Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 115 How can you say you love movies!
Training a director takes a lot of time, energy and money.

In the past three to five years, three young directors have emerged in the Chinese film industry: Lu Chuan, Ning Hao and Li Qiutang.

Coincidentally, all three directors graduated from film academies.

What’s more coincidental is that all three directors have received support from China Film Group Corporation.

Lu Chuan's "Looking for the Gun" was invested by China Film; Ning Hao's "Stone" and Li Qiutang's "Comet" were distributed by China Film when they were at their wits' end.

Today, the three young directors have established themselves in the industry. So far, Li Qiutang, who started the latest, has the highest commercial success. Two consecutive films have successfully exceeded 100 million yuan, which is not bad compared with some senior directors. Lu Chuan's box office performance is not as good, but he debuted a few years earlier and won more awards than Li Qiutang, but he has already transformed into a commercial blockbuster. "Nanjing! Nanjing!" is still in post-production, and I think the performance will not be bad. Ning Hao's "Crazy Racing", which he has been working on for two and a half years, is about to be released, and the market generally expects that it will not be a problem to exceed 100 million yuan.

From this perspective, from "Looking for the Gun" in 02 to the release of "Stone" and "Comet" in 06, three outstanding young directors emerged in the market in four years. This is certainly a very good report card.

So in order to have this beautiful transcript, the Film Academy held a special New Year event for teachers and students before the winter vacation after New Year's Day - My Movie Dream: a three-party discussion among Lu Chuan, Ning Hao and Li Qiutang.

As soon as this activity was warmed up in the college, it was warmly welcomed by almost all students!

No organizer has ever been able to bring these three together.

When these three people get together, apart from anything else, they become a hot topic.

During the preparation period of the event, some media wanted to report on it. However, this event was an academic teaching activity of the Film Academy and it was not convenient to make it public. However, since the relevant leaders organized such an event, they must have considered the exposure issue and finally selected a few media to enter and allowed them to film and interview.

I don’t know what happened with Lu Chuan, but when Li Qiutang got the information about this event, she understood that it was for Ning Hao.

Because "Crazy Racing" will be released in two weeks, holding this event now is a way to warm up for it.

Li Qiutang had nothing to say about helping out, the key was the theme of this event, "My Movie Dream". This theme was so broad that Li Qiutang didn't know where to start.

He is only in his twenties. A 20-year-old director is a rookie in any country. If you ask him to talk about his dream of making movies, what can he say?

When it comes to writing scripts and stories, Li Qiutang can write a lot of words, but it is a bit difficult for him to write a speech for an event.

"Dear leaders, teachers, and students, good afternoon." This is how it should start.

The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Film Academy's Standard Screening Room.

Li Qiutang drove to the downstairs of the directing department office of the Film Academy at 6:30.

Carrying a backpack and holding a thermos cup in her hand, Li Qiutang happened to be wearing the school's down jacket today.

The director’s department’s large office is so big that Li Qiutang could find it with her eyes closed.

I leaned over and saw several teachers there, including Teacher Jiang Wei.

"Come on, come on, I'm talking about you." Jiang Wei waved to Li Qiutang.

"What did you say about me? You certainly didn't say anything good about me." Li Qiutang said with a smile.

The teachers and students started chatting.

Li Qiutang said: "I was fooled at that time. I thought that everything would be easy after I went to college. But who knew that the directing department had more courses than senior high school! I stayed up until a little after midnight every day for the first month."

These teachers have heard similar words countless times, but they laugh every time they hear them.

"There were only six people in our class, and two of them wanted to drop out after the first month, saying they didn't want to continue and wanted to go back to repeat their studies."

"Who wants to drop out of school?" Jiang Wei asked him.

Li Qiutang smiled and said, "Then I can't tell you, otherwise we won't be able to get along with each other later."

Li Qiutang also said that Jiang Wei, as the head teacher, was too strict with them: "I didn't have time to fall in love during my four years at university."

Jiang Wei was not convinced by this: "You are not in a relationship? Do you really want me to tell you the names of those girls?"

"Hahaha!" The teachers all laughed.

Li Qiutang said: "Why are there only a few?"

Jiang Wei said: "You know that rabbits don't eat grass near their burrows, so you should keep looking for people from other schools."

"Okay, okay, stop talking." Li Qiutang waved her hand, signaling the teacher to let her go. After chatting for a few minutes, Jiang Wei and Hou Keming, along with Li Qiutang and the other two, walked towards the designated area to prepare for the activity.

The teacher and the student entered the venue from the back door, and Li Qiutang met his two senior classmates backstage.

The three of them were really unfamiliar with each other. They just greeted each other dryly and then ignored each other. Li Qiutang even felt that Lu Chuan's expression was a little bad when he looked at him. He hid it very well, but Li Qiutang still felt it - maybe he was wrong.

At 7:15, the event started under the host of Teacher Xie Fei, and three senior directors took the stage.

The hall was packed with people, and when the three seniors took the stage, they received warm applause and cheers.

Teacher Xie Fei asked the three people to sit down, and the four of them sat together and began the discussion.

A discussion? I thought we were going to have individual speeches.

That "Dear Leader" was written in vain!

The opening must be promoted. Lu Chuan said that "Nanjing! Nanjing!" is still in post-production, but "I guarantee that everyone will see it this year!"

Next was Li Qiutang, who said that The Sound of Wind was still in post-production, "I promise to let everyone see it this year."

Ning Hao, the finale, said that Crazy Racing will be on the 20th of this month, "I hope I can show the film to teachers and classmates by then."

After the promotion, Mr. Xie Fei brought the topic back to the theme of the night: "My movie dream."

This topic is very broad, and being broad means there is a lot to talk about. The three of them chatted with Teacher Xie Fei on the stage, and the clash of views was quite exciting.

During the symposium, the four teachers and students used many classic examples from film history and combined them with their own observations, hearings and feelings. The four of them had a lively conversation during the symposium.

Li Qiutang used her own example to advise the younger students present: "It's better to make a short film for your graduation project. Don't follow my example."

"Hahahaha!"

When talking about No Man's Bane, he admitted that the film was deeply influenced by senior directors such as Kurosawa Akira and Chang Che: "I went to Japan to promote No Man's Bane a while ago, and our Japanese distributor told us that many Japanese audiences felt that they could see traces of Kurosawa Akira in it."

After chatting for almost two hours, the four of them didn't feel tired, but the activity time was almost up, so Teacher Xie Fei asked them: "Why did you want to be a director? Qiutang, you go first."

Li Qiutang curled her lips and said, "I didn't want to be a director at first. When I took the exam, I didn't even know what a director did. When I graduated from high school, I thought it would be great if I didn't have to work in the future. Later, I heard that being a director doesn't require clocking in on time every day and the working hours are very flexible, so I applied to be a director."

“Hahahaha!!” the audience laughed again.

Anyone can tell that Li Qiutang is talking nonsense, but it is indeed funny to say it in this situation.

It was Ning Hao's turn. Seeing Li Qiutang like this, he didn't hesitate: "I came to Yanjing to learn painting in the beginning, and later I was admitted to the Film Academy to study photography. I didn't study directing. At that time, shooting music videos was very profitable, so I started shooting, and then I got the chance to shoot a movie."

The audience laughed again.

Damn, these old foxes never tell the truth.

When he got to Luchuan, he could tell that Li Qiutang and Ning Hao were talking nonsense, but he still said very "sincerely": "Because I have loved movies since I was a child."

After Lu Chuan said this, Li Qiutang and Ning Hao looked at each other, and both saw the uncontrollable smile in each other's eyes.

Can't laugh!
This public activity cannot be too outrageous.

Lu Chuan said: "I liked reading books when I was a child. When I grew up, I couldn't get enough of reading, so I started writing my own stories. After I came into contact with movies, I wanted to write my own stories even more. Later, when I applied to the Film Academy, I went for the directing department. I wanted to shoot the stories I wanted to shoot. I wanted to be a thinker and a communicator." What a pretentious person.

Teacher Xie Fei can hardly bear to listen any more!
Although it is sincere and correct to say that you love movies, after Li Qiutang and Ning Hao said that, how can you say that you love movies!
You should make one up too!

I asked you to speak, and you pretended to be a thinker and expresser. Why don’t you say that you are a philosopher?

I loved to pretend to be cool when I was in school, and I still pretend to be cool after I leave school!

Xie Feidu felt that he had not taught him well.

After a few more small talk, the activity came to an end.

If they didn't finish and let Lu Chuan continue, Li Qiutang and Ning Hao were afraid that they would not be able to hold back their laughter on the stage.

(End of this chapter)