Chapter 65

"Very happy and excited, I am. At the same time, I am extremely grateful to the school for specially organizing this graduation ceremony for me, and also to all the teachers, classmates, relatives, and media friends who have come to witness this most important moment of my life journey."

"Central Academy of Drama, my alma mater, is the first drama education institution of the new China, the highest institution of drama art education in China, the headquarters of the Chinese Higher Drama Education Alliance and the Asian Drama Education Research Center, and the base for the International College Student Drama Festival activities of the World Alliance of Drama Schools. It holds a UNESCO Chair in Drama Education and is a world-renowned art institution. I am very proud to have studied and graduated here, and to step into society..."

"Clap, clap, clap, clap" The audience below burst into applause, with teachers, the principal, and students all in a good mood.

"Here, not only can students with dreams of cinema learn all kinds of knowledge they desire, but there are also many opportunities to watch movies from all over the world for free. A movie lasts one or two hours, and every time it was movie time, my reaction was always 'Wow, free time, time to party.'"

"Chuckle," Just a moment ago, Chen Tiandu was still speaking solemnly, but suddenly he made a funny face and let out a joke, almost making everyone burst out laughing.

Some reporters who didn't understand Chinese looked at each other, seemingly finding the speech very interesting.

"Looking back on my four years of study, I think today's speech should include many 'thank you's. Not only because this school has given me such great honor, but also because I have been nervous about speaking in front of everyone for the past few days. To ease my nerves, my mother forced me to eat a lot of braised meat, which helped me lose weight. It's a win-win."

"Chuckle, ha ha ha ha"

The peculiar and humorous tone of the speech, along with exaggerated body movements and facial expressions, made the students unable to hold back their laughter. Kate didn't understand what Chen Tiandu was saying, but the atmosphere was great.

"Now, what I need to do is take a deep breath, glance at that red banner, and confirm that I am currently at the most enthusiastic, loyal, professional, and lively gathering of film enthusiasts in all of China."

Describing the students as film enthusiasts, the audience below burst into laughter again.

"Graduation ceremonies are a great task, so I recalled the graduation ceremonies of my seniors over the past few years, their graduation speeches, and the speeches of the guests, which greatly helped me draft today's graduation speech. Because... originally..." He cleared his throat and deliberately paused to pique everyone's interest, "I can't even remember a single word they said."

"Ha ha ha."

Laughter erupted again from the audience. They finally realized that today's graduation ceremony was not a serious one but a humorous one, and it was safe to laugh. The atmosphere in the auditorium became even more lively, with no trace of the earlier solemnity. Even the principal's expression was a bit odd, "With so many reporters present, don't mess it up."

Chen Tiandu continued his speech with a smile, his tone becoming more expressive and humorous, saying, "This revolutionary discovery allows me to tackle this speech without fear. Fellow juniors, forgive me for leaving school less than two years ago. My speech today might unintentionally influence your lives, making you abandon your great aspirations to become production elites and film purchasing tycoons and instead choose to be pure filmmakers. If you remember my speech in the future, it means I did better than the seniors of previous years."

The audience applauded again, and an enthusiastic person even whistled loudly.

"Setting achievable goals is the first step to self-improvement."

He raised his index finger high, his expression returning to seriousness, "Actually, I racked my brains thinking about what to say to you today. The principal asked me to share the market experience I learned outside with everyone, which made me feel a great deal of pressure."

"Perhaps the topic I will discuss next is a bit heavy. I don't know if I should talk about it. Fortunately, I am still young, and the young are fearless. If I say something wrong, I hope the elders will guide me." Chen Tiandu paused, and several teachers gave him encouraging looks. Even Zhang Yimou, who had just entered, crossed his arms and listened with interest.

"I have been thinking that our country's film industry is currently at a critical juncture. In the past five years, our movie audience has decreased by a hundredfold. From the era when a 2-yuan movie ticket could generate hundreds of millions in box office revenue, we have fallen into a deep abyss, and now people sneer at domestic films. As someone in the film industry, I feel very distressed."

"China has been implementing reform and opening up for several years, but we have made some mistakes and overlooked the need to learn from the advanced aspects of the West and capitalist societies with a critical spirit, to better integrate them into our socialist construction and serve the people and strengthen the country!"

Many people in the audience stared at him in surprise, including leaders from the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. Chen Tiandu's words were quite insightful, showing that this young man had indeed learned a lot outside.

"I am a person of little influence and shallow knowledge, and talking about theoretical knowledge to everyone would be like teaching a master. Instead, let me share some numbers. Let's take my film 'The Sixth Sense' as an example. I shot a movie called 'The Sixth Sense' in Hollywood. Many of you have seen it. It's a film that uses the horror genre to explore social relationships and human loneliness. The total investment cost of the film was 30 million dollars. I was very fortunate to convince DreamWorks to invest such a large amount in my first film. This was largely due to the help and support of Mr. Spielberg, my director from the 'Saving Private Ryan' crew. Thank you."

He repeated this sentence in English, and Spielberg understood. He smiled, and the audience burst into applause.

Without waiting for the applause to subside, Chen Tiandu continued, "If we include the salaries of the actors and staff and the actual production costs, it was actually less than 10 million dollars. The reason I asked for a 30 million dollar budget was to play a trick on DreamWorks. I planned to use 20 million dollars for promotion. The promotion cost for a movie is twice the production cost, which is quite unbelievable, isn't it?"

The current exchange rate between RMB and USD is 8.27:1, so 30 million USD is equivalent to 248.1 million RMB. The promotion cost alone was 165 million RMB. It was not just unbelievable; it was astonishing!

The audience below burst into exclamations of surprise, and many people began to whisper.

"Actually, spending 20 million dollars on promotion for a 10 million dollar movie is not unusual in Hollywood, which places great importance on movie promotion. They know the necessity of promotion. If no one knows about your hard work, how can you make money? Fortunately, I succeeded. 'The Sixth Sense' received unexpectedly good reviews when it was released. People were scared by my movie, and they told their friends about it, wanting them to be scared too. This is the power of word-of-mouth, just like 'Titanic' when it was released in China at the beginning of the year."

"The box office for 'The Sixth Sense' has continued to rise, and it has now surpassed 300 million in North America, successfully overtaking 'Saving Private Ryan' to become the top-grossing film of the year in the United States. Globally, it has reached 660 million USD, or 5.4 billion RMB, even before its release in China. Apart from 'Titanic,' this is the highest-grossing film of the year. The money earned from one film is equivalent to the total box office revenue of all films in the country over the past three years!"

The audience below was completely silent, stunned by this number. They had heard rumors about it before, but now that Chen Tiandu confirmed it himself, it was truly shocking. Regardless of their feelings—jealousy, admiration, or awe—what mattered was that he had achieved it.

(Speeches are hard to write. I tried to make it substantial because I was worried that some lazy person might copy it for their own graduation speech... cough, a bit self-indulgent. A new week seems to have arrived, and I sincerely ask for your recommendations. Thank you!)

Page flip, AD starts

Page flip, AD ends