Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 868: Cutting the Sky with the Scarlet Sky Sword

Time quickly entered mid-September.

Although the filming of the "Zhang Jiao" chapter of "Three Kingdoms" was completed more than a month ago, Zhou Mo still can't forget the experience of those thirty days.

It can be said that in order to ensure that their shooting results would not be surpassed by the other two, Zhang, Jiang and Xu even used their meal time to study how to capture the "Zhang Jiao" in their minds, and their main character was a workaholic.

Since directors are working so hard, others will naturally have to work harder.

Over the past month, the entire crew has been busy from beginning to end, cooperating with the three directors throughout the process.

As for Zhou Mo, as the absolute core of the "Zhang Jiao" chapter, he really put in his utmost effort to deal with the endless demands from these three people.

At lunch time, Zhou Mo was eating in the room while watching the films shot by Zhang, Jiang and Xu.

It has to be said that competition can best inspire people's fighting spirit and ability.

The works shot by Zhang, Jiang and Xu in this month are of much better quality than their previous works.

Moreover, everyone has different focuses and brings out their own styles and strengths.

Among them, Zhang Yimou, as always, made use of his advantage of good pictures and focused the shooting on the plot of Zhang Jue and inviting the man to die and slashing the sky with a sword.

This plot was one of the major selling points of the early "Three Kingdoms" series. After Zhang Jue slashed the sky with his sword, it symbolized the end of the Han Dynasty.

On the surface, the world still belonged to the Han Dynasty, but in reality the imperial court had already lost control over local forces. The Han Dynasty was in decline, and many heroes emerged, and the future of competing for supremacy was imminent.

Therefore, this part of the plot must have a grand scene and the special effects must be maximized.

If you want to maximize the special effects, you need to spend money.

The first thing Zhang Yimou asked for was 20 million yuan, and he said in high spirits that if he gave him the money, he would produce the best special effects in China.

Zhou Mo had no objection and immediately approved a small sum of money to do it first. When he was satisfied, he continued to sit back.

The second one is Xu Ke, who focused on the portrayal of the noble families and immortals in the Zhang Jiao chapter.

The Eastern Han Dynasty lasted nearly two hundred years, and the Han people and the aristocratic families had already been completely integrated together, with each other being inseparable.

Zhang Jue slashed the sky and destroyed the fortune of the Han Dynasty. In fact, it was also an attack on the aristocratic families and the "immortals" behind them.

The immortals, of course, would not let Zhang Jue destroy their achievements of the past two hundred years so easily. They lived in extreme luxury, with bells and drums ringing, and food and drink feasting everywhere. When faced with anyone who tried to provoke them, they would naturally try every means to suppress, eliminate, and destroy him.

In order to show the opposition between the aristocratic family and Zhang Jue, Xu Ke put a lot of thought into presenting the image of the aristocratic family, which is in line with his previous style of being magnificent yet a little evil.

As for Jiang Wen, he placed the core of the Zhang Jue chapter on the common people and once again told his endless story.

The reason why the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out at the end of the Han Dynasty is very simple and can be summed up in one sentence: the common people could no longer survive and could die at any time for various reasons.

Since we're all going to die anyway, we might as well turn this messed up world of yours over to the ground.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the common people were like dead grass, seen everywhere, without any vitality. But even such dead grass often only needed a small flame to ignite a large area, spread rapidly, and then sweep across the world.

Now, Zhang Jue has become the small flame that ignites the world with himself as the guide, and the people who cannot survive will swarm around him like moths to a flame.

After lunch, Zhou Mo looked at the time. It was less than one o'clock. There was still some time before the afternoon work. It was a good time to look at these works again and think about how to deal with them in the end.

At this time, a sweet voice came from behind.

"Oh, oh, oh, whose daffodil is this, watching itself perform over and over again?"

Zhou Mo didn't even turn his head, but just took out a few bags of snacks from the drawer.

"Eat?"

"Forget it. I need to control my diet during this period."

"Ah."

Zhou Mo nodded and didn't say anything else.

At this moment, the screen showed that Zhang Jue was about to kill Cang Tian, ​​but before leaving, he met Zhao Shan again. He thought Zhao Shan wanted to stop him, so he was a little wary.

He knew that a portion of Zhao Shan's power was hidden in the sky, which was the contract between the latter and the Han Dynasty.

However, Zhao Shan had no intention of stopping him. Instead, he told Zhang Jue that if you feel that the world is unfair and want to kill Cang Tian, ​​that's fine, but after killing Cang Tian, ​​you must build up new power, even if this power is still very weak.

Otherwise, simple destruction will only bring greater disaster to the people.

In addition, Zhao Shan gave Zhang Jue a weapon:
Scarlet Sky Sword.

Back then, Liu Bang picked up a three-foot-long sword, killed a white snake, started an uprising, and established the Han Dynasty.

The Chixiao Sword is considered the sacred weapon of the Han Dynasty and is more precious than the imperial seal.

Relying on the Scarlet Sky Sword's suppression of the Han Dynasty's luck, Zhang Jue's chances of slaying the sky will be greater.

Seeing this, Da Tiantian suddenly said, "Come to think of it, there aren't many displays of the 'immortal' worldview in the Chu-Han section. For example, the widely circulated legend of Liu Bang slaying the white snake and starting an uprising was not included in the movie. Is it just to pave the way for the following movies?"

Zhou Mo smiled and said slowly, "Wrong, I didn't think that much at the time.

In 12, the "Immortal World View" was not complete enough. I just didn't know how to deal with this part, so I just left it aside. "

After hearing this answer, Da Tiantian was a little surprised.

"I thought you had already arranged all these plots, just like a hole you had dug, just waiting to be filled in."

Zhou Mo shook his head, indicating that this was not the case.

“The market is constantly changing. In the nine years from the new version of The Myth to now, the main force of the audience in the film and television drama market has even been replaced once.

How can we easily grasp the preferences of such a large number of people without a lot of investigation and interviews, so we can only take it one step at a time and try to write the settings as not too extreme, leaving more blanks so that we can add more things later. "

Da Tiantian thought about it and thought so.

In her memory, the "immortal and mortal worldview" was initially just a relatively simple pentagonal framework.

The four corners of the pentagon are written with "Zhao Shan", "Xianren", "Chaotang" and "Mortal" respectively.

As for the last corner, Zhou Mo left it empty and he never said what it was about.

As the market research became more in-depth, new information was continuously added to this framework, including but not limited to words such as "seeking immortality" and "aristocratic family".

The more information there is, the more detailed and complex the "immortal and mortal" worldview will be, the more restrictions there will be, and the more difficult it will be to adapt it into a movie.

Thinking of this, Da Tiantian suddenly remembered something. She looked at Zhou Mo, "I suddenly understand why you told me before that the 'Immortal World View' seemed to be written in accordance with history, but it was impossible to continue filming."

"what reason?"

"The number of settings related to the immortal and mortal worldviews has been increasing, and it increases by 20% to 30% with each film. If it continues to grow like this, it will be basically impossible to make a movie that satisfies the settings of the immortal and mortal worldviews and conforms to the trend of history."

Da Tiantian was thinking as she spoke, and although her language was a little fragmented, she still made her meaning clear.

As the number of settings increases, the corresponding forces in the movie will also be continuously strengthened.

When the stakes are raised to a certain level, the balance of the plot can hardly be maintained.

To give a simple example:

Zhao Shan is immortal, good at fighting, and has an extremely firm faith in Taoism. When he encounters an "immortal" who uses mortals as cultivation materials, he kills them on sight.

The most important thing is that she is getting stronger and stronger.

In such a situation, unless the combat effectiveness of the "immortals" was increased, how could the plot be maintained? They would have been killed by Zhao Shan long ago.

However, continuing to strengthen the immortals will create a new situation.

What should the court and the mortals do?
These two sides, especially the mortal side, were set up from the very beginning as the side that the immortals were completely oppressed on. There was no way to strengthen them, and we could only arrange some plots to highlight their miserable situation.

For example, in troubled times or the end of a dynasty.

But similar plots are not a panacea. Audiences will be satisfied with them after watching them once, and they will get aesthetic fatigue after watching them too many times. It is impossible for them to keep paying for them.

After Zhou Mo explained the situation clearly, Da Tiantian said thoughtfully: "No wonder you mentioned Xianwu Tang several times, but never mentioned the things after that. Can I assume that after Xianwu Tang, the plan of 'Xianmortal World View' has basically come to an end?"

"Almost." Zhou Mo nodded slightly.

Seeing Da Tiantian's regretful expression, he smiled and comforted her: "Don't worry about it. It's already a miracle that an IP can survive for more than ten years and make more than ten movies.

Beautiful things end at their peak, leaving a beautiful memory for oneself, the audience and the market.

As for actors, we actually have more new directions to try.”

After being persuaded, Da Tiantian felt better.

He nodded, picked up the snacks on the table and started eating.

"Eh? Didn't you want to control your diet? Why did you start again?"

"Turning grief and anger into appetite, how can you control it if you are not full?"

……

Late September.

The filming of the Zhang Jiao chapter of "Three Kingdoms" has come to an end, and the Wei Kingdom chapter has officially begun.

One day, Zhou Mo had just finished his work for the day when Jiaozi called him.

"Hello, Director Zhou, good afternoon."

"Good afternoon. Which award has invited Nezha to participate in the selection this time? Tokyo, Popular Hundred Flowers, or Huading?"

Hearing this reply, Jiaozi on the other end of the phone was obviously stunned.

"Director Zhou, you know everything?"

"Isn't this normal? Nine out of ten calls you made to me in the past few days were related to awards." Zhou Mo said unhappily.

In late August, "Nezha 1" was officially released, with a total box office of over 56 billion, catching up with the box office peak record set by Zhou Mo.

After the data came out, Jiaozi, who had originally thought of directly investing in the production of Nezha 2, was once again caught up in a situation of constant phone calls and visits. His situation was even more serious than that of Guo Fan and Wu Jing.

Among the many calls, such as those asking for dinner, getting to know people, investing, and inviting cooperation, Jiaozi basically rejected them all.

He and Zhou Mo have a very good cooperation. In his mind, Shanhe Company is now the best company in the world. There is no need to look for other partners.

However, he could not refuse communications such as award invitations and seminars.

For example, in today's phone call, Jiaozi was talking about this year's Tokyo Film Festival.

This time, films including "Nezha" and "The Wandering Earth" will participate in the Tokyo Film Festival and will be screened at the festival.

Jiaozi called to learn about the film festival and make some preparations in advance.

After listening to Jiaozi's question, Zhou Mo said directly: "Don't worry about this. Guo Fan and Brother Jing will go with you. They are all from our company. If you have any questions, just tell the company's leader and he can help you solve them.

In addition, the jury chairperson for this year’s Tokyo Film Festival is Zhang Jie, and she will be there in advance. You can go and meet her, just like making a new friend…”

Zhou Mo patiently told Jiaozi the things to pay attention to during this trip to the film festival, and Jiaozi felt so fulfilled after listening to him.

Wow, Director Zhou is really worthy of his name. He prepared everything along the way, including the booth, translator, accommodation, team leader, and even the judges.

Jiaozi once again felt grateful to the self who had contacted Zhou Mo at that time.

……

On the other side, after Zhou Mo hung up the phone, he packed up his things and prepared to eat.

On the way, his assistant found him and reported the news.

"Director Zhou, the data for Military Bugle has come out, the total is 4.7 million."

Zhou Mo raised his eyebrows. This number was different from the company's estimate.

Previously, due to weather reasons, audiences did not want to go to the movies in the hot sun, so the expected box office of "The Bugle" was lowered a bit, to around 4.4 million yuan.

This time there are tens of millions more. Where did they come from?
“What about the extra box office?”

"It's all thanks to the crew. Director Chen discussed with some units and organized a lot of them to watch The Bugle. The tens of millions of box office revenue also came from there."

Zhou Mo nodded slightly.

Since it is an internal expense, there is no problem.

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes, according to the plan, our animated version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms will be released soon and is currently being promoted. The company said that they hope our crew can shoot some promotional videos to add more fuel to the animation broadcast. I would like to ask for your opinion."

Zhou Mo nodded without hesitation: "That's no problem, I'll shoot it for you within three days."

The animated version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" embodies his expectations for the company's 2D animation project, and no amount of help in promoting it would be too much.

When the assistant heard this, he immediately said, "By the way, Director Zhou, Sister Tiantian also knows about this. She wants you to appear on camera this time, as Zhang Jiao."

(End of this chapter)