I was just thinking about taking the arts exam and you said I've been playing supporting roles

Chapter 143 preview scores, pre-sale awards!

Venice Special Report

Wu Yusen was awarded the Venice Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award and said he is still young in his creation!

"The new work of Zhang Yimou, Under the Hawthorn Tree, premiered in Venice, and the audience cried!"

"Zhang Yimou's new film is coming, the cleanest and purest love film in history!"

"Xu Ke's Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame received high praise at the Venice Film Festival and was considered the best Chinese-language film to have participated in the competition in recent years!"

"The Hawthorn Tree has started pre-sale and screenings in China, and has received excellent reviews in Venice and praise from media in many countries!"

"The performance of the leading actor in "The Hawthorn Tree", who is the top scorer in the college entrance examination, was highly praised by the chairman of the jury, Quentin Tarantino!"

……

In just one night, major domestic media have published news related to Venice.

Especially regarding "Under the Hawthorn Tree", there were several headlines and several portal websites put it on their homepages. This is the benefit of giving money, and even Chen Jin got several of them.

The first batch of film reviews from professional media professionals have also been released.

"The character of Jingqiu in Under the Hawthorn Tree is very close to the time and symbolic of the era. Zhang Yimou's grasp and guidance of this character are accurate and on point. This tear-jerking film is worth watching!"

"Since March this year, we have been talking about Avatar, whose complex, virtual visual feast has impressed the audience; however, Under the Hawthorn Tree brings a different feeling, achieving a different effect through simplicity, which may be a taste that Chinese artists and audiences prefer."

"It removes the frivolity, complexity and exaggeration, and is a static aesthetic. It is a very interesting movie. It is a pure, gentle and calm love movie. Zhang Yimou has made a great comeback!"

"It's a film without showmanship. The tone it presents is very different from Zhang Yimou's previous gorgeous and rich colors. It uses more realistic, even gloomy tones to express, and there are not too many tricks in the shooting techniques, which makes people focus more on the movie itself. The new leading actors, especially the actor who plays the third brother, give the movie a more human and warm side!"

"..."

All the comments were positive.

But the professional film critics in the media obviously feel that they are more prestigious than ordinary audiences, so their reviews are vague and more inclined towards professionalism.

The audience actually has no interest in reading it line by line.

Chen Jin watched it several times before realizing that not everyone can be a media person, and that praise can be so tactful.

Well, this is professionalism.

Chen Jin had nothing to say.

If the box office and word of mouth fail, it will actually have no impact on them at all.

Because they didn't say the movie was good, they only evaluated it from the perspective of professionalism; I guess no one can question Zhang Yimou's professionalism.

You can say that his movies are bad, but no one says that his movies have bad pictures or are of low quality. They only criticize the plot and characters.

"These media film critics are all cunning. In fact, such evaluation is already very good!"

"However, the audience really doesn't want to read such film reviews. They just want to know whether the film is good or bad..."

“I don’t know when I can let go of this airs!”

Zhang Yimou sat next to Chen Jin. They would be attending an exclusive interview with Sina later.

And all along, Zhang Yimou has never taken the comments of these professional media people seriously.

Because when "Three Guns" was released, it basically received the same positive reviews.

Only the audience's evaluation is real.

This is the tone of the media people. If they say that this movie is good, how do we distinguish the difference between them and the general public?

They are media people who consider themselves to be culturally superior, and being different is their personality.

In contrast, professional film reviews in Venice and comments from foreigners are much more direct.

“Simple but delicious, 4 stars!”

“A warm and romantic, but cruel story!”

"Zhang Yimou has gained a good actor - Chan."

"The difference between Chinese and foreign feelings - Romeo and Juliet: I love you, I love you; "The Hawthorn Tree": I will wait for you, forever..."

“A very sweet story about a young couple living in a country where love is forbidden!”

"???"

Chen Jin looked at the last comment and showed a black face.

What the hell?

This angle is really unique.

"Hahaha, foreigners have a stereotype of China!"

"Some of them even still think that the government doesn't allow us to date!"

It feels the same as women having to cover their headscarf when going out.

Zhang Yimou was also flipping through the "CIAK IN MOSTRA", a publication updated daily by the Venice Film Festival Organizing Committee. This publication is printed every day during the film festival and is used to announce the ratings of participating films and feedback from audiences, film critics, experts, etc.

Moreover, during the Venice Film Festival, judges, film critics and journalists can access it for free, and can also rate the films to guess the final winners.

The rating system of the journal usually adopts a star rating system, where 5 stars is the full score, but 3 stars is generally considered to be a very good reputation.

"The Love under the Hawthorn Tree" scored 3.75, which is high enough, so Zhang Yimou is in a good mood at the moment and is chatting and laughing with Chen Jin.

After all, professional reviews can also reflect the quality of a film from a side perspective.

A movie with a low rating in the program guide is not necessarily a bad movie.

But the tall ones will definitely not rot.

At least, that's the case for now.

“So is this a prediction for the award?”

Zhu Yanmanzi came to Chen Jin with the brochure. Chen Jin looked at the translator and nodded: "Yes, award prediction!"

“The Hawthorn Tree is predicted to be ranked second in the Golden Lion for Best Film?”

"No!"

Zhang Yimou waved his hand and said with a smile: "This kind of prediction has no credibility. Many of the popular programs won't win any awards in the end!"

Public and professional evaluations are either biased or fair.

As for the jury, there are secret operations and the judges' tastes, so the predictions can only roughly circle out a few masterpieces with the best reputation in each Venice Film Festival. For example, "The Hawthorn Tree" premiered yesterday and has ranked second among the 23 main competition films shortlisted, second only to "Black Swan" starring Natalie Portman, the heroine of "Léon: The Professional"!
"Black Swan" has a high score of 4.1, making it the biggest favorite to win an award at this year's Venice Film Festival, and is also hailed as the film that will take the lead at next year's Oscars.

That is, an excellent work that can compete for major awards such as Best Picture and Best Director.

However, some of the shortlisted films have not yet premiered. There are currently 11 films on the list, but "The Hawthorn Tree" can rank second. From the perspective of film critics alone, it can indeed win an award.

If he can’t win the Golden Lion, he might be able to make a push for the second-place Jury Prize.

"And what about the prediction for Best Actor?"

"You're third!"

Zhu Yanmanzi looked at Chen Jin in surprise. The short pinyin letters of Chen Jin in the middle of his name were very special.

On the contrary, the heroine predicted that Zhu Yanmanzi was not on the list, because only the top five popular ones were shown.

That means she is at least ranked sixth.

The little girl was quite interested in this kind of prediction in the magazine, but Zhang Yimou nodded, "The jury's evaluation of Chen Jin is very good, but it's a pity. If it was a film with a strong male lead, it might be more conducive to winning the award!"

The so-called male-led film is one in which the male lead occupies the main part of the film.

Even though a movie has a male protagonist and a female protagonist, some of them also have their own emphasis.

Although some of them are the leading male actors, their screen time is only a dozen minutes, which makes them the heroine-centered movies.

Many of them are set up like this deliberately for the purpose of winning awards. Only when the character occupies more space in the movie can an actor's acting skills be more evident.

In "Under the Hawthorn Tree", Jingqiu obviously has more scenes than Lao San, which is why Little Yellow Duck's pay is 5 higher than Dou Xiao's.

Now Xiao Zhu and Chen Jin receive the same pay.

When Zhang Yimou first started choosing female actors, he paid much more attention to it than male actors.

In his opinion, male actors are also supporting roles, serving to set off the leading female role.

This is what was written in the script from the beginning, and the original author also wrote the novel from a female perspective.

Unexpectedly, Chen Jin refreshed Zhang Yimou's perception time and time again, so in fact in this version of "The Hawthorn Tree", Zhang Yimou has added more than 10 minutes of scenes for Chen Jin, and Zhang Yimou gritted his teeth and cut it again and again.

In his opinion, there were many scenes that he was reluctant to delete because Chen Jin’s acting was really good.

buzzing-

Zhang Yimou's phone suddenly rang at this time. He put down the program leaflet and picked up the phone. Looking at the message on it, he couldn't help but smile: "Domestic pre-sales have begun, and there will be advance screenings in several first-tier cities!"

"Peking University has arranged a film screening, and there's also a premiere at the Capital Cinema!"

"In the afternoon, the real audience evaluation should be available..."

This is what Zhang Yimou is most looking forward to.

Chen Jin nodded. Pang Liwei's message was also sent to his phone. Chen Jin's Weibo had to post some promotions for advance screenings and pre-sales. "Go ahead!"

“I’m sure people will criticize me, but there will also be people who will watch it!”

"As more people watch your movies, everyone will know how good your acting is. In this case, the fans you have accumulated are the real fans!"

Zhang Yimou is very experienced in this regard.

But Chen Jin actually had no such worries at all. He directly sent it out according to the soft-text promotion template given by the studio.

He didn't even have time to read the comments. He just locked his phone and went to participate in Sina's exclusive interview with Zhang Yimou and Zhu Yanmanzi.

This is the second wave of promotion, which mainly discusses some interesting stories during the filming of "The Hawthorn Tree", interacts with netizens, etc.

The purpose, of course, is to attract more audiences to the cinema.

It was not until 5 p.m. that the three people walked out of the hotel conference room rented by Sina Venice, and Zhang Yimou subconsciously picked up his mobile phone.

Chen Jin and Zhu Yanmanzi next to them did the same thing.

Drop drop!
Chen Jin and Zhu Yanmanzi kept sending each other QQ messages, and Zhang Yimou also had a smile on his face.

The feedback from the screening and the audience at the Capital Cinema was very positive.

Although the ending is very cruel, everyone says it is good, and many people are touched by the touching love between Jingqiu and Lao San.

Many viewers began to spontaneously go online to Tianya, Weibo, and Tieba to post film reviews.

The so-called tap water refers to the audience who truly love movies.

Some of them may be paid to do the job, but many do it out of love. Just because they like the movie, they want more people to see it. They even pay attention to all the latest developments of the movie every day, including ratings, reviews, box office growth, etc.

I hope that the movies I think are good can get good ratings and box office.

"Finally I can get a good night's sleep!"

Zhang Yimou was smiling there. He was actually a little anxious these days. The situation after the release of "Three Guns" last year was still vivid in his mind.

The first wave of word of mouth collapsed, and then like a snowball, the whole Internet was filled with curses.

But now, the reaction from the first round of film screenings is enough to show that no matter how bad the follow-up to "The Hawthorn Tree" is, it will not be too bad. It may even form a polar reversal, that is, the film that everyone says is good will get better and better.

Yang Zi: "50 votes, full house support, come on Brother Jin!"

Zhang Yishan: "We have to book the whole place!"

Qin Junjie: "10 votes..."

“Five votes…”

Chen Jin looked at the private messages from many friends on QQ, smiled slightly, and hurriedly thanked them one by one.

No matter what their purpose is, it is at least an attitude.

Obviously I will have to pay it back when the time comes.

But after a while, didn't the relationship work out?

So no one who is in this circle is a simple person.

Zhu Yanmanzi obviously has the same message.

"Next, let's look at the pre-sale, right?"

The ratings are almost there, so it will depend on pre-sales and the first-day box office to drive a real word-of-mouth effect.

The rating only reflects the quality of the film, and the popularity of word of mouth is the key to whether a film can achieve high box office.

In the next few days, "The Hawthorn Tree" happened just as Chen Jin had guessed.

With the first wave of media publicity and advance screenings in first-tier cities, The Hawthorn Tree’s rating is basically out - 7.8 points.

This score is not yet visible to the public.

This is a rough result after combining multiple factors. By then, rating websites such as Douban and Time.com will basically be in this numerical range, with the downward error not exceeding 1 point and the upward error not exceeding 0.5.

That is, between 6.8-8.3 points.

It seems outrageous, but only with an increase in the number of moviegoers can this range be narrowed further.

"Pre-sales have exceeded 300 million, first-day pre-sales 112 million...pre-screening box office 270 million!"

Chen Jin didn’t know whether the pre-sale situation was good or bad, and Zhang Yimou didn’t tell him either. It was Chen Jin who secretly asked Pu Lun.

Now everyone in Zhang Yimou's studio is extremely busy. They only sleep 3-4 hours a day. They have to coordinate with the publicity and distribution company of New Picture, and communicate with portals and rating websites such as Douban.com.

The most important thing is to look at the negative reviews that have aroused public opinion online. If you can handle it, then deal with it. If you cannot, then negotiate with the website.

Let word of mouth develop in a direction favorable to the movie as soon as possible.

For bad movies, we will just leave them alone and not bother to deal with them; but for good movies, we will definitely try to achieve higher box office expectations.

In this way, time unknowingly came to the 9th.

Zhang Yimou didn't tell Chen Jin when he would go back. Chen Jin felt that he must have known something.

But it’s not a good idea to ask too much.

There are still two days until the closing ceremony in Venice, and the final awards ceremony will also be held on this day.

Today in the early morning of Beijing time, "Under the Hawthorn Tree" was released in China.

Venice is 7 hours behind the capital, which means that at 3 p.m., we can actually know the box office performance of "The Hawthorn Tree" at the midnight show.

Chen Jin and Zhu Yanmanzi watched a lot of foreign movies together these days. The rest of the time they just ate and drank, and they were quite happy.

By promoting the film from time to time on Weibo, Chen Jin clearly felt that there were fewer comments criticizing him. Many young viewers who had watched "The Hawthorn Tree" came to leave messages, saying that his performance as the third brother was really good.

Although there were not many comments, Chen Jin felt relieved when he saw them.

At least, this shows that the role of the third brother played by him was recognized by some audiences; of course, Xiao Zhu was also recognized, but compared with Chen Jin, he was indeed far behind.

There are more and more comments about Chen Jin. There were more than ten on the first day, more than 20 on the second day, and nearly 100 today, all discussing the third brother played by him.

Zhu Yanmanzi only posts a dozen or so posts a day, and the number of fans is increasing relatively slowly, which is really incomparable to Chen Jin.

This shows that he was indeed very successful in playing the role of the third brother.

When it is actually released, there may be more reviews and fans, and then the gap will be more obvious.

A good character can indeed resonate strongly with the audience, especially fans who love movies.

"Chen Jin!"

Every day at the exercise time agreed with Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yimou walked into the hotel gym in casual clothes.

Chen Jin had already arrived.

The reason I exercise in the afternoon is because of jet lag.

The system is not intelligent at all, and the settlement time of its daily tasks is set according to the imperial capital time.

This caught Chen Jin off guard.

So he has to exercise these days, and there is no regularity at all. Sometimes he has to exercise as soon as he wakes up in the morning.

Because there may be things to do in the morning and afternoon.

Plans can never keep up with changes, so Chen Jin can only do these things in advance.

If you get stuck and mess up yourself, it will not be worth it.

However, in Zhang Yimou's eyes, this is a completely different attitude towards self-discipline.

This kid already has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

So when Chen Jin said he would exercise in the afternoon these two days, he didn't think much about it.

In his opinion, Chen Jin has achieved a certain level of self-discipline.

"By the way, let me inform you of something!"

Zhang Yimou suddenly ran a few steps and said to Chen Jin who was preparing to sing and Zhu Yanmanzi who was practicing facial muscles, "The organizing committee just notified me that we should stay until the end of the award ceremony!"

"Ok?"

"what?"

Zhu Yanmanzi raised her head with her hair tied in a ponytail, but Chen Jin tightly shut her mouth and almost yelled.

What do you mean?
That is, Under the Hawthorn Tree has a chance to win an award? !

"Yeah, that's what you think!"

Zhang Yimou smiled and looked very calm.

After all, he has won many awards, including two Golden Lions and the Jury Prize, so he doesn't seem excited at all.

Looking at the two people's surprised expressions, he said lightly: "We...are going to win the award!"

(End of this chapter)