Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 202 Chapter 212 [Ten Years of Olympic Bidding, the Essence of Blockbusters is Cool]

Half an hour later, the symposium ended.

Of the two topics discussed, people were more concerned about the decrease in the number of moviegoers rather than the arrival of American blockbusters.

Directors, including Chen Kaige, do not think that only ten foreign films each year can have any impact on the domestic film industry.

Instead, it is the decline in the number of domestic moviegoers that has made major film studios feel uncomfortable.

Last year, they still coordinated and organized sales, and the number of moviegoers had nothing to do with them. But this year things are different. The major studios have to find their own way out and make money by making movies.

Nowadays, the number of moviegoers has declined. Even if we exclude the number of moviegoers from rural projection teams, the number of moviegoers is still less than 2 million, which is still a bit scary compared to the 50 billion last year.

Li Yishu couldn't say anything about it. After all, from a normal perspective, ten movies a year are indeed not a lot, and not all of them are American blockbusters. There are also films from Europe and third world countries.

But the audience's tastes can be cultivated. In the past few years, the number of video halls across the country has increased dramatically. It costs only one yuan to watch a movie, and there are small movie theaters in the evening, which are constantly impacting the film screening market.

As Huo Wenxi's VCD begins to be widely promoted and advertised, audiences will probably be even less willing to go to the cinema to watch those preachy and boring dramas.

When Li Yishu and Zhang Yimou agreed to visit the set of To Live and were about to go with Han Sanping to meet the leader who had just presided over the meeting, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, "The Olympic bid failed!"

Someone immediately exclaimed, "What? How could it fail?"

"Yeah, how could we fail? Didn't we say that we had the advantage in the first three rounds of voting?"

"That's right, you're not talking nonsense!"

"..."

A group of filmmakers who were about to leave immediately surrounded them.

Li Yishu frowned, but did not go over to join in the fun, mainly because he had already known about the failure of this year's Olympic bid.

As early as after the successful completion of the 1990 Asian Games, the country was preparing to bid for the Olympic Games again. Since 1991, it has been actively planning and carrying out related work for the bid for the 2000 Olympic Games.

People in China like integers very much, especially in the year of the millennium, which is an opportunity that only comes once in 1000 years!
Almost everyone in the country supports the bid for the Olympic Games. Last year, many university students joined forces with 100,000 people to sign a list of bids for the Olympic Games, hoping to impress the people in the Olympic Organizing Committee.

In August this year, the domestic Olympic team officially set off for Monte Carlo to prepare to participate in the election for the host country and city of the 8 Olympic Games.

After a lot of preparation, at the pre-voting briefings, China has been overwhelmingly ahead of other countries, and Yenching and Sydney have quickly become the favorites to win, and people generally believe that they will win.

In the three rounds of voting in September, there was a big difference in the votes between Yanjing and Sydney. Fortunately, we were the winners of the first three rounds of voting. When the news got back to the country, everyone cheered, and even the higher-ups began to prepare for the 2000 Olympics.

But no one expected that in the final vote at the end of the month, it lost to Sydney by 2 votes and missed the chance to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

"The news is true."

Han Sanping squeezed out of the crowd with a gloomy face and said to Li Yishu, "I didn't expect that we still lost to Sydney! And we only lost by 2 votes!"

“Two votes, what a pity.”

Hearing this, Li Yishu was filled with emotion.

From a practical point of view, if China had hosted the Olympic Games in 2000, there would probably have been no 08 Yanjing Olympic Games, a golden age that people all over the world admired.

The economic gap between the eight years before and after is very shocking.

No, strictly speaking, it's not eight years, but fifteen years.

Now that the bid for the Olympic Games has been successful, we will be busy building a new Olympic stadium in the next few years. In terms of technology, economy, business and other aspects, it is estimated that we will not be able to achieve the same success as in 08.

However, living in this era, Li Yishu can feel everyone's sadness about the failure of the Olympic bid.

After all, China now attaches great importance to obtaining "international recognition". The success of the 1990 Asian Games not only promoted the development of the domestic sports industry, but also promoted the domestic tourism industry.

Li Yishu said firmly: "If it doesn't work this time, then next time, we can successfully host the Asian Games, and we can do the Olympics as well!"

It took a full ten-year bid from 1991 to 2001 to finally create the 2008 Olympic Games.

Hearing this, Han Sanping sighed a few words and said, "Let's go, Director Zhang is already waiting for us."

Inside the office.

Director Zhang enthusiastically asked his secretary to pour two cups of tea.

After waving his hand and letting the secretary leave, Director Zhang looked at the two of them and asked, "How is your discussion on the domestic blockbuster going?"

"Let Director Li talk about this." Han Sanping smiled and said, "This plan for a domestic blockbuster was proposed by Director Li, and he has many experiences in directing large-scale films abroad."

Hearing this, Director Zhang glanced at Li Yishu.

"Director Zhang, first of all, I want to make it clear that the foundation of domestic blockbusters is the film industrialization that I mentioned at the symposium. Without film industrialization, the current domestic environment is simply not enough to support the filming of blockbusters."

Li Yishu paused and continued, "Of course, the industrialization of the film industry is not achieved overnight, and I don't have much experience, so the preparatory work for the blockbuster "Three Kingdoms" will take at least two years."

"Two years?" Director Zhang asked in surprise, "Does it take that long?"

"Yes, this is just the preliminary preparation work. Costumes, props, special effects... all need to be prepared in advance. Secondly, we are going to shoot the Battle of Red Cliffs in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so naval battles are definitely indispensable. We also need to hire someone to make a huge wooden boat that meets the conditions of ancient times..."

Li Yishu does have no experience in making blockbuster films, but she has experienced the era of blockbuster films in later generations and has participated in some large productions. Naturally, she knows that for historical war films like this non-special effects blockbuster, the most important things are the script and costumes.

The original novel of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is right here, and it includes the plot of the Battle of Red Cliff. As long as you follow the process honestly and add some details, and don't learn from Wu Yusen's weird and weird operations like letting Sun Shangxiang be a spy, arranging Zhuge Liang to deliver a horse, and letting Xiao Qiao go to Cao's camp alone and return to Cao Cao at night... etc., then basically no one will find fault with the plot of the movie.

Now that the plot is done, the next thing is the costumes and props. The 94 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is pretty good overall. Apart from the fact that they couldn't borrow the Japanese pirates' armor, the visual experience is still very good and in line with the living conditions at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

But the movie certainly can't be so sloppy. You can refer to the later "Hero". The phalanx of 100,000 Qin troops is so majestic and magnificent. It's a pity that Lao Mouzi shot a martial arts film.

"That's true. It seems that big-budget movies are not that easy to shoot."

Director Zhang nodded.

If all these are taken into account, then it is normal to spend two years. After all, it would probably take a year and a half just to build a thousand warships.

"Okay, then go ahead and do it boldly!"

Director Zhang looked at Li Yishu and smiled, "Since we are going to make a domestic blockbuster, we must shoot it in a way that shows our momentum. If you need anything, come to me as soon as possible, or you can tell Director Han. As long as it is related to the filming of the movie, I will satisfy you in any way I can." "Thank you, Director Zhang."

Li Yishu's face lit up with joy. If one wanted to make a big-budget film like this well in this era, one had to rely on official power.

Suddenly he remembered something and said hesitantly, "Director Zhang, I may need to mobilize too many people for this movie."

"I know. Director Han told me that 10,000 people is not a lot. I will arrange it when the filming starts."

The country currently lacks technology, and many large-scale movies require the mobilization of manpower. For example, the "Great Battle Series" a few years ago mobilized more than 100,000 troops for filming.

Li Yishu said awkwardly, "…It's not 4 people. After I went back and thought about it, I felt that at least 5 to people were needed for this trip."

"4 to 5 people!!"

Director Zhang exclaimed immediately!
Han Sanping next to him was also surprised. Li Yishu had never told him about this before.

"Yes, I plan to shoot it in two parts. It also involves Cao Cao's conquest of Wuhuan, and may require the use of a large number of horses... Conservatively estimated, at least one million people will be used to complete the film." (The total number of appearances of all characters in the scene)
During this period, while editing "Central Station", Li Yishu was also thinking about the plot of "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms". If he wanted to make a profit, he had to refer to Wu Yusen's division into two parts.

This will help to better reap the box office in Japan. He also has ideas for the plot, which is generally similar to Wu Yusen's "Red Cliff", but with some new plots added.

The story begins with the war plot after the Battle of Guandu, in which Cao Cao conquered the Wuhuan in order to prevent the resurgence of the Yuan family. This aspect is not very long, and it mainly serves to highlight the strength of Cao's army and to enhance sensory stimulation.

A blockbuster should look like a blockbuster. The scenes of hundreds of thousands of troops fighting each other and thousands of horses galloping can directly attract people's attention at the beginning of the movie.

After spending more than ten minutes filming, the scene directly jumps to the scene where Cao’s army leads an army of 800,000 to Jingzhou to attack Liu Bei and Sun Quan.

The subsequent climax of the plot is Zhao Zilong's seven ins and outs, the bravery of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others, and the ending is fixed on Liu Bei and Sun Quan joining forces to fight against Cao.

The upper part ends.

The second part is the normal story of borrowing arrows from a straw boat, Huang Gai's fake surrender, Zhuge Liang borrowing the east wind, burning of Chibi, Huarong Road, victory of the Sun-Liu coalition, etc.

Moreover, Li Yishu also wants to try to promote this movie to European and American countries. At that time, some of the literary plots will be cut out, and the two parts will be combined into one, reducing the conspiracy aspects and simply using a simple false surrender.

Because the foreigners' political schemes are a joke. The most political scheme they could think of in ancient times was probably the "Trojan War", where they let the soldiers get into the body of a giant wooden horse~~and it might even be fabricated.

As for whether the movie can be released in Europe and the United States, Li Yishu is not very worried.

Thanks to the regulations on ten imported films to be signed next year, I believe that when the blockbuster "Three Kingdoms" comes out, there will definitely be North American film giants to help distribute it, because this is a good opportunity for them to open up the Chinese market in the future.

Although the current domestic economy is not yet good, it is developing steadily. A country with a population of 10 billion has enormous box office potential.

Several major Hollywood film companies will certainly compete to see who can enter the Chinese market earlier, and therefore will offer huge discounts in the promotion of "Red Cliff" due to competition.

The idea is good, but Lee Yi-su has no experience in large-scale shooting. However, she can invite domestic directors who have made war films to be the instructors. There is also Wang Fulin, the director of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". He has studied "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" for several years and filmed "The Battle of Red Cliff". He is more than qualified to be an assistant director.

Li Yishu's responsibility is to make the movie "enjoyable". The core of a blockbuster is to make the audience enjoy watching it.

When he first went to the cinema to watch the domestic blockbuster "Hero", he was shocked by Qin Jun's shouting of "Wind, Wind".

The sense of pleasure brought by this large-scale sensory stimulation, amplified by the large screen and large speakers in the cinema, makes people feel refreshed from head to toe.

The several battles in "The Lord of the Rings" series and the final battle in "Avengers 3-4" are typical examples of infinitely magnifying the sense of excitement that such blockbusters bring to the audience.

After listening to Li Yishu's brief account of her filming plan, Director Zhang swallowed his saliva and said, "What you are shooting here is not a blockbuster, but another "The Final Battle"! No, this is even more difficult to shoot than the Final Battle!"

Modern war films are actually much easier to make than ancient war films, because modern wars just involve both sides shooting at each other from a long distance, and the explosion special effects can be in place.

But ancient war blockbusters are different. Both sides have to fight with weapons, and it is not just dozens or hundreds of people, but thousands or even tens of thousands of people fighting in close combat.

"Yes, so it is definitely not possible for me to do it alone. I will invite some domestic directors who have directed war films and the director of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to jointly complete the creation of this film."

"Well, that's a good idea. Let's work together to create China's first domestic blockbuster."

Director Zhang nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, we in China are short of everything right now, but we definitely have enough people. You can have someone make a budget first, and I will contact the Bayi Film Studio about the specific number of people to be mobilized. Then you can directly contact the Bayi Film Studio."

"Thank you, Director Zhang!"

Li Yishu smiled and said, "But there is no rush for this matter. It will probably take until 1996 for the actual filming to start."

From his point of view, the best time for the film to be released is in early 1997.

At that time, the Asian financial crisis had not yet begun, the Japanese economy had recovered to a certain extent, South Korea had not been exploited by the Americans, and Southeast Asia was still "prosperous".

If it is not possible to release it in early 1997, then Lee Yi-shu will have to consider waiting until after 98. He has seen many films fail miserably due to market failures.

However, he felt a headache when he thought of the "big ship" that swept the world in 98.

9 month 29 number.

Li Yishu set off for Los Angeles, USA.

This time he came to Los Angeles mainly for investment matters.

More than 3000 million US dollars. If you do nothing, the money paid in taxes alone will be enough to make people feel painful.

Los Angeles International Airport.

The person who came to pick me up at the airport was Monica Bellucci. I hadn't seen her for more than a few months. Her image had changed. Perhaps she had participated in the management of the company and was studying business administration. She was dressed in a women's suit, giving off the impression of an intellectual, cool and domineering female president.

In the car, Li Yishu looked at Monica who was driving and said with emotion: "Monica, your temperament has changed a lot now."

"Is it good or bad?" Monica Bellucci looked at him with a smile.

Li Yishu asked back, "Do you think it's good or bad?"

Monica Bellucci knew what he meant. He just wanted to ask her whether it was better to be an actress or a company manager. She smiled and said, "I think it's good now. At least I don't have to worry about rent and finding a job anymore."

In the past few months, Monica followed Amy and was deeply involved in the box office sharing and company management of the art film company for "The Sixth Sense". She was fascinated by the feeling of being in power.

(End of this chapter)