Fox’s ＂Director Exchange Program＂ in the 20th Century Helped the New Force of China Film.
1905 movie network news Recently, the "China Directors Exchange Program" jointly organized by the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and Twentieth Century Fox Film Company was successfully held in Los Angeles, USA. Seven China directors, including Jason Wu, Kim-ching Luk, Zhao Xiaoding, Zhao Tianyu, Lu Zhengyu, Yang Lei and Liu Yulin, were invited to visit the headquarters of Flowserve Company. This is the second exchange activity between Chinese and foreign film directors held by Flowserve after seven directors were invited in 2016, including Urshan, Zheng Baorui, Ding Sheng, Yu Baimei, Han Yan, Cheng Er and Yang Qing.
Chinese and foreign filmmakers talked at the peak, "The director’s duty is to touch the audience."
The four-day exchange training was rich in content. The director group of China, representing the cutting-edge forces, not only visited the FoxWorks Studio, the visual effects laboratory and the costume props library, watched many films produced by FoxWorks in the 20th century, but also visited the shooting scene (temporarily translated by AD ASTRA) and listened to many senior executives of FoxWorks introducing Hollywood cutting-edge technologies such as visual effects, VR technology, post-production and the production process of the film industry. In the meantime, famous Hollywood directors James Cameron (), James Mangold (), wes ball (), Lv Yinrong () and shane black (Xin) shared their experiences in film creation, and had a warm exchange with China directors on the adaptation of literary works, keeping the vitality of the series and the technical challenges faced by visual blockbusters. Invited directors from China said that FOSS’s creative innovation, industrial process and corporate culture in the 20th century gave them reference and inspiration.
Many invited directors mentioned in feedback that Hollywood’s perfect industrial process depends on a high degree of professionalism and fine division of labor; As a director, we should grasp the core and essence of the film, that is, the soul of the film, as James Mangold, the director of Wolverine 3: A Fight to the Death, said in the exchange: "The director’s duty is to touch the audience, not just to attract people’s attention. Movies that can stay in people’s hearts for a long time are not dazzling skills, but stories that can make the audience cry, make the audience laugh and resonate with the audience. This is the essence of being a director. "
China’s director group visited Avatar 2 to see the scene of the card god.
Jon Landau, a Hollywood gold medal producer, personally led China’s director group to visit the Light Storm Entertainment Company directed by Cameron, and shared the behind-the-scenes stories of every important prop that once appeared in the movie of Ka Shen, such as "in the heart of the sea" in Titanic and "Avatar" Na Mei Ren 1; 1 bust, special diving helmet with microphone for shooting, and CG liquid alien creature in Abyss provide technical preparation for the liquid metal robot in China. Jon Landau explained in detail the latest cutting-edge technology used in the production of Avatar 2 for China’s director team, and took the directors to enjoy the wonderful clips of Avatar Theme Park in Orlando Disney World through the big screen. At the invitation of James Cameron, he went to the shooting set of Avatar 2 to watch Ka Shen shoot a gun battle with a virtual camera.
Being able to watch Cameron shoot Avatar 2 on the spot also excited the China director group. Director Zhao Tianyu said, "In a way, technology is both artistic. I am amazed by Cameron’s unremitting exploration of audio-visual language and film technology. " Director Yang Lei praised: "Seeing Cameron shooting on the set, he solved all the trivial matters on the shooting scene with extreme technology, and devoted all his energy to the origin of drama. He can pay attention to the actors’ performance, scheduling and drama conflict just like rehearsing a drama, and then confirm other technical links such as position and lighting effect through post-production."
Wes ball, a young technical director, shared his post-production experience of Moving Maze.
In recent years, the dystopian sci-fi movie "Moving Maze" series has been deeply loved by young audiences all over the world, and will also be released in the United States on January 26th next year. Wes ball, the director of this series, attended the exchange activities and explained his experience in Hollywood with the director group of China. As a computer special effects student, he once posted an animated short film Ruin, which he spent eight months making on the Internet. The outstanding talent shown in it attracted Fox’s attention and started the road of directing. When shooting the first "Moving Maze", he also faced the problem of limited production funds. He and the crew used the LED display screen and green screen as the background to shoot the thrilling elevator scenes in the film, and skillfully used CG and other technical means to help build their own imaginary world. His sharing of specific cases and behind-the-scenes tidbits also aroused enthusiastic response from directors in China.
FOSS’s visual team has always insisted that visual effect is a tool to serve directors to realize their ideas and escort films. According to John Kilkenny, president of FOSS visual effects department, and Glenn Derry, vice president, "Producers in visual effects department will support and protect directors with their professionalism. During the preparation of director Ang Lee, the FOSS special effects team filmed a fragment of a real tiger and an experimental fragment of a CG tiger that was enough to be fake, and asked director Ang Lee to identify it, which successfully eliminated the director’s doubts about the effect of CG tiger. "
FOSS sincerely and professionally moved the director and attached importance to cross-cultural communication and China market.
In the sharing session of series director Lv Yinrong, she described the communication process and workflow of her first live-action film "Heart of Diablo" with Fowles. She said that Fowles is a studio that gives directors full creative freedom, and they trust the director’s ability and judgment. They just need to know what kind of human and material support the director needs and provide them. Emma Watts, president of Flowserve’s production department, introduced Flowserve’s new film plan to the directors, saying that the most important thing in film production is the true and shared feelings of human beings, which is the secret to make the film cross languages, national boundaries and cultures.
Through the sharing between Hollywood directors and FOSS executives, the China Directors’ Group not only felt the sincerity and professionalism of FOSS’ cooperation with filmmakers, but also fully felt that as a top Hollywood studio with rich and diverse production contents, FOSS insisted on making excellent films across cultures and national boundaries, especially its emphasis on the China market and its desire to cooperate with China filmmakers. Andrew Cripps, President of Flowserve International Distribution, introduced to the director group that Flowserve has a powerful distribution system for distributing films in 90 countries and regions around the world. He stressed: "For Hollywood studios, the international market, especially the China market, is occupying an increasingly important position."
postscript
The exchange activities of Fox Film Company in the 20th century made the directors involved feel a lot. glad you came. And it was highly praised by the Film Bureau. In a thank-you letter to Ms. Stacy Snyder, the chairman of FOSS, Deputy Director Zhang Hongsen said: "This exchange activity has broadened the horizons of directors in China to a certain extent, enriched their creative and production experience, and helped directors to shoot better films and promote the greater development of China films … In this sense, this exchange activity is of great significance and far-reaching influence. "
Director Wu Ershan:
"Thank you very much for your thoughtful arrangement. Five days of study is very fulfilling. I hope that more American colleagues will share their experience in filming with us in the future. China filmmakers and screenwriters can participate in this exchange, and there is no doubt that the development of the entire China film industry will benefit. "
Lu Zhengyu, director and executive director of peerless master:
"I was fortunate enough to participate in the director exchange activities organized by the Film Bureau and Fox Company. During the short five-day trip to Los Angeles, the content of the exchange was very comprehensive from top to bottom, and it was particularly important to integrate with Hollywood’s top creative thinking and industrial system and broaden our horizons. Great! I hope that fox’s activities will be held every year, so that more China film creators can participate. "
"Love O2O" director Zhao Tianyu:
"This time, it was very rewarding to participate in the FOSS director group. I am most interested in how the film industry can be combined with the creativity of directors. I can clearly feel this in my communication with several directors. (For example, wes ball, the director of Moving Maze 3, and Lv Yinrong, the series of Kung Fu Panda) I think that the high standards of industry and the creativity of directors actually promote each other. The movies we saw this time all confirmed this point. I can also feel FOSS’s interest in us and the China market. I expect FOSS to implement the production plan in the China market, and I am willing to participate. "
Yang Lei, director of "Biography of Shark Beads":
"First of all, thank you very much, FOSS. It’s been a very, very full week. The American film industry has always led the world’s films. The global distribution plan of American movies has made us see many high-level blockbusters, so the behind-the-scenes production of these blockbusters has also become a research topic for filmmakers all over the world. This time, I met several famous directors with different styles, including James Mangold, james gray, James Cameron (three James), wes ball, jennifer yuh and shane black.
What impressed me deeply was that when discussing why to make a film, several directors focused on treating characters and their emotions. This seemingly simple question was actually very difficult. Director Mangaud is also discussing his different styles of films, whether it is the western film "The Battle of Yuma Town", biographies and comic film "Wolverine 3: World War I", the same starting point among them is driven by the inner feelings of the characters. Shane black is also talking about the unexpected characters in his films. After a few days of communication, my biggest experience is that behind the seemingly complex and huge film industry, the soul is always these seemingly simple characters and emotions, and in the face of complex industrial processes, we must first find the soul. With the soul, the film will live, and then we will face those complex industrial processes.
Of course, the film itself is built on the basis of technology, so the technical solution is very important for the film. It can also be realized from the communication with these directors that understanding technology is very important for the creation of the film. Director Cameron often decides the very important selling point in his next film with the technical guidance. When he gets the liquid rendering technology, he will conceive the liquid robot. wes ball is a director who studied computer special effects. He can skillfully use various technical means to solve his imaginary world. James gray carefully explained how he would take some shots in the space capsule. Every director will eventually face the shooting complexity brought by industrial films, so process management becomes particularly important in industrial films. In the past, the production process of our traditional films was post-production-music-mixed recording, such as writing scripts-looking for actors-preparing the crew, serving-shooting-editing, etc. Then on the basis of this traditional process, industrial films will reorder the traditional processes, such as Cameron’s filming Avatar, which will change the order of some traditional processes. Including privz process, is applied to industrial process management system. Let me deepen my understanding of the importance of process management in making a blockbuster industrial system.
I am very grateful to FOSS for this arrangement. I was lucky to see James Cameron’s shooting scene, my idol director James Mangold and guillermo del toro’s Story of Water. I learned about the experience of a young director like wes ball in Hollywood, and I also saw how an animator jennifer yuh stepped onto the road of directing step by step. "
Twentieth century fox films
In the 20th century, FOSS films produced, acquired and distributed films all over the world. The works that have been produced and distributed include Titanic, Avatar, The Fantasy Drifting of Pi, Kingsman series, series and Moving Maze series. Its film production institutions include: 20th Century Fox Film, Fox 2000 Film Company, Fox Searchlight Company, Fox International Production Company and 20th Century Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studio.