Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 825: The Rising Dark Horse (6k2)

ps: The previous chapter was blocked. I was afraid it would be blocked again, so I deleted what I wrote and rewrote new content.

There should be another 5k battle tonight, let’s watch it tomorrow.

In late January, various crews and companies entered the final stage of publicity for the Spring Festival period.

January 26th, there are still ten days until the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Following "Eastern Han Dynasty", "The Wandering Earth" also released its third promotional video.

Following Zhou Mo's suggestion, Guo Fan also chose to put on a good show in the third film in order to leave a good enough initial impression on the audience.

Science fiction, science fiction, what is science fiction without grand scenes?
With this idea in mind, Guo Fan directly inserted some clips of several classic scenes in the little broken ball, including the planetary engine, into the promotional video.

Judging from the results, Guo Fan's strategy was successful.

Not long after the trailer was released, "The Wandering Earth" received a huge amount of attention, and its popularity was even greater than that of "Eastern Han" a few days ago.

As the number of people wandering around increased, the comment section of the promotional video quickly became lively.

"I would never believe this is a domestic movie, it's too outrageous."

"Why is it so outrageous that there can't be movies with strong special effects in China?"

"This is a specially made animation, right? Can the special effects technology be so powerful?"

"A little-known fact: The special effects of The Wandering Earth were produced by Sunward Company, and Sunward Company's special effects are currently ranked among the top three in the world."

"Is it still 2019? Where did this sci-fi movie come from? Not only is the subject matter so tough, but the special effects are also so good?"

"No, when did the country start the Wandering Earth Project without telling me, secretly building machines, and then filming real scenes?"

“I raise my hand, I’m one of the people who took the photo, this place really exists!”

At Shanhe Company, Guo Fan looked at the comment section of the promotional video over and over again, his expression changing from bright to dark.

He knew that after the promotional video was released, it would definitely attract huge traffic.

Given the technical strength of "The Wandering Earth" itself, the huge fame of Mr. Liu, and the strongest publicity channels in the industry of Shanhe Company, it is really strange that there is little traffic.

But he didn't expect that a promotional video could get such a huge amount of traffic.

It was ranked first on many platforms and many related terms were on the hot search list. The huge amount of traffic was like wealth pouring down from the sky, instantly hitting him on the head, making him dizzy and extremely nervous.

Guo Fan knows very well that a lot of attention is a double-edged sword. It can bring enough exposure to him, but it may also cause him to fall into the abyss. The key to distinguishing good from bad lies in whether the quality of "The Wandering Earth" itself can pass the test of the audience.

Previously, Guo Fan had always been very confident about the quality of "The Wandering Earth", believing that his work would definitely satisfy the audience.

But after being shocked by the audience, he hesitated for the first time.

The vast amount of doubts and denials constantly irritated his nerves, making him constantly recall every detail and every scene in the movie, thinking over and over again, trying to find out possible imperfections and details that could be improved.

At this moment, a thought suddenly popped up in his mind:
Would it be better if the release date of the movie was moved back? That way he would have more time to perfect the content of the movie...

"Hey! What are you thinking about?!"

The sudden voice interrupted Guo Fan's thoughts.

He raised his head and saw eight eyes looking at him.

"Sorry, I was distracted just now."

Wu Jing asked, "Are you thinking about the promotional video?"

Guo Fan nodded and said calmly, "Indeed, the traffic brought by this promotional video far exceeded my imagination. I am quite nervous now. I am especially worried that the film is not good enough and I am worried that it will disappoint the audience and netizens' expectations."

Wu Jing patted Guo Fan on the shoulder and said with a slightly teasing tone: "You still need to work on your mentality, little brother. It's just the traffic of a promotional video. Relax. Compared with the pace that "The Wandering Earth" will bring in the future, these are nothing!"

When Zhou Mo heard this, a smile flashed in his eyes.

He remembered very clearly that on the morning of the release of "Wolf Warrior" that year, Wu Jing told him with dark circles under her eyes that she was so nervous that she didn't sleep the whole night.

As expected, these words were refuted by Xie Nan the next second.

"Why do I remember that before the release of Wolf Warrior, I was so nervous that my clothes got soaked?"

Wu Jing's expression suddenly froze and she felt a little embarrassed.

broken.

He was so busy bragging that he forgot there were other parties involved.

After a light cough, Wu Jing continued, "The release of a movie is a big deal. As a director, it's normal to be nervous and have insomnia... Right, Director Zhou, what was your state of mind before Love Is Not Blind was released?"

Zhou Mo smiled slightly.

"Me? I'm fine. I enjoy everything I eat."

Da Tiantian, who had been silent before, suddenly looked up and said, "I can prove this. When Love Is Not Blind was released, I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep every night. But this guy was not nervous at all. He even ate more."

Wu Jing: "...I have nothing to say."

Logically speaking, today it should be him, as the senior, who should use his experience to comfort the younger brother and tell him not to be nervous.

Unexpectedly, after the conversation, Zhou Mo was not affected at all, and Guo Fan was just a little upset. He was the only one who was so nervous that he couldn't sleep.

He's the worst one!
This...who can he go to for justice?
The others saw Wu Jing's helpless expression and started laughing.

Guo Fan also laughed at these words, and the tension in his heart disappeared a lot without him noticing.

After a moment, the laughter in the room ended.

Zhou Mo looked at Guo Fan and said, "The third trailer of Traffic has a lot of traffic, which may indeed cause some unexpected negative impact on the movie. However, this is a good thing for both you and the crew. You can adapt in advance to the evaluation you will face after the movie is released.

As a director, you should talk to the actors more about the situation when you go back, and don’t get hung up on some bad reviews and ruin your mentality.”

Guo Fan nodded slightly, agreeing with Zhou Mo's words in his heart.

There are many young people in their crew, and they have never experienced such a situation.

Sometimes you can tell whether you have experience with something just by one reaction.

After the final trailer of "Wandering" came out, several young people in the WeChat group communicated frequently. They were constantly happy and excited about the comments praising the movie, but privately they were upset because of some negative reviews targeting the movie and themselves, and even secretly wiped away tears.

This is the kind that comes from lack of experience.

If it were an experienced veteran, such as Uncle Da, he would not take the bad reviews to heart at all.

The movie hasn't even been released yet, but there are already so many negative reviews. God knows where these negative reviews come from?

Is it the fans' heartfelt advice, the professionals' objective and sharp analysis, or the black fans' paid work?
Since I don’t know, I might as well put it aside for now.

If there really is a problem, let's wait until the market really reacts.

Actors should indeed listen to the audience's opinions, but that doesn't mean they should listen to all of them.

Not only that, not only can they not take it seriously, they can even drag young people to relax together, go out for a meal, chat, sing a song, and basically their bad mood will be mostly gone, enough to deal with the next wave of negative reviews.

The above sentence sounds funny. After receiving a round of bad reviews, you recover your mood and wait for the next round of bad reviews. However, this is one of the situations faced by many actors.

Being in this situation for a long time, one either develops a super strong heart or builds a barrier between himself and the audience.

……

The sensation caused by "The Wandering Earth" is certainly not limited to the Internet platform, audience and netizens' circles.

Almost everyone in the entertainment industry is talking about the third promotional video of "The Wandering Earth", and the topic basically revolves around the level of special effects of "The Wandering Earth".

Although the topic is the same, people in the industry and the audience have different identities, so their perspectives on the issue are naturally different.

After watching the special effects of "The Wandering", the audience will wonder about the true level of the movie's special effects, and then consider whether to buy movie tickets.

People in the industry, especially those whose works will be released during this year's Spring Festival, are discussing what they will do in the face of such a lively Spring Festival period.

"I waited so hard for the Spring Festival, and thought I could make more money from the family fun, but there are so many big names, Zhou Mo, Zhou Xingxing, and Ning Hao. Three of them are already a lot, and now Guo Fan pops up out of nowhere. I really have no way out."

"No, didn't Guo Fan make youth campus movies before? How come he suddenly started making science fiction movies, and Zhou Mo was willing to believe him.

It is said that they only talked once, and Zhou Mo agreed to invest money in Guo Fan, and all equipment, personnel and technology were open to him.

This is not a boss, this is simply a godfather!"

"I do know something about the inside story. Guo Fan was able to meet Zhou Mo because of the introduction of Wu Jing and his wife. With Wu Jing and his wife as guarantors, Zhou Mo's trust in Guo Fan is naturally high."

"Well, it means it's still a small circle. When can I enter Zhou Mo's small circle and enjoy this kind of treatment?"

"Yes, friends. Yes, go tell Zhou Mo that if he doesn't give up, you are willing to worship him as your godfather and ask him to give you a favor."

"Don't say anything. If Director Zhou is willing to provide me with manpower, equipment, and technology, it would be fine for me to call him godfather. There is no chance!"

Compared to outsiders who know nothing, insiders in the entertainment industry know a lot about "The Wandering Earth".

But the more I know, the colder I feel.

Everyone knows the style of Shanhe Company.

The quality of any movie they invest in and release during the Spring Festival is absolutely guaranteed.

Although Guo Fan was not famous before, Zhou Mo's vision over the years was not to be underestimated.

Among those whom he can choose to invest in, none of them has failed to achieve results.

It's just a matter of amount.

The group of people went from complaining in the beginning to joking later, their tone became more and more relaxed, but their mood did not improve.

The problem must be faced eventually.

If real problems are not solved, no matter how interesting the conversation is, it will only be self-consolation.

Everyone can see clearly that when the competition is fierce to a certain extent, the so-called high box office during the Spring Festival is just a feast for those sharks, and has nothing to do with these small fish. So, instead of competing with a group of crazy sharks for food during the Spring Festival, it is better to release the movie at a different time.

Anyway, the movie itself has been produced. Although there will be some losses if the release date is changed, it is better than getting nothing during the Spring Festival.

Finally, after some difficult decisions, some films with lower production costs announced plans to reschedule their release dates.

"I don't want to play anymore. Let those big guys fight each other."

"There are also advantages to a small investment. A small boat is easier to turn around. I don't know how other companies feel now that Wandering has emerged as a dark horse."

"How? Use your eyes."

The moment the statement was issued, the identities of those crews that chose to reschedule completed the transformation from competitors to spectators.

Without the pressure, they were looking forward to the reactions of the sharks.

……

The crew of "The New King of Comedy".

When the news of "Wandering" reached the crew, everyone reacted differently.

Zhou Xingxing's first reaction was to express his admiration for the special effects of "The Wandering Earth", and then he reminisced about the invisible benefits he could enjoy when cooperating with Shanhe Company.

Basically, all the services that Shanhe Company can provide have two prices: internal price and market price.

When Zhou Xingxing worked with Shanhe before and filmed "The Mermaid", he didn't feel anything about the internal prices of Shanhe Company.

It was not until he ended his partnership with Zhou Mo and started working with Wang Da and Wang Xiao again that Zhou Xingxing realized how good Shanhe Company's service was.

The industry has an evaluation of the services provided by Sunward, which is:
It’s expensive, but that’s the only downside.

If you can use the internal price, then even the disadvantage of being expensive will disappear.

In comparison, although the services of other companies in the industry are cheaper, they are actually not much cheaper and always have shortcomings of one kind or another.

After a moment of feeling, Zhou Xingxing put his heart into "The New King of Comedy". He hopes to use this "remake of the classic" to refresh his reputation.

After the release of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", although the box office was good, over 1 billion yuan, its reputation was very bad.

In addition to the fact that the quality of the film itself was criticized by many viewers, the drastic changes in the film ratings during its release also caused considerable dissatisfaction among the audience.

Although during the release of this movie, the production team actually made amends and said that the director of the movie was not Zhou Xingxing, who was actually the producer and producer of the movie.

But the audience is not stupid. When a movie is promoted, you are on the list of names, and you are the first person the leading actors thank. Now you tell me that you are not the first person in charge of this movie.

Are you kidding me?
This is your movie!
Word of mouth changes very quickly. Reputation accumulated over decades may be completely reversed overnight.

Zhou Xingxing is already one of the people with the best reputation in the entertainment industry, but since the release of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", he can still feel the change in his image in the eyes of the audience.

This change in image will ultimately be reflected in box office appeal.

Therefore, Stephen Chow now urgently needs a movie to make up for his losses.

As for "The Wandering Earth", it is in a different category from "The New King of Comedy", so you don't need to pay too much attention to it.

Different from Zhou Xingxing's calmness, Wang Da and Wang Xiao felt more excited to watch the show after watching the promotional video of "Wandering".

"The Wandering Earth" is in fierce competition with "Alien" in terms of both genre and original work.

They just didn't believe that Ning Hao would have no reaction to this.

If the two families were to fight over this, they would gain a lot!

For the current big and small kings, Shanhe and Bad Monkey are two thick barriers standing in front of them during this year's Spring Festival. It is unlikely that they can break these two walls by themselves.

Whether it is Huayi, which is at low health, or Zhou Xingxing, whose reputation has been weakened, they are no match for the current Zhou Jing duo and Ning Hao's iron triangle.

This can be seen from the expected screening rates of several movies in theaters during this year's Spring Festival.

The first place is undoubtedly "Eastern Han Dynasty", with a screening rate of 24%, which is absolutely insane. It is also the only movie with a screening rate of over 20%.

The second is "Alien", which has a lower screening rate of only 19%.

When it came to their turn for "The New King of Comedy", only 15% was left.

Before the filming of "The Wandering Earth", the screening rate was still very low, only 11%, but after the third promotional video, in just two or three days, the screening rate had risen to 14%.

At this rate, it will most likely surpass them before its official release.

The film schedule is controlled by the cinema.

The first-day screening rate of a movie in a cinema can basically represent the audience's expectations for the movie.

The more audiences want to see a certain movie, the more theaters will schedule it.

In its previous life, the first-day screening rate of "The Wandering Earth" was only 11%, less than half of that of "Crazy Alien".

But just two days after its release, the screening rate of "Wandering" rose to 24%.

The changes before and after represent the popularity of "Wandering".

Now, the 15% screening rate of "The New King of Comedy" makes both the big and small kings nervous and anxious.

According to their expectations, "The New King of Comedy" should have about 20% of the filming rate. After communicating with the theaters, the other party said the same thing: the screening schedule cannot be changed, and "The New King of Comedy" is at this level.

Now, if they want to proactively promote the filming of "New", they can only wait until the movie is officially released. What they can do now is to see if they can facilitate a fight between the boss and the second in command, and then they can profit from it.

"Next, I will hire some trolls to spread the conflict between "Alien" and "Wandering" online."

"Well, I'll leave this matter to you. I'll approve a sum of money for you. Be frugal with your spending. The company's cash flow is a bit tight right now."

"I know... well, even a penny can make a hero fall."

"There are only a few days left before the Spring Festival. As long as "The New King of Comedy" is released and we announce "The Mermaid 2" at the same time, the situation will be improved immediately."

……

The crew of "Crazy Alien", the iron triangle is also watching the promotional video of "Wandering" repeatedly at this moment.

Some time ago, Wang Baobao actually told them that "The Wandering Earth" might become their strong rival this year because Zhou Mo was very optimistic about the movie.

It’s not that the three of them didn’t take Wang Baobao’s words seriously. On the contrary, they listened to them and immediately increased their attention to “Wandering”.

But after the promotional video of "Wandering" was released, they found that they had somewhat underestimated the strength of "Wandering".

Look at this planet base, look at this planetary engine, look at this spaceship escape...

This is no longer a competitor, this is clearly a strong enemy. We must always pay attention and think carefully about the response strategy.

After another round of the promotional video was played, Huang Bo pressed the pause button with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

“Why are their special effects so good?”

Xu Zheng said, "Didn't I tell you that the special effects for this movie were made by Shanhe Company..."

Huang Bo explained: "I know it was made by Shanhe Company, but even Zhou Mo's own movies don't have this level of special effects. You have all seen the promotional video of "Eastern Han Dynasty". The scene of the meteorite falling from the sky is indeed good, but I don't think it can compare to this planetary engine."

Xu Zheng did not refute this time, he had similar thoughts.

It can't be said that Zhou Mo's selfless contribution to the special effects technology used in "The Wandering Earth" is higher than that of his own "Eastern Han Dynasty".

Ning Hao then spoke up: "It's not that the technology of "Wandering" is stronger, but "Wandering" is originally a science fiction movie, with many big scenes and a strong sense of technology, which produces better effects.

"Eastern Han" was filmed in ancient times, and the only special effects that really showed the level of the film were a meteorite falling from the sky and a battle between two armies, which didn't give people a strong feeling...

But this doesn’t mean Guo Fan has no skills. No matter how good the special effects company’s technology is, it depends on who uses it. Guo Fan has been able to apply the technology to this point, which means he is already the best in the industry.”

When the two people next to him heard this, they looked at Ning Hao in surprise.

Both of them have worked as directors, and they all know what Ning Hao meant by "top in the industry."

Xu Zheng smacked his lips and said, "New directors nowadays are really scary. Last year, Director Wen knew whether a director was good or not just by looking at his performance. Now Director Guo is the same. He is so capable."

Huang Bo joked: "You are being a little modest. When you first made a movie, didn't you also defeat a large group of people head-on?"

Xu Zheng waved his hands, looking humble: "Hey, I was already 33 years old when I filmed Lost in Russia, I've done everything. If you really want to talk about newcomers, it has to be Director Zhou. His condition was too horrible. When he filmed Love Is Not Blind, I remember he hadn't even graduated yet."

Huang Bo waved his hand: "When we talk about the results now, shouldn't we exclude Zhou Mo? Who would consider him a youngster? He should sit at the judges' table."

Xu Zheng thought for a moment and his eyes fell on Ning Hao standing beside him.

"Then our great director Ning, you are still young but have produced many excellent works. I remember how old you were when Crazy Stone was filmed, Old Ning, you must have been less than 30, right?"

Ning Hao said “hmm”: “Twenty-eight when filming, twenty-nine when it’s released.”

Huang Bo suddenly exclaimed: "Oh my goodness, you were only 28 when you filmed "Stone". Why do I feel like you were already in your 30s?"

Ning Hao glanced at him.

How dare you say that to me?

Among the three people in the room, you are the one who grows the fastest.

"You are indeed quite good-looking. You have basically not changed much over the years. You have always looked the same. You even look younger now. By the way, I would like to ask you if you have any maintenance methods that can actually make you look younger. Please tell us."

Huang Bo: …

Xu Zheng laughed so hard that the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes came together.

It was obvious that the three men were not as serious as the kings had expected.

They were indeed nervous after watching the trailer for "Wandering", but generally speaking, they were in a relaxed state, so they were able to joke with each other.

As Huang Bo said before, "The Wandering Earth" is indeed strong, but they are not bad either.

It's still a science fiction film, so let's see the truth on the field.

(End of this chapter)