Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 102 Propaganda is Fraud (Additional chapter for the leader "Yi Yi Yi Ke")
The "Annabelle" crew rented a church and a detached house in the suburbs. These were basically the two filming locations. If other filming locations were needed, they could just add in additional shots.

To cater to the horror atmosphere of the show, the staff used wallpaper to cover the exterior walls with purple paint and plaster-like blocks.

Using wallpaper is simpler, but using paint requires painting and drying which is troublesome.

Afterwards, the staff also arranged the scenes in the house under the guidance of the art director, and the main scenes were shot in the detached house.

This is also the reason why the shooting cost is low.

Even if those behind the scenes look down on these two Chinese, they still have to work because they are under pressure from CAA, and CAA has to provide good service if they get paid.

In fact, the plot of "Annabelle" is very simple and can be basically summarized in one sentence:

A demon needs a soul.

Don’t delve too deeply into the plot of a horror movie, as long as it’s scary, that’s enough. Very few horror movies can get high ratings because there’s no logic.

On March 3, with the help of CAA, Fang Hong signed agreements with all behind-the-scenes staff and actors in the name of U.S. Jade Rabbit Pictures.

You have to sign this, which contains detailed terms and regulations, including when to eat.

It was all in English, which Fang Hong couldn't understand. Yu Xian just listened to Richard's retelling and didn't read it carefully.

"Annabelle" took only 8 days of preliminary preparation before officially starting filming.

In order to save costs and time, no activities or opening ceremony were held.

There's nothing much to prepare. It's not a period drama. All you need to do is design the "evil doll" to look a little more scary.

Fang Hong is the producer of this drama and Yu Xian is the director.

In fact, Fang Hong is best at making horror films and erotic movies. After all, this is how he started out in his previous life.

So during the filming, even though Yu was shooting first, Fang Hong would also teach him the shooting techniques of horror films.

This drama has a complete storyboard script, so Yu Xian only needs to shoot according to it.

You can copy whatever you want, but adding your own ideas or innovations is not allowed.

This limits Yu Xian's desire to express himself, which is necessary because his ideas cannot be separated from domestic cultural attributes, but this film is made for foreigners.

The target of service is foreigners, so we must serve according to their ideas.

During the filming, Chen Zhixi called and said that "So Young" had been scheduled to be released on April 4, which was the eve of May Day.

"You are awesome to have gotten the May Day slot," Fang Hong praised.

The last time he got a New Year's box office ticket, he had to spend a lot of time and effort, including betting, swearing, and talking until his mouth was dry.

Chen Zhixi went there and got it done.

"I didn't ask for it myself. Old man Lei wanted to give it to us." Chen Zhixi said.

In private, the two called Manager Lei "Old Man Lei".

Fang Hong was puzzled: "What's going on?"

"Because there is not a single China Film Group film in the May Day period, all of them are co-productions, so he asked us to compete."

Chen Zhixi explained the details over the phone.

This time, the May Day movie "So Young" was released on the same day as "Guan Yunchang" and "B+ Detective". These two movies are co-productions between China and Hong Kong. The former is Shanghai Film Group and the latter is Guangxian County, and both have nothing to do with China Film Group.

"A Chinese Ghost Story" is a co-production between Huadian and Hong Kong and Taiwan, and has nothing to do with China Film.

I won’t talk about other movies as they are a bit far away from May Day.

Therefore, China Film Corporation needs to have its own film agency, and a purely local film to occupy the May Day schedule, otherwise all the resources will be occupied by co-productions.

So do mainland filmmakers have food to eat?
The idea is good, but I don’t know if “So Young” can hold up.

After Fang Hong understood the situation, he asked, "So how do you plan to promote your plan?"

"I called you to ask you about this and to see if you have any good publicity plan." Chen Zhixi said.

They had always been a team before, Fang Hong made plans and she executed them.

This person is suddenly gone, it feels a bit spineless!

"No, you figure it out yourself." Fang Hong said.

This time, Chen Zhixi was left to take charge, as he himself was out of reach. There were many things going on here, so he had no time to take care of that.

Moreover, he had promised Liu Tianxian that he would no longer use those means that crossed the bottom line and would make movies in an upright manner!

"You are too straightforward. Don't you have any suggestions?" Chen Zhixi was speechless. He let go too completely.

What should she do?
"You can use all the previous promotional materials, such as making so-and-so cry, or Liu Tianxian shedding tears on the scene, or even a dog crying will do." Fang Hong said to him.

These promotional materials were not used properly in the past, but this time they were used and exaggerated to arouse people's interest.

Besides, this melodramatic youth film was originally made for older people to watch, and it appeals to their sentiments.

Young people also like to watch it. This movie will definitely be a hot topic, as people will curse while watching it.

After hearing what Fang Hong said, Chen Zhixi had an idea in his mind and roughly knew what to do, but he still executed it without any understanding at the strategic level.

But she was curious: "Did Liu Tianxian shed tears?"

"I'm just using a metaphor. You can use someone else's. If that doesn't work, just make it up. I can tell you clearly that propaganda is fraud."

After Fang Hong said this, he hung up the phone.

But the words "propaganda is fraud" were like a ray of light that struck Chen Zhixi's head.

It made her feel suddenly enlightened, as if she had understood the true meaning of film promotion.

All the movie cases that were later promoted successfully were fraudulent.

"Article 20", "All or Nothing", "Detective Chinatown", "Hot as Hell". There are too many examples of successful publicity that misleads the audience.

And it lasts forever.

Fang Hong simply took over the later propaganda concept.

This is not absolute, but for the film and television industry, which has not yet awakened to the traffic promotion method, it is still quite advanced. Of course, this way of promotion will definitely consume some reputation, which is the price of "fraud".

But even so, the audience didn't seem to learn their lesson and were still cut off one after another.

But it will be very easy to change your image in the future, all you have to do is take good films!

Fang Hong didn't care about domestic affairs, this was his big project.

When filming in the United States, you cannot work more than ten hours a day like in China. They have regulations here.

The maximum shooting time is 6 hours. If it exceeds that, you will be fined and your camera will be confiscated.

There is also weekend rest time, and the management is very strict!

This made Yu Xian very uncomfortable, because before, they were on the set filming from morning till night, except for sleeping time.

There is no other way. Since we can only shoot for six hours, we have to start work later, from 9am to 12pm and from 2pm to 5pm.

If it is a night scene, we will start shooting in the afternoon and finish before 11 o'clock.

Work has never been so easy, it feels so good!
The workers are happy, but Boss Fang is very unhappy because he is used to the exploitation of 996.

Fortunately, I had a storyboard script to copy, otherwise, with this kind of filming, I wouldn’t have been able to make more than $6 million.

But what the crew hated most was the scenes with babies and children. They had to comfort the babies as soon as they cried, which seriously delayed the shooting progress.

Sometimes fake babies have to be used instead.

And you can't say anything, because the parents will follow you and talk to you a bunch of nonsense.

What with the exploitation of children and the discrimination against white people, Fang Hong was really annoyed.

Now, the film shows that the heroine is frightened by the evil spirit, so she starts looking up information to find out what is torturing her?
At this time, a gust of wind blew, and her daughter, who was also a baby, was locked in the room by the evil spirit.

The woman hurried over to check the situation, and when she found that she couldn't open the door, she anxiously looked through the crack at the bottom of the door and saw her daughter sitting on the carpet.

Books from the bookshelf fell around her daughter and could hit her at any time.

This made the heroine very anxious and she kept shouting.

There is no danger in this section, the book was lost by the staff.

"Wa wah wah!" While filming, the baby who played the daughter started crying loudly again.

The crew members suddenly relaxed and the actors also stopped acting, as if they were used to it!

This baby starts crying every time I pat him!

Fang Hong and Yu Xian were helpless as well. They could only shoot so few shots a day, and the baby was always causing trouble. They wanted to kick the baby out, it was so annoying.

But I don’t dare because there are so many rules!

Seeing her daughter crying, a white mother hurried over, picked up her daughter and kissed her on the face, treating her like a baby.

The white mother came over with her daughter in her arms and talked a lot to Fang Hong, leaving Fang Hong confused and unable to understand.

He asked Yu Xian: "What is she beeping about?"

"She said that we would stop filming today because her daughter wanted to rest." Yu Xian was also speechless as they had only been filming for an hour.

"no!"

Fang Hong refused directly: "Tell her that we didn't complete the task today, as agreed, in 6 hours."

Every day of delay costs money. The agency is just trying to win over the team and doesn't care about how the filming is done. If it takes too long, they will have to take a commission.

Yu first communicated according to Fang Hong’s way.

The white mother couldn't stand it any longer and said angrily: "You are abusing children. Be careful or I will sue you at the Actors Guild."

These words really frightened Fang Hong and Yu Xian. If they sued, their cameras might be taken away, and they would not be able to shoot at all.

These machines are rented, not theirs!
"Tell her that she can take a break and shoot in the afternoon." Fang Hong had to give in.

After all, this is someone else's territory, and this is my first time in the United States in my previous life or this life, so I don't know the situation here at all.

All I know about it is what I heard online, but the Internet in China is blocked and detailed information is hard to find.

When the agency gave them instructions, they only told them the rules and translated as they went along, so Fang Hong didn't know the specifics.

Replacing the younger actor is not feasible either. Who can guarantee that the next one will be better?
Anyway, in this foreign country, if you don’t know anything, you will be controlled. You can only try your best to communicate. If that doesn’t work, you still have to find CAA to communicate.

"Shit, my daughter is only one year old and she needs a good rest." Seeing that the two were intimidated, the white mother became even more aggressive.

The crew members around were watching, some of them looked at each other with ambiguous smiles, these two yellow guys were just fools.

But no one spoke up to say anything for them. They were too lazy to care about the affairs of the yellow people, so just continue to let them be stupid!
I first translated the white woman's words.

"Tell her that I don't require a full six hours of filming, but at least we have to go through all the shots according to the shooting assignment."

Fang Hong felt that this white man was stalling for time and messing with his mentality.

After all, if you delay for one day, you will have to pay more wages, so there is no need to waste so much time.

All the shots are reviewed once. There is no requirement to take several shots to get it right. No matter whether it is good or bad, just take it once. Babies don't need acting skills anyway.

"Yellow-skinned vampires, you are exploiting us." The white woman started chattering again.

Although Fang Hong didn't understand, he knew what she was saying and immediately became unhappy: "You fucking..."

"Fang Hong!"

Just as the two were at a standoff and the white staff around them were watching the show, a baby voice interrupted their conversation.

Everyone turned around and saw a yellow girl with a ponytail and a straight figure in a black women's suit, looking very heroic.

She has translucent skin, is in good spirits, and has an aggressive beauty. The foreigners with good aesthetic sense couldn't help but take a second look at her and admire her beauty.

The person who came was Liu Tianxian.

(End of this chapter)