Super entertainment red envelope

Chapter 700 Live-action movie "Mulan"!
California, Hollywood.

William Entertainment Film and Television Culture Company.

This is the temporary headquarters of Dongfang Group in North America. The external name is William Entertainment, but internally, he also has a name: North American Branch of Oriental Culture and Entertainment Group.

Although it is the North American branch, it is in charge of all overseas businesses of Oriental Entertainment.

But at present, except for the business of several companies before the acquisition, as well as the company's own self-operated business, most of the businesses are in the process of integration.

Li Zhifan accepted Fang Xiao's invitation to serve as the general manager of William Entertainment, and became the de facto second in command of the North American Division of Oriental Entertainment.

The top leader is from the headquarters of the Eastern Group in China. He has followed Fang Xiao since the early days of his business. This top leader is in charge of foreign affairs and financial power, and spends most of his time in China. He knows nothing about entertainment. He only looks at the growth line of the company's business. and integration progress.

In fact, in addition to Walt Disney Films, DreamWorks and William Entertainment, the Eastern Group has also acquired many small studios, but these studios have been integrated, and some of them have been included in William Entertainment, and the other part has been included in DreamWorks. .

DreamWorks is pure content production, it has always been, and it is more professionally focused.

William Entertainment is a comprehensive entertainment company integrating distribution, production, artist training and planning. It also has several branches in music, TV and Internet.

Disney Films used to rely on Disney as the main body to produce and distribute film and television works adapted from the characters in the amusement park, regardless of whether they have business or not.

Li Zhifan, the second-in-command, came here to be in charge of content projects, and it was also the first content output battle that the three leading companies fought after being acquired by Dongfang Group.

If this battle is won, Dongfang Entertainment will be able to gain a firm foothold in the United States and carry out follow-up actions, such as changing its name.

But if this battle is lost, although it will not be completely over, it will also seriously hurt the vitality, and the pace of Oriental Entertainment's overseas development will be postponed for at least another two years.

Since we want to make content, judging from the current situation, making animated films and adapting live-action films are the two best projects, because DreamWorks’ animation production technology is top-notch in the world, and Walt Disney not only makes animations, but also adapts live-action films. It is the top five levels in the world, second only to those Superman comics and live-action movies.

morning.

in the conference room.

To Li Zhifan, a Chinese who came from afar, these Americans were quite polite.

After all, it has already been acquired by a Chinese consortium, with a salary paid by the Chinese, and Li Zhifan is the general manager and their immediate boss, so he is naturally respectful.

Moreover, those who can enter the senior management are basically talented people.

Some people say that the impression of Americans is very straightforward, and that is to deceive students. There are a lot of treacherous and smooth people in the United States. Except for artists, most of them are very meticulous.

At least that's what Li Zhifan saw in the meeting room now.

Everyone greeted him with a smile, and even asked him how he was, concerned about his quality of life in the United States, whether he was not acclimatized, and some female staff members continued to send documents as an excuse, and recently brought him a cup of coffee.

"I'm not here to manage the company, but to supervise the content!"

Li Zhifan said bluntly, "One supervision, one production, this is my job. Now the company has been formally integrated and everything is on the right track. We need new business and new projects to keep the company moving forward."

As he said that, Li Zhifan took out two documents and handed them to the vice president next to him: "Please ask your assistant to make a copy of the two documents and send a copy to every member present."

"Ok!"

The vice president turned his head and snapped his fingers, and the assistant sitting behind him immediately came up, took the two documents and went to the printer in the corner to copy them.

Li Zhifan continued: "Before I came here, I already had a general understanding of the company's previous works. Disney has always been successful in film and television, but that is Disney's success. Although the film and television sector has become our family, this glory does not belong to the company. All of us, DreamWorks is the same, so we have to start from two aspects, everyone, please read the materials I provided!"

Dongfang Entertainment only bought a part of the shares of Disney Pictures, but it is already a major shareholder, and it belongs to William Entertainment, which is wholly owned by Dongfang. The current president of Disney Pictures came to the meeting.

In the future, in addition to producing film and television works related to Disney characters, Disney will also start to produce more and richer live-action movies through William Entertainment. With DreamWorks as a strong partner, it will only be more powerful.

Soon, the two documents brought by Li Zhifan were delivered to everyone.

One of them is related to Disney film and television. Li Zhifan first said about this: "Mulan is a very famous historical and cultural figure in China, and as early as the 90s, Disney had already produced the animation of "Mulan". I believe Disney On the one hand, we are very familiar with this character image and historical background, so our first project is to start the production of "Mulan" live-action film, which will be jointly developed and produced by Disney Pictures and William Entertainment. I will provide the script and production After the meeting is over, Mr. Rick, please wait a moment, come to my office, I will give you the script, and talk about this project."

Rick is the current president of Disney Pictures. Although he is such a manager, he also worked step by step in the entertainment industry. He also served as the president of a technology company before, but because he loves art too much, the five-year contract expired After that, he returned to the entertainment industry again and entered Disney.

For shooting a live-action movie, a lot of research, discussions, and market research are required in the early stage.

Li Zhifan said that he was going to make "Mulan" when he came up, and even he had a script, so Rick was confused and at a loss, so he nodded and said, "Oh, oh! OK!"

"Okay, let's talk about the next item!"

Li Zhifan smiled slightly, and turned his attention to Silver, the president of DreamWorks, "The second project is related to DreamWorks. Because it is an animated film, I will directly participate in it as the director, screenwriter and producer. Of course, I have never learned to draw, and all the painting needs to be done by the most capable artists in DreamWorks, but I can provide all the ideas on the storyboard.”

Silver was taken aback, you can't draw and want to direct an animated movie?Isn't this too naive?
If it were the proud artists of DreamWorks, they would definitely stand up and retort now.

But Silver is different. He is a professional manager who has changed his career from the financial industry, but he has learned to draw since he was a child. During his eight years of employment, he has already understood the animation industry very well.

Animated film directors are first responsible for providing film ideas to the company. If approved, they can start development. Development is only preliminary work, not production.

During the development, animation film directors are responsible for the supervision of the entire creative process. Starting from the script, some directors are used to participating in script creation by themselves, and some directors will hand over the outline to external screenwriters for writing, and then hand it over to storyboard artists for iteration. , iterative creation.

Animation directors are the organizers, protectors, mentors and primary players of the story.

This includes directing voice actors and animators for character performances.

All creative related final approval is in the hands of the director.

Every shot on the movie screen may have been seen by the director hundreds of times before the final version was approved.

After the preliminary development is completed, if the effect is good, you can enter further production.

Like live-action film directors, besides creation, animation directors also need to lead, unite, and drive the entire huge production team, each of whom has different talents and temperaments, and must be able to communicate with everyone to ensure that the information is clear and Effective, so that each department can operate normally within the production schedule.

In a mature industrial environment, animation directing is a highly pure, high-risk, and high-stress job. Many animators who dream of directing an animated film may only see the bright side of the director without spending enough time and energy. Watch how an animation director works.

In Silver's eyes, Li Zhifan is such a person. He knows that Li Zhifan has directed such blockbuster movies as "Wolf Warrior", and his recent new film "Infernal Affairs" is also a hit in China, but in the field of animation directors, he is not perfect. , Just having a script is useless, it takes a lot of time to communicate with all creative teams, especially with storyboard artists.

A storyboard artist is also a storyboard artist. The difference between this and a live-action movie is that a storyboard artist for a live-action movie can be done by the director himself, and he can draw a sketch casually, as long as he has a concept in mind, or he can find a profession with professional painting skills. Storyboards are used for production, but this category is rare. It is only used when making CG movies for the convenience of lens processing and post-production during shooting.

And real people are subject to the shooting environment and actors, as well as camera positions and post-editing. There is a huge difference between the storyboard and the finished film effect. Unlike animated movies, storyboarding has extremely important fundamental significance. Animation storyboarding Basically plays the function of most of the clips.

The storyboard artist of an animated film directly affects the quality of the painter's work in production. Most of the painters of the animated film are based on copying the storyboard and carry out detailed operations, unless the director personally acts as the painter. But in this way, an animated film may take three to five years or even ten or eight years.

If the storyboard artist's production is rough and the production artist can't see the style, it may directly destroy the entire work.

Whether an animation director can fool a storyboard artist is a big science, not as easy as fooling investors and producers.

The flickering mentioned here is actually to let the storyboard artist operate completely according to the director's ideas and ideas, and even work harder and more attentively, instead of operating casually.

Painting is a matter of serious painting, and painting is also painting. If you want to paint things vividly, you must devote yourself wholeheartedly. That's bound to happen in the end.

The most important thing for a director to lead a team is to bring morale and centripetal force, so that everyone works hard in one direction.

Artists are more or less eccentric, and those who are great often look down on others, and it is difficult for them to work together.

So the "fudge" here is not a bragging kind of flicker, but to gain their trust, give enough respect to the masters, give enough opportunities to the newcomers, and create a friendly atmosphere for everyone.

For the time being, Silwo couldn't see how awesome Li Zhifan's deception skills are, and he didn't directly underestimate him. After being stunned and stunned, he regained his composure. Anyway, DreamWorks has been acquired. Whether he can mobilize those uncles depends on this The ability of a "general manager".

After the meeting ended, everyone whispered and left.

Li Zhifan stopped Silver: "Mr. Silver, please go to the lounge and wait a while. After I finish talking with Mr. Rick, let's go back to Los Angeles together."

Back to Los Angeles?

Silvo was taken aback, is this going directly to DreamWorks?
But now that the boss has spoken, Silver can't refuse, so he nodded and said, "Okay! I'll wait for you!"

in the office.

Li Zhifan and Rick came in one after the other.

"Please sit down! Mr. Rick, this is the script!"

Li Zhifan took out the script from the drawer and handed it to Rick.

The script is in pure English, on thick A4 paper, with printed parts and handwritten parts.

At the first glance, Rick's first impression was: "This word is beautifully written!"

"You can take it back and take a good look at it, and find a few directors to study this script together!"

Li Zhifan said, "If you have any comments or questions, you can call me directly. Li Zhifan pointed to the blank space on the last page of the script, where his phone number was written."

"Okay, let me take a look first!"

Rick read a few pages, but couldn't see why, so he put it away and asked, "Mr. Li, how did you come up with the idea of ​​shooting the character of Mulan? When the animated film Mulan came out, the box office was not high. ah!"

The "Mulan" animated film that year sold more than 3 million U.S. dollars at the global box office. This is not too high for Disney, which has always achieved outstanding results, because this is their lowest-grossing animated film. The movie market is getting better and better, and as the prices are getting higher and higher, often a Disney movie has a box office of more than one billion US dollars.

Especially live-action movies, "The Duke of Hearts" made in the early years sold 12 billion U.S. dollars, and "Chris Su Naughty Boy" sold 18 billion U.S. dollars at the box office six years ago. Last year's "Mermaid Princess" even exceeded Grossed $20 billion at the box office.

Now that he is going to make a live-action movie of "Mulan", Rick immediately thought of the Chinese box office market. Perhaps only by winning the battle at the Chinese box office can he be saved.

However, the box office of the "Mulan" animated film in China was not high at that time, because the story adaptation was too complicated, and the character image design combined Eastern and Western styles, which made it ugly in the eyes of Chinese audiences, so they didn't buy it.

In this live-action movie, we can find the most beautiful and internationally famous Chinese girls to star in, but in terms of plot design, how to attract more audiences, especially Chinese audiences, is a question worth discussing.

(End of this chapter)