Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 332 Maximizing Benefits
December 31st was the last day of 2006.

On that very day, the Berlin International Film Festival held a formal press conference, where Dieter Kosslick, in his capacity as festival president and chairman of the organizing committee, announced the nine-member jury.

As is customary, once the jury members invited by a film festival are confirmed, it is not done in such a grand and solemn manner by having the festival chairman personally announce it; doing so would be making a mountain out of a molehill.

However, when the nine-member jury was announced this year, the media and reporters thought differently.

No one expected that this year's Berlin Film Festival would be so prestigious.

After deciding to invite Cao Yang, Dieter Koslick prepared two backup lists.

If Cao Yang accepts the invitation to the Berlin Film Festival, the other members of the jury are a list.

If Cao Yang does not accept the Berlin Film Festival's invitation, the jury members will be on a different list.

Furthermore, after Cao Yang was confirmed to serve as the president of the jury for the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, Dieter Kosslick also gave Cao Yang the list of names and fully solicited Cao Yang's opinions.

The reason this list caused such a sensation and made people feel that this year's Berlin Film Festival was prestigious was because the jury president was Cao Yang, which was enough to excite the media for half a day.

As is widely known, Cao Yang rarely appears in the public media except to promote his films, and he has never served as a judge at a film festival, despite receiving countless invitations every year.

So this first time is quite precious.

The fact that Cao Yang was the chairman of the judging panel was already big news.

However, the Berlin Film Festival, or rather Dieter Koslick, was not satisfied. He felt that since they had already managed to get Cao Yang, why not make it even more sensational?
Then, the list included two-time Oscar winner Johnny Depp.

The fact that Depp became a member of the judging panel was both surprising and reasonable.

No one thinks Depp is unqualified to be a member of the judging panel. Although the European arts and culture scene generally looks down on Hollywood and the Oscars, the Oscar-winning actor still represents artistic achievement and acting skills.

It's a well-known fact that Depp is an eccentric and difficult to invite.

Moreover, Depp is now a superstar, a highly influential star that the three major European football clubs are desperate to recruit.

Many people know why Depp became a member of the jury. To be honest, if Cao Yang hadn't become the jury chairman, Depp definitely wouldn't have come to Berlin to be a jury member.

In terms of global influence, Depp's arrival will bring a surge in viewership to the Berlin Film Festival, and advertising revenue will also increase significantly.

Of course, that's not all. Dieter Koslick had gone to great lengths to invite Cao Yang and made some promises to maximize Cao Yang's role.

He also invited Charlize Theron, an Oscar-winning actress.

Charlize Theron initially refused.

Like the Venice Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival is losing its influence, and many Hollywood stars and superstars are less willing to attend.

Although Charlize Theron failed to become a superstar, she is still an Oscar-winning actress and a true Hollywood star. She no longer needs to serve as a jury member at the Berlin Film Festival to elevate her status.

However, Dieter Koslick told Charlize Theron and her agent that Cao Yang would be this year's jury president.

Then Charlize Theron and her agent agreed to serve as jury members at the Berlin Film Festival.

Just as Dieter Koslick thought, which Hollywood actor these days wouldn't want to be on good terms with Cao Yang?
The Berlin Film Festival is quite bold and adept at seizing opportunities; it's very "hard-working," which is probably related to their tradition.

In later years, due to the pandemic, the Berlin Film Festival formed a "dream team" of Golden Bear judges—all six judges were directors who had won the Golden Bear.

However, despite the hype, the Berlin Film Festival's influence had already diminished considerably by then, and due to special circumstances, it ultimately failed to generate much buzz.

Sometimes, many things are beyond human control. Take Germany, for example. In today's international landscape, it's practically impossible for it to "fight" again without major upheavals.

This year's Berlin Film Festival jury invited a total of nine people, which was probably a necessary measure.

Cao Yang's influence is too great. If Cao Yang insists on giving the Golden Bear to a certain film, it is very likely that the traditional seven members of the jury will not be able to stop him.

If there are nine people, in addition to inviting two Hollywood stars to ensure influence, we can also invite four or five "our own people" to prevent Cao Yang from "acting unilaterally" at critical moments.

Of course, Dieter Koslick is still very good at interpersonal relationships.

To show his sincerity, to ensure Cao Yang's right to speak, and to prevent Cao Yang from having any objections, he also invited two Chinese people—Ning Ying, a 78 graduate of the Recording Department of Beijing Film Academy, and Shi Nansheng, the wife of Xu Ke, a famous Hong Kong producer.

At least on the surface, these two people seem to support Cao Yang's decision.

However, it's hard to say. Although Ning Ying was a student at Beijing Film Academy in 78, she received a government-funded scholarship to study in Italy in 81.

Shi Nansheng is from Hong Kong, and no one can guarantee that she won't become Dieter Kosslick's undercover agent for some reason, such as Dieter Kosslick promising to promote her and Tsui Hark's films at the Berlin Film Festival in the future.

As long as the profits are large enough, nothing is surprising.

Of course, this is only the worst-case scenario. As long as Cao Yang doesn't insist on winning the Golden Bear and completely break with the Berlin Film Festival, many of his backup plans won't be needed, and things will remain amicable for everyone.

On the surface, the current list of nine people shows that Depp and Charlize Theron definitely support Cao Yang's decision, the two Chinese judges will also support Cao Yang, and Cao Yang himself will make up five people, giving them absolute decision-making power.

Dieter Koslick showed Cao Yang a great deal of respect. As he said, apart from the Golden Bear award which needed to be discussed, Cao Yang could make his own decisions on the other awards, which is reflected in this list.

As is customary, the list of films entering the main competition section is announced about a month before the film festival opens.

第57届柏林国际电影节在2月8号开幕，2月18号结束，一般情况下，大概在1月15号前后公布提名名单。

However, at this press conference, Dieter Kosslick, in his capacity as artistic director and chairman of the selection committee, reiterated that the nominations for the main competition of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival would be announced on January 28.

The Berlin Film Festival is a highly centralized organization, with Dieter Kosslick serving as its president, artistic director, chairman of the organizing committee, director of sales, and chairman of the selection committee...

If it weren't for the fact that leaving too little time for the judging panel would increase their workload and cause them to have complaints, Dieter Koslick would have preferred to postpone the deadline even further.

The announcement of the nominations for the main competition was postponed by about half a month, leaving only ten days before the opening of the Berlin Film Festival.

Why was it delayed by so much time?

Dieter Kosslick had his own calculations. He knew very well that although it was only delayed by about half a month, it was already the end of December, and there was still about a month before the nominations were announced.

Although the official time for participating in the main competition has ended, those famous directors, as well as directors invited by the Berlin Film Festival, certainly do not need to adhere to this time.

After announcing that Cao Yangsuan had been invited to be the chairman of the jury, Dieter Kosslick believed that many interesting things would happen in the next month.

Many renowned directors who originally hadn't planned to attend the Berlin Film Festival will definitely change their minds. With Cao Yang, Depp, and Charlize Theron at the festival, its influence will undoubtedly rise to a whole new level. Before filming "New Pirates of the Caribbean," Cao Yang estimated that building props and soundstages would take at least six months, based on the needs of the plot. The filming period was expected to be around 80 days, and post-production after visual effects would also take another six months.

However, he did not expect that Disney would still keep the old props and the studios, and the six-month preparation period was shortened to more than twenty days.

With the addition of an immersive experience, the main actors filmed with ease and speed, and the 80-day filming schedule should be shortened to just over 60 days.

However, there are no shortcuts when it comes to post-production special effects, and Cao Yang is very strict about this. He also added a lot of scenes that were not originally planned to have special effects, so adding special effects in post-production will definitely take at least six months.

Filming began on December 4, 2006. Based on the current shooting schedule, Cao Yang expects to complete filming during the Berlin Film Festival.

But he had to go to the Berlin Film Festival to serve as the jury president, to watch the films that entered the main competition, and to select the winners of the main competition awards, all of which required him to go to Berlin in advance.

So now he has two choices.

First, we need to speed up the filming process and see if we can finish filming before February.

Secondly, based on the current progress, we will shoot as much as possible before February, and the rest will be filmed after the Berlin Film Festival.

However, this second point is somewhat offensive to Disney.

As planned, when the list of nominees for the main competition is announced on the 28th, all members of the jury will be in Berlin, and their work will officially begin on that day.

In other words, from January 28th to February 18th when the Berlin Film Festival closes, there are still two days left to attend celebratory parties and other social engagements, not to mention the travel time by plane.

All of this, including everything, will take at least 25 days.

The director leaving for 25 days before the film was finished is very unfriendly to investors.

Even without filming, the crew still had to spend a lot of money every day during those 25 days – staff salaries, prop rentals, studio rentals, and so on.

Therefore, we need to find a solution that satisfies both sides.

Cao Yang had considered this issue when he agreed to serve as the president of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival.

He gathered several assistant directors, coordinators, and production assistants to re-plan the shooting schedule.

Another filming crew was set up to shoot some unimportant shots, such as framing and scenes without main characters.

In addition, a little extra was added to the daily shooting schedule.

According to the current plan, if everything goes smoothly, the crew will wrap up filming on February 1st.

In other words, the entire filming process was compressed to 60 days, which is about 6 days ahead of the accelerated schedule.

Subsequently, the crew entered a fast-paced filming mode. The main actors didn't find it too difficult, and their filming was quite easy. It was the other actors who needed to adapt.

This sometimes means that we have to work overtime to complete the filming schedule.

However, Cao Yang's current status is different, and his influence is naturally incomparable to what it used to be, so none of the staff complained.

At least outwardly, no one dared to complain.

This reminded Cao Yang of the film crew members in China.

When filming a movie or TV series, working overtime is common, and sometimes, in order to meet the deadline, people work overtime until the early hours of the morning.

Some say that Hollywood is particularly humane, strictly adhering to the prescribed hours, and the staff simply leave when it's time, which many people envy.

Cao Yang didn't know who spread the rumor, but ever since he came to Hollywood to make movies, whether it was "The Dirty Milk" when he first arrived or "Pirates of the Caribbean" he was currently filming, working overtime was a common occurrence.

But I've never encountered a staff member who would dare to quit when the time was up.

Back when they first came to Hollywood to film "The Dirty Milk," some people couldn't help but complain about the late hours, but now, no one even dares to complain anymore.

While Cao Yang was busy filming, on January 28, the Berlin Film Festival finally announced the list of films selected for the main competition.

This year's selection included 22 films, with Hollywood films surprisingly making up the majority, totaling 6. The Berlin Film Festival is beginning to embrace Hollywood.

This can be seen from the fact that the Berlin Film Festival invited Depp and Charlize Theron.

Moreover, almost every one of these six selected films features a major Hollywood star.

Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Tobey Maguire, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, and many more.

If these stars can attend, this year's Berlin Film Festival will definitely be the most successful and influential one in recent years.

Dieter Koslick was very pleased with this, believing that inviting Cao Yang was absolutely the wisest decision he could have made.

French films had the second most entries, with five.

On the contrary, only three German films made it into the main competition, and two of them were co-productions with other countries.

The fact that German films, despite having all the advantages of timing and location, have performed so poorly is a clear sign of decline.

Two Chinese-language films were selected for the main competition, both from mainland China.

One is Wang Quan'an's "Tuya's Marriage," and the other is Li Yu's "Apple."

After the list of nominees for the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival was announced, domestic media gave it extensive coverage, highlighting the "comprehensive" rise of mainland Chinese films in recent years.

Not only has the annual box office been increasing, but awards with global influence have also been presented every year in recent years.

With the announcement of the main competition lineup, Cao Yang's phone has become a "hotline".

Numerous media reporters, both domestic and international, wanted to interview Cao Yang, hoping to understand his criteria for award judging as the president of the Berlin Film Festival jury.

Wang Quan'an and Li Yu also called Cao Yang, but they didn't say much, just chatted briefly. Everyone knew what the call meant at that point, and saying more would be pointless.

All the directors, producers, lead actors, and production companies of the six shortlisted Hollywood films who knew Cao Yang called him.

Who says foreigners don't understand social etiquette? Actually, it's the same all over the world.

(End of this chapter)