Heads Up Hollywood

Robert De Niro's home looks to be more than a hundred years old, and the whole building is very old-fashioned. After entering, it gives people a sense of tranquility and elegance, which is by no means a vulgar place like a party mansion in Los Angeles.

There are artworks and paintings on the walls, I don't know if they are real or not, but they are full of life style and artistic atmosphere.

After Tang En appeared, the atmosphere of the whole party seemed to freeze for a moment.

All eyes were focused on him.

Independent filmmakers, the biggest shortcoming is lack of money!

For many movies, spending more than one hundred and two hundred thousand dollars is considered too much. Tang En is undoubtedly the biggest benefactor in the world!

With Tang En's signature sunny smile, he nodded with almost everyone present.

However, I didn't see a familiar face.

No way, the level gap is too big.

In the past few years, Tang En and the independent film industry have intersected, that is, Harvey Weinstein, Quentin Tarantino, or executives of independent film companies such as Focus Pictures, Miramax, and Fox Searchlight.

It really doesn't match up with these bottom-level independent filmmakers!

It is true, as long as independent filmmakers who can do anything, they all go to Los Angeles, try their best to go to Hollywood, and it is impossible to spare time to participate in this small film festival.

Although the founder of the Tribeca Film Festival is Robert De Niro, the theme of this film festival is really not very high! The biggest goal is to find 5 films from the participating films every year and push them to the cinema!

If you do, count as a success!

It can be seen that although the Tribeca Film Festival is well-known, it really has no industry strength.

Even Focus Pictures, the weakest independent film producer under the New Universal Group, can kill everyone here in seconds.

The real film power holder is still Hollywood!

New York, no!

Tang En's attitude towards these film "artists" at the party was quite friendly, but those who wanted to strike up a relationship were all rejected one by one.

Walked inside and finally saw Robert De Niro.

And the star-studded Martin Scorsese.

The films made by Martin Scorsese all belong to the category of independent films. However, he cannot be regarded as an independent filmmaker in the conventional sense.

Independent filmmakers often struggle with film budgets, sometimes for years.

Martin Scorsese is different, he is probably the only major director in the world who dares to make an independent film into an A-level production! He has encountered almost no financial hurdles.

In recent years, the word-of-mouth of Martin Scorsese's films has declined, and it seems that they have lost the sharpness of pointing out the current problems and the innovative exploration of film language in "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas".

However, after seeing the in-house screening of The Departed, all the moviegoers went crazy for it.

The familiar Martin is back!

He is indeed a master of film techniques after Francis Coppola!

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese were sitting on the sofa, accompanied by several men and women. Except for Al Pacino, Tang En didn't know any of them.

"Twain, I've been waiting for you for a long time!" Robert De Niro hurriedly stood up and greeted Dunn warmly. Several other people also stood up to invite him.

Tang En hurriedly said politely: "Everyone is a senior, don't be so polite to me, sit down! Sit down!"

After some introductions, Tang En found out that all the people present here were filmmakers who co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival with Robert De Niro.

Among them is a producer, Jane Rosen, who was a smash hit 20 years ago, Megatron Hollywood, and has supervised the production of "Forrest Gump", "Kramer and his wife" and other masterpieces. Older, though, is outdated and made out of Hollywood.

I can only come to this kind of marginalized independent film festival.

"Twain, you have a good brain. Come and give us some ideas. What should we do with this film festival?" Robert De Niro is highly respected in Hollywood, and even in front of Twain, he has a voice to speak.

Tang En smiled and said, "I still don't understand the situation, what do you want me to say?"

Robert De Niro quickly talked about the current situation of the film festival.

This year's Tribeca Film Festival is extraordinarily grand!

There are as many as 126 participating films!

When he founded the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro's idea was to make the festival a platform for filmmakers who pursue film art and innovation to showcase their works.

It is a platform for display, not a platform for selling films.

Robert De Niro doesn't have his own film company, so even if he wanted to sell it, he couldn't sell it.

This year is different, Harvey Weinstein is down!

In the past, Harvey Weinstein managed to secure at least 20 independent film releases a year. Now that Robert De Niro is in charge, what about the independent filmmakers? Can only ask Robert De Niro for help!

The higher the position, the greater the responsibility.

Harvey Weinstein has such a high prestige in the independent film circle, he didn't eat dry food! He has actually done some good things for independent filmmakers.

This makes Robert De Niro very embarrassed.

Harvey Weinstein has his back on Miramax, his back on Disney, and of course he can do it all.

But Robert De Niro can't do it!

He is dry and alone, he has no big backing!

Martin Scorsese was brought in, and he could only help him, but he couldn't help him.

We can only place our hopes on Tang En.

Tang En looked around and found that many people were secretly observing him, their eyes...full of anticipation and hope.

They make a movie for as little as two or three years, and as long as five or six years.

It is really a bitter thing that a work that took so much painstaking effort to produce cannot be presented to the audience.

Tang En secretly sighed. There are bottom-level people in all walks of life. Helping the bottom-level people to improve their lives is often the most difficult thing. He asked, "How do you deal with it?"

Robert De Niro shook his head and said weakly: "The film festival has several cooperating micro-distribution companies. Their attitude... can help distribute 15 films this year. 5 will be promoted to cinemas, and 10 will be mainly distributed through video. Released in the form of screenings."

In the distribution of movies, the most high-end is to push them to movie theaters.

Secondly, it is video on demand and TV stations.

The last thing is to release it directly on DVD.

In theory, any movie can be released on DVD. Even the most restricted adult films can be distributed in this way.

Therefore, there is no problem of DVD distribution for the films here, and they can be done very cheaply.

The key is that higher-level distribution channels are more difficult to obtain, especially movie theaters.

However, even if you enter a movie theater, you must start with a very small-scale screening, maybe 3 movie theaters, or 5 movie theaters. The box office is exploding, the scale will increase, and the box office is flat...Maybe in a week, it will be forced to be lowered by the theaters.

Very poor.

Before coming, Tang En firmly believed that he would not make casual moves, and that he was already giving enough face if he came to join him.

However, after arriving, seeing the status quo of these low-level independent filmmakers, I was moved with compassion.

Although these people were all dressed formally, Tang En could tell that the suits of many of them... were old styles from six or seven years ago.

Sticking to poverty on the road of pursuing art, no matter whether the movie is good or bad, this spirit will always move people.

Tang En was silent for a while, with a serious face, "Actually, don't limit the distribution channels to cinemas and TV stations. If a movie is well-known enough, it can still make a lot of money even if it is released directly on DVD. However, if it is unknown, No matter how good the filming is, it is doomed that no one will care about it. Publicity is very important!"

Robert De Niro gave Martin Scorsese a bitter look.

publicity?

If there are publicity funds and the movie can become famous, it will be easy to push it to the cinema.

How can there be so much trouble?

Tang En said slowly: "The traditional mode of operation of film festivals is that the selected films are first screened at the art film festival, and then an independent distribution company selects the films and pushes them to small theaters for screening, and then, half a year later And then DVD sales. Is the Tribeca Film Festival the same model?"

"Yes what's the matter?"

Robert De Niro was stunned for a moment. Film festivals all over the world follow this model, right? Even the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals are in this mode.

Tang En shook his head and said, "It's too outdated and needs to be reformed. The film festival can't control the ups and downs of the market in the future."

Robert De Niro frowned and said: "This is the movie sales model that has been implemented for decades and is regarded by the industry as the safest movie sales model. Is there a problem? Even Universal Pictures, right?"

Tang En waved his hand, "Most of Universal's productions are Hollywood-style commercial films. However, this model can no longer provide the basic protection function for art film festivals. It is difficult to guarantee access to many theaters with limited selection of theaters." People who really like art movies, and the DVD sales later than half a year are almost out of touch with the hot marketing promotion during the film festival. No matter how good a movie is, if few people have heard of it, who will rush to spend $20...or $30 to buy later DVDs? With such a cycle, art films will naturally struggle to survive.”

Robert De Niro couldn't turn his head around, and looked to Martin Scorsese for advice.

In the film career, Martin Scorsese is his life mentor.

Martin Scorsese smiled and said succinctly, "I believe in Dunn! When it comes to understanding movies, especially the movie market and movie models, he is unmatched in the world today!"

Such an abrupt compliment did not arouse the contempt of the people around.

On the contrary, they all take it for granted.

He is Tang En, and he deserves all the good words.

Robert De Niro hurriedly said seriously: "Tang En, tell me, what are you going to do?"