2020-07-27

MASTER CLASS丨James Schamus: How was the gold medal producer tempered?

On the second day of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, the Masterclass of the MASTER CLASS invited James Schamus, a famous American screenwriter, producer and former CEO of Focus Features in New York in the form of live connection. The Masterclass will be broadcast through platforms such as Central Video, Wenhui APP, Migu, Youku, BesTV, Tencent, Weibo and Himalaya.

James Schamus

In 1991, two like-minded young filmmakers- James Schamus and Ted Hope formed a small film company in New York. They named the company "Good Machine" in order to earn a good fortune. One day, a film-majored graduate from New York University called them and said that two of his scripts had just entered a competition and won a little prize. He heard that "Good Machine" could spend very little money to make movies, so he wanted to talk about it. This opportunity has contributed to their great cooperation for nearly 30 years with many excellent works.

In 1992, "Good Machine" released its first feature film Pushing Hands, and the shy young Chinese was Ang Lee, who later became famous in the international film industry. As a producer and screenwriter, James Schamus participated in the screenwriting and produced many works such as Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Lust, Caution directed by Ang Lee. Among them, The Ice Storm of Schamus won the Best Screenwriter at Cannes Film Festival, who is as the independent screenwriter; Schamus also produced Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Tokyo, Pianist, Dallas Buyers Club and Milk and many other productions. In 2014, Schamus was the chairman of the jury at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. At that time, Diao Yinan\'s Chinese film Black Coal, Thin Ice won the Golden Bear. The latest intersection between him and Chinese films was as a screenplay consultant for upcoming myth epic film Fengshen Trilogy of director Wu Ershan.

The most important ability of a producer is to "discover able people and put them at suitable posts"

James Schamus conducted live connection with audience

There is no denying the importance of a good producer to a movie, so as a gold medal producer, how does James Schamus himself view this position? He smiled and said that, in his opinion, the producer didn\'t need to be proficient in anything, but he had to understand everything, and the most important thing was to discover able people and put them at suitable posts. "When I started my career, I had to serve two crews at the same time for a week. I was deeply impressed by the producer of the first crew because he was able to deal well with all kinds of people in various jobs. The other is the TV series production team, and I think the producer is like a fool, standing there doing nothing but commenting. However, I realized later that this producer, whom I thought was a fool, was a real genius, because he recruited knowledgeable people, so he didn\'t have to direct people in various types of work and tell them exactly how to do it."

Expressing independent opinions is more important than empathy

James Schamus conducted live connection with audience

Just as he discovered Ang Lee with discerning eyes, James Schamus said that until now, as a producer, his greatest concern is still to find those who have real original ideas to express. "When I first initiated my career, I didn\'t guess what others wanted, but found those who had real original ideas to express, helped them to express, and then found audiences who were willing to listen. So far, I still like to do so. Imagine if your boyfriend or girlfriend starts guessing what you want, where to go and what kind of clothes you want to buy as soon as you wake up every morning. This seems to be an ideal partner in theory, but you may feel extremely agitated if you live with this person for two or three days. Therefore, whether you are a friend or a colleague on the film crew, you would rather find those who have independent views and can discuss with you. Empathy is surely important, surely important to be willing to understand your feelings, but it is more important to be able to express independent views."

In the working process, the director has to spend money while the producer has to manage the money. If the director is too "independent" and "personalized", will it cause pressure on the producer? Is it possible for directors and producers to "coexist harmoniously"? James Schamus said that he believed that the most important job of the producer is to prepare everything the director needed to realize his idea within the budget. "If you have experience in production, you will know that budget will not be enough in the end no matter what a large amount it is. However, as a producer, you can\'t always tell the director that this or that cannot be done, but you should learn to creatively give the director some choices. A producer who often says no to the director will soon become tired and unable to continue his work. Each director has different needs for each movie. For example, I have worked with director Ang Lee in ten movies. His needs in the early stage are different from those in the later stage, so we must continue to learn and meet the needs of the director."

Dare to show active ignorance

Working photo of James Schamus

In addition to Ang Lee, James Schamus has teamed up with another Chinese-language film director Wu Ershan, to serve as a script consultant for the Fengshen Trilogy. Before that, Schamus had more than 10 years of experience as a screenwriter for Chinese-language films in addition to writing in English. He modestly said that he initially knew nothing about the mythological epic movie Fengshen Trilogy at first, but this was a kind of "active ignorance". "On the one hand, you have to express what you feel amazing about this project, what you like and what you are interested in. On the other hand, you should also boldly express what puzzles you about this project and express your own feelings. This is called active ignorance. I think the best audience is not necessarily the wisest audience, Sometimes it can also be an audience who knows nothing about it. Ignorance does not mean stupidity, but means that although he does not know about the project, he can still enjoy the creation of the movie, believe it will work, and be a part of the process and sit back and enjoy the aesthetic experience."

In the live interactive session, James Schamus gave some pertinent suggestions to young people interested in the film industry, such as how to spend less money to make satisfactory short films. "You can find that editing can be done on your personal computer, mobile phones can make movies now, and there are some reasonably priced devices on the market for live recordings. But the key is, as a young filmmaker, you should stand behind the camera as much as possible without worrying about too much about financing."