HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 271 [271] Chen Kaige: Jiang Wen, please comment on the storyboard sketch drawn by my half-apprentice.
With the addition of Media Asia, Bouquet has a more convenient way to enter markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and other regions.

The ten million investment from Media Asia was also very important; it's true that modern romance films are easy to film in and have low production costs.

This applies to most directors, but Chen Kaige is an exception.

Chen Kaige likes to do things in a sequential manner, and 15 million might not be enough for him to squander.

If we increase it to 25 million, we won't need to worry about this problem anymore.

Sure enough, as long as you're willing to pay more, many problems can be easily solved.

a few days later.

Qi Yuan and Chen Kaige, a married couple, met and redistributed the shares.

The actual investment in "Bouquet" was 2500 million yuan, with China Film Group contributing 500 million yuan, Media Asia contributing 1000 million yuan, and Chen Kaige bringing in another 1000 million yuan.

Qi Yuan's salary will still be calculated based on his share of the film's revenue, and Qi Yuan's salary alone will be 1000 million.

Chen Kaige offered Qi Yuan a screenwriting fee of 50 yuan plus a deputy director position of 50 yuan.

He always thought Qi Yuan was his die-hard fan, and an idol would never let his die-hard fan suffer.

Qi Yuan invested his 1100 million yuan film fee, which is equivalent to a 30.5% share.

Qi Yuan was quite satisfied with the result; he didn't spend a penny and still received nearly a third of the share.

If the movie makes money, he gets a share; if it loses money, he can at least get some back.

Even if the movie flops and doesn't make a single penny, he will only lose some time and energy.

Furthermore, the director, Chen Kaige, explicitly stated that he would not change the script, and the lead actors are Qi Yuan and Fan Xiaopang, with China Film Media Asia handling the distribution.

With this combination and this setup, if the movie loses money, Qi Yuan could even perform seppuku.

This time, the Japanese film market is also an important battleground for "Bouquet".

Many of the cultural concepts in "The Bouquet" are universal in both countries.

Japanese culture values ​​harmony, while Chinese culture values ​​amicable partings and cherishes harmony.

Neon lights possess the "pathos of things," while China experiences the melancholy of autumn and the sorrow of spring.

The societies of the two countries are quite similar, with men being expected to take on the responsibility of earning money to support their families.

The male protagonist becomes the kind of person he used to hate after entering society, which resonates with domestic audiences.

Because of the many similarities, this film performed very well at the box office in Japan and China in its previous life, with the mainland market alone contributing more than one-third of the box office revenue.

"My preparations are almost complete. Filming will start on the 27th, in Shanghai. You should be fine with that, right?"

After so much preparation, Chen Kaige had already taken care of everything.

Chen Hong added with a smile, "Kai Ge really put a lot of effort into making this film. He personally flew to many cities to scout locations, and finally chose Shanghai."

Qi Yuan looked at Chen Kaige, who had dark circles under his eyes, and nodded: "Mr. Chen, you've put in a lot of effort."

With both of Qi Yuan's films being successful, Chen Kaige was determined to make "Bouquet" a success.

Qi Yuan has good taste; she knows he's the best director in China and even studies his filming techniques when making music videos. Given how much Qi Yuan admires him, would he let her idolize the wrong person?
Chen Kaige spoke eloquently, explaining that he had thoroughly researched and planned every scene and location beforehand.

This was the first time Qi Yuan had seen Chen Kaige so serious.

This time, they might actually create a masterpiece.

With Chen Kaige being so helpful, Qi Yuan is starting to worry. What if Zhang Yingmou's "Hero" is released in the future, and Chen Kaige's superiors want to make "The Promise"? Will Chen Kaige invite him to play the lead role?
Forget it, let's deal with the future later. People change.

If "Bouquet" becomes a big success, perhaps Chen Kaige will change.

The fact that Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang successively made films like "The Promise" and "The Banquet" in their previous lives essentially shows that top domestic directors had not found the right path to making commercial blockbusters.

The success of "Hero" led Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang to realize the viability of martial arts historical epics, prompting them to follow suit. Zhang Yingmou was also influenced by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which is why his film turned out that way.

Halfway through the conversation, Qi Yuan took out a stack of storyboard sketches. He drew Liu Weiqiang's storyboard attribute and couldn't resist drawing some.

Liu Weiqiang is a photographer by training and has his own unique understanding of camera language and composition. He is also very skilled at drawing storyboards.

For the later film "Initial D", Liu Weiqiang drew very detailed storyboards before filming began. He didn't necessarily draw all of them; professional storyboard artists also helped. However, he played a key role in the project.

Chen Kaige's pupils dilated slightly as he looked at the dozens of comic-style storyboards.

At the beginning of this year, he and Qi Yuan filmed a Wuliangye advertisement. At that time, Qi Yuan did not know how to draw storyboards, so he described the scenes to him verbally.

In just over six months, Qi Yuan actually learned how to draw storyboards? And he drew them quite well.

"I think my drawing skills are passable. I learned from Director Lau and the storyboard artists when I was filming 'Infernal Affairs' in Hong Kong."

Qi Yuan spoke modestly. He had seen Zhang Yingmou's storyboards, and compared to Zhang Yingmou, he was indeed so-so.

"..."

Chen Kaige's lips twitched a few times.

He was thinking, "You're putting on an act, kid. You call this 'so-so'? If Jiang Wen next door hears this, he'll beat you up. Jiang Wen has been a director for so many years, and he's still drawing stick figures."

As a director, Chen Kaige deeply understands how important it is for a director to know how to draw storyboards.

Often, it's difficult to describe the images in one's mind with words. Even if one is eloquent and can describe them, photographers may not necessarily understand.

In this context, the importance of storyboards is self-evident.

The storyboard was slapped in front of the cinematographer, telling him what kind of shot he wanted, greatly improving communication and work efficiency.

Jiang Wen's film consumption ratio is alarmingly high, which is largely due to his abstract stick figure storyboards.

Furthermore, after seeing Qi Yuan's storyboard, Chen Kaige admired Qi Yuan even more.

As expected of the young man he favored, he certainly has a bright future.

He had previously said that Qi Yuan had the talent to be a director, but Qi Yuan humbly said that he couldn't be a director.

He secretly studied in private, practiced shooting music videos to learn his techniques, and also quietly learned how to draw storyboards.

What does this show? It shows that Qi Yuan, this die-hard fan, really listened to what he said.

Just imagining the scene of Qi Yuan pinning down Zhang Yingmou and beating him in the future made Chen Kaige's lips curl up.

"I'll keep these drawings here and take them back to look at them carefully."

Chen Kaige was in a very good mood.

……

That evening, Chen Kaige attended a gathering of acquaintances, mostly directors and cinematographers in the industry.

Jiang Wen had just returned from Cannes when someone told him he might be banned from directing. Jiang Wen was completely bewildered. He went to ask, but received no reply and no written notification.

So he went to ask his seniors what the ban on directing was all about.

Jiang Wen noticed that Chen Kaige was holding a stack of papers and asked curiously, "Director Chen, is that a script? I heard on the news that you're going to make a new film."

Chen Kaige was incredibly happy! He had been waiting all night, and finally someone had asked him a question.

He pulled Jiang Wen aside and said, "You've come at the right time. This is something painted by one of my half-apprentices. He's been learning from me for about half a year. What do you think of it?"

Jiang Wen was dumbfounded.

Hey!
Why did he have to ask that pretentious guy such a stupid question?

(End of this chapter)