After returning to the capital from Shenyang, Li Qian slept at home for three days.
Working hard for a month in a row is really tiring.
Immediately afterwards, Li Qian went to Guangxian to communicate with the other party about the next announcement.
"I shot a movie in just one month. Director Li is really admirable."
As soon as they met, Wang Changtian was amazed at how quickly Li Qian completed the filming of the movie.
Although he has just been involved in the film industry, he also knows something about movies.
For a general feature film, it is normal to shoot within two months, and one month is definitely very fast.
Li Qian waved his hand and said with a smile, "Mr. Wang is overly praised. The filming of this movie was not very difficult. It was almost all indoor scenes and there were very few transitions. A month's time is actually quite normal."
Zhang Zhaoye said, "Director Li stays on the set from morning to night every day and only sleeps five or six hours a day. It's really hard work."
At first, Zhang Zhao also stayed on the crew for more than a week. He originally thought that Li Qian had previously worked on an online film, and the crew could only manage 20 or 30 people.
Nowadays, for theater movies, the number of crews has doubled even when they are at their lowest. Young people without much experience will inevitably not be able to take care of the situation.
But after staying there for a week, he realized that there was nothing wrong with him at all.
I want to do something, but I am afraid that Li Qian will be unhappy and think that he wants to interfere in the management.
After all, the first request Li Qian made before was that Guang Xian should not interfere with the filming of the movie. This shows that Li Qian is a very selfish and temperamental person.
But it felt weird to not do anything and stay on the set, so I just came back.
Li Qian didn't even notify him until the day the movie was finalized.
After chatting for a while, we got down to the real topic and talked about the early stage announcement of the movie.
"In terms of publicity, Director Li can rest assured that we have the largest film promotion network in China and there will definitely be no problems in this regard."
Wang Changtian said quite arrogantly, this is also his biggest reliance on daring to enter the film and television industry.
With more than 300 TV stations, it can be said that Guangxian's publicity network can be spread wherever there are people.
Zhang Zhao also explained the specific plan, "Since the two blockbusters "The Call to Action" and "Assembly Number" will be released first during the Lunar New Year period, they will definitely attract the attention of most viewers, so we plan to do it half a month before the movie is released. We just started promoting it.”
"The TV stations have already been contacted. As long as Director Li can come over, there is no need to worry about it. There are local distribution staff running the theater advertisements one by one. We are also talking with Zhongfen Media about the screens in the office buildings. ....”
Movie promotion now includes several traditional promotion methods: TV stations, paper media, online media, indoor and outdoor advertising.
TV stations don’t have to worry, this is Guangxian’s strength, and print media also falls under the jurisdiction of Guangxian everywhere.
The online media will see the response to the movie at that time. If the response is good, even if it does not cost too much, those online media and even several major portals will spontaneously promote the movie.
Of course, if the response is average, no one will pay attention to you during the Lunar New Year period.
Indoor and outdoor billboards, that is, office buildings, bus stations and other places.
Li Qian still trusted Guangxian. He nodded and said, "I'll leave it to Mr. Wang for publicity."
However, distribution is Guangxian’s shortcoming.
Li Qian asked about the arrangements for the initial two hundred copies, but did not get an ideal answer.
Zhang Zhao said with some embarrassment, "There is no problem in laying out two hundred film copies in the initial stage. During this period, our local distribution staff also talked with the theaters one by one."
"However, there are no more than 50 good cinemas in second-tier cities that can fully utilize a copy. Most of the others can only be distributed in third-tier cities and cinemas in the suburbs of first- and second-tier cities."
It’s not that it can’t be shown in movie theaters in good locations. Even in Wanda in Beijing’s CBD, it’s not difficult to get one or two movies at night.
However, there are five reels of film, and each reel is 20 minutes long. Usually, we need to maximize the use of one reel of film, which is shown in each hall in turn.
The first set is placed in Hall 1, and the second set is placed in Hall 2 after 20 minutes, and then the second set is taken to Hall 2. After another 20 minutes, the third set is placed in Hall 1, and the second set is placed in Hall 2. The first set is placed in Hall 3.
By analogy, at the extreme end, five halls can share one copy at the same time.
Even in the early years, it was normal for two or three movie theaters in a city to share a copy. After the movie was played in one movie theater, someone would immediately rush to the next movie theater on a bicycle and play it again.
However, during the Lunar New Year this year, two blockbusters were released one after another. Whether it is "The Call to Action" or "Assembly Number", with the lineup and directors of these two movies, cinema managers can make decisions with their toes as to which movie to prioritize. show.
Therefore, it is not a problem to release 200 film copies of "Frequency of Life and Death", but the number of screenings of these 200 copies in a day may not be as good as the 150 copies of the two blockbusters.
If you don't pursue the quality of the shows, third-tier cities can be satisfied, but two shows in third-tier cities are probably not as good as one show in a good cinema in a second-tier city.
The industry is so cruel, everything depends on strength. Directors, actors, and movies without strength will not get better treatment.
This is unexplainable. Cinemas have to make money. If they don’t make money, there’s nothing to talk about.
Movies like "The City", starring Tony Leung and Kim Sung-wu, have been monopolized by "The City" and have no room to survive, let alone other films.
Li Qian is an expert in movies, but in the film industry, Zhang Zhaocai is an expert, so Li Qian can only ask him what he thinks.
"All we can do is learn from Hollywood and hold a few more screenings. After inviting film critics and media to preview them, we can hold one or two screenings in each of the top 20 cities in the country to attract the media and film critics. Please come and let the theater see the audience's reaction to the movie."
Zhang Zhao continued, "In this case, everything depends on the quality of the movie."
The implication is that if the quality of the movie is not good enough, it is over.
Although there are some domestic screenings, they are different from those in Hollywood.
Domestic screenings are a publicity method, not a distribution strategy.
Most of the audiences are media, film critics and specific audiences, in order to promote word of mouth.
Hollywood's screenings are for distribution services, not for publicity and momentum, but more for collecting the audience's feedback, giving feedback to distribution companies and theaters, and adjusting distribution strategies and corresponding groups.
Of course, the most important thing is to let theaters see the potential of the movie.
If there are a few screenings, these audiences can be screened and given some small gifts.
But if there are dozens of games, it will be really difficult to control.
Li Qian thought for a while, if he wanted to do it, go big, so he simply said.
"Since we want to show the potential of movies to theaters, let's just make it a little bigger. In the first two weeks of the movie's release, from Friday to Sunday, we guarantee that every provincial capital and second-tier city's core area cinemas will have one show every night, and some
One show every Saturday night in third-tier cities!”
this...
Calculated this way, there will be at least two to three hundred screenings in two weeks. With such a large scale, once the reputation is average, it will directly affect the box office of the movie.
"Director Li, let's screen a few shows on a small scale first. If the response is good, we can expand the scale."
Even Zhang Zhao, who had been in the United States for several years and had some knowledge of Hollywood, and thought he was quite bold, was frightened by Li Qian's suggestion.
Even Zhang Yimou has never made such a large-scale movie, and if it lasts for half a month, the risk is too great.
"Mr. Zhang, Mr. Wang, we do some screenings just for publicity and to prove the film's potential to theaters. It won't be of much use if the scale is small."
Li Qian smiled and said, "Besides, I have enough confidence in this movie. The two previous movies have great reputations on the Internet. You can't keep deteriorating!"
Looking at Li Qian with a confident look on his face, Wang Changtian and Zhang Zhao couldn't help but want to say, no one is going to regress more and more.
The living example of Brother Cheng Kai from the year before last is there.
But you definitely can't say this in front of Li Qian.
Zhang Zhao hesitated and glanced at Wang Changtian.
Wang Changtian is also weighing in. Li Qian is right. The two major online movies "Phone Booth" and "Jaws" both have very good reputations.
Isn't it because of this that I agreed to all his requests and even wanted to release it during the Lunar New Year?
Isn't it just a gamble? If it succeeds, Guangxian will be able to gain a foothold in the film industry through Li Qian.
As for the failure, Wang Changtian never thought that if he failed, he would lose a little money and go back to the old ways.
Since it is gambling, whether you bet bigger or smaller depends on whether you can bear the consequences of failure.
Wang Changtian made a decision, "Then, as Director Li said, we will start large-scale screenings two weeks before the release!"
The boss has said this, and Zhang Zhao can only agree. Besides, this is indeed the best way, but the risk is correspondingly much higher.
However, if the reputation is not good, even if it is not screened, the box office may not be much better.
Now that the decision has been made, it is time to discuss the exact plan.
The scale still needs to be slightly smaller, after all, large-scale screenings also increase the risk of pirated copies leaking out.
The top 20 cities in the country with the highest box office, two weeks before the release, there will be two prime time shows on Saturday night, and staggered on Friday and Sunday nights with other second-tier cities.
The top 20 box office cities are guaranteed to have four shows every weekend, and every second-tier city has at least two shows every weekend night.
If third-tier cities can take care of it, choose third-tier cities that are close to big cities.
The main events and plans have to be arranged according to Guangxian's manpower and routes in each city.
Then ask several security companies to jointly store the copies with Guangxian's local distribution personnel.
Under the condition of ensuring the safety of copying, we will screen it in as many cities as possible.
Copying should be safe when screening. After all, the target of pirates is the same as the audience, they are both interested in the two blockbusters, and they also care about profits.
Guang Xian would make a specific plan, but Li Qian had to go back to edit the film, so he didn't stay much longer.
Looking at Li Qian's leaving figure, Wang Changtian suddenly said, "Lao Zhang, do you think this movie can be successful?"
Zhang Zhao thought for a while, "In our daily interactions, Li Qian should be a rational person. Since he is confident, I am also confident about the first two movies. However, it only took one month to finish filming, but it still felt too fast."
"
Wang Changtian smiled and said, "Didn't you say that he only sleeps five or six hours a day on the set? With such hard work and perseverance, he is capable, and he can maintain his sanity, what should we worry about?"
Standing up from the chair, Wang Changtian waved his hand, "The movie will be given to him, but we have to do our job well, and it's up to us next!"