Jimei Films Gao Jingdong: Chinese and American films lack mutual respect

More and more Chinese and foreign co-productions and domestic films are full of various links of Sino-foreign cooperation. Under the seemingly prosperous general trend, there are also many hidden dangers in cooperation.

During the American film market, the 6th Annual China-US Film Summit Forum was held in Los Angeles on November 5, local time. Gao Jingdong, Chairman and International Producer of Kimi Pictures, attended the meeting as an important representative of the cooperation between China film companies and Hollywood. The theme of the forum was named "China Wave." Gao Jingdong started the topic of the "crisis of trust" in Sino-US cooperation. He believed that the lack of mutual respect and understanding is the root cause of the crisis of trust. Both sides must learn to follow the Romans and be more patient. Show sincerity and strength.

In recent years, the box office of movies in China has grown rapidly, becoming the world's second largest box office market after the United States. It is expected that the box office of movies in China this year will exceed 40 billion yuan, and the gap between the box office of US$10 billion in the United States is getting smaller and smaller. More and more Chinese and foreign co-productions and domestic films are full of various links of Sino-foreign cooperation. Under the seemingly prosperous general trend, there are also many hidden dangers in cooperation. The reporter interviewed Mr. Gao Jingdong after the meeting on related topics.

There is a crisis of trust in Sino-US film cooperation.

Reporter: China has become the world's second largest box office market after the United States. In recent years, China and the United States have not only co-produced films, but also in related film industries. There is more and more cooperation. As a domestic film company that has been in line with the international community early, can you evaluate the current status of cooperation between China and the United States in the film field?

Gao: Cooperation between China and the United States in the film field is an inevitable trend. If cooperation is good, it will definitely be a win-win situation. However, there are still major problems in our cooperation at present, that is, China and the United States still lack sufficient trust. This is mainly reflected in the fact that the cooperation between the two parties has always stayed on the surface and it is difficult to go deep into the content production level. There are not many real transactions between the two parties. After the transaction is successful, various problems will arise in the cooperation, and there are only a handful of successful cases of cooperation. Some China companies easily made deals with Hollywood companies. As a result, China companies lost their money, and American companies did not achieve their ultimate goals.

Reporter: What is the current cooperation model between Hollywood and China?

Gao: In actual development, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the United States to achieve a successful movie on its own soil. Right now, the United States (Sixth National Congress) is most interested in Hollywood making Mandarin films, rather than letting China make English films or international films. Hollywood has a set of directions and policies in the entire American system, which is to make films in different languages in various countries. They will bring their industrialization model and capabilities. To put it simply, we Americans shoot and you China pay for it and sell it to the market.

Reasons for the lack of trust between each other

Reporter: What caused this situation?

Gao: At present, the cooperation between China and the United States in film has not fully blossomed. I think this is mainly due to mutual lack of understanding and inequality in cooperative relationships, which can lead to a crisis of trust. The United States has its sense of superiority and arrogance, and China has China's professional and institutional shortcomings. Nowadays, Americans win many deals in Hollywood, because American laws, regulations, policies, and all logic have long been there. The rules of the game are set by others. China companies often suffer "dumb losses." For example, a fund in China invested in a brokerage company in the United States. After investing for about ten months, it stopped investing. Later, the brokerage company closed down. The Americans believed that the money you promised to invest did not continue to invest in it, but the China believed that if I continued to invest, I would die even more miserably, so they stopped investing. The birth of cases like this will make Hollywood and China mistrust each other.

Reporter: What is the root cause of this distrust?

Gao: The root cause is still the cultural differences between the two countries. For Hollywood, they believe that China companies have made too many announcements but have not implemented anything. And Hollywood has another characteristic, that is, it never says NO, nor does it say that others are bad. Everything is Great. This is also a characteristic of the entire American entertainment industry. However, this style of communication conceals a lot of objective and real things in private, causing many China companies to not see where the minefield lies, especially if they are not familiar with relevant Hollywood policies, they can easily fall into the trap. This is actually the reason why many projects cannot be implemented, or cannot be implemented in the end, even though agreements have been signed, due to cultural differences, including communication, laws and regulations.

How to solve the crisis of trust

reporter: What are the primary prerequisites for solving this crisis of trust?

Gao: We admit that the development of the film industry in the West, especially Hollywood, has reached a very mature stage. Our cooperation with Hollywood is not confrontational, but win-win. But to solve the crisis of trust, both sides must first respect each other and adopt the mentality of following the Romans. China must understand and be familiar with Hollywood's rules, and Hollywood must also understand China's film market and audience.

Reporter: How to understand this kind of "respect"? How did Kimi do it?

Gao: Frankly speaking, Hollywood is a self-centered system. They think that China people don't understand movies at all. When we entered the American market in the early days of Kimei, we encountered this situation many times-they would say,"Just give me the money, and we will make movies." For another example, in recent years, we have indeed seen mainland China actors in some Hollywood blockbusters, but most of them are vase types. The scenes of some China actors can only be reflected in the version screened in China and deleted in the international version. I think this is a great disrespect for China films and actors and has caused mistrust between the two sides.

Then we (Kimei) will tell them: "No, we don't like this and don't accept this method." The films produced by our Kimei have requirements for the role of China characters in the film. I myself am very protective of China actors and hope that China actors can play important roles in blockbusters. Stan Lee, the "Father of Marvel", has done a good job in this regard. In the Kimei new film "Tiger Shadow", he created China's first super heroine character and invited Li Bingbing to serve as the absolute female lead of the film; another example is Zhao Youting and Ni Ni in "Warrior's Gate"; and in "Star Agents: City of Thousands of Stars", we will all have arrangements such as China stories and China elements. These films are all blockbusters in cooperation with Kimei and the international community. In addition, in terms of script development, we have more leadership. For example, the new film "The Marginals", which we hired Basil Ivanick, the producer of "The Expendables", as co-producer, is under our control.

Reporter: Then how do you understand what you mean by "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"? How did Kimi do it?

Gao: When in Rome, do as the Romans do, you must first get to know each other. For any company entering the United States, the first thing to do is to find a good lawyer first. Every country, city or industry has its own rules. Hollywood is full of a large number of structural traps throughout the movie transaction process. Finding a satisfactory lawyer can be a good way to avoid these traps.

Kimi Pictures never makes promises easily, and once it makes a promise, it will definitely keep it. Each project at Kimei takes no less than six months to negotiate, and lawyers play a very important role in this: they are doing the entire structured operation. If we decide to do a project, lawyers will design various plans to ensure the company's interests and returns. In the United States, entertainment lawyers are equivalent to business negotiators for a company. We must understand all the union system. Americans will not tell you these things, because these are like their three meals a day, which do not need to be explained. In fact, many domestic companies do not play Hollywood games because they do not understand that Hollywood is full of laws and regulations. Hollywood has different possibilities in different periods, and many China companies do not know about these.

Reporter: In addition to being prepared to "respect" and "do as the Romans do", what are the other elements to solve the "crisis of trust"?

Gao: Patience and strength! Cooperation cannot be eager for quick success, and building trust takes time. Be willing to spend time, patiently accumulate connections, show sincerity and strength in practice, strive for the right to speak, and establish a brand image. In the eight years since its establishment, Kimei Pictures has first gone out to understand the international film market and international film rules, and then to understand the international film production system and development system. Jimei first entered the film sales market, and later we entered the film development and production market. Now we have entered the stage of making films entirely by ourselves and completing all industrial chains by ourselves. Jimei has become a whole industrial chain layout. content provider.

Reporter: Kimei invested US$200 million in "Interstellar Agents", which is enough to show its strength. But in fact, many China companies have enough strength. Why can Kimei get such a project and achieve the main control?

Gao: Hollywood's respect for Kimi and all cooperative companies is actually very simple: first, you have money, second, you are professional. The recognition of Kimi is no longer a matter of money, but recognition of your professionalism. Kimei and Europa cooperated with "Star Agents", which invested US$200 million, after cooperating on a series of films such as "Don't Get Me","Violent Street","Super Body 1","Hurricane Rescue 3","Flying Express 4", and "Warrior's Gate".

Of course, some Westerners also express their incomprehension of us, saying that your investment is too big. I think the main reasons why we finally decided to do this project were: First, based on our understanding of Luc Besson and Europa Films as a whole. Second, we learned all the details of the "Star Agents" project in detail and made our own professional evaluation of it. We believe that "Star Agents" is an epic science fiction work comparable to or surpassing "Avatar" in movie history. Don't forget, when Cameron filmed "Avatar", he was also full of doubts. Regarding "Star Agents", we believe that we are willing to bear such doubts and risks. This is not only our professional judgment, but also reflects our respect for our partners and sincerity towards the film.

Gao Jingdong (third from right), Chairman of Jimei Pictures, is

the ultimate goal of solving the crisis of trust

. Reporter: Why can you introduce your experience to everyone so frankly and directly? What should the future of Chinese and American films look like after the crisis of trust is resolved?

Gao: The crisis of trust itself cannot be solved in a day or two. It requires a process. For China films, it is not enough for only one or two companies to gain the respect of Hollywood. A climate must be established so that when the market improves, individuals will benefit more.

Only by solving the problem of trust can we truly achieve a win-win situation. As mentioned earlier, Hollywood's model wants to use China's funds, China elements, and China's market to make American-style movies. Our goal is to use advanced foreign technology to film our own story in China. For example, the domestic film projects we are preparing-the science fiction action "Infinite" developed by Internet IP, and the action comedy blockbuster "Super Express" that is being filmed in Shanghai. They all plan to use the industrial model of international film production to create stories native to China, exporting China's culture in an internationally understandable film language. In our cooperation with Hollywood, we cannot always be subordinate products. It is important for us to become the leader of the project.

Editor: queenie