At 3:30 p.m. local time in Los Angeles, the lecture halls of the UCLA School of Film were filled.

At 3:50, Zhang Ran, under the guidance of the school, came to the speech hall on time.

The entire hall was crowded with people, gathering nearly a thousand people.

The UCL students present heard Zhang Ran coming in and immediately shouted excitedly: "Robin! Robin!"

The Hollywood people present were shocked. They didn't expect Zhang Ran to be so popular, almost the same as a celebrity meeting.

In fact, the reason why Zhang Ran is so popular is that he is UCL's pride, a very important point is that UCL lost again in the past city war, so everyone missed Zhang Ran very much. They all believe that if he was there, it would definitely cause great trouble to Nanca.

Before the official speech, Terry Schwartz, the Dean of the Film Academy, made a supportive speech, briefly summarized Zhang Ran’s achievements in recent years, and then praised them fiercely, which attracted the students in the audience to cheer again. After the cheers, Schwartz smiled and said, "Now I invite today's speaker, Mr. Zhang Ran."

Zhang Ran got up and walked to the podium, tidying the microphone. While he was tidying up the microphone, the whole auditorium became completely quiet.

Zhang Ran did not have any fun, and began his speech with a smile: "Dear guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It's not the first time I've been standing here, but it's my first time giving a speech, and I'm a little nervous. Today, I mainly want to talk about Chinese movies and Chinese opportunities."

The audience was watching Zhang Ran. Most of the Chinese people gave speeches in the United States, but 80% of the audience were white today, and there were many Hollywood filmmakers who hoped to learn about the Chinese film market through Zhang Ran and how to make money in the Chinese film market.

"Let me talk about the data of Chinese movies first. The total box office of Chinese movies in 2002 was 920 million, equivalent to US$150 million. Last year, China's total box office was 3.95 billion, and the box office increased three times in five years. The total box office in the first half of this year was 2.58 billion, and the annual box office is expected to be close to 6 billion. We can see that Chinese movies are growing at an extremely terrifying rate. Ten years later, in 2017, the box office of Chinese movies can reach about 60 billion. Coupled with the appreciation of the RMB, it is about US$9 billion, and the entire market is close to the United States.

The market has a ceiling. I believe that by around 2017, the growth rate of Chinese films should slow down, but it will still remain at around 20%. According to this prediction, by 2027, the box office of Chinese films will reach US$30 billion, accounting for about 40% of the global movie box office market share. The basis for making this inference is that the United States has a population of 300 million, and the per capita movie is about 4 times per year, while China has a population of 1.3 billion, so the data of 30 billion is not an exaggeration. If China's per capita movie viewing reaches the current level of the United States, it should be 40 billion! This is a huge market, and no one can ignore it. As a film company, if you do not pay attention to the Chinese market, it means that you have lost your future in competition!"

The auditorium was very quiet, only Zhang Ran’s voice was echoing, and everyone was listening carefully; the Chinese audience felt the strength and pride of the motherland, while Hollywood businessmen’s eyes were shining and they all smelled money.

Zhang Ran continued: "The Chinese film market has great potential and many problems are facing. Now for us Chinese film practitioners, the biggest headache is the lack of professional talents. Not to mention anything else, just lighting. You may know that I have another identity as a teacher from Beijing Film Academy, but I have not taught well in the past two years and I am suspected of selling dog meat with the title of sheep."

A kind laugh suddenly sounded in the auditorium.

However, Zhang Ran couldn't laugh a little: "We Beijing Film Academy used to have a lighting class, but later because all the graduates went to be photographers, the lighting class was cancelled. Where do the lighting teachers in Chinese crews come from? More than 70% of the lighting teachers come from a place called Yanling. Many people in this place will come to the crew at a certain age, including fathers and sons, brothers and fellow villagers, and fellow villagers, and step by step. Chinese lighting teachers are basically masters and apprentices, but many masters are not professional in themselves, and the apprentices brought out often know the truth but not the reason. Although these apprentices know how to light the light through long-term training, many people can only use lighting, and it is more difficult to let them light the atmosphere."

For ordinary audiences, they may not know who the lighting illuminator is, but they can still feel whether the light is good or not. Take Tangren's TV series for example. The TV series before "Scarlet Heart" was very beautiful, but many viewers complained that the actor was so chewed and even Liu Shishi's head full of beans were filmed. The reason is very simple. Mao Jianxin, the lighting illuminator of Tangren, was poached by Yu Zheng in 2008, but the level of the lighting illuminator was not enough.

There is no such problem in the United States. If one lighter leaves, just change to another, and the level is the same; but it is very troublesome in China. If a good lighter leaves, it is difficult to find someone of the same level to replace him.

In fact, it is not just lighting engineers, but almost all other positions are like this. There are too few excellent professional talents. Many people mention that domestic movies are bad, so they put the blame on the General Administration. Of course, the largest ones are definitely not able to get rid of, but even if the General Administration really releases the censorship, can the situation of bad movies be rampant? It is impossible.

In Zhang Ran's view, many problems faced by domestic films, whether they are hierarchical systems, 50 cents special effects, or other problems, are only one solution, which is industrialization; if Chinese films want to complete industrialization, they must cooperate with Hollywood and introduce professional talents from Hollywood.

Zhang Ran’s black-eyed and dark-haired compatriots in the audience said solemnly: “It’s not just the lighting, but from producers to directors, photography to art, from early to late stages, from film guarantees to collection of accounts, there are shortages of professional talents in all fields and links of Chinese films. According to my estimate, the talent gap is 50,000. With the rapid growth of the film market, this gap will further expand and may eventually reach 200,000. So we built a film academy to cultivate talents, but it is a drop in the bucket for the entire Chinese film!

American film talents are in a state of oversupply. After Ang Lee graduated from New York University, he struggled in the planning purgatory for six years, writing scripts and revising them, but no film company gave him a green light. In order to support himself, he could only go to the set to watch the warehouse. This is not an isolated case, but a situation that many students here will face after graduation. Many people exhausted their enthusiasm in the planning purgatory and finally chose to change their careers. I saw that there were many Chinese students present, and I suggested that everyone come back to develop. The Chinese market is big and there are more opportunities than in the United States. Of course, I would like to say sincerely to other American students. Instead of exhausting their enthusiasm in wasting time, why not come to China to try the peak of the century? After saying this, I saw many Hollywood managers in the audience a little unhappy and thought I was here to poach."

The audience burst out laughing, and Zhang Ran waited for the laughter to continue: "I will talk about how Hollywood can share the Chinese market cake. I think two things must be done. First, strengthen cooperation with Chinese companies. If Hollywood wants to share the Chinese market, it must first understand China, but Hollywood does not understand it. Since you don't understand China, you should strengthen cooperation with Chinese companies, which can be a capital level, a product level, or a technical level. We all know that Chinese movies have a quota system. To bypass the quota system, the only way is to make a combo film, and the combo film can get a 40% share, and pure Hollywood movies are only 13%. To become a combo film, you must cooperate with Chinese companies.

The Chinese market is not big enough now, and the highest-grossing movies are only more than 40 million US dollars, but I dare say that in the past five years, there will be Hollywood movies with a box office of more than 200 million US dollars. If it is a simple Hollywood movie, the share will be only 26 million US dollars. If it is a co-production film, it can earn 66 million US dollars. I don’t need to remind you about the gap!”

Everyone present, whether it was the Hollywood manager or the UCL students, had their eyes widened. Everyone was a little unbelievable that China would have a single film of more than $200 million in five years. Only the boss of Fox smiled. "Avatar" had a box office of more than $200 million, but it was written into the contract with Zhang Ran.

"Secondly, you must pay attention to Chinese audiences." Zhang Ran raised two fingers, "The purpose of making commercial films is to make money. If you want to get a piece of the pie in the Chinese market, you must understand what Chinese audiences like and find ways to please the audience. Some media may also talk about politics, but I want to say that you can't say that I'm going to your market to make money, but I don't care about your taste, or your audience. If you don't pay attention to the audience, then the audience must vote with your feet! There are many ways to get the hearts of Chinese audiences. You can add Chinese elements on the basis of not destroying the movie, add Chinese stars, and insert some topics related to China into the plot; you can also come to China during the publicity period, so that the audience will feel that you value me very much..."

In fact, Zhang Ran is not particularly good at how to cooperate with Hollywood. Sino-US co-production films are not like British-US co-production or American-Canadian co-production films. They have common language, common assumptions, common experiences and common staff. They are different in national culture and movie viewing habits. It is difficult to please both countries at the same time, and it is likely that both sides will not please.

However, although there are many uncertainties in this kind of cooperation, it is necessary for both parties. Hollywood needs the Chinese market, China needs Hollywood's technology and talents, and also needs Hollywood's distribution channels.

In Zhang Ran's memory, films that China and Hollywood collaborate often fail, and he only achieved one success. He was unable to say that he had much experience and could only tell all the experiences and thoughts he had learned from the failed examples in his memory.

What Zhang Ran said may not be correct, but for those Hollywood filmmakers who have no idea about the Chinese market and have never cooperated with China, they feel cheerful and cheerful. They all feel that they are right here to listen to Zhang Ran's speech this time.

An hour passed by Zhang Ran’s endless speech.

All that should be said is finished, Zhang Ran began to finish: "The cooperation between film companies in China and the United States is a bit like the male and female protagonists in "My Grand Greek Wedding". The conflict caused by different cultures must exist and it will take a long time to get in. But I think the integration of the two major markets of China and the United States, the exchange of the two major markets, and the cooperation between the two major markets is an inevitable. The future is bright, and we are standing on the road to a bright future. I will say so much, thank you everyone!"

After the speech, the audience stood up and ovated. There were many celebrities coming to UCL to give a speech, but not many people could make everyone stand up and ovate, especially many Hollywood people present, which made it even more difficult to make them stand up and ovate...

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Chapter completed!