Scott Morgan, an award-winning director, entrepreneur and founder of Creativity First Films, to discuss how China is becoming the new entertainment capital of the world.
Tell us about Creativity First Films and your connection with China.
Creativity First Films is an evolution in studios presenting a treasure chest of Original Content to be financed through a more profitable and ethical investment system that respects the Brand and profits of the investor. Working in tandem is my cutting-edge technology company Crypto-Integrity-Tao that guarantees many more revenue streams like Augmented Reality, Tokens, ang IoT. Together these result in a paradigm shift that revives the global Entertainment Industry and delivers new fan experiences. This requires leaving behind the broken Hollywood finance system and replacing it favoring China.
My connection to China began over 30 years ago. I returned many years to help orphans. Learning Chinese philosophy, culture, and entertainment from the streets up instead of from the upper-most perspectives of Hollywood executives down guided me to appreciate how valuable China stories presented through Entertainment can be for the world. I spent years in China and Singapore to engage with Chinese studio leaders and financial institutions. Hollywood needs more people to go through this process, for now I’m the only one, and this makes Creativity First Films the optimum studio for China.
For the first time ever, China sold more movie tickets this year than the United States. Share your perspective on how China is rising as an entertainment leader of the world.
China began its Box office rise in 2015, so 2020 simply spotlighted its box office dominance. Surging in stock value this month is IMAX-China, which proves growth is not temporary or finished growing. COVID rules in China opened up theaters and many other industries while the rest of the world cowered in isolation, killing their theater systems. However, there is a silver lining, in fact an outstanding reward presented to international film. They needed out of deals that made them all “dependent upon” Hollywood for hit films and outrageously-expensive franchises. Hollywood’s financial system was as corrupt as the WGA writer-agency battle spelled out. For decades studios committed slow financial suicide through imprudent and unethical practices, trading short-term profit for long-term viability and profits. The weak condition enables the paradigm shift in financing that Screenwriters, Actors, Directors, and a few leaders like Range Media Partners insisted had to happen. If foreign investors and technology investors are the new lifeblood of finance, Creativity First Films has the only vertical business model to reward them more favorably than any previous Hollywood deal. Without a vertical system, any time China or Hollywood wanted to maximize tech revenue they’d overpay for it. This is the way for a tech investor to become Amazon in a single year and their studios to become Disney-level stock and royalty strong. Hollywood would never allow this, I do.
Understanding Chinese culture and the social vector of their youth class is essential. Chinese people want to feel a part of elevating consumer sectors and technology that make life grand and sublime, and the feedback loop of pride is integrated into Creativity First Films.
Tell us about your book “The Future of Hollywood-China Film, Media, And Finance.”
For any ill system to recover and thrive, the truth must be admitted and act as the foundation for a robust, profitable new system. This book began as a confidential guide to Chinese Entertainment executives. It revealed the insider understanding of both the terrific processes of creating films and the shady, untrustworthy side of Hollywood deal- making. It was at times hard to write chapters on the betrayal, immorality, greed, and Rico-Act level coordination of abusive practices because I love this industry; however, truth is how we protect and nurture our wonderful art of cinematic storytelling. Almost anyone with a significant past in Hollywood knows the shady side, and finally it can be circumvented so that the Integrity of filmmaking rewards the talent and the companies putting up the risk for financing. I think this is a win-win for every person involved. Direct access to valuable I.P., with writers and actors paid a percentage of Box Office gross and merchandise – finally.
This book is one of five books designed to work together to force this paradigm shift. At my event in Las Vegas, the entire vision will be presented to the movie and tech industries, showing how investing in film is a technology investment more than a typical past movie investment. The profits and positive impact for businesses and fans will be fantastic. We’re talking about an investment of $250 million delivering $3 billion starting this year and compiling over 3 years. Even more after the investor creates their own Patents off the Blockchain Intersections. When the entire design is revealed, everyone leaving the event will see the Hollywood—China creative dynamic on a higher level and the potential for uplifting humanity arriving in 2021, not years in the future. The other books cover international regulations, Edge Technology related to filmmaking, and how the two cultures can grow a mutually advantageous relationship.
How can countries accelerate partnerships with China in entertainment and how will it lead to healthy box office markets and more for countries currently struggling in the entertainment industry?
Three phases of filmmaking must be engaged together as one symbiotic organism, which is why I describe Creativity First Films and Crypto-Integrity-Tao as an “organism-environment.” Each deal, project, Game, App, and Edge Tech is an organism. The entire global Entertainment Industry is the environment. Think of it like the ocean – all creatures exist within salt water, without the salt, not creatures, without creatures, no healthy ocean. So films must adapt to this salt water and superior, healthier, essential environment. China evolved so big and so fast it is an organism so widespread it influences the environment which must share “Information” and “evolution” on a better level. This is where Blockchain and having the Studio headquartered in Singapore become nurturing prerequisites. Nations need to realize a new environment is being created, they must adapt to saltwater through more ethical and loyal interaction with China and must respect China as the dominant organism. This doesn’t mean players have to kowto to China, it just means players need to exist symbiotically: what is healthy for them is healthy for China and if not, China sheds the leech, which will perish without a lifeblood of audiences, culture, and money from China. Treat China honorably, uplift ethics so the people are proud of their influence, and the entire Industry resurrects beyond what it was before. For theaters, this means they need to filter the best Chinese-language films through to audiences just like theaters used to support European and India films. Chinese films present the foundation of their culture in almost all films: they value balance (Tao,) wisdom from within (Zhi,) Ren (humanity,) Li (harmony with nature and society,) Yi (morality and justice,) as well as Xin (heart and mind,) Thumos (the challenge to harness both the moral and greedy aspects within a person,) and Telos (the purposeless that drives personal goals.) The world values these aspects more than ever and are in a struggle to master them: find ways through Chinese film stories. Creativity First Films acquired projects to present these aspects.
What is a misnomer about China?
This question amuses me because there are so many. A person doesn’t have to leave behind any aspect of their life to appreciate some of what China has brought us over 3,000 years. Just open up and engage your senses, see what excites you and nurtures what gives you meaning, and enjoy the expansion of your self-confidence and Zhi-shi (the usable knowledge in your mind and soul.) Listen to your epigenetic and Ontological truths on a deeper level.
First misnomer – the Chinese people love their new “Liberty With Responsibility” and are excited to engage on higher wisdom and entertainment levels – they are not dreading life and unworthy of pride. Second, China does more to evolve protection of I.P. Rights than almost any nations, creating many courts just for this, and have already imprisoned and fined abusive I.P. thieves. Third, China didn’t break ethically in its deals with Hollywood, instead it was Hollywood that acted unethically and abused China by not honoring promises on filming there and more equitable deals. Fourth, Chinese people are not dumb, they observe and adapt faster than most nations, and learned fast how to move to the top even if Hollywood wanted to keep them dependent upon Hollywood talent and Original Content. The timing of Creativity First Films catches this wave as it peaks, which is thrilling and will lead to the financial and creative resurrection of Hollywood – this is a gift, it is not cutting off a limb of ROI. Sixth, China isn’t expanding its films to “turn the world Communist,” it needs free markets and independent national cultures to thrive in technology and entertainment. Millions of Americans saw “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” but I don’t know of any that left the theaters wanting to lead a neighborhood Communist potluck. China does want to expand its trade reach and profits, it needs to build infrastructure in foreign nations to do this, just like it needs to fund theaters. The U.S.A. stopped infrastructure funding as film funding – China fills that void. What alternative do we prefer – no electricity or hospitals in African nations because our cultures are different? That is not uplifting humanity, it is imposing one culture over another.
How is China building global appeal when it comes to producing movies?
Actually, this question can be taken two ways. It builds global “appreciation” (appeal) for China by financing films, developing technology to support it, and delivering the “products” (films, Games, A.R., etc.) However, China is more interested in what could be in the “soft power” category of Chinese competition as a Brand and land of luxury consumption. Chinese Art led the world in pottery and had a monopoly on fine silk. Now it wants to give the world Entertainment that simultaneously stimulates our Virtues, creates joy from within, ushers pride in the responsibility of culture and unity, and promotes the individual development of Edge Technology skills. Creativity First Films presents by far the deepest pool of I.P. that China needs to build this eco-system of artistic creation and deliver appealing products. But be patient as well as anxious: China is adapting 50 years of U.S. cultural changes in less than 5 years, there will be some growing pains, surprises, and sharp turns at times. Take a breath and deep study the “Brand” of the new China expansion into international global cultural appeal. Remember, culture cannot be exported, for nations to work together customs and government need to be appreciated if they maintain unity of the people and raise education, health, and national pride – regardless of the nation, religion they practice, and physical look and relationships.
Share your philosophy about China 2021.
We evolve as conscious beings capable of art by engaging people and cultures new to us. This has been the advancement of civilization for thousands of years. Most of the world proceeds with Western Philosophy for business and government, which results in fine, dominating, industrial nations. Now is the time to integrate Eastern philosophies (from China to India) to ensure technology intersections remind us of the great questions of humanity. “Why am I hear, what does the gift of consciousness mean, are the Cosmos part of us, what are we born knowing, how can we protect and communicate with Nature, how is love so real as it bonds families and strangers?” Why are we so curious about those people not like us, and how could it be that 99.9% of humanity is compassionate, curious, and wanting of communicating to others what gives their individual life Meaning? I think the next generation source for answering these questions merges Eastern and Western philosophies in what I call the first “Accelerating Philosophy” that keeps us human as technology beguiles us to give up our human gifts for the era of “Data-ism” integral to the near-future of Edge Technology experiences, products, and interfaces. The audience in Las Vegas will walk in imagining one of film accelerating technology but will leave realizing they accelerate humanity upon that Vector.
China leadership is taking a billion people from a “closed society” to one that is open, learning global life and knowledge via higher education and the Internet in less than 10 years. To achieve this without a breakdown in the supply chain, unity of the people, education, health, and city design is the most remarkable feat humanity will ever witness. This feeds and then pulls energy from the Youth and M.A.C. citizens engaged in technology all the way up to the oldest great grandparents that honor cultural traditions. This means the “High Value Social Vector” of China is robust, presents even greater potential for good and profits, and will accelerate its lead over other nations that do not put unified values and meaning first.
The “Power of Story” in a cinematic form holds the journey of us toward sublime understanding. This “emergent” entanglement nurtures our universe, internal values and Qualia, treating others compassionately, and preserving our planet so we appreciate the precious gift of being so very uniquely human and nothing less than humane. We are stewards of civilization and Nature, conservators on a quest beyond the stars yet as internal as your brain synapsis. Let’s usher in the “Age of Imagination” together and deliver real and thrilling evolutions in our role in shaping our reality.
Your questions reveal the power I recognize inherent in the cinematic art of film storytelling, and all I committed years to will preserve and evolve this beloved art and amazing gift bestowed upon humanity.
This article really made me think deeply, thats a rarity for me LOL.