During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 788 The End of Prosperity: Emotional Marketing
Compared to the dazzling red carpet, the actual awards ceremony was rather uneventful and uneventful.

As with other award ceremonies in China, after the opening remarks by the organizing committee chairperson, Tian Zhuangzhuang, the song and dance performances began.

This segment wasn't particularly interesting to the celebrities and guests present, unless they encountered a singer they liked.

But viewers watching the live stream really enjoyed it. After all, who wouldn't like to get something for free, especially such a high-caliber live event?

Of course, Mr. Wei arranged this segment partly to increase influence and attention, but more importantly, to fill the time limit.

Because the Golden Film Awards have few categories, similar to the Golden Horse Awards, there are fewer than 20 regular awards in total.

If each award is presented every five or six minutes, the ceremony wouldn't even last two hours if it were just a dry presentation of awards. What a joke!
So, apart from the opening performance, there will be one or two performances after every two awards are presented.

It's fortunate that Shanhe Media and Boss Wei have extensive connections; otherwise, the appearance fees for these performers alone would have been astronomical!
The first artist to take the stage today is Zhang Bicheng, an artist under Shanhe Media.

This girl has had a pretty good career since her debut on "The Voice of China". She has released several albums and even has a song written specifically for her by Boss Wei.

The song being performed right now is "Years," with lyrics and music by Wei Jin. This song is also one of the insert songs for the upcoming fantasy drama "The Journey of Flower."

"Counting the rings of time, I carefully seal away all my secrets; densely packed are my pride."
"Through countless revisions of our separations, I admit I once fantasized about forever, but sadly, no one has ever shared this script with me."

"This song is so good, my brother is so talented!"

Sitting in the fourth row, lovestruck Nazar listened to the heartfelt songs, which sounded especially beautiful in the luxurious concert hall, and the light of admiration in his eyes was completely undisguised.

However, her sentiments also represented those of many singers who were invited to the event, as well as many viewers watching the live stream.

Over the years, although Mr. Wei has rarely written songs, many people have recognized his musical talent and believe that he can become a top musician in the Chinese music scene.

Unfortunately, their ambitions lie elsewhere. What can be done?

After the song ended, amidst applause, award presenters Leon Lai and Gao Yuanyuan took to the stage to announce the first award of the day – the Best Action Design Award.

This award was won by Wei Jin's senior from the Beijing Film Academy, Xu Haofeng, for his film "The Master".

Although the film has not yet been released, it obtained its public screening license last year, which meets the requirements for the Golden Film Award.

Compared to its competitors, such as "Nobody's a Person 2" and "The Raid 2", the fight scenes in "The Master" are not particularly flashy or cold.

However, by using elements such as the restraint of short weapons over long weapons and the use of terrain advantages, it demonstrates the practical logic of traditional martial arts. Furthermore, through techniques such as close-quarters blocking and semi-chokeholds, it embodies the urgency of a life-or-death struggle, making it superior in terms of artistry.

However, this style is not very good for box office performance because it goes against the audience's inherent understanding of "life-or-death struggle" and has a certain viewing threshold.

The next Best Original Music award went to "Just Once" from the movie "Goodbye Mr. Loser".

This song, sung by Yang Zongwei, received high praise and became very popular upon its release, so winning an award was well-deserved.

At this moment, the original singer, Yang Zongwei, also took to the stage to perform this song. To be honest, his singing skills are indeed quite good!
However, the award-winning film "Goodbye Mr. Loser" seems to have heralded a bountiful harvest for Shanhe Media.

The Best New Director award was then won by Wen Muye for his work on "Lost and Found".

The Best Animated Feature Film award was also won by "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" without any doubt.

This film received unanimous praise from the judges, beating out competitors such as "Kuiba 3" and "Dragon Nest", and deserved the award!
However, perhaps it was the previous Oscars that raised the bar for acceptance speeches.

Both Wen Muye and Tian Xiaopeng expressed their gratitude to Wei Jin for his support on stage.

The sincerity of his words and the cheesiness of his language made Mr. Wei, who was sitting in the audience, feel a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, after those two awards came the song and dance performance, which finally made Wei Jin feel a little more at ease.

At this moment, not only did the live stream chat start flooding with comments, but even the guests at the scene were all focused on the performance, because the singer Jacky Cheung was going to perform on stage.

It's worth noting that since launching his Half-Century Tour a few years ago, the "God of Songs" hasn't attended many related music events in the past two years.

It would be amazing to hear him live!
Moreover, due to Mr. Wei's personal reasons, the God of Songs performed two songs in a row this time, "Old Feelings Lingering" and "Big Events in a Small Town".

His rich, mellow tone, combined with emotional explosiveness and delicate control, captivated countless people at the scene.

The subsequent awards ceremony still had nothing to do with Shanhe Media.

The Best Adapted Screenplay award went to "12 Citizens," while the Best Original Screenplay award went to "The Golden Era."

To be honest, the former's award was well-deserved.

After all, this film, adapted from the American film "12 Angry Men," did not perform well at the domestic box office, but it received extremely high praise.

Even with extremely low screening rates, its daily box office revenue has begun to rebound from its lowest point, thanks to positive word-of-mouth, which is quite rare!
But the latter, "The Golden Era," really got a great deal.

If works like "The Unknown" and "Bad Genius" were eligible to participate, it wouldn't be considered; it's like choosing the tallest among the short.

Of course, this is an unavoidable situation for major award ceremonies; otherwise, how could there be such a thing as a "small year" for film festivals?
Guo Fan might have some regrets, but his good friend Lu Yang was quite happy because "Arrogant 2" won the Best Art Direction award.

Although it was a behind-the-scenes award, at least I didn't go home empty-handed.

Of course, apart from the nominees and some fans, most people don't really care about the three behind-the-scenes awards.

The live stream chat was mostly filled with discussions about the performances interspersed throughout the stream.

The rumors about Girls' Generation and Taylor Swift are indeed false. Wei Jin did not intend to invite them because their styles were too incompatible.

Jay Chou, who had just gotten married at the beginning of the year, was invited by Mr. Wei.

Jay Chou's heartfelt and ethereal rendition of "Fireworks Fade Easily" not only prompted many celebrities in the audience to sing along, but also caused a frenzy of comments on the live stream, with Jay Chou's fans dominating the chat!
After the song ended, the main event of the evening began.

Mei Ting and her husband were quite lucky; she won the Best Supporting Actress award for "Blind Massage," and he won the Best Cinematography award for "XZ Sky."

Speaking of which, Mei Ting's older sister is really dedicated. She's only been married to Zeng Jian for three years, and she's already four or five months pregnant with her second child.

When Mei Ting, heavily pregnant, received the trophy from her classmate Zeng Li, she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

Of course, Han Tongsheng, who won the Best Supporting Actor award for "12 Citizens," and Lü Zhong, who won the Best Actress award for "The Intruder," were just as happy as she was.

Both of them are veteran actors, but they have rarely won any major awards. They were overjoyed to be able to prove themselves this time, and the wrinkles on their faces have relaxed a lot.

However, the happiest actor should be Deng Chao, who won the Best Actor award for "The Dead End"!
With nearly 20 years in the industry, Deng Chao has only a handful of awards to his name, seemingly only winning a Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Assembly".

Compared to his fellow "Four Little Heavenly Kings" like Huang Xiaoming and Tong Dawei, he was far inferior. But now, having won the Best Actor award, even though the prestige of the Golden Film Award is still debatable, it's a huge step forward!
But to be honest, Deng Chao's winning this award was quite a close call, because the competition was also very strong.

Actors such as Zhang Hanyu in "The Taking of Tiger Mountain", Andy Lau in "Lost and Found", and Duan Yihong, another actress nominated for "The Dead End", all gave excellent performances.

The debate at the final hearing was incredibly heated, and Deng Chao ultimately defeated the other competitors by a single vote.

Of course, Mr. Wei deserves a lot of credit for this, because the other two films were produced by Shanhe Media, and he really couldn't support them any longer.

Otherwise, wouldn't this year's Golden Film Awards become a worthless, self-serving award?

In fact, even if things have balanced out like this, Shanhe Media is definitely the biggest winner tonight.

Because "The Taking of Tiger Mountain" won three awards in a row, including Best Editing, Best Director and Best Film!
However, there was no foul play involved in this result. After all, a mainstream commercial film with a box office of 15 billion yuan deserves this treatment.

This was evident from the applause at the scene; everyone was mentally prepared.

Even Tsui Hark himself, on his third time stepping onto the podium, appeared incredibly composed.

"Director Xu, congratulations!"

As the chairman of the jury, Wei Jin personally presented the trophy and certificate for the Best Film Award.

The Gold Film Award trophy is a crystal cylinder that is thicker at the top and thinner at the bottom, with a metal film about two fingers wide and three fingers long inlaid at the very top.

—This has been one of the most indispensable consumables for filmmakers for nearly a century!

After Tsui Hark's acceptance speech, all the winners took to the stage for a group photo with their trophies, marking the official end of the inaugural China Film Golden Film Awards.

The organizing committee arranged a dinner at the Hilton Hotel where the guests were staying. Although some guests left for various reasons, most of them were still present and attended the dinner.

As the rightful host of the day, Wei Jin naturally became the center of the banquet.

This time, however, Wei Jin did not remain seated on Diaoyutai as he always had. Instead, he frequently moved around the venue to thank the guests.

After all, the newly established Golden Film Award doesn't have that much appeal. People only came to support it because of Mr. Wei's influence.

"Brother Xiaoming, congratulations! I'll definitely come to your wedding banquet!"

"Brother, thank you so much. Oh? A new project? A Sino-Indian co-production? Okay, let me know when it happens, I'll definitely come, hahaha."

"King Aaron Kwok, thank you for your support. It's a pity about your performance in 'Port of Call,' you acted so well."

"Matt, bro, thanks for the support! How's it going on set? Joker? You'll have to talk to Leon about that, I have no objections."

"."

After socializing with everyone while holding red wine, Ren Zhonglun and Zhou Xingxing walked over side by side and talked to Wei Jin about the release schedule of "The Mermaid".

According to Stephen Chow, the film is still planned to be released during the Spring Festival period, since the potential of the release window is obvious, and he is used to it.

Wei Jin and Ren Zhonglun had no objection to this.

As for China Film Group, it doesn't matter since the three parties have reached an agreement.

It is worth mentioning that the organizing committee and Wei Jin both invited China Film Group to participate in this year's Golden Film Awards.

However, La Peikang did not come over; he only sent a vice chairman to show his support, saying that the former was busy discussing the matter of "The Crossing Part 2" with several major production companies.

Whether it was true or false, Wei Jin did not investigate further, and he did not intend to have much contact with it anyway.

When the topic of "The Mermaid" came up, Wei Jin recalled something.

"By the way, Director Zhou. This distribution is mainly being handled by the three of us. I have a publicity idea that I'd like to discuss with everyone."

"Wei Jin, if you have any good ideas, please share them. We are all ears."

Ren Zhonglun was the first to speak up, and Zhou Xingxing nodded hurriedly, "Yes, Mr. Wei, I humbly ask for your advice."

"That's right. Director Zhou has always been very popular with audiences in mainland China. Any work related to you is very well received. This can be seen from the recently approved sequel to 'A Chinese Odyssey'."

Seeing that Ren Zhonglun and Zhou Xingxing were both curious about what would happen next, Wei Jin didn't keep them in suspense and continued:
"In fact, before the release of 'Kung Fu Hustle,' the vast majority of people watched pirated copies and had neither the ability nor the means to support the official version."

Therefore, many viewers actually have a sense of compensation towards Director Zhou, which is one of the reasons why every one of his films is a box office hit.

Ren Zhonglun nodded thoughtfully. "You mean, we should use emotional marketing to target this compensatory psychology?"

"Yes."

Wei Jin nodded and stated the core selling point: "We can focus on promoting a slogan—we all owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Zhonglun and Zhou Xingxing were both stunned, but their eyes were gleaming with a green light.

"Wei Jin, your idea is absolutely brilliant!"

Once he realized what was happening, Ren Zhonglun spoke with great emotion.

In his view, it is no exaggeration to say that this one marketing slogan alone is worth 500 million yuan in box office revenue!

"However, I must say this first: this kind of publicity consumes the reputation and audience goodwill that Director Zhou has accumulated over the years, and it can probably only be used once. So whether or not to use it depends on Director Zhou's decision."

Wei Jin's words were very clear. Ren Zhonglun also looked at Zhou Xingxing, who only frowned for a second or two before decisively nodding in agreement.

“Wei Sheng’s idea is excellent. I’m fine with it. Let’s do it this way.”

At this moment, Stephen Chow's businessman attributes outweighed his attributes as a director and actor.

His first consideration was whether the investment of over 100 million yuan could yield a reasonable return.

As for what happens in the future, we'll talk about that later.

Besides, we've built up such a strong fan base over the years; if we don't use it now, when will we?

(End of this chapter)