Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 844 Anime Three Kingdoms Promotional Video (7k)

After listening to Zhou Mo's introduction, Da Tiantian became quite interested in "The Glory of the Tang Dynasty" and planned to visit the crew of "The Glory of the Tang Dynasty" when she has time.

Zhou Mo told her: "Then you can talk more with Director Zhang. It would be even better if you can sign a few more contracts."

Da Tiantian was a little surprised.

"You think highly of him?"

"Yes, his level is quite high, and his range is quite wide. He is quite reliable in the Mesozoic Era."

"But he was the screenwriter of "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain"..." Da Tiantian expressed her deepest impression of Zhang Ting.

Because of this impression, when Zhang Ting approached the company, she was not even willing to invest in her.

"In Kaizi's movies, Director Zhang is probably just a tool, and can't be considered a high-ranking screenwriter. Don't forget that Director Zhang participated in the screenwriting of "Ji Gong" (25, Mr. You's version) when he just debuted (at the age of 90)."

“But a good screenwriter doesn’t mean a good director?”

"Don't worry, I've talked to him, and he's a pretty good director."

Zhou Mo waved his hand and felt relieved about Zhang Ting.

Zhu Laosi, Zhu Pangpang, Jin Douzi and others in "The Great Ming" may not conform to the historical prototypes, but they are very much in line with the audience's preferences.

This is the same as the role of Kangxi played by Mr. Jiao in "Yongzheng Dynasty".

Teacher Jiao's Kangxi is very different from the Kangxi in history. The latter was in his fifties, and he still scolded court officials everywhere with an excited look on his face every day (it is rumored that Kangxi and Ma Qi fought each other because of the issue of the crown prince, but the authenticity of this is questionable). He is completely different from Teacher Jiao's familiar feeling.

But even though it is such a Kangxi, the audience thinks he played it well. The main reason is that Mr. Jiao played a character that fits the image that the audience has in mind.

……

The next day, Zhou Mo went to the banquet hosted by Zhang Yimou.

The banquet hosted by Zhang Yimou was not very big this time, which was quite different from what Da Tiantian had expected.

"Didn't they say there would be a lot of people coming this time? How come they can handle just a few tables?" Da Tiantian asked Zhou Mo in a low voice.

Zhou Mo glanced at the people around the table and found that everyone was listening to Lao Mouzi's speech on the stage, so he whispered to Da Tiantian, "He was originally planning to have a big party, but news came from Cannes that "Parasite" was selected, so Lao Mouzi was considering holding a smaller banquet this time, and then hold a big one after "Parasite" wins the award."

"So confident."

Zhou Mo grinned, "Of course, I don't even need to talk about the content of the movie, just look at the cast of our movie, Chen Daoming, Wang Zhifei, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, as well as me and Lao Mouzi. If we don't win an award, those people will be sorry for us."

Da Tiantian had a smile on her face, but when Zhou Mo finished speaking,
"Wait, you just mentioned so many people, did you forget something?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot about Peng Yu's singing. This guy is pretty good and has a promising future..."

"???"

Da Tiantian took a look at the surrounding environment and decided that it was not appropriate to take action at this time. She would think about it when she got home tonight.

She was about to say something when she heard a sudden noise in her ears. She looked in the direction of the sound and found that Zhang Yimou's speech was almost over.

In this speech, Zhang Yimou not only expressed his happiness about his successful Oscar bid, but also revealed some news about "Three Kingdoms: Wu".

It was these news that caused a commotion among the guests.

Nearly a month has passed since Zhou Mo mentioned the news of "Three Kingdoms" at the premiere of "Eastern Han Dynasty". During this period, Shanhe Company has not had any information or movement related to the movie.

Occasionally there are some scattered rumors, which are nothing more than rumors made up by fans or netizens. They sound reasonable, but they are not true at all.

This made the actors who had been eagerly waiting for the "Three Kingdoms" series very anxious, but they had no way of calling Zhou Mo or Zhang Yimou.

These two people, one of them went to shoot a movie before the movie was even released.

Another one stayed in America for several months just for Oscar.

If I contact them at this time, what if I annoy them and they spread the news and I don't need you?
"The chapter I want to shoot is the Wu chapter of the Three Kingdoms series. It is mainly divided into two parts, one about Sun Ce and the other about Zhou Yu. The main battles are the conquest of Jiangdong and the Battle of Chibi..."

Da Tiantian listened to Lao Mouzi's words for a while. Well, Lao Mouzi is also very bad. What he said sounded like a lot, but in fact, there was not much to it.

She asked Zhou Mo in a low voice: "Now that the Wei and Wu kingdoms in the Three Kingdoms series are already there, who are you going to let shoot the last one, the Shu kingdom?"

Zhou Mo whispered a name:
"Old Monster Xu?"

Xu class?

Da Tiantian was surprised for a few seconds. She wanted to say that Zhou Mo had been pessimistic about Xu Ke in the past, thinking that he was not as good of a tool as Wang Jing. But when she thought about it carefully, it seemed that among all the current domestic directors, the only one who could successfully shoot "Shu Kingdom" according to Zhou Mo's requirements was Xu Ke.

"What about the shooting order?" Da Tiantian asked again.

According to the plan, the three films in the "Three Kingdoms" series will be shot consecutively. Even if Zhou Mo leads the company's team to coordinate, it will take at least seven to eight months.

As a core character throughout the three films, she stayed in the crew for no less than half a year.

Therefore, Da Tiantian must make sufficient preparations to avoid being overwhelmed when the time comes.

"As for the order... I will definitely be first, followed by Lao Mouzi's Wu Kingdom chapter, and finally Xu Ke's Shu Kingdom chapter.

You should prepare the script in this order. I will stay with the crew for the rest of the time except for some necessary things."

Zhou Mo's words relieved a lot of Da Tiantian's nervousness.

This nervousness stems from her understanding of the plot of "Three Kingdoms".

In the first few movies with the immortal and mortal worldview, from "Chu and Han" to "The Great Wall", and then to "Even if We Are Far Away, We Must Punish", the plots always maintained the situation of hostility between immortals and mortals.

The "immortals" only treat mortals as food, eating them up cleanly and eating them right out of the bag.

Zhao Shan has only one attitude towards immortals.

kill.

The situation between the two sides is as clear as black and white, with no room for easing at all.

But after the Eastern Han Dynasty, this situation changed.

Emperor Guangwu relied on the nobles to raise his army, and after ascending the throne, he naturally had to give them full rewards, giving them power, land, resources, population...

As mentioned earlier, behind these noble families are the "immortals" who are constantly causing trouble.

After the "immortals" gained their own power, they still used mortals as materials for cultivation, but their methods were no longer as cruel as before. They arbitrarily took the lives of mortals for cultivation, and treated mortals wastefully with an attitude of draining the pond to catch fish.

Some immortals will even work hard to manage the power under their control, govern the mortals under their rule, and even restrain the behavior of other immortals.

It can be said that after Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and eventually died, the way of life of the "immortals" and their attitude towards mortals changed a lot.

From being completely hostile to human dynasties at the beginning (the demise of Qin in "Chu and Han"), to entering the court to influence the emperor (Emperor Wu of Han seeking immortality in "The Great Wall"), to becoming immortal themselves and commanding the world (Wang Mang usurping the Han Dynasty in "Eastern Han"), the "immortals" have become more and more involved in the "mortal" world, and are increasingly influenced by the "mortal" world.

If someone had told the "immortals" a few hundred years ago that they would live with mortals in the future, protect them to a certain extent, and even marry and have offspring with mortals, the "immortals" would have simply thought that the person was crazy and would have used him as a cultivation material.

But now, all these things have become a reality.

Of course, this does not mean that the fundamental contradiction between "immortals" and mortals has ended.

If the "immortals" want to live forever and practice cultivation, they must use mortals as cultivation materials and consume mortals continuously.

In addition, there are conflicts between half-blood immortals and mortals, conflicts among half-blood immortals, conflicts between immortals and half-blood immortals, and so on...

All of these will exist for a long time and become more and more serious.

The current behavior pattern of the "immortal" can at most ease the outbreak of conflicts, but cannot prevent the occurrence of conflicts.

One day, when the conflict between immortals and mortals arises, there will be a war in the world that is more cruel and fierce than ever before.

It will sweep across every person, every force, and every place within the Han territory.

……

That night.

Zhou Mo looked at the discussion about "Three Kingdoms" on the Internet.

Although Zhang Yimou did not say anything new in this speech, he did confirm a lot of "rumors" on the Internet.

From the timeline, to the main characters of the movie, to when the movie is scheduled to be released.

Among the many pieces of news, the most discussed by netizens is the accompanying animation of the "Three Kingdoms" series.

"The Three Kingdoms animation, am I dazzled? Look what good stuff I saw."

"Which company are you looking for? Why is there no news at all?"

"If this news hadn't come from Director Zhang and Shanhe Company, I really wouldn't believe it at all. Shanhe Company is really good at hiding it."

“I don’t know what style it is.”

"In China, it should still be the style of Xuan Ji, similar to Qin's Moon, with 3D beauty, long legs, stockings, high heels and leather jackets."

"Don't be honest, I still prefer the style of the old version of the Three Kingdoms animation."

"Forget about it, the domestic environment is not suitable for producing good 2D works. The technology is not up to standard, the personnel are not up to standard, and the capital is unwilling to invest. Although Shanhe Company is good, it is not a sucker with money and nowhere to spend it. It is estimated that it will still be 3D."

"That makes sense, but 3D is not bad either. It's good that someone is willing to invest in animation these days. As long as the quality is good, even if it's on the same level as the Boonie Bears TV series, I will definitely support it."

Zhou Mo was in a good mood as he read the comments from netizens.

I have to say that the domestic audiences are really satisfied.

Look at what everyone is saying, they would be satisfied as long as they can be at the same level as Boonie Bears, their requirements are not high at all.

At this time, Da Tiantian came out of the bathroom, stood in front of Zhou Mo, and looked down at the phone screen. Her slightly wet hair fell down, and a sweet smell filled Zhou Mo's nose.

Zhou Mo was a little curious, as this was a smell he had never smelled from Da Tiantian before.

"Hmm... this smells very new, where is it from?"

The smile on Da Tiantian's lips flashed away.

"We just launched a new product last month, nicknamed White Moonlight, which is said to remind people of the feeling of white moonlight... How is it, does it smell good?"

Zhou Mo nodded and asked about the sales of his own beauty products.

"That's good. The data reported to me by the company is that this year's sales on Alibaba alone are expected to reach 5 billion. I don't expect this number to be reached, but a smaller number should be fine."

Zhou Mo nodded slightly. He was not surprised by the number Da Tiantian said.

The domestic cosmetics market has developed rapidly in recent years. Several beauty brands that were only established two years ago have already achieved a market value of over 10 billion yuan this year.

A typical example is a beauty brand that will become famous in the future because of the number "79". It was only established in 17, but its sales in 19 have exceeded tens of billions, and its total market value has reached 40 billion US dollars.

The company owned by Zhou Mo, relying on the basic customer base and reputation brought by medical beauty technology, as well as the first-mover advantage of starting to layout the market earlier, is now much more influential than the "79" brand.

Da Tiantian then briefly introduced Zhou Mo’s own brand development strategy.

This strategy is necessary to rely on new promotional methods, such as live streaming for marketing.

However, the company has not yet decided whether to conduct marketing by binding with big internet celebrities.

Zhou Mo thought about what Da Tiantian said for a while.

The advantages and disadvantages of binding with big internet celebrities for marketing are obvious.

Some big internet celebrities who are at the top of the industry can indeed increase the sales of the entire brand by dozens of percentage points on their own.

But at the same time, signing a big internet celebrity for marketing often means high marketing costs, as well as the impact of the internet celebrity's own reputation on the brand.

The incident in which the "79" brand was made and destroyed by a certain Mr. Li is still repeatedly brought up as a typical case of marketing and publicity, even after several years.

Thinking of this, Zhou Mo has made a decision.

"We have more than enough publicity resources of our own. There is no need to promote through the method of binding internet celebrities. We can just follow the current strategy."

Da Tiantian's idea is similar to Zhou Mo's. Binding with big internet celebrities is a high-return and high-risk business. With the current size of their company, they have already passed the stage of gambling on profits. They can just sign contracts with celebrities normally. Even the compensation for celebrities' failures is more profitable than binding with internet celebrities. Da Tiantian remembers that there are several world-famous brands that receive astronomical amounts of liquidated damages from their spokespersons every year.

After talking about cosmetics, Da Tiantian brought the topic back to a few minutes ago.

"What were you smiling at the screen for just now? So happy?"

"Netizens are discussing the animated version of Three Kingdoms."

"Oh, is it so?!"

Da Tiantian took Zhou Mo's phone and browsed the quarrels among netizens.

After watching for a while, she asked in surprise: "So the audience prefers watching 3D?"

Zhou Mo shook his head.

“That’s not the case. It’s just that viewers who know a little bit about the animation industry know that, given a certain cost, 3D production is easier to produce than 2D.

These audiences have been disappointed too many times by the so-called "rise of Chinese animation" in the past, so they keep lowering their requirements, even if it's just 3D. "

A look of joy flashed across Da Tiantian's face.

"So, won't our anime "Three Kingdoms" far exceed the audience's expectations?"

"The enemy."

When Da Tiantian heard this, she was looking forward to the audience's reaction when they saw the anime "Three Kingdoms" for the first time.

To date, "Three Kingdoms" has been completely completed and is waiting to be broadcast at the end of the year.

It is now March, and according to the usual practice of promotion, some promotional materials have already begun to be released.

"Now that our entire work has been completed, when will the trailer be released?"

"I have just called the company. It will be tomorrow."

……

At twelve o'clock the next day.

Milezhan and other entertainment platforms jointly released the first promotional video of the animated version of "Three Kingdoms".

The entire film is eight minutes long, starting with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, to the Ten Eunuchs' Rebellion, to Dong Zhuo's dethronement, to the eighteen princes' alliance to fight against Dong, to Dong Zhuo's relocation of the capital, to the princes' melee...

The penultimate scene of the promotional video shows the 27-year-old Zhuge Liang following his uncle out of seclusion.

Before leaving, he told his little boy:

"You can cultivate the land here and don't leave it uncultivated. When I succeed, I will retire."

When saying this, Zhuge Liang was holding a feather fan, full of vigor and vitality, and even the fluttering corners of his clothes exuded a vitality.

Next to him were Liu Bei with a smile on his face, Guan Yu with a haughty look, and Zhang Fei, who was quite unhappy with Zhuge Liang's "pretentiousness".

The four of them walked down the mountain road together. Behind them, the morning sun slowly rose. The gentle sunlight fell on their backs, making them look even brighter.

But the next second, the screen went black.

A flute sound full of desolation rang out.

When the screen regained color, the Zhuge Liang that appeared in the eyes of the audience was no longer as heroic as before. Instead, he looked old, with obvious wrinkles on his face and gray hair and beard.

His appearance has changed a lot, the only thing that remains unchanged is the determination in his eyes.

At this time, it was already 228 AD. The 47-year-old Zhuge Liang decided to "lead the army to the north". He submitted a memorial to his current lord Liu Chan, vowing to "restore the Han Dynasty and return to the old capital."

Before leaving, he paid tribute to the late Emperor Zhaolie Liu Bei, and then led his army to the battle.

In the distance, the newly-come-of-age emperor Liu Chan watched Zhuge Liang leave.

The background music sounded again, and this time the content was "The Memorial to the Emperor on Leaving the Capital".

"The late emperor had not yet started his business..."

At this point, the first promotional video of the anime "Three Kingdoms" officially ended.

Da Tiantian watched the promotional video as soon as possible and didn’t say a word for several minutes. She just pursed her lips and looked at Zhou Mo.

Zhou Mo felt a little uncomfortable with her gaze and chuckled twice.

"What's wrong? Is the lunch not tasty?"

Da Tiantian sighed, "You are an animal! You use seven and a half minutes to arouse the audience's emotions, and then use half a minute to tear people's emotions apart?"

God knows how she felt when she saw Zhuge Liang go from being full of energy to looking haggard in just a few seconds.

It's so uncomfortable.

Zhou Mo raised his eyebrows and spoke in a somewhat active tone.

"You feel uncomfortable? Then it seems that I edited this promotional video pretty well."

Da Tiantian frowned and stared at Zhou Mo's expression. At this moment, she felt that this guy was like the kind of unscrupulous author who would stab readers when they were happy.

"You did it on purpose, right?"

Zhou Mo coughed lightly, "How could it be intentional? Isn't this a plot arranged according to real history? If you say I edited a tragedy... is there any non-tragic plot in the late Three Kingdoms period? Zhuge Liang's expedition to Qishan is already a relatively uplifting plot in the middle and late period."

Da Tiantian’s expression froze.

This is really true.

Ever since Zhuge Liang went to Qishan, the subsequent plot of "Three Kingdoms" has basically been a series of tragedies.

Moreover, the tragedy did not only affect Shu Han, but also affected the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu.

On the Cao Wei side, all the monarchs were short-lived. During the Cao Wei period of more than 40 years, there were a total of five monarchs, six in total including Cao Mengde. Among them, the second emperor, Cao Mao, was even killed in the street.

Both generations of monarchs of Shu Han were relatively long-lived, but because the main perspective of "Three Kingdoms" was originally on Shu Han, the decline period began when Guan Yu was defeated and fled to Maicheng. Famous ministers and generals died one after another, and the main theme is a gradual decline.

On the Eastern Wu side, Sun Quan lived a longer life, at the age of 71, which could be considered a very long life. But he was quite fond of going crazy in his old age and started the "Dispute between the Two Palaces" (forcing his two sons to fight each other for the throne, and finally driving both sons into a very miserable state, and then making his third son the crown prince).

Due to these actions of Sun Quan in his old age, the court of Eastern Wu was in great chaos, and many important officials died directly or indirectly in the struggles in the court.

From this perspective, Zhuge Liang's expedition to Qishan was indeed quite glorious.

Da Tiantian opened the comment section of the promotional video.

As expected, the comment section was filled with wailing.

The top comments were basically all blasting Zhou Mo:

"Damn you old thief Zhou Mo, come out and get yourself killed, you actually released this kind of video to mess with my mind!"

"What's the name of the background music starting at 7 minutes and 2 seconds? It makes me feel sad when I hear it."

"Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye. My black hair has turned white, and three of the four are gone. If it were me, I would have given up long ago."

"Finally I know why fans always gnashed their teeth when they mentioned the old thief. His ability to send knives is really first-rate."

Da Tiantian threw the phone in front of Zhou Mo.

"Look, look, netizens, including your fans, are saying that you are not a human being."

Zhou Mo didn't take it seriously at all, and just defended himself by saying, "This is called strategy. Appropriate emotional fluctuations are conducive to increasing the audience's feelings for the film... My goal is to rely on the subsequent promotional films to make the audience unable to stop watching the animation of "Three Kingdoms"."

Da Tiantian grasped the message in Zhou Mo's words.

"You mean, you've already started thinking about the next few promotional videos?"

Zhou Mo smiled and did not answer the question.

It's more than just conception.

He has already cut it.

The second promotional video of the animation "Three Kingdoms" features Cao Cao as the protagonist, the theme is called "The Western Expedition General of the Han Dynasty", and the second male lead is Xun Yu.

The content is about the story of Cao Cao and Xun Yu, from their acquaintance to their understanding and finally their separation. Xun Yu did not support Cao Cao's promotion to the title of "Duke of Wei", and was alienated by Cao Cao, and eventually died of depression.

At this point, the life of Xun Yu, a talented assistant to the king and one of the founders of the Cao Wei regime, came to an end.

And Cao Cao once again lost a talented person who shared the same ideals as him (the previous one was Chen Gong in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms version).

Zhou Mo finished reading the hot reviews and started to scroll down.

The comments that followed were quite varied, some discussed the plot, some discussed the production, but the majority discussed the style.

“It’s actually 2D, and it’s in this last-gen style, which is really great.”

"This character design is really good. Although it also has the cost of artistic creation, it is much better than the increasingly gorgeous Three Kingdoms characters on the market now... You know who I'm talking about."

"Where did Shanhe Company find these animation production teams? Their level is so high and so smooth. This animation must be more than 12 frames."

"The above poster is giving you some general information. You can tell at a glance that this animation is of the 24-frame standard. It feels smooth because they used a lot of one-shot..."

With the explosion of popularity of the promotional video of "Three Kingdoms", more and more people in the industry have joined in to discuss the production of "Three Kingdoms".

From the number of animation frames, to storyboards, performance effects, original paintings and other angles, we continue to disassemble the animation "Three Kingdoms" and obtain various information from it.

In just less than twenty-four hours, an incomplete list of the production team for the animated version of "Three Kingdoms" leaked on the Internet.

Zhou Mo also saw the list. After roughly browsing the names on the list, he was shocked.

The accuracy of this list is quite high. Only two of the dozen names were wrong, and the rest were all guessed correctly.

He called the company and asked where the list came from.

The assistant replied: "Director Zhou, this list did not leak out from the company, it was collected by netizens based on information.

At the beginning, they determined the identities of two painters in our team through the storyboard style of the animation, and then speculated on the production cycle of "Three Kingdoms" based on the dynamics of these painters on Instagram.

Finally, based on this cycle, they found all the artists who had posted related dynamics during this period..."

After listening to the assistant's explanation, Zhou Mo kept clicking his tongue.

Good guy.

So much information was found in just twenty-four hours.

Netizens are truly so powerful.

The assistant asked on the other end of the phone: "Director Zhou, do we need to acknowledge this list? Many fans and viewers are asking this."

Zhou Mo thought about it for a moment and shook his head.

"Don't be in a hurry. Let everyone guess first and then let the fans and audiences' emotions brew."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Da Tiantian beside him gently rubbed Zhou Mo's calf with her foot.

"I never thought that someone could distinguish the artists by the storyboards of an animation."

Zhou Mo indeed hadn't expected this.

However, he soon figured out the reason. The storyboards in animation are actually somewhat similar to the camera language in movies. The more powerful the director, the more obvious his personal style is.

The people Zhou Mo invited to produce the animated version of "Three Kingdoms" are basically industry bigwigs.

It's understandable that someone has guessed my identity.

(End of this chapter)