Spielberg: Before they went to attend the premiere of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", he didn't talk about the investment quota to Yin Jun. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Since it is decided to cooperate with Global, how much investment should be given, how to use it, how to distribute rights, etc., all need to be carefully negotiated before it can be decided.

It's not something you can decide in a day or two.

But he did mention it, asking the person sent by Yin Jun to negotiate to help him fight for the power of the final editing right.

Because Spielberg was originally a big director, after "Jaws", he had the final editing rights, so he didn't think it was surprising, just mentioned it in passing.

After Spielberg's reminder, Yin Jun suddenly remembered a very important thing!

An important event about the changing landscape of Hollywood giants!

I would like to explain the problem of film editing here.

Film editing, in the simplest terms, is a means to create a suitable film atmosphere by reducing intermediate links, removing unnecessary images, etc., from the film, or the digital film materials shot by the director.

Film editing is not a one-time job, but requires multiple editing.

One, two, three...... These are quite normal.

The work of ordinary film editors is to do the first one or two cuts, and then the director must follow along to see the effect of the first few cuts, and discuss with the editor how to achieve the desired effect.

Generally speaking, in Xiangjiang, as long as the director finally confirms it, and then the film company sees that there is no major problem, then the editing is considered successful, and the version made by the director is called the final edit.

But in the United States, the right to edit is a great power.

The most common situation is that after the director finishes editing, the film company will make the final cut by itself, and then this version of the movie will appear in front of the audience, so this is called the final editing right.

For the director, he worked hard to shoot a movie for a year and a half, and the version that finally came out for the audience to see was not edited according to his own intentions, and it is conceivable how much *** rushed by in his heart.

But any director with a little self-esteem can't tolerate such a thing.

Because making movies is also an art industry, most of the directors have literary and youthful feelings, and naturally have a strong sense of self-esteem.

But even directors who have already made a name for themselves often can't get the final editing rights.

In Hollywood, there are no more than 10 directors who can get the final editing rights, or even absolutely, that is, only three or five people.

The trucker was given this power only after the Terminator series.

Spielberg was given power after E.T.

George Lucas has this power because he has always made his own films.

In addition, even super directors such as Peter Jackson, Michael Bay, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, etc., do not always get the final editing rights.

For example, Peter Jackson, it must be after the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, on "The Hobbit", to have the final editing rights.

As soon as "The Hobbit" ended, he still couldn't get the final editing rights for other movies.

For example, Bombshell, since "Pearl Harbor" came out, he has at best the final editing rights in some medium-sized films, and has made several global best-selling "Transformers" movies in a row, and he has not been able to get a separate final editing right, but decided with the production company.

Even they are like this, let alone ordinary directors.

This is also the reason why after the development of DVDs, there are usually "director's cut" DVDs for sale in the DVD market of movies - you don't let my edited version be released, but in the end, when the money is collected, my version can always be taken out, right?

Not to mention the bitter life of directors in the future.

Do you think Hollywood has implemented the production company's policy of controlling the final editing rights from the beginning?

Of course not!

In fact, although second- and third-rate directors still cannot get the final editing rights, before this year, many famous directors, including quasi-first-class directors, had their own final editing rights.

The turning point in history happened exactly this year, a few months later.

United Artists Films, one of the seven giants in the United States, has been producing a big-budget film called "Heaven's Gate" since last year.

The so-called big production, firstly, United Arts invested 38 million US dollars to produce this western, and secondly, the director they invited Michael Cimino, won five awards including the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for "The Deer Hunter" last year, which is simply majestic and unstoppable.

United Arts Films is full of thoughts that relying on big productions, plus the production skills of the Oscar for Best Director, plus a group of well-known actors, "Heaven's Gate" will definitely achieve brilliant results.

But the facts hit them hard.

After "Heaven's Gate" was released at the end of November this year, it only received about $1.6 million at the box office in a week, and it was immediately humiliated, and finally locked the box office at $1.6 million.

As we all know, Hollywood studios don't look very powerful, but in fact they are very vulnerable many times.

It was such a film with a serious loss of about 36 million yuan, which directly contributed to the bankruptcy of United Arts, one of the seven major Hollywood film companies, and was taken into the pocket by MGM the following year, and since then this old company founded by Chaplin and other famous directors no longer exists.

It's hard for anyone else to imagine such an example.

How could you, one of the top seven Hollywood film companies, have a turnover of $3.5 billion a year, just go bankrupt?

In fact, not all of the money used by film companies to make movies is their own, some are loans, some are cooperation, and their liquidity is far less than others think.

Therefore, once you encounter a huge loss in a certain period of time, then it will definitely cause a chain reaction, and it is not surprising that it will eventually go out of business.

Such a thing existed before 1980 and will continue to exist after.

For example, "The Wind Whisperer", which bankrupted the next MGM of Lianyi Company, is so famous.

While they, like Heaven's Gate, were the straw that broke the camel's back, and both companies had all sorts of problems before, there was no doubt that they were a veritable catalyst for the collapse that was blamed on them.

Back to the movie "Heaven's Gate".

After the success of Michael Simino's "Deer Hunter", his mentality swelled to the point that "Heaven's Gate" was made under this mentality.

Dragging, incoherent, face-painted characters, and too many dull links...... Wait, that's what he made.

In fact, Hollywood directors make bad movies, but in the end, they are edited out and become bad films, and there are many movies.

The key to the failure of "Heaven's Gate" is that Michael Simino has the final editing rights, and he wants the movie to be like this, so what it will come out of in the end.

As a result, everyone naturally saw it, and the audience didn't like his idea at all and didn't buy it at all, so Lianyi went bankrupt directly.

After United Arts declared bankruptcy and was acquired by MGM, the remaining six film giants in Hollywood reached a secret tacit understanding.

That is, no matter how big the director is, the company must have the final editing right, otherwise the present of Lianyi is everyone's tomorrow.

This is the most important reason why since then, the vast majority of super directors have not been able to get the final editing rights.

It's just that the results of a few people, such as Spielberg and truck drivers, are so good that the film company giants can treat them as equals, so they can get the final editing rights.

But there are only a few such examples, and after future directors rely more on special effects, it is even more unlikely that there will be directors like truck drivers and Spielberg who combine personality and talent, so maybe no director can get this power in the future.

But!

The relationship between these final editing rights and Yin Jun is actually not big.

What Yin Jun really cares about is the collapse of Lianyi this time.

There are many factors for the collapse of United Arts, but it is one of the seven major Hollywood movie giants, with very complete production capabilities and distribution networks, which are the foundation of its foothold in Hollywood.

Not to mention that Lianyi has two very good treasures in his hands.

The first is the well-known 007 series.

The 007 series was pioneered by Lianyi, and since five years ago, all the righteous copyrights have been recovered, and it has truly become the exclusive property of Lianyi.

James Bond, a super IP that everyone is familiar with on the screen, was bought by MGM, and directly brought MGM back to life in difficult situations, otherwise MGM would not only go bankrupt three times, according to the casino tycoon's gameplay, it is not surprising that ten times of bankruptcy.

The second is that people are not familiar with another super IP that far exceeds 007 - the copyright of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit".

Many people thought that The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were new lines.

Not really.

As early as 1969, United Arts Films bought the film rights to "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" from the Tolkien Trust at a cost of 7.5% of the total profits, including a series of profits from movies and peripheral products.

Of course, because the current technology is far from enough to support the performance of the entire Middle-earth, after Lianyi won the copyright, it has not been produced, but has cheapened the later new line.

But the appearance of the new line is too ugly, not only pit Peter Jackson, but also the Tolkien Trust, making "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" such big IPs that made more than $1 billion into a loss-making account, and not a penny of profits are distributed to the Tolkien Trust.

This angered the Tolkien Trust, and they not only took the new line directly to court, but also announced that all of Tolkien's works would not be put on the screen in the future, unless the situation was improved to the greatest extent.

You know, many Chinese people don't know, in fact, among Tolkien's novels, the most brilliant novel suitable for film adaptation, there is also a larger "Elf Diamond", which is also the most desired goal of Peter Jackson after filming "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit".

But because of this, "Elf Diamond" was sealed in the dust, and there was no hope for ten years and eight years.

Yin Jun remembered the collapse of Lianyi, and he remembered these two super IPs.

If, if you can buy United Arts before MGM, is it a perfect opportunity to enter Hollywood?