Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 869: What about a good reputation? Wang Mang and Zhang Jue

Appearing as Zhang Jue?
Zhou Mo's eyes lit up and he immediately agreed to the suggestion.

"What about the company's plans for the promotional video? Let me take a look?"

The assistant handed over the phone directly.

The general contents of the plan are:

It is enough for the actors like Zhou Mo who are making the movie to say a line of their character and do a few actions according to the character image of the animated version of "Three Kingdoms".

Afterwards, the company will use the clips they starred in as the beginning, and then connect them with the corresponding animation plot clips, which is a typical 3D to 2D conversion.

This move is to not only attract traffic to the animation, but also to promote the movie "Three Kingdoms", achieving the best of both worlds with one stone.

After reading it, Zhou Mo nodded: "That's easy. I'll notify you tonight and start shooting the day after tomorrow. I think one day will be enough."

"Okay, I'll go and notify them now."

The assistant put away his phone and prepared to go back to work. Just as he turned around, Zhou Mo stopped him and said, "Wait a minute. How was the response to the third promotional video of the animated version of Three Kingdoms that our company released a few days ago?"

More than ten days ago, the third promotional video of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Heroic and Elegant", was officially launched.

The assistant immediately replied, "Not bad. It has already exceeded 50 million views two days ago. By the time Romance of the Three Kingdoms is officially aired, it is expected to exceed 70 million."

"Fifty million?" Zhou Mo thought for a moment and asked, "This figure seems to be a little lower than the second promotional video "The Great Han General Conquers the West"?"

"Yes, compared to Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, netizens obviously prefer Cao Cao." The assistant paused, then made a joke: "Of course, it is also possible that netizens are not satisfied with Sun Quan in "The King's Woman"."

The content of "Heroic and Valiant" naturally focuses on Zhou Yu.

The story focuses on how Zhou Yu, after the death of Sun Ce, was appointed as the Grand Commander of the Eastern Wu. He defeated Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi, thwarted the latter's plan to unify the world and established the situation of three-way division of the world.

It’s a pity that despite his natural talent, he died of illness at the age of only 36.

Before he died, the young man who always liked to hug his neck, laugh like a fool, and call him brother appeared again in front of Zhou Yu.

"Bofu, I have fulfilled your legacy." (Defending Jiangdong)

However, since the background is Eastern Wu, we must talk about Sun Quan. After all, the latter is the real founder of Eastern Wu and the only one who has been in power for a long time during the Three Kingdoms period.

But everyone who knows Sun Quan will understand his popularity with the audience.

"What about the data for 'The Great Han Dynasty's Western Expedition'? I remember that the total number of views exceeded 80 million in July."

"It broke the 100 million mark a long time ago. After watching The Western Expedition, the audiences felt very resentful towards you, Director Zhou, and they all said they would kill you."

As soon as these words came out, Zhou Mo burst into laughter.

He knew why the audience was resentful.

The theme of "The Western Expedition General" is naturally Cao Cao. The Western Expedition General was his dream when he was young, but his reality was that his status became higher and higher, from the commander of the army, to the governor of Yanzhou, to the prime minister, to the Duke of Wei, and then to the King of Wei, but he was getting further and further away from his dream.

Therefore, the core content of this promotional video is: every time Cao Cao won a victory and every time his status was improved, his subordinates, collaborators, wives, concubines and children celebrated him, and Cao Cao himself happily accepted these celebrations and enjoyed the happiness with others.

But whenever he was alone late at night, Cao Cao would always take out a collection he carried with him and place it in front of him to examine it carefully.

It was a seal of the General Who Conquers the West that he had privately carved, and it accompanied him as he walked.

He was not sure how he felt about the seal of the General Who Conquers the West, just as he did not know how he felt about the Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao was not a born rebel. On the contrary, he had deep feelings for the Han Dynasty.

When he was young, he was able to hold up the five-colored stick, participate in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, dare to assassinate Dong Zhuo alone, and dare to lead troops to chase Dong Zhuo after Dong Zhuo fled.

So when did his feelings towards the big man change?

Cao Cao thought about it for a long time, but did not find an accurate answer.

Perhaps he knew that Dong Zhuo had slept on the dragon bed; perhaps he was alone in the deep and was almost wiped out by Xu Rong; or perhaps he found out that the court officials regarded him as the next Dong Zhuo and passed on the blood edict in private...

Things are unpredictable, and now he has become the person who can decide the fate of the world.

He executed those in the court who wanted to murder him, defeated those who competed with him for the world, and stayed away from those who prevented him from becoming king.

Now, in front of him, the seat where everyone in the world sits is only one step away from him.

Behind him, there was a general's seal that was gradually moving away.

……

Now, recalling the audience's comments on him when "The Great Han General Conquers the Western Region" was first released, Zhou Mo feels so happy.

"Zhou Mo, old thief, prepare to die!"

"Cao Cao was full of contradictions throughout his life. He was sentimental yet suspicious, ambitious yet petty."

"No, was this guy Zhou Mo sent by God to punish me?"

As the saying goes, a director who doesn’t make the audience emotionally explode is not a good director.

Zhou Mo deeply agreed.

So this time, he still planned to do so.

"Let me think about it. Since we have to combine it with the plot of the animation, why not just shoot a collection of 'deaths' and list the plot points where the main characters died, especially the ones that make people feel sorry, such as Pang Tong, Zhao Yun, Lu Su, Xun Yu, and Guo Jia. What do you think?"

After hearing Zhou Mo's thoughts, the assistant looked a little strange.

"Director Zhou, you are really cruel."

"If you're not ruthless when making movies, what's the difference between you and salted fish?"

Zhou Mo waved his hand and decided on the plan on the spot.

In the next three days, Zhou Mo quickly shot the video materials and sent them back to the company. The employees took three days to complete the promotional video.

Seven days before October, the last promotional video of the animated version of "Three Kingdoms" was officially aired.

The way of transforming real people into cartoon characters is actually not particularly uncommon in the current market, and many game companies have used this promotional method.

But the focus of this promotional video of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is more on the luxurious lineup of actors appearing in the promotional video.

In just five minutes of promotional video, more than 20 big names appeared, and all of them "died" to the audience. This can be called an unprecedented experience.

"I was wondering why the crew of the movie version of Three Kingdoms never announced the cast, is it so luxurious?"

"It should be more than that. There are still a few core characters that haven't appeared in this promotional video. The actors for these roles will definitely be given higher positions, not lower ones."

"Speaking of which, Zhou Mo plays Zhang Jiao in this promotional video. Does that mean he has officially admitted that he is Zhang Jiao at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty?"

"Zhou Mo = Zhang Jiao, isn't this information known for a long time? A few days ago, a photo of Zhou Mo wearing the clothes of the Great Sage Teacher leaked out from their filming base. It was said to be taken secretly by paparazzi. The face is blurry, but it is basically confirmed to be him." "I've seen that photo. What's strange is that when those photos came out, Lao Mouzi and Xu Ke were both filming a movie for Zhou Mo. It always feels incredible. The key is that I seem to have seen Zhang Mazi..."

"I've seen it too. Zhou Mo can play Zhang Jiao, but it's impossible for all three directors to make a movie around him alone. That's why I think he may not be Zhang Jiao. There is someone else who plays Zhang Jiao, and they should be explaining to another actor how to film Zhang Jiao."

Da Tiantian’s idea worked, and many viewers once again started speculating about whether Zhou Mo is Zhang Jiao.

Supporters and opponents each hold their own opinions, without the need to rely on announcements released by Shanhe Company, photos on the Internet, or rumors to support their views. As a result, the traffic of the animated version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the film version of "Three Kingdoms" also increased.

Many viewers are looking forward to the official broadcast of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". After more than half a year of waiting, they can't wait to see the main content of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and whether it is really as exquisite and smooth as shown in the promotional video.

Soon, it was early October.

On the first day of the holiday, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was broadcast on time at 7 o'clock in the evening.

As soon as the program was broadcast, the number of people watching online simultaneously on all platforms exceeded 10 million, directly setting a record for Shanhe Company's paid channels over the years, and filling the entire Shanhe Company with a warm atmosphere.

"Ten million, I'm afraid I'm not dreaming!"

"Even the highest online number for Zhulou was only a few million before, but ours has directly exceeded eight figures."

"It has to be a classic masterpiece, which is naturally attractive and has several times the traffic of original works."

Among the crowd, a relatively young employee suddenly said:

"I can already see the bonus waving at me. Hey, how many months of bonus do you think Director Zhou will give us this time?"

As soon as the words fell, the room fell silent.

The employee was confused by the situation and even a little scared, because he didn't know what had happened to cause everyone to react like this.

"Yes, did I say something wrong?"

An old employee replied: "Nothing, just someone called Director Zhou to tell him the details?"

"Isn't it usually Brother Li who reports things like this?" someone answered.

"Brother Li went back to his hometown to hold his wedding the day before yesterday. You must have been confused because you stayed up so late."

At this moment, everyone in the office finally reacted.

Okay.

I was so busy celebrating that I forgot to report it to my boss.

The old man who just spoke immediately called Zhou Mo.

At this time, Zhou Mo had just finished dinner and returned to the hotel.

"Hey."

"Director Zhou, the data for Romance of the Three Kingdoms is out. The first episode had over 1000 million simultaneous online viewers... Oh, now it's over 1100 million."

Zhou Mo was also shocked when he heard this number.

"Eleven million, did you read that correctly?"

"No."

The surprise in Zhou Mo's eyes lingered for a long time. This number was much higher than he expected. It seemed that he had underestimated the popularity of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

But think about it, the four great classics are basically works known to all ages, and among the four great classics, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the one with the highest popularity, and only "Journey to the West" can compete with it.

The quality of the animated version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is good enough, and the security department has done enough publicity, so it is not surprising that there is this level of online viewing.

"I see. Thank you. Brother Li has returned to his hometown, so please report the rest of the data to me tomorrow. I'll hold a celebration party for you after I finish my work here and go back."

The old employees were very excited when they heard this.

"Don't worry, Director Zhou, I will complete the task!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Mo went into his room.

Pushing open the bedroom door, Da Tiantian was sitting in front of the computer desk watching videos.

Hearing the noise, Da Tiantian turned around with a smile.

"Why did you come back so early today?"

"The filming went smoothly today and we finished the work more than two hours ahead of schedule." Zhou Mo explained, and then glanced at the computer screen and found that Da Tiantian was also watching "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at the moment.

"Huh? Haven't you already seen all of this? Why are you following it again?"

Da Tiantian's eyes returned to the screen. "Every time I watch it, it's a new experience. What's more, there are so many viewers watching it today. There are constant comments discussing the plot. It looks completely different from the previous times."

Zhou Mo became interested and moved closer to Da Tiantian.

"What are the comments discussing?"

"They discuss everything. Some discuss costumes, some discuss characters, and some discuss history. If I don't adjust it, the screen will be full of comments and I won't be able to see the plot at all."

Da Tiantian explained to Zhou Mo and turned the color of the barrage to full.

In an instant, the entire screen was blocked by bullet screens of various colors.

Oops.

Zhou Mo raised his eyebrows and scanned the screen. There were indeed all kinds of people, and there were even arguments around the topic of "Is Zhang Jue good or evil?"

A few seconds later, Da Tiantian turned off the barrage and moved the screen to the comment section again.

As expected, the hottest topic in the comment section at this time was also "Is Zhang Jue good or evil?"

"Zhang Jue is certainly a positive character. At that time, he was not only a wise man among the common people, but also many dignitaries and nobles regarded him as a guest of honor. If he had not rebelled, he could have easily become a great master, but he rebelled in the end. If this isn't a positive character, what is it?"

"According to what's said above, there's no need for Wang Mang to rebel. But don't we know what happened to Wang Mang in the end? Wasn't it all for that position?"

"But don't forget that Zhang Jue has no children."

"Wang Mang did have children, six in total, but most of them ended up in tragedy, and several of them were even killed by Wang Mang himself. It would have been better to have no children at all."

After Da Tiantian showed the comments to Zhou Mo, she winked at him.

"Well, did you expect this kind of quarrel?"

Zhou Mo nodded slightly: "Of course I thought of it, this kind of thing is inevitable, and some viewers do have a point. Wang Mang has too many abstract operations. His existence has caused many people with good reputations in later dynasties to be suspected.

The reason is that no one knows whether this guy with a good reputation will cause trouble in the future like Wang Mang did. "

(End of this chapter)