Chapter 98: Graduation Ceremony and Lecture

Time quickly arrived at the day of Wei Jin's graduation.

On this day, Wei Jin put on his own bachelor's gown; the school was full of graduates wearing the uniform attire, and it was truly a bit hard to tell who was who.

"Old Wei, want to take a group photo together in a bit?"

Huang Bai was wearing this outfit, looking less like a university graduate and more like a doctoral graduate; his age was truly a bit advanced.

"Aren't you from the vocational college? Why are you crashing the graduation photos?"

Wei Jin was somewhat surprised; why was this guy here? "I felt I still needed to pursue further studies in acting, so I suspended my studies at the vocational college. Isn't this a chance to graduate together with the boss?"

Huang Bai had a sycophantic look on his face, not caring at all.

"Fine, come find me later."

Wei Jin waved his hand and walked into the queue for the Director Department.

This graduation ceremony was not held in the Great Hall, but outdoors; looking at it at a glance, it was a sea of uniform attire.

After the school leaders finished their parting words and recounted the achievements of these four years, they began to issue the graduation certificates.

The speech by the outstanding graduate was placed at the end; Yifei was called by name, walked out from the Acting Department's queue, and even waved at Wei Jin when passing by the Director Department side.

Many people were still wondering, shouldn't the outstanding graduate be Wei Jin? Could it be that even a Cannes Palme d'Or winner didn't make the cut?

Yifei had already begun speaking on stage. As a film and television worker and a student of Beijing Film Academy, how should one face work, face the public, face the media, and face public opinion... She spoke quite a lot of heartfelt words, showing that she had also experienced a lot along her journey and had matured quite a bit; she was no longer that little girl from the *Painted Skin* crew who would blush at the drop of a hat.

Yifei's speech won the favor of many; there were bursts of applause on the playground, showing that everyone was deeply touched.

Afterwards, the school leaders gave a summary and concluded the graduation ceremony, but they took the opportunity to announce a new piece of news: in the afternoon, a lecture would be held in the Great Hall, shared by the Cannes Palme d'Or winner, Director Wei Jin.

The school leaders' move made many students exclaim that they were experts; this was clearly because they were afraid the outstanding graduate's sharing time was too short. However, Wei Jin's lecture was also worth listening to carefully; many people were looking forward to it, not expecting that after graduation, they would still be able to hear a lecture from a Palme d'Or director at Beijing Film Academy.

Subsequently, the morning graduation ceremony officially ended, and what followed was free time for each major, which was also time for graduation commemorative photos.

Wei Jin took photos hastily with several classmates from the Director Department, and then took photos with several teachers.

At this moment, Zhang Jiandong was somewhat emotional; without his usual sternness, looking at his most outstanding student, he could not quite contain his emotions.

Wei Jin could also feel Zhang Jiandong's mood; he hugged his teacher without saying much.

"Old Zhang, what are you doing? It's not like Wei Jin isn't coming back; isn't he still a Graduate Student here?"

Jiang Wei couldn't stand this kind of scene and spoke up to tease him: "You blockhead, you don't know a damn thing."

Although Wei Jin would still be here in the future, he was no longer the student under his guidance.

"Brother Wei Jin, can you come over and take a group photo with us?"

Yifei trotted all the way over, her little face somewhat flushed:

"Uh, is it appropriate for me to go?"

Not to mention the Acting Department, Wei Jin wasn't particularly familiar with the classmates in the Director Department either, and he always felt it was a bit strange.

"Of course it's appropriate, Teacher Zhou and the classmates are all waiting for you, let's go, Brother Wei Jin."

Yifei reached out directly, pulling Wei Jin's arm toward the Acting Department's queue.

"Wei Jin, you've graduated now; please take care of our Acting Department classmates in the future."

Teacher Zhou of the Acting Department had a kind face, and Wei Jin naturally understood the meaning behind the words.

"Teacher Zhou is too kind; we are all classmates, it is only right to take care of each other, I will definitely consider it if there is an opportunity..."

Wei Jin's words were very polite, but somewhat perfunctory.

Looking at this handsome and talented student, Teacher Zhou secretly wondered why he hadn't chosen the Acting Department back then?

He didn't know that during the art entrance exams, the original owner had a dull personality and, coupled with fiddling with cameras since childhood, had never applied for the Acting Department at all, but had chosen the Director Department directly.

"Brother Wei Jin, stand next to me." Yifei didn't think too much and beckoned for Wei Jin's position.

Just like that, Wei Jin blended into a graduation group photo of a bunch of future female stars.

However, the classmates of the Acting Department were quite welcoming, and many female classmates were already thinking about how to use this opportunity to build a connection with Wei Jin. "Good afternoon, teachers and classmates."

At this time, Wei Jin had changed into formal attire and stood on the podium of the Beijing Film Academy Great Hall to share his thoughts.

The audience below was already filled with students and teachers from all grades of Beijing Film Academy, and Wei Jin even saw many leaders of the Academy.

After slightly organizing his thoughts, Wei Jin continued to speak:

"Many peers in the industry have asked me, why do my films succeed whether they are commercial films or art films?"

Once this topic was brought up by Wei Jin, the people below were all very curious; it was truly hard to imagine how, in a domestic market where eight out of ten films currently lost money, Wei Jin managed to achieve continuous profitability? And how did he win awards?

"Actually, it's very simple. Before I start any project, I have already determined the direction; I just need to follow the steps.

In my view, a film's success must go through the following four stages:

Project Initiation, Casting, Production, and Promotion/Distribution.

Project Initiation is actually determining the main idea of the film: do you want to win awards? Or do you want box office? If you want to win awards, you need to study the stylistic preferences of the corresponding awards.

If you want box office, you need to pay attention to the preferences of the audience and the changes in the market.

And among these, the most important thing is the script. Only a story with logical consistency, clear organization, and a definite main thread can move people, whether they are judges or the audience; this actually has nothing to do with artistic cultivation.

From this point of view, the status of our screenwriters is indeed too low at present."

Wei Jin's words drew general agreement from the people of the Literature Department below, and some even started clapping directly.

"Casting is choosing a creative team, including the director, that fits the film's style or theme.

For example, a Hong Kong director—if you ask them to direct a historical or war-themed subject, that is certainly unscientific; they simply lack the foundation in these areas.

Take actors for another example: if it is an art film, it is best to choose actors with outstanding acting skills but ordinary appearances; this way, the depth of the story is easier to be excavated, rather than all the attention being stolen by the actors. Ceng Li in *Room* didn't look like a popular female star at all; this was a compromise made for the character.

If it is a commercial film, besides fitting the character, you need both acting skills and fame to be outstanding, and to a certain extent, the fame must even outweigh the acting skills. For example, why was Chen Kun chosen for *Painted Skin*? There were those with better acting skills than him and those with better appearances than him, but all things considered, he was the most suitable."

Hearing this, some teachers below already began to laugh; was it really okay to say it so blatantly? "Let's talk about production; this actually tests more of the director's foundation and the capabilities of the post-production team.

The director's technical level, understanding of the script, use of the lens, coordination of colors, editing of the footage, and grasp of the scenes and atmosphere, etc., are all very important.

Post-production is also particularly important; dubbing, music, image rendering, special effects processing, etc., are all indispensable."

"Finally, let's talk about promotion and distribution; promotion and distribution are actually an important means for a film to achieve its ultimate success."

For commercial films, publicity and distribution are about promoting the movie, getting more people interested in walking into a cinema to pay for it.

For art-house films, publicity and distribution are about doing public relations work; don't think that foreign awards are truly that fair and impartial—are there really few instances of the European Big Three and the Oscar being influenced by public relations?

Is there really such a huge gap between the films that are actually shortlisted? Reasonable public relations is just making the judges lean more towards you when everyone's conditions are similar; don't think doing this is shameful or an insult to art—in fact, this is standard operating procedure."

These remarks by Wei Jin caught many students from the Director Department off guard, as it was somewhat inconsistent with the education they had received and their long-held convictions.

"Finally, I want to talk about Film Industrialization. There is no such thing as 'Film Industrialization' domestically, and this is the biggest difference from Hollywood. Their large-scale commercial films can be produced like assembly-line products: standardized, modular, process-oriented, simplified, and perfected. Domestic film production, however, is more like a handicraft workshop."

Next, Wei Jin elaborated in detail on the production model of industrial films, the advantages of Film Industrialization, its role in promoting the entire industry, as well as the required scientific research levels, industrial design and manufacturing capabilities, and various professional talents. "At the end of my speech, allow me to put in a plug."

Seeing that it was nearing the end, Wei Jin also began casting his net to recruit people: "Everyone knows that I have my own company, making movies and TV series, and I've earned some money over these years. To thank the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for nurturing me, I have jointly established a film fund with the Academy. In the future, any students or teachers who want to shoot a film can receive corresponding support as long as your script is approved by the foundation; I call this the 'Inheriting the Torch Fund' project.

In addition, students in behind-the-scenes majors like cinematography, literature, and management can also come to the company to submit their resumes.

Of course, students from the acting department can also come to audition for the company's projects; priority will definitely be given."

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(End of this chapter)