To regain the cultural characteristics of films, how should directors adhere to the cultural aesthetics of films?

The first China Film Investment Summit Forum was held in Haikou a few days ago. The keyword of the forum is "investment", but many filmmakers, including Feng Xiaogang, collectively digressed the topic and talked about "creation" and "production". To regain the cultural characteristics of films, directors should start from their own aspects, adhere to the cultural aesthetics of films, and refuse unconditional compromise.

China Film Investment Summit Forum was held in Haikou recently. The keyword of the forum is "investment", but many filmmakers, including Feng Xiaogang, collectively digressed the topic and talked about "creation" and "production". Feng Xiaogang called for the establishment of a Lanxiang Technical School for film to train a large number of technical talents for the film industry; Director He Ping expressed concern that films were about to become a world of "product managers." He said,"The problem with China's film creation lies in the lack of cultural characteristics and cultural aesthetics."

He Ping analyzed the reasons why China's film creation has no cultural characteristics and cultural aesthetics."Nowadays, when a director makes a movie, he must obey the rules of the market, investors, and the rules of publicity and packaging. They have become excellent rule enforcers, but they have left the most basic thing for creators." In the film industry, He Ping is a cultured director who curses people very fiercely, but neither does he use dirty words nor does he lose his temper. The positioning of "excellent rule enforcers" is actually a severe criticism of directors. To put it bluntly, directors have become obedient listeners and lost their right to speak as the core of film creation. Regarding the chaos of the entire film market, directors have no ability to turn around the situation, and many directors have even become collaborators.

A few days ago, He Ping had just taken the initiative to release an online link to his work "Back to Be Loved", which made many people sigh-the famous director's biggest wish at the moment is to hope that his work will be seen by more audiences, even if it is a form of free online viewing that other directors are very disgusted by. This example to a certain extent reflects the dilemma faced by directors who make movies seriously and adhere to their principles. If you don't cater to the market and don't listen to investors to make commercial films, you can only reluctantly put the work after the box office fails. Put it online for free viewing.

The forum was opened on "investment", but the main topic was "creation". This shows that film creators are dissatisfied with the current market conditions and are full of desire to change the film format. He Ping put forward a directional suggestion to find the cultural characteristics of the film. What are the cultural characteristics of films? According to the common understanding, in addition to providing basic entertainment functions, movies must have certain cultural aesthetic and social speculative elements. While telling a good story, they must incorporate some literary qualities into the film. They must reject all vulgar, copycat, and crude film elements, making the film truly a work that can satisfy people's spirit.

The "product managers" of movies couldn't imagine this level. In their view, making a movie is a jigsaw puzzle. As long as the picture is filled with stars, trends, and trends, it is enough. They are not afraid to follow the trend and don't care whether it is repeated. As long as it is sold on the market, it can be sold for money. The "product manager" of the movie is the biggest enemy of directors, and the biggest temptation for directors to choose to cooperate with the "product manager" is the box office return. Therefore, in order to regain the cultural characteristics of films, the most direct way for directors is not to cooperate, use their core creative voice, form an equal dialogue with capital, and make movies that they truly love.

Front-line directors should bravely shoulder their responsibilities and take the lead in changing the atmosphere of the film industry. Directors with great fame and strong appeal are the most capable of negotiating with capital, and famous directors should say "no" to the chaos in the industry. Feng Xiaogang's filming of "I am Not Pan Jinlian" was a willful behavior that ignored the market and insisted on individuality. He not only filmed a sensitive story, but also made a rectangular film into a circle. This was a bold attempt to innovate film culture. The film industry needs more such personality expressors to enrich the diversity of films.

Of course, directors have prerequisites for being willful. They must first emphasize their strength through their works. Why didn't anyone ask Ang Lee to listen to capital's advice? Why can Ang Lee go to dozens of cities to promote without cooperating with the publicity? Why have Ang Lee's films performed well at the box office in recent years? Very simply, Ang Lee has firmly established his own brand, and filming in his films is a matter of fame and fortune. Naturally, capital will not talk too much or nonsense.

China directors are sometimes in a weak position when negotiating with capital. In addition to being ambitious, the bigger reason is that they are not confident and feel that they cannot make a movie that has both reputation and box office, so they close their eyes and choose the box office. At present, there has been a vicious circle of mutual accusations in China's film industry. No link admits that something has gone wrong, but all of them criticize the bad environment, but they do not realize that they are the main component of the environment. To regain the cultural characteristics of films, directors should start from their own aspects, adhere to the cultural aesthetics of films, and refuse unconditional compromise.

Editor: yvette