为什么西方制片人完全停止在中国拍摄 [美国媒体]

-------------译者：roroho-审核者：dodo1864------------



Movie producers across Europe the Americas Latin America Australia and New Zealand — everywhere outside East Asia — have abandoned the People's Republic of China as a filming location.

电影制片人都跑去欧洲、美国、拉丁美洲、澳大利亚和新西兰——除了东亚之外的任何地方去了——已经放弃将中国作为拍摄地点了。

Last year was a big bust for China's efforts to attract foreign productions with only one major picture Pacific Rim shooting in China and in that case only because it had to. Pacific Rim’s producer Legendary Entertainment is 100% owned by the Chinese real estate company Wanda Group which wanted the production to shoot in its Wanda Qingdao Studios. The picture also had to shoot in China as a requirement for it to achieve official co-production status which is essential for it to receive preferential release status in the Middle Kingdom's movie theaters.

对于努力吸引外国电影制作来华拍摄的中国来说，去年是个大萧条，只有一部主流影片《环太平洋》在中国拍摄，而且也仅仅是因为它必须要在那拍。《环太平洋》的制片方传奇娱乐公司是中国房地产公司万达集团的全资子公司，该集团希望在青岛万达影视基地里拍摄该片。该片必须在中国拍摄也是为了获得官方承认的联合制片地位，这对其在“中原影视”的院线获得优先发行地位至关重要。

This year will come and go without a single major Hollywood or Western movie going to the Middle Kingdom for shooting. One reason for the filming drought is that China’s film authorities stopped issuing filming permits between March and October when the Communist Party of China held its 19th Congress. In such hugely important political years as this one cautious government bureaucrats typically shut down any activity in the PRC that could potentially cause embarrassing publicity for them.

今年不会有一部主流的好莱坞或西部电影将去”中原影视城“拍摄。拍摄项目枯竭的其中一个原因是，中国的电影主管部门在3月至10月期间停止发放拍摄许可......在如此重要的政治年里，谨慎的政府官员通常会停止任何潜在会给公众带来干扰的宣传活动。

More important however is the general antipathy toward China among producers.

然而，更重要的是制作公司普遍对中国反感。

 -------------译者：jsdanxtandkao-审核者：dodo1864------------

China has a reputation as being a pretty terrible place to film says American producer and China physical production expert Aaron Shershow. “Exactly zero Western productions are being planned for next year” he told me. “None of the major Hollywood studios and none of the major independents have set up to film movies there."

按美国制片人和中国现场制片专家Aaron Shershow的说法，中国不是一个拍电影的好地方。“事实上，没有西方制片商正计划明年（在中国拍摄）”，他告诉我“也没有一个好莱坞工作室和独立制片人在着手准备去中国拍电影”

That’s partly he says because producers arrive to shoot in China without proper planning or the right local partners and in a country that is rife with business and cultural challenges for foreigners that usually leads to disaster.

一定程度上，他说是因为制片商在中国拍电影没有正确的计划与合乎的当地合作商，并且在一个对外国人来说充斥商业和文化挑战的国度拍电影通常会导致灾难性的结果。

Shershow a fluent Chinese speaker who has served as a production manager on Pacific Rim Iron Man 3 and Keanu Reeves' Man of Tai Chi explains the problems. “People get this romantic idea of doing things the Chinese way to save money. But the Chinese way is actually very expensive. It’s chaotic" he says. "

讲得一口流利中文，担任过《环太平洋》《钢铁侠3》《太极侠》制片人的Shershow解释说“人们抱有不切实际的想法，幻想通过以中国方式做事来省钱，但中国方式（的代价）昂贵，那就是混乱。”

In China， crews tend to be inexperienced ，Financial controls are often lax and the director is typically given far more control than on western-made films without proper checks and balances.

在中国，工作人员往往是没有经验的。经济管控很松懈，而且导演通常被赋予比西方的导演更多的电影掌控权，却没有经过适当的检查和制衡。

“China can actually be a good place to shoot movies” Shershow adds. “But you have to organize it properly. You can’t go in and assume it’s a regular production center like Prague Budapest or Vancouver.”

"中国确实有能力成为一个拍电影的好地方" Shershow补充道。“但你必须有条理正确地组织安排。你不能当它是布拉格布达佩斯或者温哥华一样的普通制片中心，随便出入毫无顾忌。"

China also lacks much of the financial sophistication， producing expertise filming infrastructure and specialized equipment that western producers take for granted in their home countries.

中国缺乏投资成熟度，制作专业电影的基础设施以及西方制片人在其本国习以为常的专用设备。

-------------译者：668-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

But even those major challenges pale in comparison to the obstacles China’s government puts in the way of foreign productions. An overwhelming raft of regulations permitting requirements censorship stringent financial controls and extreme bias against what some Chinese politicians call “foreign cultural pollution” make it a daunting location for filming even for producers with decades of experience there.

但即使是这些重大挑战与中国政府为外国影片设置的障碍相比仍是小巫见大巫。大量的规章制度、许可要求、（繁琐的）审查制度、严格的金融管制，还得对抗一些中国政客所称的“外国文化污染”的极端偏见，使其成为令人望而生畏的电影拍摄地的主要原因，甚至对拥有几十年经验的制片人来说也是如此。

“China has become the place to avoid” says Shershow. Even Legendary is avoiding China now. With Skyscraper (the new Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson-starring action-thriller) they didn’t shoot a single day in China even though the story is set in Shanghai.

“中国已经成了外国电影公司回避的地方”，Shershow说。甚至连传奇娱乐公司现在也在回避中国。《摩天大楼》(“巨石强森”德韦恩·约翰逊主演的动作惊悚新片)，尽管故事背景设定是在上海，但他们没有在中国拍摄一天。

There are powerful incentives for shooting in the PRC. Access to the market’s huge and lucrative movie-going audience is strictly controlled by the government and it’s extremely difficult to screen foreign movies in Chinese theaters unless they’re made as official co-productions with Chinese producing and financing partners.

中国有强有力的拍摄激励制度。作为市场通道的庞大的赚钱利器——电影观众受政府严格控制，除非他们是与中国制作和其融资合作伙伴共同制作的官方合拍作品，否则很难在中国影院放映外国电影。

But the biggest co-production to date Legendary’s early 2017 release The Great Wall failed everywhere outside China and crushed most Western producers’ interest in co-productions intended to serve audiences both in China and the rest of the world.

但迄今为止，与传奇影业(Legendary)在2017年初发行的最大合作作品《长城》(Great Wall)在中国以外的其他地方都收视惨败了，并粉碎了大多数西方制片人对中西合拍，打算更好地服务中国和世界其他地方观众的意向。

Apart from the brief presence of Pacific Rim the $8 billion Wanda Qingdao studios have sat mostly empty. In July Wanda was forced to sell off its studio development to real estate rival Sunac and now retains only a 9.3% interest in the facility.

除了电影《环太平洋》在价值80亿美元的万达青岛影视城短暂拍摄过，其他时候（影视城）通常都是一座“空城”。今年7月，万达被迫将其工作室开发出售给了房地产竞争对手Sunac，目前仅保留了9.3%的股权。

Whether Sunac can make a profit on its investment will depend at least in part on whether it can lure Hollywood to film in its stages. As of now it's unclear how they can do that in a meaningful way.

Sunac能否从投资中获利，至少在一定程度上取决于它能否吸引好莱坞电影在其拍摄发展。目前还不清楚他们能以何种有意义的方式做到这一点。


-------------译者：落叶乔木-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

–]HotNaturedUnited States 
“People get this romantic idea of doing things the Chinese way to save money. But the Chinese way is actually very expensive. It’s chaotic"
Well this is just great in and out of context.
I understand the co-production problem--it's clear not just from movies like The Great Wall but also from the Chinese actresses that keep getting bit parts in blockbusters that Western and Chinese audiences don't have the same tastes.

“人们幻想能通过中国式办事方法来省钱。但事实上中国式方法代价很高，那就是混乱。”
这句话说的好，来龙去脉都很清楚。我很清楚共同拍片会带来的问题——无论是拍摄诸如《长城》这样的影片，还是请一些中国女演员，在大片中给她们点镜头——都说明中西方观众口味的不同。

[–]occupatio 
The insistence on (or incentivization of) co-productions has hurt the quality of China films and for that matter has basically killed the Hong Kong film industry. It is too punishing for example for a HK crew to not do a co-production otherwise it is categorized as a foreign film for the purposes of the China film quota; and the other 'incentives' involved. Johnnie To's Milkyway production company still survives but the industry has suffered tremendously.

盲目坚持（或鼓励）合拍片已经危害了中国电影质量的（这一想法）基本上扼杀了香港电影产业。其带来的恶果太重，例如，如果一个香港制片人不愿意拍港陆合拍片，影片将被归为外国影片，他就会被扣上想要获取中国进口电影配额的帽子，并且涉及了其他“动机”。虽然导演杜琪峰的银河映像电影公司依然能够存活下来，但香港影业已遭受重创。

The main problem is the compromises that must be made to accommodate the actors/crews and to the multiple audiences that are targeted. Leading to absurdities such as a dialogue in which one actor speaks in Cantonese and the other in Mandarin to each other. Worse behind the scenes there are too many agendas at work instead of a more focused vision for what the film should be.

主要在于必须做出妥协以适应演员/工作人员和目标受众的口味需求。这也导致了很多荒谬的事情发生，比如一段对白中，一个演员用粤语，而另一个演员则用普通话与对方搭台词。更糟糕的是，在幕后，由于工作日程安排繁多，所以（制片人员）无法专注于影片的拍摄保证质量。

I'm just talking about the Hong Kong & mainland co-productions. The co-productions with American studios could only be more ridiculous.
And that's not to even mention censorship which most worryingly does not have all its guidelines spelled out.

以上只是在说香港和大陆的合拍片。至于大陆和美国制片方的合作影片可能有更荒谬的事发生。更别说还没提及到最烦人的审查机构，（基于其标准）把电影的很多片段都删减了。

[–]HotNaturedUnited States 
That's really interesting. How long has this been an issue? When was the last time the HK industry was really thriving unhindered by the whole mess? Without digging into my IMDB ratings I feel like most of the HK films I'm familiar with are from early post-Handover mid aughts maybe as late is '12.

这还挺有意思的。这个问题存在多久了？香港影业不受乱七八糟东西的影响，最后的辉煌时期是什么时候来着？如果不去我翻找网路电影资料库的评级数据，感觉好像我最熟悉的港片都是制作于香港回归中国后的早期和中期阶段，可能最晚也是12年前。

-------------译者：落叶乔木-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

[–]XiJinPingPong 
Anyone else notice the rising number of white "China movie industry" experts shilling their trade here along with all the new "China Film Insider" style columns in recent years?
These windbags are exactly like all those "China business consultants" and "Sino experts" e.g. Bill Bishop and Chris Devonshire-Ellis that sprung up in Beijing in the 00s.
So I guess now the real consultant money is in movies. But for me there can only be one true foreign expert of Chinese film: Jonathan Kos-Read!

有人注意到了么，近年来那些号称“中国电影行业”专家到处招摇撞骗的白种人越来越多，同时出现了各种扒皮“中国电影内幕”形式的专栏。这些喜欢嚼舌根的人像极了那些逼逼叨叨的所谓的“中国业务顾问”和“中国专家”。比如00年代出现在北京的中国问题专家利明璋(Bill Bishop)和克里斯·德文谢尔·伊利斯。所以我猜现在真正的顾问费包含在了电影制作资金里。但在我心里，能真正称得上中国影业外国专家的人只有乔纳森·科斯·瑞德！（美籍演员，又称“曹操”）

[–]xiefeilaga 
I mean part of the reason there are new industry experts popping up is because it has been pretty big business in recent years. Even now the co-productions may be drying up but access to the Chinese market (and Chinese finance) is still a huge deal for Hollywood. There's literally billions on the table. That kind of business tends to give rise to people who know their shit.

我想说，突然新出现了很多电影行业专家有部分原因是因为近几年有相当多的这方面的生意可做。即使现在合拍片可能正在没落，但获取中国市场（或是中国的资金）对好莱坞而言仍然是笔大生意。放在台面上讲的都高达数十亿。这么大数额的生意会引起那些耍肮脏手段的人不断滋生。

[–]XiJinPingPong 
That kind of business tends to give rise to people who know their shit
Yes yes I get that. What I am saying is that these sort of articles which there has been an increase of this year read more like advertorials and soft-ads rather than journalism.
Take this one which extensively and ONLY quotes Aaron Shershow an American movie production fixer based in China who goes on and on about how hard it is for Hollywood to make a movie here and how only he can help. The reporter - Rob Cain - didn't even bother to get a counter-quote from someone else.
Like I said it just reads like windbag-ery.

“这么大数额的生意会引起那些耍肮脏手段的人不断滋生。”
是的，的确。这我明白。我要说的是今年不断增多的这类文章读起来更像社论式广告（指常作为杂志中心插页的正式广告文字）和软广告（报刊上像普通文章的广告）而不是新闻报章。好比这篇文，很多内容都是引述艾伦·舍秀，一个主要在中国拍摄的美国电影制片人的话，他不断地说好莱坞在中国拍片有多艰难，对此他帮不上什么忙。而记者罗博·凯恩（（这篇文章的作者））甚至都懒得从别人那反述这些话。就像我说的，这文章读起来啰嗦得要死。

[–]xiefeilaga 
True. They could be old roomies or drinking buddies or something.

说的没错。他们就像一群相识多年的老舍友或者酒肉朋友之类的。

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[–]kulio_forever
yes I noticed that but what was weirder is that he was positioned as an expert but not seemingly promoting that only he can solve the problem instead he was the expert who knew why it was all fucked

是的，我注意到了这点，不过更让我奇怪的是他竟然被定位成一个专家，但看起来并不是在说只有他才能解决这个问题，而是说他是了解（合拍片没落、不在中国拍摄这一切来龙去脉）的专家呢。

[–]dandmcdUnited States 
I just saw Forbes.com and knew right away it's just an unpaid blogger trying to feel important. I don't take most of what they say seriously though he does make some good points I agree with but I don't consider these people experts in the field.

我刚去福布斯网看了，一下子就知道是怎么回事了，这不过又是个无报酬博主在试图博取注意力。大部分他们说的，我都没当真，尽管他确实成功地说到了一些我赞同的好点子上，但我并不觉得这些人会是这个领域里的专家。

[–]heels_n_skirt
It would be nice if foreign companies should start to do the same thing

如果外国公司也开始做这样的事情结果会很不错的。

[–]nincludEuropean unx 
they don't make profits in China anyway that wouldnt be a big loss...

反正他们在中国没利润可赚了，这也不会是什么大损失...

[–]ca_jas 
China is probably still a dreamland for independent movie makers but with all the regulation it's hell to try and pull off. I said it's a dreamland because many locations in China are still not so commercialized and "polluted" with adverts everywhere as in the west. Creates a nice backdrop to tell a deeper story.

中国对独立电影制作人来说可能还是个理想之地，但有那些条文规定跟着，简直是地狱般的尝试啊。我还说那是个理想之地，是因为中国的很多地方都还没商业化，被像在西方世界那样还没被随处可见的广告所“玷污”。这为讲述一个更深刻的故事创造了好背景。

[–]nincludEuropean unx 
Europe is much more welcoming... We finance a large part of Chinese independant movies.

欧洲明显更为友好啊... 但我们却投资了一大部分的中国独立电影。

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[–]Yamok 
It's funny to see this happening while there are large investments from China in Hollywood.

在中国投入大量资金投资好莱坞时看到这种情况挺有趣的。

I thought recent movies (at least those that are meant for screening in China) always needed some scenes filmed in China to make the Chinese audience happy and make more $ in China. So not anymore?

我就想最近的电影（至少是那些将要在中国放映的电影）总会需要一些是在中国拍摄的镜头来使中国观众开心以赚取更多的钱。所以现在是不再这么做了吗？

[–]shishiqiushi
Turns out the benefit of that is not worth the cost of having to film in China and put up with party bullshit.

事实证明，这点好处并不值得非得去中国拍电影，还得忍受一些官员的逼逼。

[–]joshlammUnited States
Does anyone know if Disney's Mulan will be shot in China?

有谁知道迪斯尼的《花木兰》会不会在中国拍摄？

[–]TrumpsYugeSchlong 
No. But it will star a Chinese actress in the lead.

不会。但它的女主角将会是一位中国女演员。

[–]nincludEuropean unx  
The CCP has demanded some changes in the scenario The story will take place during WW2 Comrade Mulan will be a CCP soldier and she kick the a$$es of thousands of evil Japanese devils. Success guaranteed at China's box office because all the primary school students/civil servants/soldiers will be forced to watch it!

中国已经要求修改剧情，改成故事发生在二战期间，木兰同志将成为一名中国CCP战士，而且她将灭掉成千上万个邪恶的日本鬼子。在中国的票房绝对保证，因为所有的小学生/公务员/士兵都将被逼去观看这部电影！