I really don't want to make bad movies!

Before preparing for his new film, Xia Ming still needs to handle the aftermath of this incident.

First, we need to return to the Studios at Skyworks Visual Effects to oversee the production of the director's cut of Atlantic Rim 2.

After a final two weeks of rendering and polishing, the director's cut of "Atlantic Rim 2" was finally released on iQiyi.

Xia Ming had already negotiated streaming revenue sharing with Wang Hui. Although the movie was released for free, thanks to the huge hype created by Xia Ming, a very substantial GG revenue sharing contract was still signed.

The movie clip garnered over 10 million views within an hour of being uploaded, and the total number of views exceeded 100 million on the same day.

This is a pure special effects movie. Although it is only 38 minutes long, the excellent production and the tense atmosphere without any dull moments still made the audience feel very satisfied.

A hundred-meter-tall, thousand-ton steel behemoth confronts a Cthulhu-like tentacle giant that rushes in from beyond the stars in a complex city!

Under Xia Ming's direction and the interplay of light and shadow, the audience seems to be in the ruins of an impending apocalypse, looking up at the last hope of Earth—the Zhenyue Mingwang, who protects humanity's home!

After seeing the full version of the special effects clip, all netizens finally realized what Xia Ming meant when he said, "Celebrities with high popularity don't deserve to enjoy such special effects!"

Imagine this: in an atmosphere filled with the sound of rapid breathing, watching a barrage of giant tentacles whistle past your ears, gleaming silver metal mechs standing before you, and a broken giant sword slashing towards an unknown enemy.

In this tense moment, Wang Yuan's moon-like face suddenly appeared on the screen, awkwardly reciting lines like "Don't be afraid, I'll protect you." Anyone would want to yell, "Get lost! Get lost!"

The thirty-eight-minute film clip passed in the blink of an eye.

Finally, Zhenyue Mingwang's AI braking device was damaged. The little robot Wawa recalled the scenes of humans piloting mechs that he had seen in the past. He manually piloted Zhenyue Mingwang, took the aliens into outer space, and self-destructed to perish together with the aliens, returning a pure land to humanity.

The plot is cliché, but the visuals are absolutely top-notch!

Whether it's the earth-shaking tremors caused by Zhenyue Mingwang running in the city, or the radiance emitted by his self-destruction in front of the sun, the audience truly felt the shock brought by the special effects!

Unfortunately, this movie was never shown in theaters!

These special effects are truly enjoyable only when shown on the big screen!

This made the audience hate Wang Yuan and Ju Jingyi even more.

Why! Why?! We paid money to see this in the movie theater!

The most excited were the fans of Pacific Rim.

Pacific Rim 2 fell far short of expectations. Although the special effects were top-notch, it lacked the gravitas of the first film and failed to deliver the expected epic sci-fi action.

The expectation that was missing in Pacific Rim 2 was found in Atlantic Rim 2!

It's not that China lacks good special effects, but rather that no one is taking special effects seriously!

After generating buzz, Xia Ming followed up with a director's cut of "Atlantic Rim 2," successfully attracting a group of science fiction fans.

On the DB rating website, the director's cut of "Atlantic Rim 2" even surpassed and crushed "Pacific Rim 2", and came close to "Pacific Rim 1", reaching a score of 7.5.

Xia Ming's Weibo account went from being completely ignored to quickly gaining millions of followers.

Some were viewers who came from "The Swindlers", some were science fiction viewers, some were haters of Wang Yuan and Ju Jingyi, and some were just casual observers who were interested in Xia Ming's next movie.

Even though rumors are flying all over the internet, and each related post can be divided into at least five camps, it is undeniable that everyone agrees that Xia Ming is the most watched new director in recent years!

Putting aside the quality of the work itself, Director Xia has reached a level of mastery when it comes to hype!

After finishing the director's cut of "Atlantic Rim 2", Xia Ming went on to help Tencent plan the first S+ series web drama for X Theater - "Day and Night".

Xia Ming finalized a version of the script and handed it over to Tengzi, proposing Pan Yueming as the lead actor. He also provided guidance on the film's color grading and lighting scheme.

The director will be chosen by Tencent.

After spending another half month with Tencent, Xia Ming received a guidance fee of 3.4 million yuan, and could also receive tiered revenue sharing based on the number of views.

It's no exaggeration to say that the X Theater can be considered Xia Ming's piggy bank.

As long as Tencent Video doesn't collapse, even if I do nothing else, I can rely on this theater to support myself in my old age.

After dealing with the two video platforms, Xia Ming registered a film and television company – Sun Media.

Xia Ming sold the copyrights of two of his bad films to Sun Media through a left-hand-to-right-hand transaction. As long as Sun Media participated in the joint distribution, it could become a truly independent distributor.

To change the distorted state of China's film and television industry, we need not only good works, but also a more mature industrial system.

Therefore, Xia Ming needs greater financial resources.

Starting with SunMedia, he aims to gradually delve deeper into the film and television industry.

After a month of busy work, Xia Ming finally had some free time and began planning his new movie.

First, Xia Ming rented a one-bedroom apartment near the Beijing Film Studio.

He had no special requirements for his living environment, so he simply cleared out the entire living room and placed only a huge table there to plan the new movie.

The first step is to check the budget.

Xia Ming opened his bank account.

Inside lay a staggering eight-figure sum of money.

One web series, one theatrical release, and one streaming director's cut—all three works had their taxes paid on their behalf by the payer.

Even after taxes were deducted, Xia Ming still reaped a huge sum of nearly 100 million yuan.

The movie "The Swindler 2" became a huge hit, and he earned twelve million yuan with just a small share of the profits.

Atlantic Rim 2 was his biggest recent source of income, bringing him a total of $53 million including his fixed salary.

The director's cut of Atlantic Rim 2 also earned eighteen million dollars through views and revenue sharing from Game of Legends.

Compared to the revenue sharing from these two works, the system bonus brought by the Sun and Moon commentary account turning red is insignificant.

The scattered incentive payments add up to about three million.

Within a year of his debut, his personal assets have already approached 100 million!

And a large portion of that revenue actually comes from bad movies...

Xia Ming stood in front of the table, starting to think about what kind of subject matter his next film should be.

Now that he has the funds and the time, and has even saved a lot on marketing and distribution costs, he only needs to focus on polishing the quality of the film.

If the goal is to win awards, then the film cannot be too commercially driven.

However, Xia Ming did not want to make an overly extreme auteur film, piecing together a bunch of scattered shots into a movie without any storyline, as that did not conform to his creative philosophy.

Finding the balance between commercial appeal and artistic expression is what he is passionate about in filmmaking.

While pondering, Xia Ming took out his phone and found his commentary account.

After a wave of hype that swept the entire internet, Riyue Commentary gained a considerable number of fans on three platforms with its witty commentary on "Atlantic Rim 2".

We now have 900,000 followers across the internet, just 100,000 away from the next milestone.

To win awards, the best option is to focus the lens on social issues and humanistic concerns.

However, those kinds of movies are hard to sell at the box office.

The next milestone award, "David Fincher's ability to construct and shape the core of a script's narrative," can greatly help him polish his scripts.

While ensuring that the core of the story is not obscure or difficult to understand, it also achieves the intensity of a commercial film and maintains the tension of the story.

Xia Ming unfolded the poster for the Desert Film Festival, recalling the script from his previous life.

Are there any films that can balance artistic merit and box office success?

Lost in thought, Xia Ming suddenly drifted off into a daze.

Looking at the poster for the Desert Film Festival again, he patted his head.

No way! I have a full budget, plenty of time, and so many master-level directing skills, why would I participate in a desert film festival?!

Xia Ming opened a webpage and searched for the expected dates of this year's Cannes Film Festival.

In early June, exactly one month after the Desert Film Festival.

Attending the Cannes Film Festival first, and then going to the Desert Film Festival to report back to Professor Xie Fei, that's the reasonable way to win awards!

When Xia Ming turned his attention to the Cannes Film Festival, his thinking changed instantly.

For a new domestic director to win awards at an international film festival, even if the judges have their own people on the panel, it's not an easy task.

It's unrealistic to think that a film can win an award based solely on its quality.

The judges of the three major film festivals look down on domestic films from the bottom of their hearts, and they have a strong sense of regionalism.

If you don't humble yourself in the film, depict the hardships and difficulties of your hometown, and reflect so-called "people's livelihood and social issues," it will be difficult to gain the approval of those arrogant judges.

If Xia Ming were to actually film those sensitive contents, given the current online public opinion environment he is in, someone with ulterior motives would immediately hire a large number of online trolls, and he would be immediately branded with a rare label.

The boundaries between telling the truth, artistic creation, and malicious defamation are too blurred and are likely to change dramatically with the transformation of the internet and social environment.

Before he can become a truly respected director, he must first turn his attention abroad and tell stories about the social problems faced by people overseas.

There really were examples of filming social issues in other countries in my past life.

Directed by Rob Marshall and produced by Steven Spielberg, the film, which features Chinese actresses such as Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, tells the story of Japanese geisha and ultimately won an Academy Award.

An American director, Chinese lead actors, and a story told in English about the lives of ordinary people in Japan—a truly unique combination.

Xia Ming could use this as a reference to use domestic actors to tell foreign stories.

After thinking for a long time, he actually remembered a movie with a budget of tens of millions of dollars that won both the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Picture, and achieved extraordinary commercial success.

"Parasite"!