Chapter 229 Winning Ma
The pressure that a director has to bear is something that not everyone can withstand.
Especially since Xu Kun wrote, directed and acted in the film himself, he had to make the final decision on every matter and item in the crew. Even with a senior assistant director assisting him, he was almost depressed.
The main reason is that the mental pressure is too great!
After returning home, Xu Kun copied the unedited movie to his computer, then went back to his bedroom and fell asleep.
He slept from 12 . on December 13th until about 10 . the next day, when he woke up groggily.
He wrapped himself in pajamas and left the bedroom. The lights in Baoqiang's room were off, but there was some light coming from the study.
He originally thought that Baoqiang was using the computer, but it turned out that Jiang Yiyan was sitting in front of the computer chatting on QQ.
"Are you awake?"
Jiang Yiyan heard the noise and hurriedly stood up and said, "Are you hungry? There's century egg and lean meat porridge warming up in the rice cooker. I'll go get you a bowl."
Xu Kun asked curiously: "When did you learn how to cook porridge?"
"I didn't cook it. Qin Lan came over to cook it at noon."
Xu Kun didn't ask where Qin Lan was. He must have felt awkward being in the same room with Jiang Yiyan, so he left after cooking the porridge.
In this regard, Qin Lan still lacks some experience and is far behind the tacit understanding of Shuang Feiyan.
"Do you have pickled mustard tuber? Open a pack and add more sesame oil."
As Xu Kun spoke, he sat down in the seat that Jiang Yiyan had given up, and wanted to take a look at the materials he had entered for the exam yesterday.
Jiang Yiyan had already gone out, but she came back and reminded him, "Don't close the game download box. I've been downloading it for a long time!"
Xu Kun had already seen a download box and was about to ask what game was being downloaded when Jiang Yiyan had already rushed to the kitchen.
Xu Kun didn't pay any more attention to it, but opened the dedicated folder to check the film materials that had not yet been edited.
When filming earlier, I always felt that I was not up to the task, but apart from that stubbornness at the time, Xu Kun felt that there was generally nothing wrong with his performance.
In particular, the tacit understanding between them and Baoqiang always allows them to have some unexpected interactions beyond the script.
Of course, not all interactions are benign. Some are superfluous and must be cut out without mercy.
After watching for about ten minutes, Jiang Yiyan finally brought the meal over. In addition to century egg and lean meat porridge and pickled mustard tuber, there were also steamed bread slices heated in the microwave and freshly cut Jinhua ham.
As for why we can tell that Jiang Yiyan cut the ham slices freshly, it is of course because of the serrated knife skills on the ham slices.
Xu Kun was really hungry. He couldn't wait for the century egg and lean meat porridge to cool down, so he ate a dozen steamed buns with ham and steamed bun slices in one gulp.
Then he picked up the preserved egg and lean meat porridge, swishing around while drinking it and asking, "Where's Baoqiang?"
"Baoqiang was picked up by Brother Li Yixiang this afternoon. It seems that he is wanted to be the lead actor in a TV series. Brother Li originally wanted you to go with him, but he didn't call you because you were sleeping so soundly."
There is actually a TV series that actively invites Baoqiang to be the leading actor?
This kid has really made it!
Hey~
At this time, the download success prompt sounded. Xu Kun looked at the screen and asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly think of playing the game?"
"I don't want to play."
Jiang Yiyan said helplessly, "It was all because of Sister Xiaolu, Jiang Xin, and Yang Mi. The three of them have been obsessed with a game recently, and they shouted in the group that since we are sisters, we must play the game with them, and asked everyone in the group to download and register an account."
"Which plate did you get?"
"What plate?"
"..."
Xu Kun was speechless for a while: "Don't mess with my computer in the future. Fortunately, my system disk is large enough."
He found the installation package in the C drive and chose to install it in the game's dedicated F drive, only then did he see the name of the game.
"Audition? Dancing? How do you dance on a computer?"
"Just use arrows to control it. I haven't played it either, but I saw Yang Mi post some pictures. She said this game is very popular, and many young girls are playing it. Some middle school students even skip school and steal money from their families just to play it."
"Is it true?" Xu Kun was not surprised at all that young people were addicted to games, but usually those who were addicted to games were boys. From Jiang Yiyan's description, the main players of this game were young girls.
An online game that fascinates young girls...
Xu Kun subconsciously opened Baidu to search, and sure enough, this game has been very popular since it was released in China in May, second only to "World of Warcraft" in popularity.
Xu Kun even saw a lot of Audition videos uploaded by gamers on Tudou, PPL, and PPS. Some were screen recordings, and there were also many "Shamatte" girls taking selfies while playing games.
Although the picture is blurry - probably taken with a cheap camera - it can be seen that the girls are enjoying themselves.
hmm~
Jiang Yiyan saw Xu Kun staring at the Shamatte girl thoughtfully, and couldn't help but said with a smile: "Brother Kun, you didn't suddenly like this one, did you?"
"Go away! I was thinking that since they are all mainly about young girls, can our movies and TV series interact with the game?"
"Interaction? How to interact?"
"There are many ways, but... let's just forget it."
Xu Kun finally gave up this idea. He had already laid enough groundwork. Although attracting this group of Shamatte to the cinema would increase the box office, it would also easily lead to complications.
For example, people who don't want this movie to become a hit can take the opportunity to label the audience as "Shamatte" and non-mainstream. If they succeed, the box office losses will be huge.
"Brother Kun."
Seeing that Xu Kun had turned off the video, Jiang Yiyan sat on his lap and asked curiously, "How much do you think our movie will make at the box office? Can it surpass those blockbusters?"
"Hard to say."
Xu Kun put his arm around her waist and shook his head slightly.
Originally Xu Kun was very confident. He thought that relying on the fan economy and the high quality of "Lost on Journey", he could crush all the blockbusters, but it would not be a problem to destroy 70% to 80% of them.
But after recently brushing up on some industry common sense with the assistant director, his confidence is not as strong as before.
It turns out that the biggest gap between blockbusters and low-budget productions these days is not the appeal of superstars and high costs, but that blockbuster ticket prices can be sold at higher prices than low-budget productions.
When people in later generations look up information, most of them will have a question: Why did the total box office of low-budget masterpieces of that year, such as "Crazy Stone", actually only amount to less than 2500 million?
And those blockbusters that were released in the same year as Stone and were criticized as shit, actually had a total box office of 50 or 60 million?
For example, "The Warring States", which Huayi used to retain Fan Bingbing, was also released in 06. The reputation of this film was quite average, but it still had a total box office of 6700 million yuan.
This is because the film production company falsified the information to save face, and secondly, it is caused by the difference in ticket prices.
For example, Director Chen's upcoming film "The Promise" wanted to offer a premiere discount in Jinling and was going to sell tickets for 20 yuan each. However, the China Film Corporation called a halt to the screening, saying that a blockbuster should have the style of a blockbuster and that the ticket must be sold for at least 40 yuan.
This is still cheap. According to statistics, apart from those sky-high VIP tickets with special significance, the price of ordinary tickets fluctuates between 30-70.
So how much will the ticket price be when "Crazy Stone" is released in half a year?
15 yuan!
You can get 40% to 80% off when you recharge your card.
This is still the case in big cities. In small cities, the polarization is even greater. Low-budget films with insufficient publicity can only sell for 5 to 10 yuan, while the ticket prices for popular blockbusters are the same as in big cities, or even slightly higher.
As for the county town...
The movie theaters in the county town have long been converted into auditoriums, and will not revive until seven or eight years later - this is also an important reason why the Spring Festival period is not popular. Even if you want to watch a movie during the Spring Festival, there must be a movie theater in your hometown first.
The result is:
你小成本神作观影人数360万，平均票价7块5毛；人家大片观影人数120万，平均票价45一张。
According to the final statistics, the low-budget masterpiece had a total box office of 2700 million, and the blockbuster had a total box office of 5400 million.
With three times the number of moviegoers, the total box office is only half of that of other movies. This is the tragedy of low-budget movies.
Although Xu Kun invited a bunch of big names to make guest appearances and also had Huayi's channel promotion, the theaters don't recognize this. What they recognize is the total investment and who the leading actors are.
Total investment of 1000 million?
Is the director a newcomer?
Did the actor become famous through filming TV series?
If this is not low cost, then what is low cost?
Thailand's best actor?
I have heard of Thai ladyboys, but what does a Thai movie star do?
Therefore, Xu Kun has greatly lowered his expectations. He originally thought of making a big splash with 200 to 300 million yuan, but now he thinks 60 million yuan would be a victory, 80 million yuan would be a huge win, and 100 million yuan would be like Qin Shihuang touching the electric wire, it would be a great win!
(End of this chapter)
