The Birth of the Best Director

Chapter 39: I’m invincible when it comes to visual effects!
……

Around the Qingming Festival.

Lu Zhiyuan is in his studio, drawing the concept map for the movie "Upgrade".

As for the script...

After he came up with the creative outline, he asked Brother Kun to find a professional script team to customize three scripts with different development trends for him.

One is a script based on the original movie, in which the male protagonist takes revenge.

One is a revenge script for the heroine after a magical revision.

The other one is a script about a small person at the bottom of society who makes a comeback with the help of artificial intelligence.

He looked at the three scripts and found all of them suitable for use.

For science fiction movies, the script is not actually the most important thing, as long as it is not too outrageous.

The most important thing is the science fiction concept.

【AI·Artificial Intelligence】 is the theme concept of this movie.

The reason why Lu Zhiyuan customized three scripts was that if this movie was to enter Hollywood, the selection of the movie's protagonist would become the most critical issue.

He has three alternatives.

First, Liu Yifei.

A Chinese American, a top-tier actress in China, she is acceptable to both markets. Her downside is that her acting skills are terrible and may not meet his expectations.

The second is Wu Yanzu.

A Chinese American, he's a top-tier actor in China, and like Liu Yifei, he's well-received in both markets. His downside is that he excels in art films, making him a decent second-best actor, but he lacks the box office clout to be the lead.

As for the third option...

If Lu Zhiyuan has enough say and can get enough publicity, he hopes to find a brand new face.

This newcomer must conform to both Eastern and Western aesthetics.

The acting skills can be a little worse, or even non-existent, but the person must be obedient, smart, and suitable for your own training.

For this alternative, he temporarily wrote the name [Reba].

However, there is a question mark.

Because these are things that have no clue about.

If he fails to win anything at Cannes, then there is no need to think so much...all the plans will have to be customized again.

"Ayuan, let's go... Mr. Zhao invited us to dinner together, saying he had something important to announce. I guess there's news from Cannes."

Around 5 pm, Xin Yukun came back from outside.

He has been very busy recently, representing the company every day to attend study meetings organized by various official organizations. He is definitely a progressive young man.

These study sessions were quite effective and had a great impact on Brother Kun. He has been going to nightclubs much less frequently recently.

People have become a lot more serious.

"Brother Kun, you look so good lately? Have you taken any tonic?"

Lu Zhiyuan felt that something was wrong with Brother Kun. He stopped going to nightclubs and flirting with schoolgirls recently. He dressed more formally and spoke more politely.

"Brother is in love."

Xin Yukun smiled chuckled. "Just last week, I represented the company at a cultural promotion meeting organized by a TV station, and I met your sister-in-law. She had just graduated from college and was an intern at the TV station. She was so pretty, and I fell in love with her at first sight!"

"I believe you ghost!"

Brother Kun intermittently falls in love with beautiful women at first sight, and when he gets crazy he wants to marry Liu Yifei. Lu Zhiyuan is no longer surprised by this.

But recently, Brother Kun has been going to bed early and getting up early, and his complexion has indeed improved a lot. He has also been working harder... Anyway, it's better than going to nightclubs every day.

……

Zhao Shanshan is very busy.

Although, the Starry Sky company only cares about Jing Tian.

But there are indeed a lot of things.

"The Biography of Sun Tzu" is about to be completed, and Zhao Shanshan is contacting TV stations to sell the copyright. She is even thinking about selling the copyright to Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.

Miss Jing Tian’s journey to becoming an international superstar begins now!
Sadly, it didn't go smoothly at all.

Today's gathering is scheduled at a high-end restaurant opposite the Starry Sky Hotel.

Miss Jingtian attended the event in a gorgeous dress.

Her face was filled with a happy smile, and she did not feel depressed at all because of the setbacks in her path to becoming an international superstar.

"Brother Kun, I heard that you met your destiny? Congratulations."

Jing Tian and Xin Yukun have become very familiar with each other, and they can even joke with each other.

"Sister Tiantian, I want to congratulate you. If nothing unexpected happens, you will be the best new singer this year."

Jing Tian was overjoyed by Xin Yukun's words.

Her eyes moved and she glanced at Lu Zhiyuan secretly. It was thanks to Ayuan who helped her write songs and shoot music videos that she became so successful now.

As for the setbacks with "The Biography of Sun Tzu"...she had long forgotten about it.

She even tried to force herself to delete this memory, as if she had never filmed it in her life.

"Ayuan, you've been wearing this outfit for a long time, right? The last time I came to dinner, I saw you wearing the same outfit."

After chatting with Xin Yukun for a few words, Jing Tian was very stiff and turned the topic to Lu Zhiyuan. She pretended to be casual, but in fact, she had been thinking for a long time. She waved her hand generously: "After dinner, I have an appointment with a designer. It's perfect. You can accompany me. I'll ask the designer to make two sets of clothes for you as well."

Why would you want to order new clothes for no reason?

And also find a special designer.

There is only one reason.

At this time, Xin Yukun turned to look at Zhao Shanshan next to him and asked excitedly, "Boss Zhao, our movie was shortlisted?"

"Ah."

Zhao Shanshan smiled and nodded. "Canon put a lot of effort into helping Ayuan with his PR. This time, I really have to thank Canon."

The members of the film selection committee are basically anonymous.

Some of the members are even re-elected for a long time.

Outsiders like them can't find anyone to do public relations even if they want to, and they have to find a local public relations company...and this involves a lot of gray transactions.

It's clearly a scam to cheat outsiders.

No one knows how much Canon paid, but it must have been a lot.

"Since Canon is so considerate, could you help us with our PR? Why not just let Ayuan win the Best Director award?"

As soon as Xin Yukun finished speaking, Lu Zhiyuan shook his head.

"It's not that simple."

"The Cannes Film Selection Committee and the Jury are two separate systems. Sometimes, these two groups of people might deliberately put on a show and openly sing a different tune."

"I remember that in 2004, when the jury president, the great director Quentin Tarantino, and the selection committee were in complete opposition to each other in the case of Fahrenheit 9/11, Quentin ultimately insisted on including the film in the main competition, overcoming all objections and ultimately awarding it the Palme d'Or."

After setting the goal of winning the Best Director award, Lu Zhiyuan also conducted a careful study of some of the situations in Cannes.

"So, after being shortlisted, you can't continue to spend money on PR?"

Upon hearing this, Xin Yukun became a little annoyed.

It's rare to meet a sucker like Canon. The other party wants to pay and help, but Cannes still prevents them from becoming Euro fighters?
"It's not that we can't do PR, but we definitely can't just throw money at it... This approach is too crude."

Lu Zhiyuan thought for a moment and said, "Besides, there are nine people on the jury. It would be very difficult to handle all of them! This requires a professional company to handle it!"

too difficult!
Foreigners are really good at it!

Simple things are made so complicated... Isn't this a feudal society?

After hearing this, Xin Yukun became a little anxious.

If they can’t win the award, how will they carry out their future film plans?
"Mr. Zhao, can you give me a list of the finalists? I want to see who my biggest rival is."

Only when you know yourself and the enemy can you fight without danger.

Lu Zhiyuan doesn't have any knowledge of the film and television industry, but he also doesn't know its limits.

"I just happened to bring one."

Zhao Shanshan took out a stack of A4 paper. In addition to the shortlist, there was also some relevant information about the main creative personnel of these films.

In addition, there is information about the 9 jury members.

"I have a plan."

Most of the films on the shortlist are known for their rough, violent aesthetics and social criticism.

Relatively speaking, "The Heart Labyrinth" has stronger narrative techniques.

Lu Zhiyuan cannot follow others in the field of violent aesthetics and social judgment, and must change his strategy in the mid-lane confrontation.

Otherwise, you will definitely lose.

"what's the plan?"

After Lu Zhiyuan took a quick look at the shortlist, he calmed down and his eyes shone with wisdom.

At this moment, the other three looked over curiously.

"Mr. Zhao, please help me change my publicity strategy."

It is impossible to directly contact the jury members for public relations. Cannes has its own public relations art, which insiders call "elegant invisible war."

"You tell me, I'll write it down."

Lu Zhiyuan has demonstrated his genius many times. Now, when he suddenly spoke up and wanted to change the publicity strategy, it was definitely not aimless.

Of course Zhao Shanshan should take it seriously.

“Film is first and foremost an art of vision, and secondarily of language.”

"The film 'Labyrinth of the Heart' should stop criticizing human morality and instead focus on visuals. The promotional message should be changed to minimalist composition, the aesthetics of the gaze, and the static tension created by the interplay of light and shadow."

Lu Zhiyuan organized the sentence and finally decided on three key words.

[Minimalist composition], [Aesthetics of gaze], [Static tension]... these are the new visual concepts he gave to this film after injecting his own artistic foundation into it.

This is also his greatest advantage.

After all, if a Cannes-nominated film wants to win an award, the cost is basically kept below 50 US dollars!
A $50 film is basically shoddy in terms of visual quality.

The visual effects of "The Heart Labyrinth".

He's not bragging, it's at least comparable to a $500 million piece!

Purely visual effects.

At least among these nominated films... he is invincible!
(End of this chapter)