Chapter 330: Proactive Goodwill

Two main location shooting sites: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is a Caribbean island nation, and another Caribbean island nation, Dominica, where Cao Yang mainly shot the coastal rainforest scenes.

He didn't shoot the sailing and naval battle scenes in the sea here, but chose to shoot the naval battle at the Port of San Pedro in Los Angeles, and most of the fierce naval battle scenes were shot in the studio in South Bay.

There was also a part that was shot using the giant water tank in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico.

"Titanic," "Pearl Harbor," and "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" were all shot here. For Hollywood, it could be considered a very famous place.

At the end of December, Cao Yang was leading the crew to shoot a naval battle at the Port of San Pedro in Los Angeles, but unexpectedly received an unexpected call.

The call was from Xie Fei of the Beijing Film Academy. This person was of the same generation as Cao Yang's teacher, Old Situ.

"Hello, Teacher Xie, I'm sorry, I was just shooting a fierce fighting scene, and the phone was in the assistant's hand. He is too ignorant and didn't give me the phone in time. I have already severely criticized him."

When Cao Yang was filming, he generally didn't answer the phone, so when Xie Fei called, the assistant didn't dare to give him the phone.

Xie Fei was an elder after all, so Cao Yang definitely had to explain.

"Haha, Cao Yang, since when have you been so polite to me? Your assistant also explained to me when he answered the phone just now. I could hear the explosion sound across the phone. Is the filming going smoothly?"

Xie Fei asked with a smile.

"It's quite good, the filming is going smoothly." Cao Yang answered with a smile.

"That's good, I won't beat around the bush with you. I was entrusted by someone to be a middleman, first to probe your tone. If you loosen your mouth here, people will call you personally, so as not to be embarrassed on both sides when the time comes."

Xie Fei first explained with a smile before saying:

"It's like this, Dieter Kosslick, the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival, called me and wanted to invite you to be the jury president of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, so let me ask about your thoughts."

Xie Fei had won the Jin Xiong Award at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival and could be considered a direct member of the Berlin Film Festival, so that side talked to Cao Yang's tone through him first.

The Berlin Film Festival was also having a hard time now. Among the three major European film festivals, except for the Cannes Film Festival, which could still attract some influential Hollywood superstars, Berlin and Venice almost had no superstars with extraordinary influence coming.

Don't think that the three major European film festivals are the halls of art films and don't need influential superstars.

This is actually a wrong understanding.

If the three major European film festivals want to maintain their influence, at least the ratings must be guaranteed, right?

If you don't have ratings, influential films won't come to promote, companies won't sponsor, and big stars won't come... this will form a vicious cycle.

As an influential hall of art films in the world, you can't really entertain yourself and ignore everything, right?

If it goes on like that, the influence will become lower and lower, and the films participating in the exhibition and competition will become fewer and fewer.

Should the film festival still be held?

Therefore, not only Old Ma's Venice is trying to increase its influence, but the Berlin Film Festival is the same.

Therefore, the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival set his sights on Cao Yang.

Cao Yang can be considered to have a deep connection with the Berlin Film Festival. His debut work, "On the Beach at Night Alone," participated in the Berlin Film Festival.

At that time, Xie Fei happened to be a member of the Berlin Film Festival jury. He helped Cao Yang win the first major award of his life—the Berlin Film Festival Jury Grand Prix, and also let Li Xiaoran win the Berlin Best Actress award.

It can be said that the Berlin Film Festival was the starting point of Cao Yang's rise, which can be considered to have a "kindness of knowing."

And Xie Fei also had a "kindness of knowing" toward Cao Yang.

What makes the Berlin Film Festival hard to let go is that after Cao Yang became famous, as his fame grew and his influence grew, he never came to the Berlin Film Festival again except for the first time.

Dieter Kosslick, the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival, actually knew very well why Cao Yang didn't come, because everyone knew clearly that even if he came, it was impossible to give him the Jin Xiong, so he just didn't come.

Dieter Kosslick originally thought that Cao Yang would definitely come to Berlin. After all, Cao Yang had the Golden Lion and the Palme d'Or in his hands, and only needed a Jin Xiong to become the most important "component" in world film history.

So far, there were only three people who could win the Grand Slam of the three major European film festivals, and Cao Yang was the fourth person closest to it.

But as Cao Yang became more and more successful in Hollywood and won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, and the box office exploded, there was a trend of developing in the field of so-called experimental films.

Especially after Cao Yang took on a more commercial film like "New Pirates of the Caribbean," this trend seemed even more obvious.

Dieter Kosslick was also a bit anxious. He even felt that Cao Yang might really not come to the Berlin Film Festival again.

If it were an ordinary director, if he didn't come, he didn't come; it was no big deal.

But Cao Yang was different. He had won almost all the influential awards in the world, but he had only participated in the Berlin Film Festival once and never came again!

As Cao Yang's influence grew, would this give people an illusion—that the Berlin Film Festival was not good or the Berlin Film Festival was too unfair, so Cao Yang didn't go.

Out of maintenance for the Berlin Film Festival and the purpose of increasing the influence of the film festival, Dieter Kosslick could only extend an olive branch first, at least let Cao Yang come once, so as to eliminate everyone's misunderstanding.

But as the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival, he wasn't actually familiar with Cao Yang. If he called personally and was rejected, it wouldn't look good for anyone's face, so he took a detour and called Xie Fei first.

Hearing Xie Fei's words, Cao Yang frowned a bit.

Let me be the jury president of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival?

Is there something wrong? It's already the end of December, and the Berlin Film Festival will open in less than two months. Doesn't he know I'm filming a movie?

Cao Yang's first reaction was to refuse. He generally wouldn't be the jury president of a film festival; it was both troublesome and time-consuming. Venice Film Festival chairman Marco Müller had invited him several times, and he hadn't agreed.

Cannes Film Festival chairman Thierry Frémaux had also invited him, and he hadn't agreed either.

"Don't be in a hurry to refuse, wait for me to finish speaking."

Xie Fei still understood Cao Yang a bit, so he quickly said:

"Cao Yang, don't you think this is a good opportunity? You only lack the Jin Xiong of Berlin to complete the Grand Slam. If you take this opportunity to get on good terms with Berlin, giving you the Jin Xiong will definitely be a matter of time."

"You have to know that Berlin is very eager to get closer to you. They are also facing great pressure. If you don't get on good terms with Berlin, why should they withstand the pressure of all of Europe and give you the Jin Xiong?"

Cao Yang thought about it and didn't rush to make a decision, but said: "Teacher Xie, I understand what you said. Let me consider it, tomorrow, I will call you tomorrow."

After hanging up Xie Fei's call, Cao Yang didn't think about this matter for the time being. Filming was the priority now. Filming a naval battle was a very cumbersome thing, and it was easy to lose everything. The preparation work was also very long, and it couldn't be sloppy at all.

After filming this part, Cao Yang finally relaxed his tense nerves for a while, but didn't expect the assistant to hand him the phone again and say:

"Director Cao, I didn't dare to disturb you just now. Teacher Situ, Dean Hou, Director Tian, and Boss Han all called you. I explained to them that you were filming a naval battle scene and couldn't answer the phone for the time being."

Cao Yang nodded and said: "Okay, I know."

Taking the phone and looking at the four calls on it, he fell into deep thought.

No need to think to know the purpose of these people's calls.

Grand Slam, that's a Grand Slam!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 331 =====