Chapter 4: A Problem More Important Than the Director

Many people in the classroom looked at each other, and a short-haired, capable girl directly said:

"I feel there's no need; *Bus 44* is written too well. If it's not the one selected, I definitely won't be convinced!"

With this girl taking the lead, many others responded one after another.

However, at this time, a boy raised his hand and said:

"I admire the script of *Bus 44* one hundred percent, but Junior Wu has only been in university for a month; can he do a good job as this director?"

"Wang Hongwei, aren't you also from the Literature Department? If we're talking about being a director, you're also a newcomer, right?!" the short-haired girl retorted.

Wu Yuchen turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice; so the boy speaking was Wang Hongwei!

Wang Hongwei was Old Jia's designated actor, the one who played Xiao Wu, and he even appeared naked in the film, so he could be considered to have sacrificed himself for art.

"I don't mean anything else; after all, everyone admires the script, and Junior Wu has the most say, but I just want everyone to deliberate on how to shoot it well."

Wang Hongwei explained with an honest smile.

If you asked if Wang Hongwei had selfish motives in saying this, there definitely were!

But his selfish motives weren't for himself, but for his good buddy Jia Zhangke.

As Jia Zhangke's good friend and roommate, Wang Hongwei knew his thoughts best. He knew Jia Zhangke was very eager for this opportunity, so he wanted to help his good buddy fight for it.

Wu Yuchen curled the corners of his mouth and smiled, not panicking at all.

He took the initiative to stand up, clapped his hands "clap, clap," and attracted everyone's attention.

"Thank you all for your love for my script.

Compared to choosing a director, I think there is a problem that is more important."

Wu Yuchen simply didn't answer Wang Hongwei's question just now and directly changed the subject.

The classmates in the classroom all looked at Wu Yuchen, not knowing what the more important problem was.

Wu Yuchen secretly thought to himself, what a group of cute students who only have dreams in their hearts and say do it!

Wu Yuchen scanned the crowd:

"Money!

Has everyone seriously calculated how much money we need to shoot this short film?"

Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, not expecting Wu Yuchen to bring up such a realistic problem.

The Youth Film Group, this small group, was gathered by young people for interest, for hobbies, and for ideals.

Full of hot blood and saying do it was their biggest characteristic, which led to everyone not having considered the topic of how much money it takes to shoot a film before.

But now that this problem was brought up by Wu Yuchen, everyone had to face it squarely, but for a moment they all looked at each other, unable to say a number.

Wu Yuchen smiled:

"We can calculate it item by item.

First, how long do you think our short film should be?"

Everyone discussed it in a hubbub, all feeling that although it was a short film, it couldn't be too short; it had to be at least 30 minutes.

Wu Yuchen watched; this was another shortcoming of newcomers without experience: greed for length!

Wu Yuchen nodded without refuting, but continued to ask:

"Then how many days do you think it will take us to finish shooting with our experience and ability?"

Wu Yuchen looked at Jia Zhangke.

Jia Zhangke pondered for a moment: "We don't have experience. Some directors are fast, some are slow. Let's take an average value; how about 10 days?"

Everyone listened and had no objections; according to one month for shooting a 90-minute feature film, 10 days for 30 minutes was just right.

Wu Yuchen smiled and nodded, then said:

"Then let me calculate it for you.

First, the cost of the film stock.

Currently, the film ratio required by mature directors in our country is three to one or four to one.

We don't have experience, so I'll relax it to?

That is to say, to shoot a 30-minute short film, we need 180 minutes of film stock.

Nowadays, the film stock commonly used by everyone for shooting films is 35mm and 16mm.

A 400-foot roll of 35mm film currently costs 1,500 yuan and can shoot 4 minutes.

A 1,000-foot roll of 16mm film costs 1,200 yuan and can shoot 10 minutes.

35mm film is too expensive to shoot; we can't afford it at all.

Calculated according to 16mm film, 180 minutes requires 18 rolls, 1,200 per roll, totaling 21,600 yuan.

This is just shooting; if you count the post-production costs of editing, washing, mixing, and making the master copy, the price is much more expensive than the film stock!

Adding these to the film stock money, I'll calculate it at 50,000 yuan in total."

Saying this had already stunned these students, but Wu Yuchen hadn't stopped yet and held up another finger:

"Let's talk about shooting equipment.

16mm camera, rent is 1,000 yuan per day.

Nagra tape recorder is at least 500 yuan per day.

And the actors' pay for those involved, as well as the crew's labor costs, food and drink expenses, prop rentals, etc., at least 1,000 yuan per day.

Calculating this way, it adds up to at least 4,000 yuan per day, and then we have to shoot for 10 days, 40,000 yuan."

Finally, Wu Yuchen looked around at everyone and summarized:

"According to the requirements just now, if we want to shoot this short film, we need at least 90,000 yuan.

If there are any accidents, it will start at 100,000 yuan!"

The group of people in the classroom was already dumbfounded by Wu Yuchen's words; they were just a group of students, and although many of them did part-time jobs, where could they pull out 100,000 yuan?

It was only 1995; the vast majority of people's monthly income was only a few hundred!

They usually read countless films together, pointed out the country, and were passionate about literature.

Originally, they wanted to partner to shoot a radiant, shocking work, but they hadn't expected this first hurdle of reality to be so desperate!

Everyone looked at each other, speechless.

It was as if a hot fire had been doused with a basin of cold water, and the atmosphere of the entire classroom sank.

Wu Yuchen had given this group of students a good lesson with reality.

At the same time, he also sighed that shooting films in the film era was so expensive, and the threshold was so high!

In this day and age, domestic directors weren't like Hollywood directors who were rich and willful; they all saved film stock, and even Old Mouzi tried to control it within 1:5.

Not everyone was Jiang Wen, who dared to shoot 250,000 feet of film for his first work as a director, *In the Heat of the Sun*, and the film ratio reached an astonishing 1:15, and one scene even shot 1,300 meters of film because of one shot!

Wu Yuchen had calculated that Jiang Wen spent 1.01 million just buying film stock, which was already enough for many directors to shoot two films.

Unlike the later digital era, where Ning Hao held a DV and finished a 90-minute *Incense* for 30,000 yuan.

However, Wu Yuchen looked at some people who were a bit dejected and knew he couldn't hit them too hard, otherwise how to fool... cough, cough, call on everyone to crowdfund?

"Everyone, don't worry; the film can be shot!" Wu Yuchen raised his hand and said with a smile.

Seeing Wu Yuchen exude a calm and confident temperament, many people subconsciously felt happy and wanted to hear what method he had.

Wu Yuchen handed the script in his hand to Jia Zhangke: "Everyone can take a look at my script first." ===== CHAPTER 5 =====