When Wu Ershan walked into the Beijing Film Academy campus, he felt like he was suddenly a different life. 13 years ago, because he was disagreeable with his teacher's philosophy, he dropped out of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy's Director's Department the next year. He never dreamed that he would return to Beijing Film Academy as a student eight years after he graduated.

The campus of Beijing Film Academy is almost exactly the same as Wu Ershan’s memory. The only difference is that the girls’ clothes become more fashionable and cooler. It is clearly summer, but it makes people feel like spring is blooming.

Wu Ershan was walking towards the watch guide building, and a voice with a Hong Kong and Taiwan accent beside him asked, "Teacher, do you know where the Asian Film Academy is going to take the exam?"

Wu Ershan heard the other party ask about the Asian Film Academy and looked at the other party. He was in his thirties and wearing black-framed glasses. He looked gentle and said with a smile: "I'm not a teacher. Like you, I'm here to participate in the interview!"

When the man heard that Wu Ershan was a classmate with him, he enthusiastically extended his hand and said, "Hello, I am Guo Zijian. I used to be a screenwriter in Xiangjiang and also worked as an assistant director!"

Wu Ershan shook hands with Guo Zijian and said, "I am Wu Ershan, an advertising director. I am very happy to know you!"

The two talked and walked, chatting very well. Wu Ershan learned that Guo Zijian once made a living by graphic design. Later, through a friend's introduction, he served as an art position in the movie "Sorry, Team Beat You" and ignited the fire of film. Guo Zijian started from the bottom and served as a screenwriter and deputy director in many Xiangjiang movies, growing step by step from the set. As long as he persisted and worked for another year or two, he might become a director. However, after recruiting at the Asian Film Academy, he resolutely signed up, not only because of Zhang Ran's fame, but more importantly, he felt that the future of Chinese films was in the mainland.

When he arrived at the entrance of the watch guide building, Wu Ershan saw the sign of the "Asian Film Academy Interview Office" and the two beautiful girls under the sign. Wu Ershan walked over and asked, "Hello, may I ask, is the Asian Film Academy interviewing here?"

Yang Mi stared at Wu Ershan and Guo Zijian and thought, "What a mature junior brother, he is forty years old, right?" But she still said with a smile: "The interview location is inside, please come with me!"

Under the leadership of Yang Mi, Wu Ershan and Guo Zijian walked into the watch guide building and arrived at the door of a classroom on the second floor.

At this time, a young man of twenty-four or fifteen years old was waiting on the chair at the door of the classroom. Wu Ershan nodded at the young man and said, "You are here for the interview too, right? My name is Wu Ershan, and I used to be an advertising director!"

"Hello, I'm Yang Qing, I used to be a screenwriter."

"I am Guo Zijian, and I used to be a screenwriter."

Wu Ershan and the others were both people who loved movies and started chatting quickly, and they had a very scheming conversation. However, not long after chatting, a beautiful girl came out of the classroom, Jiao Junyan from Zhang Ran's class. She called Yang Qing's name loudly and asked him to go in for an interview.

Half an hour later, Yang Qing came out, and Jiao Junyan began to call Wu Ershan's name. When he heard his name, Wu Ershan sorted out his clothes and walked inside.

"Hello, everyone!" Wu Ershan opened the door of the room and glanced at the five interviewers sitting inside, and said with a slight greeting.

The interview lineup is very strong, sitting in the middle is Zhang Ran, on his left are Oscar-winning director Alessandro Amaba and Neil Bromkamp of "Time and Space Warrior 2"; on the right are Park Zan-woo and Ning Hao.

"Please sit down!" Zhang Chong Wu Ershan smiled, then pointed to the chair in front and signaled Wu Ershan to sit there.

After Wu Ershan sat down, Zhang Ran looked through the resume in his hand and said, "Wu Ershan, you used to graduate from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Because you disagree with your teacher's philosophy, you dropped out of school early. After graduation, Beijing Electric took many avant-garde advertisements and also studied installation art. Many of your installation art works are often exhibited in Korea and Japan. From your experience, you can see that you are a person who desires freedom, is unwilling to be bound, and has artistic feelings. What we want to cultivate is a genre film director, emphasizes industrialization, and eliminates personality. Why did you come to our school?"

Wu Ershan took a breath and said, "At the beginning of last year, one day, when I walked to the cinema outside the archives, I wanted to watch a domestic movie. But after a walk around, I found that the cinema was being released either imported movies or Hong Kong-style spoof comedy, and mainland movies were almost not scheduled on that day. I was very angry at that time!"

Wu Ershan recalled his mood at that time, and his tone seemed very heavy: "I think movies are pop culture and have a great influence, especially for young people; and we are actually blank in such a huge field, which is really ridiculous! If we don't occupy this part ourselves, then we will be lacking and niche in pop culture. If we continue like this, our culture will become more and more marginalized! I am a Chinese and have feelings for my own culture. Okay, since others want to be artists, masters, and don't want to make commercial films, then I will do it!"

Zhang Ran nodded secretly. The biggest problem of Chinese films is not censorship, but conceptual issues. There are too many directors who despise commercial films in their hearts. They have never considered the audience's feelings when making movies. It is really rare for art-related people like Wu Ershan to let go of their artistic pursuits and truly want to do something for Chinese films!

"I watched your short film. In terms of directorial skills, it is very good. The picture processing is very good!" Ning Hao looked at Wu Ershan and said, "You used to be an advertising film director, so what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of advertising film directors making genre films?"

Wu Ershan thought for a while and said, "As an advertising director, you cannot freely choose the theme to express. You have to express all the propositions given to you by the creative director. You must also be good at using many different imaging techniques and styles. Therefore, the person who shoots advertisements may be a style expert, and he can immediately change his style as needed. If the advertising film director makes genre films, he has a strong adaptability; in addition, advertising films often have to be beautiful, and when making movies, the visual impact is stronger. In the disadvantages, advertising films focus on vision and despise stories, so advertising film directors have to lack some ability to tell stories.

Amamba asked: "The scenes in the short film "The Knife" you filmed are mostly night scenes and indoor scenes, with dark lights. The whole picture is very beautiful, but the daytime part is adjusted to black and white. Why do this? Is it for stylization?"

Wu Ershan smiled embarrassedly and said, "No, it's mainly to save money. I didn't expect that when I took it, I seemed to have a very personal style!"

The directors present basically made movies from small-cost movies. They understood Wu Ershan's feelings and laughed.

While Zhang Ran smiled, he nodded slightly. There are many young Chinese directors, but if they are thrown into Hollywood, most of them will not survive. Cao Baoping once said that 90% of the people in the Chinese film industry will starve to death if they go to the United States to work, and they can't even eat rice dumplings there. Zhang Ran thinks that two young directors are exceptions, one is Ning Hao and the other is Wu Ershan. Of course, there is also a Ding Sheng now.

Wu Ershan does not have Ning Hao's screenwriter skills and cannot write down-to-earth stories like Ning Hao, but Wu Ershan also has his own advantages, and he is particularly good at spending money. Being able to spend money does not mean that he spends money randomly, but on the contrary, it uses as little as possible to achieve the greatest effect.

When filming "The Sword of the Sword", Wu Ershan asked for every penny to be spent on the camera. The actor's costumes were well made in the upper body and the lower body was relatively simple. The clothes he took should have particularly good collars and makeup on his face. All the swords in "The Sword of the Sword" were borrowed, and even the prostitutes' clothes were left in "The Sword of the Sword". In the end, the movie only cost more than 7 million, but it produced a medium-sized movie effect of 20 million, which surprised many insiders.

Just imagine, Jia Zhangke, who spent 6 million yuan on filming "The Good People in Three Gorges", Zhang Meng, who spent 6 million yuan on filming "The Piano of Steel", and Wu Ershan, who spent 7 million yuan on filming "The Knife and the Knife". You are the producer and have a blockbuster film to shoot, who will you invite? The answer is obvious, Wu Ershan.

It is precisely because of the super cost-effectiveness shown in "The Sword and Laughing" that Wu Ershan was finally named the director of "Painted Skin 2". Directors like Wu Ershan are also the most popular among film companies in Hollywood. This is how Lin Yibin, Garys Edwards and others came out.

Park Chan-woo asked: "What do you understand genre films?"

Wu Ershan replied fluently: "I think genre films are a promise to the audience. Different types of films have different audiences. Many people come for the genre of the film, so as directors, you must meet the audience's needs. For example, comedy films must be happy, tragedy films must cry, suspense and mystery films must rack their brains, and horror films must scare people. In addition, genre films require the integrity of genre elements. For example, what is martial arts? Let me define it first, it is the story of freelancers who wear ancient costumes and can fight. Many people have confused martial arts films with martial arts films and killer films. The knight is not a policeman or a national civil servant. He represents the individual, which is the core. As a martial arts film, this element must be! "

The teachers present nodded slightly, and it was obvious that Wu Ershan had his own thoughts on the type and grasped the key points.

After that, Zhang Ran and his teachers asked several more questions, then discussed in a low voice, stood up with a smile, and said to Wu Ershan: "Wu Ershan, welcome you to officially become a member of the Asian Film Academy!"

"Thank you!" Wu Ershan stood up happily and shook hands with several interviewers.

"We all hope that Chinese movies can get better and better, so work together!" Zhang Ran patted Wu Ershan's shoulder and encouraged.

After leaving the interview room, Wu Ershan was still a little excited. Zhang Ran’s words just now made him understand that Zhang Ran was the same person as him. Zhang Ran did these things out of his love for Chinese culture, also out of conscience and responsibility.

"Wu Ershan, how about the interview?" As soon as Wu Ershan went out, Guo Zijian saw him and immediately walked up to ask.

Wu Ershan laughed happily: "It's over. Don't worry, you are also a person who really wants to make movies, so there will definitely be no problem!"

Just then, Jiao Junyan stood at the door and shouted: "Guo Zijian!"

Guo Zijian responded, greeted Wu Ershan, pushed the door and walked into the interview room.

A day passed and the interview was all over. Everyone was satisfied with the interview results. The only problem was that many students were not very good at English. Although they were equipped with professional language assistants in future teaching, when sophomore students were going to the Hollywood studio for internship, if their English was not good, communication might be more troublesome.

Time passed slowly, and it was soon September 4th, the opening ceremony of the Asian Film Academy.

On that day, a large number of Chinese and foreign journalists gathered at the gate of Beijing Electric in the morning, with long spears and short cannons, fully equipped and all of them were prepared.

At 9:30, a black sedan was coming soon. The appearance of luxury cars often means the arrival of celebrities, and all media reporters picked up the cameras in their hands.
Chapter completed!