Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 573 What? You also know I received sponsorship from Mitsubishi?
That afternoon, Jackie Chan and his stunt team arrived in Yokohama.

As previously agreed, the martial arts portion would be handled by Hong Kong, so naturally he would bring his own Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

The group planned to come to Japan together, and then head to France.

The two met on the dock and immediately gave each other a bear hug.

"You've come at the right time. The items we ordered were delivered to Yokohama today. We'll take them by boat to Yokohama tomorrow after we board the plane!"

Gu Ming hugged Cheng Long and laughed, "We can't do without that thing."

Cheng Long was quite surprised: "You said you were going to the United States to purchase equipment, you wouldn't be doing this, would you?"

"Come on, you'll see!"

Gu Ming led Cheng Long and the others directly to the dock, where they saw the items locked inside the container.

Dockworkers are currently building shelving to ensure the safety of the goods.

Cheng Long immediately recognized it as a specially made van, much larger than a regular vehicle and painted a bright yellow. The cargo rack wasn't attached yet, and he could still see the various items inside.

"That's right, this is the 'food truck' we'll be using for filming. I specifically commissioned Mitsubishi to modify a van into this food truck, and also repainted it and widened the interior structure, making it perfect for filming. Of course, since this is the main vehicle featured in the film, I also asked Mitsubishi for a small sponsorship fee."

Who wouldn't like making movies without spending their own money?

Jackie Chan also showed a curious expression for a moment, his eyes shining.

"How much? It must be quite a lot, right?"

"So-so," Gu Ming said. "Mitsubishi is too stingy, they only sponsored 50 million yen. But other companies gave more. Citizen agreed to sponsor us with a few good watches and 30 million yen in sponsorship fees, on the condition that the Citizen watches appear in the footage and the protagonist has Citizen's lines."

Citizen is also a Japanese watch brand, and its status is quite high.

As for whether Citizen can be considered a luxury item... that's a matter of opinion.

Anyway, Gu Ming advertising Citizen in the movie will definitely be more effective than advertising Baleno.

Bo Ge's comment, "Brand name, Baleno!", undoubtedly caused a significant drop in Baleno's sales.

Cheng Long felt a pang of pain in his liver upon hearing this.

He quickly went through those few words in his mind: Citizen and Mitsubishi. One solved the problem of luxury costumes and props such as watches and necklaces in the movie, and the other solved the problem of the food truck in the movie. Both companies also provided sponsorship fees.

In other words, the film recouped a portion of its costs before filming even began.

This made Cheng Long both envious and somewhat helpless.

At this point, Hong Kong doesn't have a brand effect. Many things are famous, but they don't have brands, let alone sponsorship fees. It will only attract various investors from home and abroad to sponsor them after its reputation grows.

Most movies rely on box office revenue for profit, but Jackie Chan later managed to recoup a large portion of his costs through sponsorships.

For example, in his later terrible film "The Legend," there was still a scene with thousands of troops. This was because the Inner Mongolia Military Horse Farm sponsored Jackie Chan with a batch of military horses and rented them to him for filming, without charging him any money.

Without sponsorship, renting so many horses for filming would be an enormous expense.

Gu Ming, on the other hand, had a very calm mindset.

Because it's really just so-so, the total sponsorship fees from all the companies combined are less than 100 million yen.

He estimated that the production cost of this movie would start at one billion yen, and only one-tenth of the cost would be recovered.

But this can be considered a good attempt.

When the movie is released, the Mitsubishi van, which is capable of running and driving and is very durable, will be a natural advertisement.

Speaking of watches...

Suddenly, Gu Ming flipped his wrist and pulled out a small box, handing it to Cheng Long. "This is a watch from Citizen. I specially saved one for you; this is the most expensive one."

Cheng Long didn't stand on ceremony. He opened the box, slipped it onto his wrist, and examined it for a moment, marveling at it.

so.

Is this watch a gift only for me, or for all my siblings? If it was given to them, why give it to me? If…

Gu Ming rolled up his sleeves.

If you try to speak like Lin Daiyu, he'll beat you up!

……

……

Europe, France.

With the accompanying personnel arriving first, the equipment still needed some time, especially the food truck, which could only be transported by sea and could not be flown in by air; it would take at least a month to reach France.

Gu Ming wasn't in a hurry; he could use this time to prepare in France.

The original food truck theme involved castles and Spanish princesses. But since it's been changed to France this time, things have to be different.

At this moment, in the port of Toulon, France.

Gu Ming stood far away, watching the warships docked in the harbor.

You can't take pictures or get close; even getting a glimpse from a distance is a struggle.

"What a pity! If only we could film warships. You'd have to sink at least one or two warships to make it a blockbuster, right? Turns out I didn't even sink a single warship in my blockbuster film!"

Gu Ming was very disappointed.

This made Jackie Chan laugh.

"You still want to blow up the warship?"

"Of course we have to bomb them! Let me tell you, the Japanese actually have a batch of warships wrapped in oil paper on the seabed. Back then, they dismantled the Yamato and Yukikaze, wrapped them in oil paper, and buried them in the sea, just waiting to dig them up and use them during World War III. The Yamato will definitely crush the Lexington!"

Cheng Long listened, completely stunned.

He's not well-educated, so we can't lie to him!
However, Cheng Long quickly realized what was going on when he saw Gu Ming's expression.

It was definitely just a joke.

Gu Ming suppressed a laugh and said, "The oil-paper-wrapped warship is fake, but if I had the chance, I would really like to film such a scene. Just imagine, the protagonist running across the dock with an exploding warship behind him. Although we can use a model to create it, a model is not a real shot after all!"

Bombing a real warship is too expensive, but what if it's just for creating an explosive effect, and we're actually filming a warship?

The effect was absolutely spectacular!

Gu Ming looked at Cheng Long and knew that he was still quite a distance from Cheng Long's peak.

Gu Ming now has a hard time even borrowing the Eiffel Tower, while Jackie Chan at his peak could get Middle Eastern tycoons to give him sports cars for free and rent buildings for filming.

Gu Ming shook his head secretly and stopped thinking about it.

"Let's put that aside for now. Before the equipment arrives, we'll select some extras in France first. Also, it's a test of the new technology, which requires the cooperation of actors to be effective."

Gu Ming held up one finger and uttered a word that Cheng Long cared about quite a bit.

"Bullet Time!"

Gu Ming went to the United States to buy a batch of equipment and rent high-speed cameras, all for this lens!
(End of this chapter)