How do rural movies make money?

Since the beginning of the new century, China films have taken on a new look. The annual China Watch Award, Golden Rooster Award, Hundred Flowers Award Award, Lily Award and Cowboy Award, as well as the selection of a number of excellent films, fully illustrate the extraordinary progress of China films, and let us feel that the creators not only inherited and continued the experience and tradition of the second climax of China films from the end of 1980s to the beginning of 1990s, but also clearly felt the persistence, exploration and innovation of the creators in the field of realistic themes. We can confidently say that film directors in China are in step with the times.

However, we can't help but see that China film directors, especially the fourth generation film directors, are not adapted to the marketization of films and are at a loss in the face of the dazzling market. Some good-looking works are ignored by the market, while some rather unremarkable things are favored by the market. According to the market, although movies are art, they are first and foremost commodities, which need immediate consumption and instant money. You can carry forward the national culture, but only when you find a buyer in the market can it gain a foothold. The market does not recognize the cultural function, but only pays attention to the commercial value. For example, the vast rural areas are the most potential markets for China films. According to a special survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, more than 70% county and township cinemas in China have stopped showing or renting out to other businesses, and have not seen a movie for several years. Although the government has made efforts to change this situation and made many films for farmers, this situation has not fundamentally changed.

A friend suggested that I make a martial arts film or a city film. Making a rural film, with a small audience, is equally thankless. I didn't understand it then. I thought that no matter what the theme of the film is, as long as it is well made, there will be an audience. On the other hand, what my friend said is not unreasonable. This is probably caused by the strong cultural atmosphere of the middle class brought by the rapid rise of the middle class since China entered a new era. This class is facing a materialistic world. They talk about entertainment, leisure, what to watch, what to eat, what to eat, and recreation has become their main purpose of watching movies. Because of this, some movie and TV fast food is to their taste, and they have no chance to participate in the program of "thought", and the so-called "thought" involved is also the concept of money. No wonder investors talk about returns, producers talk about profits, and think that investing in rural films is unprofitable. Especially some time ago, the whole society was impetuous, and a basic mentality was to get rich and change their living conditions as soon as possible. This is not to say that there is something wrong with our nation's psychology, but from another angle, this is the progress of society. I mean, as film directors, we must face this social reality. I think that with the orderly development of market economy, some investors will have a new profound understanding of agriculture and rural farmers, and will gradually become interested in rural works. Faced with the difficulties of starting their own businesses, they will begin to re-examine their mentality, because they were ordinary people before they succeeded. Although a strong middle class can bring benefits to ordinary people, the key to achieving a well-off society in an all-round way in China lies in agriculture and rural farmers. If their problems are not solved, the overall prosperity of China society will be out of the question.

I always think that the problem lies in our film director himself, because the theme itself cannot determine the quality of the work and the number of viewers. No matter what the theme is, as long as it is filmed well, it will win the taste and audience. What the real audience wants is a real director. Give him a touching role image and a gripping story, and your work will be accepted by the market.

Due to the market economy, many producers and artists are driven by interests and have to make money. This is beyond reproach. The purpose of Hollywood film industry is to make money. But we are China, and China has the national conditions of China, so following the United States may not bring you any benefits. Don't shoot "business" to cater to "business", and don't shoot "fun" to cater to the audience, which will lose business and the audience. We should adjust our mentality, straighten out our thinking and pay more attention to realistic themes, because reality is what the audience is most concerned about. It can be said that whoever cares most about the people will have an audience, which is proved by a large number of famous business cards at home and abroad. Of course, the creation of realistic themes should not be impetuous. No matter how noisy the market is, we can't be fooled by petty profits, let alone lose our love for movies. We need sincere input and a high sense of responsibility. Nowadays, when it comes to the sense of responsibility, many film and television people scoff at it as if it were an outdated topic. The popular saying now is to act according to the laws of art and economy, which is true. The sense of responsibility I am talking about is something deep in the creator's heart, and the real sense of responsibility is the basis for the birth of excellent works, especially for directors. A director doesn't even have a sense of responsibility. It's hard to imagine that he can make a work with life breath and depth. When I was filming, I asked everyone to have a sense of responsibility. When a blind man crosses the road, it is noble to give him a hand, but shallow to laugh at him. This is what our film crew wants. Taking this sublimity as the goal of making a good play, I believe there will be good results. In my opinion, innovation and aesthetic character are embodied in the characters in the play, so don't start with concepts. Everyone knows that people have thousands of faces and there is no law to make a fuss about, but why are the protagonists involved in real themes conceptualized when creating film works? Of course, there are various reasons for this. As far as the creator is concerned, this is a question of imagination. The root cause is whether you can really go deep into life and find something that makes your eyes shine. This is also a question of artists' social responsibility. The artist's responsibility is to reveal the truth and tell the truth.

Movies are popular art in the 20th century, and China's movies are almost a hundred years old. History has proved that the development of film itself has exceeded anyone's imagination for a century. Some people have carefully studied and inspected China's films, saying that from the historical position and future development of films, narrative films will probably form six film forms, namely cinema films, TV dramas, online movies, TV dramas, online dramas and TV dramas. We will soon enter an era of digital movies without film. In the 20th century, China films will complete the transformation from shooting to writing. With the continuous improvement of computers, digital actors will look exactly like real people. Someone in Japan wrote an article saying that the subject should be considered to disappear from the lens. At that time, the concepts of film artist and photographer, film drama and film director will be difficult to determine. It's hard to say that such a movie is made, because it's not the concept of making a movie. Whether you like it or not, with the development of science and technology, this state of the film era will come soon. We film directors should be prepared for this.

Personally, I don't want to see such a movie era coming. That kind of movie is hard to define as a movie. It's another matter. It's definitely not a movie. Movies should be made by people, not by technology. Any technology should be an auxiliary means of film, not an end. After all, digital people are scientific people, not real people. Their emotional experience is digital and virtual, just like a computer game machine. It is possible to appear in various forms of movies, but it cannot completely replace movies. Narrative movies are people's emotional experience. How does technology replace emotion? Just like people can't clone. Therefore, no matter how many changes have taken place in the media and artistic forms of movies, I believe that live-action movies will not disappear, but will be active in the spiritual and social life of China people for a long time.

The future is a prediction, and the important thing is the present. If China's films want to continue to develop, they should act according to their own laws, seriously follow the laws of the market, and let the market and history test our works. As long as the creators can continuously accumulate knowledge, absorb and draw lessons from the cultural achievements of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, carefully make their own films and strive to improve their film cultural level, they can keep up with the progress of human cultural civilization.