Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 109 Movie Screening
  The case against Tom is certainly not over, and the police have launched an appeal.

They believed that the judge's decision was unreasonable. Even though Tom did not participate in the killing, he had the intention to join the crime and should not be let off so lightly.

But the decision of the jury and judge has been made, and Tom is free at least until the appeal is completed.

Tang De found him a house near the company, and he currently works as Tang De's personal driver.

Of course, this was only on the surface, secretly Tang De needed him to train his spear and fighting skills, and be responsible for protecting his own safety.

With Tom, the murderous bodyguard, under personal care, Tang De's sense of security suddenly increased by several levels.

Every day I meet Anne Hathaway these days, I see Tom’s back as an embellishment.

At the same time, CAA agent Carl has been coming to Tang De's house frequently in the past two days. Although he has signed many new people recently, his heart is always tied to Tang De.

He didn't want to be like Mike who couldn't distinguish the importance and was terminated by Tang De.

At this moment, he was talking to Tang De with several new job invitations: "Look, Tang, this time it's an invitation to a movie!"

"What movie?" Tang De tore open the orange peel and patiently cleaned the white orange veins.

"The first one, "The Devil Wears Prada"!" Carl said like a staff member selling insurance, holding up the A4 paper in his hand: "This movie needs an art director. I think Tang, do this kind of work with your aesthetics." Some of the stuff is overkill. And the movie is a crime movie, and the director is a novice... you know, it's probably going to be a big flop."

The devil? Tang De raised his eyebrows when he heard the name. It seemed a bit familiar, because he knew that there was an actress in it who won the Oscar for Best Actress for this movie.

After thinking for a moment, Tang De's dusty memory was awakened.

He remembered the name, Charlize Theron. The first place I saw her was in the advertisement for Dior's True Me perfume. I have to admit, sexy, charming and charming.

Later, watching Mad Max, if it weren't for the barrage reminder, he would never have imagined that the woman with half of her face completely black was Charlize Theron.

Over the years she has been working in movies, it seems that her face is different in every movie, and the word "various" is perfect for her.

So Tang De admired the actress very much, but he did not refute Karl's speculation, and just asked: "Where is the second part?"

"The second one is kind of interesting, The Human Stain, starring Nicole Kidman. God, I loved her Moulin Rouge. It had a big budget, thirty million dollars, Miramac It’s a feature film produced by Si. It sounds like it’s going to win awards, and with Nicole Kidman on board, it should be guaranteed a box office,”

Karl rambled on and expressed his opinions, but the next moment he saw Tang De shaking his head: "No interest."

"That's Nicole Kidman!"

"Come on, Karl, I admit she is beautiful, but she is already 35 years old and can almost play my mother." Tang De frowned, he didn't have any old habits.

"Hey, I'm referring to her fame...Wait a minute, what are you talking about?" Karl's eyes widened.

"Did I say anything?" Tang De smiled and ate a piece of orange.

"Well, you didn't seem to say anything." Carl didn't dare to think about it and hurriedly talked about the third movie: "The next one is "Memory Crack", a work by John Woo. His movies are very popular in Hollywood recently, Gunfight! Explosion! White Pigeon! I've also seen one, and I guess it will do better at the box office. What they need is an assistant cinematographer."

Afterwards, Karl introduced several other movies to Tang De, but Tang De expressed little interest because they were either low-budget movies or their positions were too marginal.

This kind of movie didn't mean anything to him, so in the end, when Karl finished talking about all the movies with a dry mouth, Tang De decided: "Just "The Devil Wears Prada"."

"The Devil? Tang De, are you really sure?"

"Of course, very sure."

"Okay, now that you have decided on "The Devil Wears Prada", will you still be interested if there is demand for a new movie in the future?"

"If so, let me know."

"clear."

Karl returned to the company and continued his busy work, while Tang De was invited to attend the screening of "Chicago" in New York.

Generally, when a movie is about to be officially released on a large scale, there will be several rounds of small-scale screenings, which are held for the media, industry insiders and senior movie fans.

And if a movie like "Chicago" wants to attack the Oscars, then senior film critics and lobbying of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscar organizer, are very important.

As the Academy Awards have been held for so many years, the so-called "Olympic preparation" process has been clearly understood by people in the industry.

Miramax, the production company of "Chicago", is one of the leaders.

Harvey Weinstein is even known as "the man behind the Oscars." Even though he has not yet reached his peak, he still has an effective operation process on how to impact the Oscars. Tang De knew his method, which was carefully analyzed by later generations and divided into four steps.

Overseas gold plating, media manipulation, lobbying of judges, and smearing of opponents.

Overseas gilding means participating in major film festivals. This step mainly targets non-American films, because these films from Asia, Africa, and Europe are not well-known. Even if the country is popular, academic masters will still pay attention to their names. Don't know anything.

Therefore, eye-catching names are very important. At least when talking about this movie, a long list of seven or eight award-winning names is more convincing than the movie itself.

After the film has been promoted at major film festivals and has gained basic popularity, it begins to manipulate the media to promote it, arrange releases from authoritative film media and magazines; spend a lot of money to buy hard advertising space; if the crew is willing to spend money, public relations Well-known TV programs will also be arranged.

The purpose is to let academic gentlemen learn about this movie from major media.

People always prefer things they are familiar with, and the same goes for movie awards.

After the preliminary battle was completed, the "Olympics" entered the key stage of lobbying. There are many public relations companies in Hollywood that specialize in this, because the crew doesn't know who the 9500 jury members are? What type of movies do you like? and how to approach them.

But the public relations company knows all about this. The British Guardian once jokingly said that every year during the Oscar season from mid-to-late October to December 10, jury members will appear in high-end Western restaurants and eat free lunch and dinner.

At the same time, there will be public relations people in sharp suits who will explain every detail and sublimation point in the movie to the judges in detail.

After such a combination of punches, the Oscar judges have already had this movie in their minds, and when it comes time to vote, they will naturally have an inclination.

In 1999, Harvey Weinstein even relied on this "unspoken rule" to allow "Sawain" to defeat "Saving Private Ryan" and win the best picture.

As a result, "Shakespeare in Love" has always been called "the weakest Oscar" among movie fans.

It is enough to show how strong his public relations ability is.

The reason why the later "Parasite" was able to achieve Oscar success was also because the driving force behind it was Harvey's colleague.

And "Parasite" spent US$1500 million on public relations, considering that the cost of the entire movie was only US$1100 million.

Of course, such spending will naturally bring high returns. After "Parasite" won the award, the box office in North America alone reached 4500 million US dollars.

Therefore, with this background and support, "Chicago" will definitely win an award. Its musical format, which is loved by the American people, is enough for it to receive an Oscar nomination for best picture.

But what Tang De wants is not the nomination, nor the annual best award. No matter how prestigious these awards are, they have little to do with him as a photographer.

Everyone's eyes will only focus on the actors and directors. Who will take a closer look at who the photographer is in each movie? Everyone agrees that the photographer is just a tool for the director and one of the means by which the director realizes his intentions.

Therefore, what Tang De needs is to successfully win the Oscar for Best Cinematography to improve his status in the industry.

Otherwise, when the crew is assembled in the future, no one will know him. Do we have to rely on two legs and one mouth to persuade those actors to participate in our movies?
  Thinking of this, Tang De moved his body close to the back of the chair, and the movie was about to start playing.

However, Tang De's mind was not focused on the screen. Instead, he briefly listened to the conversations of the people around him, such as the two people on his left.

One is Nikita, the editor of "Film Review" magazine.

One is Russell, a reporter for The Hollywood Reporter.

Two of Hollywood's most authoritative media figures were invited. Obviously, Miramax's "Olympic preparation" process has already begun.

Tang De raised the corners of his mouth and watched the movie start and the music start.

The light and shadow on his face kept changing, sometimes blue, sometimes red.

In addition to the sound of dance music and lines from the movie, there is also the sound of media people writing notes in their notebooks.

Everyone was restrained and silent, immersed in the movie, admiring and laughing along with the plot.

A good movie is like a puppeteer, and the audience is the puppet being manipulated. Every move is controlled by the camera, editing, and music, and the sound is made according to the director's intention.

Tang De took the time to glance at the notebooks of the two people next to him, and found that they were already filled with scattered records, with smiles on their faces at all times.

It seemed that they were very satisfied, and Tang De was also very satisfied after watching the movie.

Because his careful thought in the use of film lenses has been reflected, and it has greatly improved the look and feel, making it better than the original film.

He has made all the efforts, and now it depends on the reaction of the audience, the media, and even the judges.

(End of this chapter)