Hong Kong's new director: Big shots support government subsidies and give money

Kuan Yew, director of "Mad Words", is Er Dongsheng's official deputy director but is considered a

newcomer. In the past few years, in the debate over the death of Hong Kong films and the immortality of Hong Kong films, the latter has gained the upper hand. This is because there are indeed many new Hong Kong directors who have gone north and achieved good box office results. There are also local small-cost production styles with unique awards. These good phenomena are closely related to the big shots in the Hong Kong film industry and government forces. 1905 Film Network visited many Hong Kong filmmakers and government officials to explore the path for new Hong Kong directors to rise.

key to winning is the support of industry bosses to write good scripts

With the overall expansion of China's film market and the gradual improvement of the north, Hong Kong filmmakers have opened production companies in the mainland, and the big shots are increasingly demanding for good projects. Many associate directors, screenwriters, and art directors who want to be directors understand that if there is a good script, investors will definitely line up to find Er Dongsheng and Du Qifeng. If they want to direct the script, the only leverage is a good script.

all of the scripts of these new directors have been polished for two or three years. Lee Kuan Yew, the director of "Crazy Words", kept a semi-stop state for two and a half years in order to concentrate on writing the scripts. What finally moved the producers Er Dongsheng and Luo Zhiliang was his deep grasp of the script. Hong Kong's film industry has always had a deep tradition of bringing the old to the new. As long as you get on the same boat, the producers will send a team to escort you. Therefore, the happiness of the new director is that once he finds a famous director to be a producer, it means that he does not have to worry about funding sources and a satisfactory job.

speaking, famous directors and producers will first find the most favorite actors for the new director. If the cast is in place, the money will basically be in place with a sense of trust. In "Mad Talk", Lee Kuan Yew's original ideals were Liu Qingyun and Jin Chengwu, but Jin Chengwu's agent said that we would not take on the new director's films, which made the producer Er Dongsheng very angry and called Jin Chengwu's agent scold him to tears. Under the operation of this strong producer, Liu Qingyun successfully entered the group and also attracted mainland young student Huang Xiaoming. The specifications of the entire film were instantly improved and the sales appearance was guaranteed.

, these new directors are no longer new people in the circle. Lee Kuan Yew, director of "Crazy Words", is Er Dongsheng's deputy director, Yuan Jinlin, director of "Storm", is Tsui Hark's personal assistant, and Zhou Xianyang, director of "Huang Feihong's Hero Has a Dream", was watched by Hong Kong film magnate Jiang Zhiqiang“”. As Ma Fung-kwok, Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Development Council, said: These people are not new. The average age is over 40 years old. In fact, they have just changed positions.& rdquo;

Young director Huang Xiuping also said at the new Asia Film Conference:“ Hong Kong film industry is a middle-aged society. rdquo; Interestingly, he himself is about to turn 40. It's okay to be a late bloomer, but looking at the entire Hong Kong film talent chain, there are no more famous directors over 60 years old and new directors in their 40s to be available after the 1980s. This is still worrying.

addition to the efforts of the industry, Hong Kong's government is not lacking in government power. In 2007, the Hong Kong Film Development Council was established. The government injected HK$300 million into the Film Development Fund. As of January 31, 30 film production financing projects had been successfully approved, with an allocation of HK$82.68 million, including influential films such as "The Thief of the Time","Crazy Dance", and "That Early Night, I Took a Red Van from Mong Kok to Tai Po".

, in 2012, the Hong Kong Audit Office criticized the fund for having a capital withdrawal rate of only 20%, which was too poor. Ma Fengguo said: It is expected that the return rate will not be high. We need to make long-term investments." rdquo; As a result, the Hong Kong government added another HK$200 million this year and increased the budget production fee ceiling for the film production financing plan from HK$15 million to HK$25 million. In addition, given that the film production financing plan can only recover 20% of the investment and the risk rate of each film is 20%, the Hong Kong Film Development Council simply launched the first drama film plan to fully subsidize small-cost films.

of the big shots interviewed believed that these policies would have little help to the film industry. Chen Musheng believed that the process was complicated and the money he received was not much. But in fact, Chen Musheng and others are not operating real newcomers, but are just constantly copying their own success path. If local production volume declines, newcomers will have no chance to enter the industry. This is the most fundamental vicious cycle for the Hong Kong film industry.

"McDull Sound" for example. It received 3.6 million yuan in government financing back then and has now become an effectively running animated movie. Huang Xiuping, the director of "Crazy Dance", also welcomed his second movie. Kashi has become a newcomer to Miriam Yang. In addition, Chen Guo, director of "That Early Night, We rode on the Red Van from Mong Kok to Tai Po", has proved his market ability through this film and is now at ease shooting new films in the mainland. Therefore, the development of local films is the real blood. In the long run, the hope of Hong Kong films still lies locally.

course, the market for pure Hong Kong films cannot be limited to local areas. In order to promote promotion, the Hong Kong Film Development Council provides varying degrees of subsidies for the promotion of Hong Kong films. In terms of promotion in the mainland, after the signing of the CEPA Supplementary Agreement last year, Hong Kong films can enter the mainland, especially Guangdong Province. Therefore, the Development Bureau has also introduced a subsidy policy for screening in Guangdong Province. Unfortunately, this new policy has only been implemented for a year, and the results are not ideal. Due to the complicated and time-consuming approval process, when the film was released, it was already some time away from its first round of release in Hong Kong, and piracy also appeared on the Internet, which made mainland audiences lose their sense of novelty. Earlier,"Crazy Dance" did not perform well at the box office in Guangdong due to time lag.

response to this situation, Hong Kong film practitioners hope to simplify the approval process. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will delegate the approval power to relevant departments in Guangdong Province to truly achieve simultaneous release and allow people who understand Guangdong dialect to conduct approval. Ma Fengguo said: I hope the competent authorities will see the difficulties of the Hong Kong film industry and further liberalize the policy. rdquo;