What is the professional threshold for directors to enter the "mass filming era"?

Heroes have their own opinions, so why ask where they came from? Back then, Zhang Yimou and Gu Changwei switched from photographers to directors, Feng Xiaogang jumped from artist to guide tube, and even Hitchcock, Spielberg, and Quentin Tarantino were not trained in academic courses. Why have cross-border directors in China been plagued by controversy over the past two years? Films have entered the "era of mass filming", where is the professional threshold for directors? Actors, writers, singers, and hosts, how many points can they score on their transformation questionnaires?

Heroes have their own opinions, so why ask where they came from? In those years, Zhang Yimou and Gu Changwei changed from photographers to directors, Feng Xiaogang jumped from artist to director, even Hitchcock, Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Luc Besson were not from professional classes. Why have China's cross-border directors been controversial in the past two years?

At the end of 2016, the film "The Ferry Man" was caught in a whirlpool of public opinion. One of the important reasons was whether the original author and online writer Zhang Jiajia could match his identity as a "director". Some critics speculated from the film's picture style that this might be the work of producer Wong Kar-wai. Between reality and reality, new directors from across the border are once again placed in the spotlight of China's film industry.

Films have entered the "era of mass filming", where is the professional threshold for directors? Actors, writers, singers, hosts, and managers, how many points can they score on their transformation questionnaires?

The intergenerational division of China directors is no longer limited to the longitudinal axis of time. However, a little study of China films and classification according to intergenerational relationships belongs to past experience.

Because in the past two years, the intergenerational division of China directors is no longer limited to the longitudinal axis of time. Rao Shuguang, secretary-general of the China Film Association, believes that with Jia Zhangke as the end and Ning Hao as the beginning, the new generation of directors has entered an "era without a monarch and a father." In this generation with infinite cross-sections, coordinate figures like Xie Jin and Zhang Yimou cannot be found, and it is also difficult to use high academic walls to establish industry barriers for directors.

Therefore, in this position that should have the highest authority and experience of the crew, actors, screenwriters, writers, poets, singers, hosts, and managers all came. This year, Zhang Jiajia was not an isolated example of cross-border directors. Some people have also made their debut film directors like him, such as actors Chen Sicheng and Wen Zhou; others can be called his pathfinders and have jumped from the online literature world to the film world and become popular, such as Guo Jingming. There are still more people on the starting line: actor Wang Baoqiang's "Making a fuss in the Sky" is scheduled for the first day of the Year of the Rooster, actor Huang Lei's transformative work "The Troubled Family" is scheduled for this year's "First May Day". The niche poet Han Dong's "On the Dock" also launched successfully with the support of a new director plan of a certain film industry, and Huang Bo, Peng Yuyan, Wu Xiubo and others are eager to try.

Their average grade point seems to be pretty good in terms of box office. Chen Sicheng's "Detective Chinatown" box office 680 million yuan; the article's "Lu Yao Knowing Ma Li" also earned nearly 200 million yuan during the lull summer period; as for Zhang Jiajia, due to his personal film experience,"The Ferry Man" is like a "cultural phenomenon" amid controversy. Looking back again, in 2015, Deng Chao's "The Villain Angel" grossed 690 million yuan in the box office amid accusations of "bad customs", while Huang Xiaoming's agent Huang Bin earned a box office return of 350 million yuan for his "How to Sheng Xiao Mo".

Among cross-border directors, some people are purely fun, such as host He Jiong, who used "Gardenia Blooms" to hype up an IP concept in 2015; others plan to transform it, such as Chen Sicheng, whose detective series has at least planned a trilogy. In the eyes of some viewers, China's film industry has ushered in a period of "noisy voices." It is a good thing that the new generation of directors does not have to strictly follow the academic rules and start to get rid of their sunny and snowy attitude and pay more attention to the needs and interactions of the audience. Some netizens very much recognize the "writer and director"'s carving of narration of lines, the "actor and director"'s attaching importance to individual performances, and the "singer and director"'s polishing of the film's soundtrack.

The star effect and fan economy are "suppressing" the large number of directors and artists who are launching their careers one after another. What do they want?

Wang Baoqiang's original intention was: "The biggest feeling of filming over the years is that the director is the omnipotent 'Buddha' on the set, and the actors are the 'Sun Monkey'. No matter how big a name is, they cannot fall into the hands of the director." According to his opinion, he only owns his own movie after taking the right to speak as a director. But the problem does not stop with the actor's self-assertion. Zhang Boqing, honorary president of the China Film Critics Society, reminded viewers to look at the background of the "mass filming era": China's film market is expanding rapidly, and the number of screens has reached the highest in the world. New demand has opened up a huge gap in the director industry, the manufacturer of film products. Compared with the output rate of professional directors, the market is running out of time.

According to Wang Changtian, president of Enlight Media, China needs more than 200 mature directors to cope with the rapid market demand. But in fact,"there are only fifty or sixty China directors who can show them." The industry door is not only open to new directors, but also opens its arms to new companies and new capital.

Video websites such as Beili Beili, Xiaomi, and Baofeng have successively established film companies. Even 58 Tongcheng and Jumei Youpin have affiliated film companies. As long as you occupy any end of the film industry chain such as IP, artists, technology, and focus, you can open a company to make movies.

If there are resources to mobilize resources, and if there are people who are popular,"lay directors" are not as good as they imagined can only build high-rise buildings on the ground. Before becoming a director, no one was a nobody. When these people bring their own aura to create a new country, fans will support themselves, and the topic effect will introduce a large number of third-party audiences. Take Zhang Jiajia as an example. His "bedtime novels" are said to have been read nearly 400 million times. Therefore, even without Wong Kar-wai's team,"The Ferry Man" would not be ignored. If you don't believe me, take a look at "Passing Through Your World". This film is written by Zhang Jiajia and directed by Zhang Yibai. A youth film scooped up 810 million yuan from last year's National Day release.

In fact, starting from Xu Zheng, Zhao Wei, He Jiong, Chen Sicheng, Su Youpeng, Cui Jian, Guo Jingming, Deng Chao, Wu Jing, Zhang Jiajia and others have all had their own second identities. Some of them are of course because they have been involved in the industry for many years and have joined new fields with their own crew experience, artistic talents, and film resources. However, some people who "don't have diamond diamonds" still take on the "porcelain work" because they can use "personal popularity + behind-the-scenes professional team". Just as a cross-border director admitted widely,"Drinking with a famous director for two years is like not being a director." Whether or not you can make a movie is not so important to cross-border directors. In the market, the personal charm and commercial value of stars and writers sometimes exceed the artistic level.

However, when the fan economy replaces movie-watching culture, star effect "surrounds" the director's art, and marketing homework overrides the hard work on the set-no matter which is not conducive to high-quality creation. Successful cross-border crossing is by no means a "chance". The market-elimination mechanism that has swept away the market has put the word "effort" above "speculation".

Editor: yvette