The songs were ready-made, so Yang Dongxu didn't have to worry about it. In addition, with his expertise in Anxi, he didn't have to hum the tune himself and let others compose the music, whether it was music scores or the use of instruments, so he could get it done quickly.
The MV would be even simpler. After all, he has been a director before. Shooting a MV with a template already in his mind is simply easier than singing a song.
The song doesn't have much depth, it mainly has some requirements in terms of emotion and pitch, which can be refined slowly. Anyway, the other songs in the album also need to be recorded slowly.
So record the MV first, and then just add the recorded songs to it when the time comes. Then the promotional MV for the album’s title song was all finished. As for the need to sing live when shooting the MV, that doesn't exist at all.
After all, the shooting location is a noisy bar. Not to mention, it would be a headache just to deal with the noise if recorded on location, and many of the sound quality cannot be grasped. Therefore, ten out of ten MVs like this are all lip-syncing. In such a vast space, how can the sound quality be compared with the sound recorded in a professional recording studio.
So after shooting the MV, Yang Dongxu was basically fine. Song recording was a matter of the record department and it was impossible for him, the boss, to keep an eye on it all the time.
So he began to focus on selecting movies for the company's film department. This selection does not mean that all movies that can make money by remembering their names will be screened out.
Instead, you need to choose a big production, making money is secondary. The main thing is that it must be influential, and it is best to win awards internationally, so that people in the industry can take a good look at what Hainer wants to do and how awesome it is.
Of course, it would be perfect if the movie could win awards and make money at the same time, and crush its opponents at the box office. But this is the most ideal scenario. Winning awards for big productions is the prerequisite, and box office is the second. This is Yang Dongxu's purpose when screening box office.
It took Yang Dongxu more than an hour to read more than a dozen scripts. If it were someone else's opinion, a script might take a day to study. After all, you need to study the characters and content, then build a rough model of the movie in your mind, and then use your own experience to infer whether the movie will be popular after it is produced.
This is a task that many people need to do when screening scripts, but Yang Dongxu obviously does not need to be so complicated. When he reads the script, he first checks whether the name is familiar or not, and if the movie title doesn't make any impression on him. In order to prevent the movie from being released after the filming and the name of the script was changed and the script name was different and a good script was missed, he will look at the content.
But instead of delving into the content, I want to take a look at the settings of the characters, and then look at the general story content. There is no need to complicatedly construct a movie model of the script and then use rich experience to make judgments. Just take a look at the story and see if you are familiar with the script. Whether you should keep it or throw it aside will give you the result.
Therefore, the speed with which he reads the script will definitely make his colleagues stunned, in order not to appear too evil. Although he read the script in an hour, he stayed in the office for half a day to deal with other things.
Then after I came out, I took out the scripts I selected and said that I had just read a few scripts and thought they were good enough to shoot, and I would think about most of the rest later.
In fact, most of the remaining scripts were thrown aside after taking them home, and then after ten and a half days, I took out the previously selected scripts and eliminated the rest. This performance was very simple and unpretentious.
There are two scripts left aside, which belong to "reading" in this half-day. The other scripts are piled together for later reading. Then he was holding an interesting script that he was lucky enough to choose among the three. Then the company's general manager Liu Zongsheng sat across from him when it was almost lunch time.
"This drama has been in preparation for a long time. Didn't it say that filming is about to start? Why are you still looking for investors?" Yang Dongxu pushed the script in front of Liu Zongsheng.
Liu Zongsheng picked up the script and glanced at the name. There was a look of understanding in his eyes without looking at the specific content. He obviously knew the script very well.
"The situation is like this..."
This script is none other than "Hero", another landmark work of Lao Mouzi's fame. The only reason I am familiar with this script is not because Liu Zongsheng also feels that this movie will be a hit, with box office and word-of-mouth success, as well as winning awards.
Of course Liu Zongsheng doesn't know this now, this is something Yang Dongxu knows. He was familiar with the script because the film's investors were well-known in the industry.
Although the domestic film market is becoming more and more popular at the moment, the mainstream cost of filming a film is still hovering around a few million. Those that cost tens of millions are basically large-scale productions that need to be bragging.
The filming budget for Lao Mouzi's "Hero" reached 26 million, and the word "USD" was added at the end. According to the current exchange rate between RMB and U.S. dollar, this investment will go directly to RMB 200 million.
And this is just the budget before shooting. According to the information collected so far, there is a high chance that more money will be needed later. The final shooting cost may exceed 200 million. Such a high-cost investment is definitely a big production, and it is also a big risk.
After all, although the first person to eat crabs is likely to make a lot of money, he may also lose everything. You will never be able to turn over for the rest of your life.
Therefore, when this drama was being prepared, New Picture approached many film companies to jointly produce it, but received very little response. The reason for this lack of support is not only because the investment is too high and the risks are high, but also because this script is not an adaptation of a famous book, but written by Zhang Yimou himself.
Although compared to others, Zhang Yimou, who is a representative of the fifth generation of directors, plays the leading role of a tall, rich and handsome man at the beginning, as if he is God's own son.
After graduation, I worked as a photographer for the first time and won the China Film Outstanding Photographer Award. The first time I filmed the movie "The Blind Shaft", I won three Best Actors, and among them was the Best Actor at the Tokyo Film Festival. Not only did I achieve great success at home, I also won the limelight abroad.
The first movie he made, "Red Sorghum", won the Golden Bear Award at China's first international film festival. After that, Lao Mouzi's award winning route became uncontrollable and he became a frequent visitor at international film festivals. A benchmark figure among domestic directors.
But even though such an awesome old Mouzi is favored by various stars and film companies, as long as various roles in new movies are competed for, Mou Girl can really gain fame and gain international fame.
But every investment of capital must be carefully considered, because movies that win awards have one thing in common - losing money!
Therefore, Lao Mouzi and Feng Xiaogang can be said to be two extremes among the great directors in China. Lao Mouzi is an art master and has been called a national teacher by the Chinese people since then, while Feng Xiaogang is a great director of commercial films. Don't worry about how many people criticize his movies and how many people say their logic is messed up, but he is still able to make money.
Therefore, if you plan to make a multi-million-dollar movie, investors may consider it as a sponsorship fee for their own star to gain international recognition.
If you allocate more than 100 million in filming capital at once, the cost will probably exceed 200 million after the filming is completed. This sponsorship fee is too expensive. At the same time, if you adapt a famous work, it’s okay, and you can have some reference for measuring risks.
The script you wrote yourself costs nearly 200 million to shoot, and not many people dare to play with you. After all, how can you, Lao Mouzi, win awards? What others see is your ability as a director, not your ability as a screenwriter. Even the screenwriters of the successful movies he shot before have his name on them.
But everyone knows this, just like an old professor would put his name on his students' papers. Maybe you, Lao Mouzi, are different. You really put forward various constructive opinions on the script before, so you added your name to the script. But that's just an opinion, not the editor-in-chief.
Therefore, the preparation of this movie was very lively, because during the casting process, countless stars were competing for it. After all, this is a movie that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, and there is still a chance to win international awards. As long as there are some ideal stars who don't want to join in, of.
Contrary to the apparent crowds of people casting the film, it was natural to look for investors. Basically no one is willing to pay, and most of them even ask their own actors to reduce their salaries, or treat them as sponsorships if they show up with zero salary. The real money is made by New Picture and Hong Kong who lead the filming of the film. a company.
But even though he was very supportive of Lao Mouzi's new picture, he couldn't come up with so much money at once, so the film preparations couldn't wait any longer. They could only start preparing for filming and at the same time, they were still looking for investment.
This script was actually sent to Heiner early in the morning. After all, Heiner seems to be much more low-key in recent years. But when it comes to wealth and wealth, even China Film Group has to give way to three points of politeness, and the newly emerging film companies are simply not enough.
It's just that the investment is too big and Liu Zongsheng has been thinking about it, and he hasn't given a reply until now. This time, his big boss was going to personally screen the scripts, so he put them among other scripts and sent them over.
"How much investment do they still need?" Yang Dongxu asked, rubbing his chin with his fingers.
"It's still more than half way, because his protagonist is Jet Li from our company. So I'm going to invest 5 million to have a look." Liu Zongsheng said.
This 5 million is obviously in RMB, not US dollars, so it seems a bit stingy. But in addition, the other party looking for Jet Li was obviously interested in the domestic and international box office appeal of his company's superstars. Jet Li has promised to reduce his salary again, and the sponsorships are not small.
"You dare to take the photo when you still have less than half the money?" Yang Dongxu looked stunned.
"The boss at New Picture seems to be very optimistic about this drama, so if we really can't find a partner, we're going to work hard and pay out all the remaining money." Liu Zongsheng said.
Yang Dongxu nodded, obviously he wanted to share the risk if he could find a partner. If you can't find a partner, you'll have to fight it out on your own. So it makes sense to start shooting right away before the money is in place.
"Make an appointment with their boss and director for a meal." Yang Dongxu tapped the table with his hand.
