Chapter 2: Prestige is Very Important

Rebirth, what a high-sounding word.

In his previous life, Cao Yang also graduated from the screenwriting and directing major of an arts college. Having drifted in the circle for over thirty years, his greatest achievement was, in the capacity of executive director and assistant director, overseeing the overall situation for those nominal directors or directors who switched professions, doing the director's work, and it wasn't just once or twice.

And magically, every time he could achieve a decent box office.

Thus, he finally obtained an opportunity to direct a low-budget film.

However, this film flopped miserably.

Cao Yang was very angry. Why was it that when he was the one pulling the strings, films with others as nominal directors could sell well, but when he was the nominal director, it flopped without even a splash?

Just because others had big names and high prestige?

Just because the acting of the actors stuffed into the crew by various connections was too poor?

Just because the script was deleted and changed randomly?

Perhaps the obsession was too strong. He was reborn and actually brought a prestige system with him.

This broken thing doesn't have any messy abilities; it only has one function: it can consume existing prestige and convert it into immersion experience.

Immersion experience—is it as the name suggests, allowing actors to experience the experiences of the characters in the play? Cao Yang doesn't know either; this broken system has no explanation.

Cao Yang checked, current prestige: 10627, available prestige 10627, immersion experience +1.

Why is there one immersion experience? Cao Yang still doesn't know; perhaps it was a gift?

Currently, prestige cannot be converted into immersion experience. Once converted, it shows -89373, which means it requires 100,000 prestige points to exchange for one immersion experience.

Fortunately, the system gifted one immersion experience, which can be used for the protagonist to increase the protagonist's acting skills. But I don't know the effect of one immersion experience, so I should try to find actors with good acting skills.

The top priority is to increase prestige and exchange for more immersion experiences.

Although the broken system didn't prompt how to increase prestige, thinking about it, it's nothing more than box office and awards.

It's only the year 2000, and the domestic film industry is still struggling to survive.

The number of screens counted domestically is less than two thousand.

Twenty years later, this number will be over eighty thousand!

The difference is so stark.

The commercial film market is not good, so don't think about the box office for now.

But fortunately, there are art films.

Whether the market is good or not, for art films, it doesn't matter at all.

Go to the three major European film festivals to win awards, then sell foreign copyrights, gain both fame and fortune, and prestige can also soar—isn't that wonderful?

This is the correct way to open art films.

The key is how to win an award.

How can domestic directors win awards abroad more easily?

Backwardness, criticism, the dark side of society, the evil of human nature... randomly arrange and combine them, and there is a chance to be selected for the main competition unit.

Of course, to win an award in the main competition unit, these alone are not enough.

The focus of the three major film festivals is different, the preferences of the jury members who change every year are different, and the themes of the film festivals every year are also different...

Wanting to win an award is very difficult; there are too many factors affecting the award.

Wanting to win an award is also very easy; as long as a few judges like your film, or the jury president supports you, at the very least, you can get one of the awards.

In this era, the awards of the three major European film festivals are still very prestigious and universally recognized worldwide.

Cao Yang doesn't want to film the ignorance and backwardness of the country and the trauma of scars to please those foreigners. He is actually quite interested in the foreign trauma series and really wants to film it.

But filming it now is unrealistic; he has neither funds nor fame.

Then take a different path and film an auteur film with a very personal style.

South Korea has a very interesting director whose film types are very singular, but he is a professional award winner and very much to the taste of those people in Europe and America.

He doesn't film pornography or violence, nor does he film the evil of human nature, let alone the dark side of society. The films he wins awards for are solely focused on filming women.

Capturing and refining a series of words and deeds that everyone is accustomed to but have profound meaning in life, endowing daily trifles and love between men and women with philosophical meaning, thereby digging into the complexity and fickleness of human nature.

"On the Beach at Night Alone" is such a film.

For Cao Yang, this film is currently the best choice. The scenes are simple, no special effects are needed, there are few actors, and the shooting is not cumbersome. The key is that it saves money.

This is another auteur film with a very strong personal style. The whole film makes extensive use of fixed long shots and simple, slow push-pull shots, which traditional big directors like Tian Zhuangzhuang disdain to use.

It's too simple and too straightforward.

When the film is made, surely no one will think this is Tian Zhuangzhuang's film; the style is obviously different.

If this film were filmed by Tian Zhuangzhuang, with his style of focusing on humanistic care, he might just make an alternative "Spring in a Small Town" for you.

The plot of the film is very simple: the female lead is a famous actress who falls in love with a married big director, and they have an extramarital affair. This is the premise plot.

The film begins with the female lead unable to bear the public opinion pressure, escaping abroad to relax, eating, walking, and talking with friends.

Next, the female lead returns to the country, dining and talking with friends.

Finally, half-dreaming and half-awake, she meets the married director, eats, and talks.

It looks plain, boring, and dull.

In reality, it is boring, dull, and plain.

Especially for the audience who pursues sensory stimulation, this film is simply torture.

!

No dark side of society, no violence, no pornography—just two words: plain.

The version in Europe hasn't evolved yet, and more attention is still focused on women. This includes the works of female directors, the shaping of female characters, and the exploration of female themes.

As long as these are involved, it is very easy to get a nomination for the main competition unit.

If there are few such competition films in the nominations, eight or nine times out of ten, you can get a big award. Political correctness is still very powerful.

This film is unfolded from a female perspective, and almost all shots are focused on the female lead. By exploring female themes, it reflects social problems and gender equality. It not only shows the growth and changes of women but also criticizes gender discrimination and gender stereotypes.

It is right to the taste of the three major European film festivals.

Cao Yang met Tian Zhuangzhuang again, it was already the next day.

In the hotel conference room rented in the name of the crew, Old Tian was listless and yawning repeatedly. I don't know what the situation was last night.

Tian Zhuangzhuang glanced at Cao Yang and didn't say anything. After greeting him, the two quickly entered the working state.

Old Tian didn't quit, which is very good.

Today is the last day to interview the female lead.

Calling it an interview is actually a more euphemistic way of saying it. The invitations sent out to several favorite candidates before were either rejected or sank into the sea.

No way, before this, the films of Senior Brother Lu and Wang Xiaoshuai, produced by Tian Zhuangzhuang, were both stuck in censorship for a long time, so this time he wasn't allowed to hold a position in the crew.

On the surface, Tian Zhuangzhuang is just an actor in the crew.

So in the eyes of outsiders, a small investment, a director in his twenties—isn't this just messing around?

So, the female lead is very difficult to produce.

Actually, Cao Yang's most favorite female lead candidate is Gong Li.

Back then, the National Teacher hadn't divorced yet, and Gong Li and the National Teacher fell in love due to the play and got together. A female actress falling in love with a married big director and having an extramarital affair...

Is it very familiar?

This is exactly the same as the setting of the film. With such a similar experience, plus Gong Li's acting skills, wouldn't it be easy to perform?

Unfortunately, it's too expensive and can't be afforded. The budget of the whole film isn't enough for her salary.

Although the coal boss pays money readily, he isn't a fool. Spending a few hundred thousand to let his little honey play an important role—what he plays is cultivation, what he wants is a sense of achievement.

Spend more? That's another way of playing.

Cao Yang once thought about inviting the National Teacher to play the director role in the film.

As long as the National Teacher came, Gong Li saw the content of the script, especially the last part, the big director who had an extramarital affair with the female lead, saying with tears in his eyes in front of the female lead that he never regretted falling in love with the female lead, just that he was too cowardly and cared too much about the eyes of the world...

Just based on this scene, Gong Li would join even if she had to pay money.

If she could wait for this sentence from the National Teacher, even if it was said in the film, she would surely feel that her life was complete.

What a big gimmick!

If this were filmed, wouldn't it be shocking and explosive throughout the Chinese-speaking world?

But later, thinking about it, if the National Teacher knew the content of the script and still dared to invite him, he and the National Teacher would surely have to die, so he extinguished this crazy and wonderful idea.

He could only make Old Tian suffer and come to play this role.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3 =====