Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 521 Paying for the Dream

Regarding the commotion caused by the Golden Rooster Awards, the three entertainment industry figures present were mostly chatting about it with a mentality of watching the fun.

After all, the three of them don't have to compete for a spot, so they can naturally just stay out of it.

For example, if it were last year, there might be some doubts about Xiaolong, but after this year's summer season, he will definitely have a place.

The other two were already judges.

Shi Xiaolong said, "I heard that Shu Chang is trying to find a solution. She can't come to you, so she is just trying to get it herself."

Liu Qianqian was surprised and said, "I haven't heard of it, but speaking of it, if Chang Qian's acting skills are so high, there should be a position for him, right?"

As she spoke, she looked at Chen Linfeng.

"I think so." Chen Linfeng did not comment.

As the first Golden Rooster Awards after its revamp, we still need to pursue fairness and justice.

Chen Linfeng had no intention of helping his friend cheat.

Since the reform of the Golden Rooster Awards, it has become institutionalized and it is not easy for him to interfere.

In other words, the purpose of reform is to prevent anyone from interfering.

Seeing that Chen Linfeng didn't want to say more, several people changed the subject.

"After 'Inception', Xiaofeng caused quite a bit of unrest in the country," Shi Xiaolong lamented.

"Yeah, sure."

Liu Qianqian nodded quickly, "Many media outlets are reporting on this. He returned to China the day before yesterday and it became news."

Speaking of this, everyone became interested.

Wang Yanping expressed her opinion, "In the final analysis, it's because the box office was too high. It has become famous all over the world and it can be regarded as a glory for the country."

She also made a vivid analogy, "It's probably equivalent to the Chinese national football team not only making it to the World Cup, but also winning the runner-up?"

"Not at all," Shi Xiaolong waved his hands quickly, "There's no way our film and television industry would fall to this point."

"That's right," Chen Shantong said dissatisfiedly, "The Chinese national football team is like that. We filmmakers are much better than them, okay? And we are getting stronger and stronger. No matter what, we are better than the Chinese national football team. If you don't know how to make a metaphor, don't make random comparisons."

Chen Linfeng stood on the same side as his father this time, "Mom, I won't stand with you this time. It's too insulting to compare with the national football team."

Although from the perspective of future generations, the film industry is not much better than the Chinese national football team, but isn’t he trying to change it now?

And it’s not time yet.

"Well, you are all in this business, I have stirred up a hornet's nest."

Wang Yanping felt that she was not wrong, but she was targeting the wrong person. She shouldn't say that the light was on in front of a blind person.

She pulled Wang Mengfei's arm and said, "I shouldn't have told you guys, Feifei, we're not doing this, let's just talk."

Wang Mengfei covered her mouth and laughed, not getting involved in the fight between the two bosses.

After a while, Wang Mengfei said, "Many of my friends didn't see the movie, but they all know that it had a high box office, and they all seem very proud when they talk about it."

"That hits the nail on the head," Chen Shantong said, "Anything that can boost morale and inspire the national spirit should not be underestimated."

"Xiaofeng really gave everyone confidence this time."

He has been working in the film and television industry for many years and has a deep understanding of this.

In the decade from 00 to 09, don’t even mention Hollywood, it was in the sky and out of reach.

The pressure on them is on their compatriots in the south.

When facing those filmmakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, these mainland film and television people have to keep their necks down.

It was after 08 that we left behind the Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television circles and began to face Hollywood blockbusters directly, and only then did we really feel the pressure.

Chen Shantong was quite emotional. "In recent years, when people talk about Hollywood, they really look up to it. When we have a party to solicit investment and drink, no matter who is in the circle, they have to mention how Hollywood does things, as if they would not be convincing if they don't say so."

“In fact, I just couldn’t win, I was afraid and I didn’t have confidence in myself.

Think about last year, when the government said it would open up and allow more Hollywood blockbusters to be imported. You can see how many people were complaining. They were also afraid. This year, they launched a domestic protection month, which is essentially the same idea.

“Now that Xiaofeng is with Emily Ken, suppressing those Hollywood movies, the feeling is different. It’s reassuring to hear that Xiaofeng can do this.

Although the overall situation in China is still far from enough, at least someone can do it.”

When talking about the sad past of many people in the circle, Chen Shantong seemed a little depressed.

Although my son is doing very well and my mentality is encouraging, the overall situation is like this. When I look up, I see that there is still a long way to go. The gap between this and reality is still too big, and I can't help but feel heavy again.

Once these words were spoken, everyone felt a little sad.

In fact, it’s not just the film and television industry, other industries are similar.

Especially the better you are at doing, because what you see and hear is often that the Western world is dominant and superior.

Therefore, they are most likely to become discouraged, develop a fear of difficulties, and even find fault with their own people.

"Why am I giving you some confidence? You still seem to be lacking confidence. What are you afraid of? Come back and see what happens in ten years, and it will definitely be completely different."

Chen Linfeng was very calm. It was already 2012 and there were only a few years left before the turning point. There was nothing to be sad about.

"Ha, that's right, you have always been very confident." Chen Shantong smiled silently, and the pressure in his heart just now was swept away.

……

Because of the reasons discussed at the family gathering, Chen Linfeng made a special call to Kang Jianmin after returning home to find out about the Golden Rooster Awards judges.

"Director Chen, don't worry, we will definitely follow the rules. There are so many people watching us." Kang Jianmin patted his chest.

"That's good." Chen Linfeng nodded, "Have you discussed the venue and sponsorship?"

"Well, it's all settled."

Since then, the Golden Rooster Awards have basically been locked in Yanjing.

The goal of the Golden Rooster Awards after the reform is to make it the highest award for Chinese-language films, so all aspects must be considered carefully.

In the past, changing places once a year had some disadvantages, so I had to give up.

Now that Yanjing has been chosen as the capital, it is very representative.

We also considered the time of the event and postponed it a lot to the first weekend in early December.

The Golden Horse Awards are usually presented at the end of November.

This ensures that the Golden Rooster Awards will be presented after the Golden Horse Awards.

Just as the Oscars encompass many awards in the United States, other awards serve as a benchmark.

The same will be true for the Golden Rooster Awards.

This is the last heavyweight award of the year for Chinese-language films. It has to determine the overall outcome, and the ones I select are the most valuable.

Some of the targeted practices of the Golden Rooster Awards are also in line with the above intentions.

Chen Linfeng learned about the progress and found that all the preparatory work had basically been completed.

Now that it is September, we can already start selecting shortlisted films.

All films released from the middle of last year to the end of this summer's season, as long as they have Chinese as important roles (within the top three) and their first language is Chinese, are included in the selection.

The goal of the Golden Rooster Awards is very clear, which is to target Chinese-language films.

The awards committee has also considered foreign films and set up an award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In this case, "Inception" should be registered for this award.

It is precisely because the shortlisting work is about to begin and the jury needs to be full that the news about the selection of new judges has been circulating in the past few days.

As long as Chen Linfeng ensures the smooth operation of the Golden Rooster Awards, he doesn't care about other things.

He didn't go out much in the past few days after returning home.

The media only caught up with him once at the airport, and then never saw him again.

Many people on the Internet began to get anxious, especially under Chen Linfeng’s Weibo, where many netizens were urging him.

"Why are you so lazy right after returning to China, Fengshen, you should at least come out to do business once or twice, right?"

"This is the downside of making too much money. Mr. Chen is not short of money. He even has too much money, so he always stays at home when he has nothing to do."

"Hey, sometimes I really hope that Fengshen is not so good in other aspects. It would be better if he could take on more debts like Nicolas Cage."

"Pfft, you're too cruel upstairs."

"If you are closed, then you can accept more interviews. We haven't seen you for more than a year."

“I miss the days when Fengshen was constantly performing.”

"I miss you the same way."

"..."

Since I returned home, there are thousands of comments every day, including check-ins and urgings.

On the 10th, Chen Linfeng updated his Weibo post after a long absence.

"I'm not idle at home. I recently took on a new project and am writing the script at home."

Below the blog post is a picture of a computer screen with a Word document open, which is filled with densely packed words. There is also a notebook below the screen with some drawings of people who appear to be wearing armor.

The whole picture does not seem to have any technical content, and it is even a little crooked. It can be seen at first glance that it was taken casually with a mobile phone.

A lot of new comments immediately appeared under the new Weibo post.

"Director Chen, you are obviously a very good photographer, but why are you so casual when filming your daily life?"

"Awesome, if you can do it in Word without coding, I will definitely give it to you."

"Don't just work at home, come out for a walk when you have nothing to do."

In addition to those who were amused at the beginning and those who were urging business to continue, everyone's curiosity soon turned to what Chen Linfeng was doing specifically.

"The painting below looks like a Western style of armor. Is Fengshen going to take on a Hollywood war movie?"

"Not really. What else is there to shoot in those epic war movies in the West? This armor doesn't look realistic. Could it be a magical epic?"

"Is it World of Warcraft? I remember there was news that Director Chen met with the boss of Legendary Pictures, which owns the copyright to the Warcraft movie."

Chen Linfeng was a little surprised, as they could all be connected.

The picture he drew is quite different from the style in the game because it is more realistic. It is just an idea at the moment.

But it is really amazing that netizens were able to guess the truth based on this and the news from two months ago.

He was just teasing netizens and was not ready to announce the news, so he just pretended not to see it.

Fortunately, other netizens didn’t take it seriously.

After all, this was news from two months ago, and it doesn't seem to be true if it is linked to this now. Even the netizen himself only linked the two together because he likes Warcraft and Chen Linfeng's movies too much.

He paid attention to the news about the Warcraft movie, and it was so chaotic that he didn't really have high hopes for the movie.

Chen Linfeng put his phone down and chatted with netizens as a break. Then, he began to conceive the movie script.

It is impossible to cover all aspects of World of Warcraft's extremely complex storyline.

Especially since there are so many side quests in the game, many of them need to be cut, but it’s best not to give up on them all, after all, some of the side quests are really good.

As for the main story.

Chen Linfeng has already confirmed that the first movie will start with the rise of the Lich King.

The core of the story will undoubtedly be Arthas.

But he cannot be the protagonist of the movie.

After all, Arthas will become a villain later.

In the subsequent stories, the focus will be on other characters, such as the orc Thrall, the elf Sylvanas, and the human heroes.

The stories of these heroes are also what makes World of Warcraft so exciting.

Similar to Arthas mentioned above, these heroes cannot be the protagonists of the movie.

They each have their own destiny and story, and often they live in the same era. It would be bad to favor one over the other.

The "Warcraft" movie must be an epic movie with an ensemble cast.

Therefore, how the film presents the stories of these people is the key.

What Chen Linfeng envisioned was to have an original character as the protagonist. This protagonist would be in a key position, serving as a messenger or diplomat, and would be able to smoothly come into contact with heroes of different races.

To present the stories of these heroes from his perspective.

This protagonist has experienced various major events in Azeroth, his life was full of ups and downs, and he recorded a magnificent era.

At the same time, he is also the key to maintaining the audience's emotions.

Heroes may gradually leave the stage, but the protagonist is always there.

The audience has feelings for the protagonist, so in the subsequent story, if a new heroic story is told, the presence of the protagonist will still make the audience feel familiar and not too unfamiliar.

In fact, its role is somewhat similar to that of the Halfling in The Lord of the Rings, and it is a connecting clue.

He must also have his own story line and cannot be a complete tool.

After all, birds of a feather flock together. If you can always stay with a hero, you can't be a waste.

It’s quite difficult to think about it. Chen Linfeng has been troubled by this for a long time.

He is now mainly sorting out the heroic stories to be presented, starting from Arthas to the various races fighting against the Lich King.

Then find a line from it and add the protagonist of the movie in.

This part serves as the main story of the movie.

If the effect is good, we can then expand on these heroes to film their personal legends, which will be a later operation.

Then the prequel, sequel, etc. can all be developed through the relationships between the characters of the movie's protagonists.

Chen Linfeng was not in a hurry. Just like when he wrote the script of "Li Shimin", he had already prepared himself mentally for a long struggle.

On the 12th, he, together with Guo Fan, Cheng Er and others, also called Xu Ke, Ning Hao and others, and prepared to go to Ping City to see the newly built special effects studio.

These are all directors who pay more attention to special effects.

To be honest, the domestic film and television bases in the past could not really satisfy them.

A large number of film and television bases are just a pile of location shooting locations.

A typical example is Hengdian, which has moved almost all the classic attractions in the country.

This makes it convenient for filming outdoor scenes, which is good and necessary, but it is somewhat low-end.

As for the addition of props such as costumes, spray painting, woodworking, and ironwork, this goes a step further.

For higher-end ones, a set-setting workshop will be added to facilitate the set-setting work of the crew.

And when shooting special effects, the post-production shooting effects can be displayed in real time, so that the actors don’t have to perform without physical objects.

Chen Linfeng had seen this technology before when he visited the set of "The Avengers".

There are also things like motion capture studios, which are currently considered high-end gadgets and have not yet been developed in China.

The film and television bases in Ping City have been gradually upgraded since the year before last.

Needless to say, the money spent on this is huge.

The film and television base in Ping City has developed into a key project in Zhongyuan Province and is a very popular project.

Two years ago, when Chen Linfeng proposed to build a top-notch studio and upgrade the technology, Pingshi was initially reluctant to follow.

After all, spending tens of billions at once is too expensive.

Given the scale of the domestic film and television industry, no one dares to judge whether the money can be made back.

Even though the person who made the suggestion was Chen Linfeng, the city was still unable to finalize it.

After all, Chen Linfeng's position in the industry at that time had not yet been boosted by "Your Name" and "Inception".

In the end, it was the provincial leaders who made the decision to build it.

When everyone came out of the high-speed rail station, the film and television base was not far away.

"Coincidentally, the high-speed rail station passes through a county under the jurisdiction of Ping City. Instead of going through the urban area, it is closer to the film and television base in the new urban area." Chen Shantong introduced.

He has been in charge of the work at the film and television base, so he came along as well.

Xu Ke nodded, "It's really convenient."

As they walked on the road, Xu Ke asked Chen Linfeng, "Director Chen, didn't you shoot Inception at the Huaying Film and Television Base before?

Why, you don't think it's okay?"

"Not really. The place is big enough and the studio is okay, but the pre-production set-up took too much time. It was also a bit inconvenient during the filming. The post-production was done abroad. If there were no problems, why would I bother?"

Chen Linfeng was indeed speaking from his heart. The film and television base in Huairou is completely sufficient for shooting ordinary TV dramas and movies, but it becomes less convenient when there are too many special effects scenes.

Fortunately, many shots in "Inception" were shot on location. Chen Linfeng knew that Nolan's previous life was all real scenes. Although he used special effects, they were relatively not that many.

"There has to be progress. Today's film market can support special effects movies."

Ning Hao said with a bitter face, "That's you. With a domestic box office of 10 billion or billion, you can certainly support it. But the big guys can't. It's been so long, and apart from you, there hasn't been a domestic movie that has grossed over billion."

Xu Ke also nodded vigorously, agreeing very much.

"We are not like you. If we really use high-quality special effects, it will be a problem to recover the cost."

"There's no need to be so pessimistic," Chen Linfeng shook his head. "I think the time is about right. There will definitely be a billion-dollar movie by early next year."

"Huh?" Xu Ke and Ning Hao turned their heads, and Cheng Er and Guo Fan also looked over.

"Director Chen, which movie do you like?"

Chen Linfeng has been the lone warrior for almost two years. Is there really someone who wants to break his rule?
"How can I put it? When it comes to box office success, you never know who will be favored by the audience."

Chen Linfeng paused, "However, the film market has almost reached this point. I think that either comedies or special effects movies are the two types of movies that are most likely to get high box office."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Several people were very interested.

“I don’t need to say much about special effects and blockbusters. I have been working hard in this area in the past two years.

In addition, comedy films are rooted in the local area and naturally have an audience. They are also very different from Hollywood blockbusters. As long as the quality is good, they will definitely explode.”

Everyone's eyes lit up. Indeed, this made sense.

In the past, Feng's comedies often won annual awards, which was more or less due to this factor.

Unfortunately, except Ning Hao, none of the people present are suitable for making a comedy movie.

Including Ning Hao, his films are actually mainly black humor, and the wonderful part lies more in the script.

"Well, there's no other way. I can only focus on special effects movies."

Xu Ke gritted his teeth and decided to go for it with the special effects film.

He was willing to invest money in special effects in the past, but "The Legend of Zu" really hurt him a bit.

I didn’t dare to get too involved afterwards.

It can be clearly seen from "The Empire Strikes Back" that the special effects are a bit crude and not much effort was put into them.

Chen Linfeng suggested, "I think Director Xu, you can continue to try the theme of 'Shushan'."

"No," Xu Ke waved his hands in fear, "I've been on this twice, I really don't dare to touch it anymore."

"In fact, I think that The Legend of Zu has a lot of ideas in terms of special effects, but the story is too greedy and too much is crammed in, so it's a bit messy. Otherwise, it should be pretty good..."

"Look, you said so too." Xu Ke spread his hands.

Thinking about it now, he still feels very upset.

"Don't be impatient, just listen to me." Chen Linfeng waved his hand.

"Okay, go ahead." Xu Ke made a gesture of invitation.

“I won’t talk about the New Shushan Swordsman from the 80s, as it was too far away and I don’t know the details.

When you filmed The Legend of Zu, the concept of Xianxia was not popular in China. Just look at the TV series at that time and you will know that there were a lot of remakes of Jin Yong's dramas and various martial arts films in the mainland. "

Everyone nodded.

"Then, around 08, the Chinese Paladin series and the Zhu Xian series became huge hits as soon as they were aired. What does this mean?"

Chen Linfeng clapped his hands, "Times have changed."

"People born in the 80s and 90s are becoming the main audience. They like fantasy films, which you can see from the themes of online novels. Martial arts films are no longer popular."

"It's the same with movies. Audience preferences have changed, and we're just waiting for an excellent Xianxia movie to appear."

This gap has always existed in the previous life. Xu Ke didn’t dare to shoot it, and others couldn’t shoot it well.

Chen Linfeng always felt it was a pity.

He looked at Xu Ke steadily, "It doesn't matter if you fail once or twice, just stand up the third time. How about that, Director Xu, do you want to give it a try?"

“I can invest in you.”

Chen Linfeng started paying for his dream.

(End of this chapter)