Chapter 1004
Extra: Well done!
The day the Golden Globe nominations were announced.
Lu Yanhe received an undisputed nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Film for his role in "The Original Father".
Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, Jiang Yuqian, Jiang Jun, and Huang Feng were all invited to attend and serve as award presenters.
The past two years have been a period of explosive growth for Chinese actors on the world film scene.
Everyone has their own representative works, and they are recognized by the public through their works.
That evening, Lu Yanhe won an award for "The Original Father" and went on stage to give his acceptance speech.
He was joking.
“I know the Golden Globes like me a lot. They always give me the trophy before the Oscars. And this time, they even invited so many of my good friends to support me.”
This narcissistic flattery elicited laughter from the entire audience.
Lu Yanhe winning the Golden Globe Award was completely unsurprising.
When the media reported on this matter, their tone even changed to—
It's a bit of a pity that Lu Yanhe won the Oscar this year, which was a relatively easy year for him. He didn't encounter any strong competitors and almost swept the competition, which made the final Oscar winner a foregone conclusion.
"I'm really impressed. This can be a reason to complain." Li Zhibai complained, "If I ever have the chance to compete for the Oscar for Best Actor, I don't need to encounter a big year to prove my worth. Ideally, I'd encounter a completely weak year, where the other contenders pose no threat to me at all."
Lu Yanhe couldn't help but chuckle.
As we enter the new year, the Spring Festival film season has already begun its pre-release phase.
That year, Lu Yanhe still did not come up with a new script to compete in the Spring Festival film season.
However, Linghe himself presented a campus youth comedy with a completely new cast, "The Underdog's Comeback".
This movie is a script that Lu Yanhe took a liking to. It tells the story of several young students who form a study group to prove that they are not losers. They try to improve their grades and face discrimination from the head teacher, ridicule from the top students, and disbelief from their parents. The story is very comic book-like.
The director is Wu Chi, who also directed "Pah! The Sea" and "You Are the Apple of My Eye".
The actors playing the young students in this film are all real students. Calling it a completely new cast wouldn't be entirely accurate, considering that Jiang Ting and Zou Xuan, who rose to fame with "Summer Night Villa Horror," are among the lead actors. Besides them, Linghe also invited over a dozen popular actors to make cameo appearances, making the film appear as a star-studded affair.
But essentially, this is a campus youth comedy with a completely new cast, because the main characters are all genuine young people. Jiang Ting and Zou Xuan have some fame, but they aren't true movie stars. Their combined fan base can only carry a few tens of millions of yuan at most, which is hardly enough to compete in the Spring Festival season.
However, among Linghe's reserve of films, "The Underdog's Comeback" is the most suitable for release during the Spring Festival.
Action-packed, comedic, and high-energy.
After several discussions, Linghe finally decided to release the film during this year's Spring Festival season.
It's a big gamble.
The film cost less than 4000 million yuan to make, but because it was going to be released during the Spring Festival, the film's publicity budget soared to 1 million yuan.
Even Linghe, known for its frugality and cost control, faces the problem of persistently high advertising expenses.
For films released during the Spring Festival season, you can try to fight a creative battle, but no matter how well you fight a creative battle, the battle for viewership is still the foundation and cannot be avoided.
"Unless everyone expects 'Flying Colors' to gross between 2 and 3 million yuan, then we will not budget our publicity expenses according to the standards of Spring Festival films, but only guarantee basic screenings."
"That's impossible," Lu Yanhe said proactively at the company meeting. "We have to allow it to potentially fail." "Either we release it during the Spring Festival, or we gamble on it. We're betting that its theme, content, and quality can withstand the competition during the Spring Festival. We've all seen the movie, and the decision is ours. I'm not afraid of it failing at the box office, so what are you afraid of?"
"Furthermore, Linghe's greatest strength lies in copyright operation. In addition, the main actors of 'Flying Colors'—Zou Xuan and Jiang Ting—are both signed actors with Shihuo, and the other young leads will also be entering the entertainment industry with this film. A box office failure doesn't mean a loss. Is a budget of 1.5 million yuan too high for the Spring Festival season? No. If this were a movie I starred in, would you think it was too high? You wouldn't either. But even if I starred in it, there's still the risk of failure. So, there's nothing to be anxious about. Let's do what we're supposed to do, and leave the rest to the market."
Lu Yanhe really got everyone fired up.
After the initial burst of enthusiasm, people in each department will continue to do what they were supposed to do.
The good news is that this year's Spring Festival Gala is going to give a promotional appearance to the movies released during the Spring Festival.
There are six movies in total, which will be used to create an opening medley.
Lu Yanhe personally selected Jiang Ting and Zou Xuan as film representatives to perform this medley at the Spring Festival Gala.
In addition, Lu Yanhe also put a lot of effort into the trailer.
“If the actors aren’t famous enough, we can’t build a solid fan base, so we have to focus on pre-sales and attracting casual viewers,” Chen Yin said. “Otherwise, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, we might not even get 10% of the screenings, and no matter how high the quality of the film is, it won’t take off.”
Lu Yanhe asked directly, "What do you need me to do?"
Chen Yin said, "I must first apologize to you."
Lu Yanhe frowned, looking at Chen Yin with a puzzled expression.
“We want to make a short video program about ‘Flying Colors’, with Zou Xuan and Jiang Ting as reporters, interviewing celebrities and asking them to tell their stories of overcoming adversity on camera,” Chen Yin said. “Because of the Spring Festival season, the entire promotional campaign is currently focusing on the comedic elements of ‘Flying Colors’. However, in my personal opinion, if we want to raise its box office ceiling, inspiration is the most crucial core element of this film. In this era, people want to laugh, but they actually want to be inspired even more.”
Chen Yin was nervous.
Lu Yanhe could tell.
Chen Yin, a man of such prudence, would rarely use phrases like "my personal judgment."
Lu Yanhe understood.
Chen Yin couldn't object to the current promotional direction and strategy for the film, because that's what films released during the Spring Festival have to do. However, he felt it wasn't enough.
He wanted to add to his understanding of film and the market.
"We want to use you as the first shot in this short video program about 'The Underdog's Comeback'," Chen Yin said. "We won't promote it directly, but everyone knows that you were a representative of the college entrance examination comeback back then."
Lu Yanhe suddenly realized.
He laughed.
"Then I have another suggestion."
"Ok?"
"Don't focus your interviews on celebrities who have turned their lives around. I believe I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, to have turned my life around in the college entrance exam," Lu Yanhe said. "Find out those real stories of turning their lives around in the college entrance exam, and let these real stories attract everyone's attention and interest in this topic, so that people want to go to the cinema to see how they turned their lives around."
Chen Yin clenched his fist.
Before he spoke, he really didn't expect that Lu Yanhe would agree so readily.
Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "Chen Yin, this is a publicity plan that I felt was perfect the moment you opened your mouth. Well done!" (End of this chapter)