core of their works is closer to life and more contemporary.
Tian Bo: I not only respect the great artists of this land, but I also want to inherit their artistic spirit. Liu Qing and Lu Yao's literary spirit and dedication inspired me a lot, and my filmmaking actually formed a spiritual echo with them to a certain extent.
An important reason and characteristic of Shaanxi's film and television revival in the new century is that the "Shaanxi Army of Film and Television" has obtained great nutrients from the "Shaanxi Army of Literature" and has released tremendous creative potential. But in order to successfully push the works of Shaanxi writers to the screen, there are still multiple "chasms" to be crossed.
We look forward to the strong cooperation between "Western Film and Television" and "Literary Shaanxi Army", establish a smoother cooperation and development mechanism for literature, film and television, and promote the transformation of literature into film and television. Promote the extensive interconnection and deep integration of various formats of the cultural industry, so that the free connection, integration and symbiosis between various formats can form a network value chain ecosystem.
Zhang Zhonghua: Movies are not my dream, movies are just my way of life. I have been engaged in children's film script writing for a long time, and I have a stable children's film creation team for children's film and television practice. We don't have to be the towering trees of the film industry, we do the long green vines that coil around the towering trees. We can go around as tall as they can grow. We will definitely work steadily, step by step, to play the trump card of "children's films", to start the domestic popularity of "western children's films and television", to be in line with international standards, and to impact the international market as a long-term goal.