Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 261: Judge impartially
The Venice Film Festival ended on the 10th. Cao Yang stayed for another two days and left in the early morning of the 12th.

His schedule this time is a bit tight, and he will most likely spend the next week on the plane.

After the Venice Film Festival, Cao Yang originally planned to return to China directly, because the 19th was an important day, and the first round of preliminary selection for the Beijing Olympic Games director bidding was scheduled on this day.

As the chief consultant hired by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee specifically for the election director, Cao Yang must be present.

However, Cheng Jianye called and said that the studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada had been built and the snow mountain castle had also been built. It would be ready for use after a heavy snowfall.

Of course, before that, Cao Yang must inspect it.

This matter is actually very important and cannot be postponed. Hundreds of workers and staff cannot be dismissed before the acceptance is completed.

Even if Canada's labor costs are lower than those in the United States, it is still not a small amount every day, especially for technical jobs related to movies, which have higher salaries.

Cao Yang had no choice but to fly to Canada first to meet up with art directors, art designers, and visual effects staff, and visit the Snow Mountain Castle and the Montreal studio.

"Is everything going well? Did you encounter any difficulties?"

Cao Yang asked after seeing Cheng Jianye.

Cheng Jianye smiled and shook his head. "Everything went smoothly. Both the local government and the external staff were very cooperative. Columbia is still very powerful here."

Procrastination and buck-passing at work can be found everywhere in the world. Europeans and Americans are particularly good at this. If you push them too hard, they will always talk to you about human rights... In short, work efficiency is really low.

Cheng Jianye had a lot of headaches because of this.

Moreover, some people act one way to his face and another behind his back because he is Chinese. They seem to respect him on the surface, but he can vaguely sense rejection and arrogance.

Cheng Jianye had previously been sent by Cao Yang to be the executive producer of "Juno". It was a small crew, the director was not very famous, there were no big-name actors, and he was not responsible for location shooting and preparation, so he did not have a deep impression at the time.

Nowadays, in a large project like "Inception" with a total budget of 1.6 million US dollars, there are many people involved and their identities are complicated, so it is not easy to get things done.

Of course, now that it has been resolved, there is no need to tell Cao Yang about these annoying things.

Cao Yang patted Cheng Jianye on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

The scenes needed for the movie built in the studio were generally okay, but Cao Yang marked out some minor flaws and unsatisfactory areas.

The Snow Mountain Castle is still a bare castle now, but its exterior outline and terrain meet Cao Yang's requirements. It only needs a heavy snowfall to become a real Snow Mountain Castle.

In Canada, especially in Quebec, the last thing you have to worry about is snow.

The climate of Quebec is characterized by cold winters and frequent snowfall, especially in the northern region, where the temperature can even drop to -60°C. The snowfall is also very heavy, with an average annual snowfall of about 3 meters.

The reason why Cao Yang must complete the Snow Mountain Castle before October is because it will snow in Quebec after October.

When a heavy snow falls, you still want to build a castle? That will cost a lot of manpower, material resources and time.

Cao Yang must be very satisfied to have completed all this by mid-September.

He estimated that if Cheng Jianye was not in charge of all this, if you let the Americans take charge and ask them to complete the project before October, they might not be able to deliver on time.

Cao Yang returned to Beijing in the early morning of the 18th, which means he is still young. Otherwise, if it were someone of Zhang Yimou or Lao Tian’s age, they might not be able to handle this schedule.

However, that's not necessarily true. It's widely rumored that Zhang Yimou is famous for his energy. When he's shooting a movie on deadline, he sometimes only needs to rest for about three hours a day.

Cao Yang actually didn't have much contact with Zhang Yimou, so he didn't know whether the rumors were true.

Lao Gu did say that when he was the cinematographer for Zhang Yimou on the films Red Sorghum and Ju Dou, Zhang Yimou often worked all night long and was still full of energy the next day.

Cao Yang thinks it is still very possible.

After all, it is said that while serving as the chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, Zhang Yimou was still planning the Olympic Games while filming the Chinese blockbuster "Curse of the Golden Flower" or "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Lao Tian can't compare with him in this respect. Lao Tian is just not good enough because he doesn't have that much energy.

If you think about it this way, Lao Tian is really a waste. All directors are energetic and passionate.

Otherwise, dealing with so many women... well, how can we make a good movie?
Cao Yang was going to attend a meeting of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee on the afternoon of the 18th. Hou Keming found him at noon.

Old Hou called Cao Yang to his office mysteriously, and looked outside furtively to make sure there was no one there before closing the office door.

Cao Yang subconsciously thought at the time that Lao Hou must have come for the Olympic director. Was he asking him to "take care" of the Beijing Film Academy graduate?
In fact, many people don’t know that in the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee’s shortlist, Cao Yang was the first choice, and the second choice was Zhang Yimou.

Cao Yang only learned about this matter after he became the chief consultant of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee.

After all, Zhang Yimou is a world-renowned director and has experience in directing the "China Eight Minutes" at the Athens Olympics. Although these eight minutes were a bit unsatisfactory, it was also experience.

As a big country, one of the purposes of China hosting the Olympic Games is to show and prove itself to the world. Therefore, it is basically impossible to give the chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games to an "outsider". If the position of chief director is given directly to Cao Yang, given Cao Yang's influence in the world and his status as one of the most famous directors in Hollywood, no one would say anything.

However, if the position of chief director is directly assigned to other people in the country, then there is a worry that some Western countries will seize on this matter and criticize our country for being undemocratic.

Western countries are particularly good at this kind of thing, so we have to be cautious.

In short, let some directors prepare in advance and then hold an election. If a Chinese director's proposal really beats Zhang Yimou's, that would be a good thing.

Cao Yang thought about it and decided that if Lao Hou really spoke up, he would neither respond directly nor refuse. Then, if Lao Mouzi was elected in the end, Lao Hou would definitely think that he had "tried his best".

"Director Cao, logically speaking, we are all from Beijing Film Academy. If the chief director of the Olympic Games is also from Beijing Film Academy, it will definitely be a good thing for the school."

Lao Hou looked at Cao Yang, then pursed his lips and said seriously:
"But the Olympics is a national event, a national event, and we must not ignore national events for personal reasons... You may think I am speaking official jargon when I say this."

Lao Hou poured Cao Yang a glass of water and sighed softly.

"I also want the Olympic chief director to come from Beijing Film Academy. This is what I really think. But what I just said is what I thought after careful consideration.

The reason I called you here is that I am worried about you because you are still young. Of course, you are a person with your own opinions. I am just a little worried that you will not be able to put down your pride when you see your alumni, especially Zhang Yimou and Chen Kai, or when someone asks you for a favor.

I only ask you to do this in four words: judge impartially! Don't worry, if the chief director is not from Beijing Film Academy, I will never let you face pressure. I will stand up to support you and tell all the people in Beijing Film Academy that I asked you to do this."

At this moment, Cao Yang suddenly looked at Lao Hou with a new respect, and his image became much more dignified.

In his impression, Lao Hou was somewhat selfish and "snobbish" when he was the vice president and director of Qingying Studio.

Many times, he doesn't take on much responsibility and is very smooth in doing things.

But now Old Hou shows another side of himself.

This is probably because different positions lead to different ways of looking at problems?
Seek his own government in his position.

Some people can really grow and change.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hou, I know what to do." Cao Yang assured.

Not all members of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee attended the afternoon meeting, but only members of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's review team attended.

To put it bluntly, the chief consultant Cao Yang is actually the chief consultant of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's review team.

But considering Cao Yang's fame and influence, it would be inappropriate to give him only the title of chief consultant of the review panel. The Olympic Committee also wanted to use his influence to form a business card to the outside world, so they blurred the title.

The afternoon meeting was a briefing, where some principles and confidentiality issues were announced.

Finally, the meeting unanimously voted to approve an appointment, that is, Cao Yang was appointed as the chief consultant for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The powers of the chief adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games were also explained.

To put it simply, you can raise questions and make comments on all the opening and closing ceremony programs, but you have no right to interfere with the decision of the chief director.

If there are real doubts about certain decisions made by the chief director, and the director still does not adopt them after you have given reasonable suggestions, you can discuss the matter at the IOC meeting.

It sounds a bit like the ancient military supervisor, but he has no decision-making power. It can be regarded as an error correction mechanism.

When he came back in the evening, Cao Yang was called over by the old Situ again.

After having a home-cooked meal at Old Situ's house, the master and disciple sat on the sofa and chatted.

“Alas, no one expected that you could win so many international awards. If we had known you were capable of this, we would have planned ahead.

First win the Berlin Golden Bear and the Cannes Golden Palm. With the relationship with Marco Muller, it will be much easier for you to win the Venice Golden Lion, and it will also be easier to get the European Three Gold Grand Slam. What a pity..."

Old Situ said with a smile, he was not teasing his beloved disciple, this was his true thought.

Cao Yang also smiled and shook his head. At that time, he couldn't think so much. Being nominated for the three major European competition units was already a great thing. How could he dare to plan for awards?

Then Old Situ changed the subject.

"Tomorrow is the preliminary selection for the Olympic Games chief director. As the chief consultant, what do you think?"

"Four words: judge impartially!"

"it is good!"

Old Situ slammed the table and said, "This is my student. No matter who is running for director, no matter how close he is, as long as the proposal is not suitable, let him go!"

(End of this chapter)