Along the way, Huang Zhongjun's anger did not subside at all. When he returned to the office of Huayang Media, he spoke with a very cultural idiom.
"What's wrong, brother?"
Huang Zhongjun, who has been waiting, is a little confused. Didn't Han Sanping invite him to discuss the schedule arrangements for each company in the second half of this year? Why is he so angry?
And it didn’t take long, so the deal was settled so quickly?
""I Am Legend" will be released on December 23, one day later than our "If You Are the One 2"; "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" directed and starred by Wu Jing will be released on September 28, one day later than "Detective Dee: The Empire of Heaven"
; "Time Planning Bureau" will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year."
Huang Zhongjun said, sitting on the chair, his face full of gloom.
"?"
Huang Zhonglei was stunned. Two movies were released one day apart from them, and one also coincided with the Spring Festival holiday of "New Shaolin Temple". They were all released together.
How could this happen? Isn't it coordination? This is the result?
"Brother, what happened, didn't you go discuss it?"
"Discuss? Discuss what!"
Huang Zhongjun immediately outlined the content of the "discussion" and what was the discussion. After he finished his sentence, Li Qian followed suit and chose a similar day.
"This Li Qian is too arrogant. Do you really think there is no chance of failure?"
Huang Zhonglei was also furious when he heard that the three movies were all matched. Who is he looking down on?
"snort."
Huang Zhongjun said with a cold face, "I still don't believe it, those four movies can all be hits!"
People always believe in successful people and believe that successful people will always be successful, just like the film industry is superstitious about great directors and superstars.
However, when things go to extremes, they will inevitably turn against you. When it reaches a certain level, it will also arouse suspicion. There will always be those who do not believe in evil.
A movie produced by Li Qian is about to be released. Based on the previous experience, everyone thinks it will be a hit.
However, these three consecutive movies have been released in turn. Even with Li Qian's golden name, I will think that it is impossible for them all to be a hit. There will always be one that bombs at the box office.
If you confess your love to a girl, you will most likely be rejected, but if you confess your love to a hundred people at the same time, one of you will always succeed. If you don’t believe me, try it on the street.
In addition, he was so excited that Huang Zhongjun acted like he was fighting before leaving and postponed "New Shaolin Temple" to the first day of the Lunar New Year, so that it would be released at the same time as "Time Planning Bureau".
However, after calming down, Huang Zhongjun still regretted being too excited. He sighed, "If You Are the One 2 and "I Am Legend" are 50-50, "Detective Dee: The Tongtian Empire" and "Jedi" directed and starred by Wu Jing
"Survival", the National Day schedule should be stable, but there is actually no need for the Spring Festival."
"Detective Dee" has five A-list stars, and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is just a modern action movie. This type of movie cannot sell at the box office, so Huang Zhongjun is not worried at all.
The post-apocalyptic science fiction genre of "I Am Legend" is very attractive, but "If You Are the One 2" is Ma Xiaogang's film, and that's enough.
After "Earthquake" sold 670 million yuan, Huang Zhongjun already had absolute blind confidence in Ma Xiaogang.
"New Shaolin Temple" Cheng Long + Liu Dehua, needless to say, but the director of "Time Planning Bureau" Guo Fan is not a newcomer, he is somewhat famous, and the title of this film is a science fiction film related to time.
Huang Zhonglei said, "Brother, you are worrying too much. There is no such thing as a doomsday movie. I think this year will be the end of Li Qian."
He said this as if Li Qian was about to die.
However, Huang Zhongjun asked curiously, "How do you say that?"
Huang Zhonglei said with a smile, "Otherwise, other directors will be laid off, and our companies will simply close their doors. He, Li Qian, invested in more than ten movies by himself, and he covered the market for the whole year.
What else is wrong with others!"
If you think about it carefully, yes.
Three movies were released in four months last year, and four movies were released in five months in the second half of this year. At this rate, if Li Qian supports a few new directors to come out, ten movies will be released in a year sooner or later.
If they all sell well, then these movie companies can really close down.
But, is it possible?
It's obviously impossible. This kind of thing doesn't happen in any industry.
Thinking of this, Huang Zhongjun smiled confidently, "Li Qian has been amazing enough in the past three years, so let us end Li Qian's magic this time!"
"By the way, inform Xu Ke and Ma Xiaogang of the release date, and get Ma Xiaogang's new contract as soon as possible." Finally, Huang Zhongjun warned again.
Huang Zhonglei was a little embarrassed, "Brother, we should have signed the new contract before "Tangshan Earthquake" was released. Now it has sold more than 600 million yuan. Ma Xiaogang is getting more and more confident, and he is still unwilling to sign it now.
, saying that this year is too busy and that I need to take a rest and talk about it next year."
"Try your best, but don't push too hard."
Huang Zhongjun also had a headache. The huge sales of "Earthquake" also caused worries. Ma Xiaogang's new contract was in trouble again.
And now he has made it clear that he will wait for "If You Are the One 2" to be released before selling it at a price. God knows what price he will offer next year.
But there is no other way. Li Qian dares to stand up to so many company bosses, let alone Ma Xiaogang.
There is no shortage of capital or film companies in the industry, but there is a shortage of the next Li Qian and the next Ma Xiaogang.
It is extremely difficult for ordinary directors to attract investment, but for Ma Xiaogang and Li Qian, as long as they open their mouths, a lot of people will come to their doorstep with money.
...
Xu Ke and Ma Xiaogang immediately received a call from Huang Zhonglei, telling them the time when the movie would be released and the opponents they would face.
Xu Ke was very calm. The Hong Kong film industry was in chaos back then. I had never seen anything happen before. It was not unusual for you to be asked to shoot a movie with a gun.
Moreover, he has absolute confidence in his films, and martial arts films are his specialty.
Even now, Xu Ke is not focusing on "Detective Dee". He is already determined to win it and is preparing for his next film.
Ma Xiaogang is not as calm as Xu Ke, but he is not very angry that Li Qian's new movie is scheduled to be released at the same time as his.
On the contrary, he was very happy and even wanted to laugh.
When Li Qian inexplicably posted "Tangshan Earthquake" on Weibo during the summer holiday, Ma Xiaogang felt something was wrong. How could Li Qian have such a good heart?
As expected, I wanted to have a head-on encounter again during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Such a good opportunity to educate Li Qian came to Li Qian's door. How could Ma Xiaogang be unhappy? He had been waiting for this day for a long time!
As for post-apocalyptic science fiction blockbusters, after "Earthquake" sold 670 million yuan, Ma Xiaogang no longer cared about it.
Now, he has a rather domineering attitude.
As for the new contract mentioned by Huang Zhonglei, Ma Xiaogang still said that he was too tired this year and wanted to rest and had no time to think about anything else. We would talk about it next year.
Working for others is ultimately unpleasant, so why can’t you work for yourself?
...
On the other side, Li Qian, who was deliberately looking for trouble, even had a meal with Han Sanping and others, talking about things without paying attention to the meal.
After Huang Zhongjun left, things became much more harmonious. They were talking and laughing, and it was a harmonious atmosphere.
When they arrived at the dinner table, there was nothing serious to talk about. Yang Shou Cheng and Zhuang Cheng just tested Han Sanping to see what they thought about their preparations to fully enter the mainland film industry.
Han Sanping is of course expressing his full support for them and welcomes them to contribute to the domestic film industry and work together for the film industry.
There is also the matter of the comeback of Leslie Cheung and Gillian Chung, but Ying Huang has never given up. In March and April, Gillian Chung and Choi Cheuk-yan participated in programs in Hong Kong many times, planning to debut again as a group.
However, Han Sanping did not express his position.
Then there's Xiao Ma's "No Man's Land", which should not be released. Last year's incident in Xijiang had just happened, so it would be too sensitive for this film to be released at this time.
However, it had no impact on Ning Hao, and "No Man's Land" had nothing to do with that matter. It just happened to be that the background location was a bit sensitive. It was pure luck and coincidence that it was delayed for two years before it could be released.
The guests and hosts enjoyed themselves and had a very happy meal. This kind of high-end club... is not that kind of club. The chef's skills are beyond words.
After dinner, Li Qian went back to the studio and announced the release time of their movie.
Li Qian had told them the approximate schedule before, but there was nothing much to say about it.
Su Lun has the least pressure. He can lose without any pressure at all. He only had two Hollywood movies in the same period.
Although Guo Fan has to face "The New Shaolin Temple", last year's "Unfortunately" also won the Spring Festival premiere.
It’s just Alexander Wu Jing. Originally, he was a director who had just made a movie. When he met Xu Ke, Wu Yusen, and the famous Donnie Yen, he didn’t even have the qualifications to be pressured.
However, who knows that this film was produced by Li Qian, and the production cost was 30 million, which is quite a lot.
If he loses money again and ruins Li Qian's golden brand, it will be difficult to handle.
However, "I Am Legend" was released one day after "If You Are the One 2", so Li Qian's choice did not surprise them.
Could it be that he was targeting Ma Xiaogang on purpose?
Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Chen Kexin, only Ma Xiaogang, Wu Yusen, and Zhou Xingchi are left.
"Boss, don't you have a hobby of collecting stamps and want to fuck every big director?" Guo Fan pondered for a moment and said.
"..."
"Can you speak properly?" Li Qian's head was full of black lines.
Uninformed people heard this and thought they had some quirks.
Although this was not the case, Su Lun and Wu Jing were still holding back their laughter.
"I asked Lao Guo, you are a law student, why are you so careless in your speech?" Wu Jing criticized seriously.
What did I say?
Guo Fan was confused, but he didn't dwell on it and talked about his own business.
"Boss, I found a good story some time ago and I plan to adapt it. Can you see if you can get started?"
"What the hell, finish the post-production of "Time Planning Bureau" first. You are half-hearted. People like you deserve to be single!"
After swearing angrily, Li Qian entered the computer room, closed the door tightly, and started doing his work.
"I'm single... I don't know how many little girls like me."
"Do they like it?" Su Lun asked.
.......
They were chatting and joking outside the door, but Li Qian turned a deaf ear.
The rough cut and re-cut of "I Am Legend" were already completed during filming. We didn't shoot in advance. We looked at the developed material and if there were no problems, we handed it over to the editor for rough cutting and re-cut.
Editing is not difficult, there are few scenes, the narrative method is concise and single, there are few characters, and most shots require almost no consideration by multiple actors.
The main ones are dual-line narratives and character anti-heroes.
According to Li Qian's memory, those Hollywood superhero movies, or those where the male protagonist has a role of saving the world, are all done to highlight the mystery of the character and reduce the cost of character creation.
This kind of role is transcendent from ordinary people and is the image of a savior.
In fact, the character image of Gao Daquan in the main theme film and television drama is similar in shaping.
This kind of movie will appropriately reduce the intensity of character portrayal, resulting in the flatness and stereotype of the characters in superhero movies. The superheroes we have seen for many years are those with extraordinary abilities, flying in the sky, escaping from the earth, and omnipotent.
Flat image.
As for "I Am Legend", although the male protagonist is a legend, just like the title of the film, he has become the hope of saving all mankind.
It does not follow the traditional hero creation model, but avoids these routine character attributes. Instead, it uses a very breakthrough idea to create the image of the protagonist, an ordinary person in mainstream society.
Although his status is extraordinary, he is a military virus research expert and has the rank of colonel. 90% of ordinary people will never come into contact with such a person in their lifetime.
However, apart from his identity, he is just an ordinary person. He has neither an indestructible shell nor the super power to deal a fatal blow to the enemy. He does not have the image of a traditional hero who is always outside the mainstream society and does not give people the sense of distance.
This requires spending a lot of shots to create such an ordinary person, which is also the necessity of a two-line narrative.
Otherwise, the editing can be a bit more cliché, concentrating all the meetings of the male protagonist at the beginning of the film, as a preface and overture.
In the dream, the past events are reviewed through flashbacks, allowing the audience to re-enter the inner world of the character from a straight-up perspective, which psychologically shortens the emotional distance between the protagonist and the audience, and also makes the characters
It has become more three-dimensional and layered than ever before.
Moreover, unlike "blockbusters", "I Am Legend" pays more attention to the plot and does not rely on eye-catching big scenes to attract people.
Of course, traditional disaster movies are about a group of people resisting disaster, but this movie is about one person. If the plot is not the main focus, it will not work.
Movies that focus on plot also have very high requirements for editing, but for a movie with a single character like this, the trouble of editing is reduced.
But it was still a test of my skills. On that night, I closed all the iron doors of the house, hugged the dog and huddled in the bathtub, and looked down at the camera, slowly panning, and fixed on a close-up of Liu Ye's face.
In a traditional routine, a close-up of nearly two seconds should be given here to show the character's emotions at that time, because this way of sleeping is abnormal.
But Li Qian didn't appear here. Just when the camera moved to Liu Ye's face, Li Qian cut it.
There is no unnecessary exaggeration of the atmosphere. Locking the iron door in front, closing the windows, and hugging the dog and curling up in the bathtub are enough to express the tense atmosphere.
It’s a good thing to add the finishing touch, but people often add the finishing touch.
The camera stopped abruptly when it moved to Liu Ye's face. The whole night made the audience think about how dangerous and lonely it was.
This is followed by memories of the past. The memories in the dream are also a critical moment for the evacuation of the Pudong area of the magical city.
Sleeping is originally a very peaceful thing, but after a tense flashback plot, it echoes the protagonist's situation.
Moreover, recalling the critical moment, the male protagonist woke up, but when he woke up, he was not sleeping in the bathtub, but in bed.
This is also very clever, why do you wake up in bed?
Uncomfortable sleeping in the bathtub?
That's for sure, a bathtub is not a place to sleep.
But that's not the main thing. At this time, you don't care whether you feel comfortable or not. It's good to be alive when you wake up.
Something happened in the middle, whether it was a fright, an accident, or something that made the hero go back to bed and fall asleep again.
Or maybe it's simply uncomfortable sleeping, and it's giving people daydreams.
In terms of many details, one still has to get it right, especially the details and rhythm of a movie.
But overall, it's relatively easy to do.
Time always flies by. Day by day, the fine editing of "I Am Legend" was completed in 20 days, leaving only the last composite cut.
At the end of September, the National Day holiday is coming soon!