Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 167 Interview with the Central Bank
"I've seen you promote Chinese culture many times, treating film as part of culture. What is your view on the relationship between film and cultural dissemination?" the reporter asked.

"Film is a medium for spreading culture. Film is the same as news media. You are also doing publicity, and foreign countries are also doing publicity. Ordinary people get information about the outside world from the news, since very few people can experience it firsthand."

How do people who have never been to our country learn about it? Through the news media? You're also a journalist, how do you think foreign media outlets report on us?

There are still people who bring up photos and videos from 30 years ago and claim that our country is dirty and chaotic now.

Therefore, in my opinion, movies and media are the same, and movies can promote and export our culture to foreign countries in a more subtle way.

This will let more foreigners know how beautiful our country is, and it will also prevent some malicious individuals from slandering our country.

The CCTV reporter never expected Chen Shouzhe to say such a thing. No wonder the outside world says that Chen Shouzhe's stance is absolutely correct.

He just used extreme methods. With his abilities, he could have done even better abroad, but he didn't think that way. He just wanted the whole world to know about his country's film culture.

Foreigners still think of China as being stuck in the 1970s and 80s, which is inseparable from the stories that directors like to tell from that era. This subtly leads people to believe that China has always been so backward.

"What does film mean to you, and what changes has it brought to you?" the reporter then asked.

Do you like reading? Like novels.

“I like it,” the reporter nodded.

"I like it too, but the description in words and everyone's understanding are different, just like Hamlet, everyone sees Hamlet differently."

From the text I see, I present the images I want to create, allowing the audience to more easily accept and enjoy the performance presented by the director.

As for what the audience sees, in addition to the director's expression, I hope that each viewer can have a different interpretation of each film.

In the most fascinating places, one might pause to reflect, pondering what the passage means, and what metaphors are hidden in the actor's eyes, gestures, and movements.

The happiest time for me is when people discuss the content of my movies or novels.

As for changes, I definitely hope the movies can make money, because only by making money can I live a good life and have more money to make the movies I want to make.

"I'm very proud that the biggest investment in a domestic film right now is from my production. It also shows that the domestic film market is big enough to provide a place for me, which is a testament to the country's prosperity," Chen Shou said with a smile.

The reporter then asked, "What is your biggest hobby?"

"My biggest hobby is storytelling," Chen Shouzhe said.

"Storyteller?" the reporter asked in surprise, not expecting Chen Shouzhe to be a storyteller.

“In the past, I thought that if I made a movie and sold tickets, I would feel very happy and make money. But I would be under a lot of pressure. What if I failed? I invested for several months to make a movie, but the box office results were not good. Then my company might be in crisis.”

On the contrary, there is no pressure in storytelling. A couple hundred people sit in a teahouse, and I talk for two hours every day. It's very enjoyable. I can use the rest of the time to do other things, such as writing books or raising animals.

It's true that movies can be very profitable, but many more movies don't. No one can have a smooth journey. Movies are ultimately products; if no one buys them, they will lose money, and all the initial investment will be wasted.

Besides, this thing isn't a factory or anything like that. If a factory goes bankrupt, its machines can be sold on the second-hand market.

If a movie is bad, then it won't exist; nobody will watch it, nobody will buy it, and even if the copyright is given away, nobody will want it.

It seems glamorous and lucrative, but it's all gambling.

"As we all know, you once said to aspiring directors that their first film should either win an award or make money. Why did you say that?" the reporter asked.

"This involves the rules of the industry. The film and television industry has its own rules. Winning an award means gaining a reputation. You can only win awards if your movie is good, right? Especially some foreign awards, no matter what kind of award it is, even a frivolous one, as long as you win an award, you will become famous. You can write in the introduction that you have won certain awards, and then someone will invest in your next movie. This is a good start."

Making money is even easier to understand. If your movie makes money, who wouldn't want to make money if they own a company? If your first movie makes money, your future movies are likely to make money too. So it's a very simple principle: if you can make money now, then I'll invest in your next movie.

So after my first film broke domestic box office records, I had no shortage of investment for my second film.

"Then why is your latest animated film produced by only you, without any other companies investing in it? Is it because you were unwilling?"

"Going back to what I said in my previous question, everyone is gambling. A movie with a budget of ten million needs to gross thirty million to make a profit. If you're lucky, it can sell for one hundred million, and then you'll make a fortune."

If the cost is 700 million, how much would it take to break even? With a box office of 1.8 billion, how many movies in the country have exceeded 1.8 billion? You can count them on one hand.

"If it were you, would you be willing to invest 100 million and bet with me on a box office of 1.8 billion?" "The risk is too great, so no one is willing. You're the only one who can invest." The reporter took a deep breath. Hundreds of millions were being invested so casually. The young man in front of him was not even thirty years old. In so-called celebrity magazines, he was undoubtedly the number one person under thirty.

"I was also a bit of a gambler. This animated film was made after the post-production of The Martian was completed. Later, I found that the cost was getting bigger and bigger, and I was even prepared to stop the project."

"I was very fortunate that The Martian was a big box office success and received a great response, which made me a lot of money. This allowed me to continue making this movie, and I put almost all the money I earned from The Martian into it," Chen Shou said with emotion.

Are you worried about the film's box office performance?

"It's not worry, it's fear, because before the film is released, everything is unknown. If the director praises it to the skies but the audience doesn't buy it, then you've failed. I've said before that a director can't just be responsible to the audience, but also to the investors."

Investors give me money so I can help them make money. If I lose money, that's my fault. While it's normal to make and lose money, it's at least a matter of attitude. I have to do my job well, instead of thinking that the audience has no taste just because the movie is good and they don't buy it. Why should the audience pay to see my movie?

I often say that I humbly accept feedback, good or bad, because they paid for the film; they bought the rights to evaluate it.

The interview ended after an hour, and Chen Shouzhe offered to treat them to a meal, but they declined and took their people back.

The interview content will definitely be edited, and Chen Shouzhe doesn't know how much of what he said will be broadcast; the TV station knows better than he does.

As the Lunar New Year approaches, Chen Shou decided not to go back home this year. Instead, he brought his parents to the horse farm to celebrate the New Year. Yu Qian's family did the same, spending the New Year at the horse farm.

Chen Shou has to appear on various programs every day. There's no other way. Animated films don't have any live-action actors or celebrities to promote them, so the only ones who can promote them are him and Guo Fan.

Chen Shou took Guo Fan with him when he went on TV shows, and he even went to the children's channel to promote his work.

The target audience for animated films is actually children. If a child goes to the movies, should the rest of the family go too?

It's a holiday, so why is only one adult going?

That definitely means the couple should go together.

Now that the two-child policy has been implemented, several family members may go together.

If a family-friendly movie becomes a hit, its box office revenue will easily soar.

Take An Le's movies for example. They were made in a mediocre way. If it weren't for all that nonsense, the box office would probably be around one billion.

Before the New Year, the company was going to hold its annual meeting. Other companies had already held theirs, but Chen Shouzhe's company was busy with the movie release, so they chose a date to hold their annual meeting. It was a simple affair of eating and drinking, with the main focus being on the year-end bonus.

Everyone gets a year-end bonus, but Chen Shouzhe took out an extra two million yuan in cash, scattered it all into a pile, and let everyone grab a handful, however much they could get.

Then there's the grand prize of a car worth 300,000 yuan, followed by other prizes such as gold bars.

In addition to bonuses, Zhong Lifan was rewarded by Chen Shouzhe with a luxury car worth over three million yuan, while Wu Ershan and Guo Fan each received a car worth millions.

At an annual meeting, Chen Shouzhe took out 50 million yuan and distributed it, not even counting the dividends.

When their annual party rewards were announced, everyone outside was envious, and many people were asking when the company would hire employees.

People in the film industry know how much money Chen Shouzhe made this year. He made money from all five of his films, so they can roughly calculate how much.

With the sale of copyrights and other assets, the profits are substantial, making it the envy of many.

Tao Le and his colleagues who left Shou Zhe Film Studio also received Hua Yi's year-end bonus, but they found that they received less than when they were with Shou Zhe Film Studio.

Because Huayi's stock price and business were not doing well, their salaries were slightly higher than when they were in the film industry, but their year-end bonuses were much less than those who were in the film industry, and some people began to feel unbalanced.

At the annual meeting, Chen Shouzhe also invited the heads of the cinema chains over and served them good wine and food.

Even so, his film only received 35% of the screenings.

There was no other way. There were more than a dozen movies being released at the same time, and 35% was already the maximum number of screenings. Other companies had a lot of complaints, especially Bona and the Hong Kong company that collaborated on the God of Gamblers movie. They had their own theaters and would definitely give it more screenings, but they were at a disadvantage with other theaters. Those people chose to keep Chen Shouzhe.

In fact, Bona Film Group also felt that Chen Shouzhe's films were more profitable and should be given more screenings. In the end, Bona only gave him 20%, the lowest among all the cinema chains.

(End of this chapter)