Chapter 349 College Student Film Festival
In Xingchen Film and Television Company.

After the celebration party for "Lost on Journey", Gu Wei hadn't seen Xu Zheng for a while.

When I saw him suddenly today, I was shocked to find that Xu Zheng in front of me had obviously gained a lot of weight, with a protruding belly and fat on his face. He no longer had the spirit and energy he had when he was filming.

"You seem to be living a good life. I almost didn't recognize you." Gu Wei said jokingly.

"Haha, Director Gu, you're joking. I've been a little indulging myself recently and haven't been able to control myself well." Xu Zheng smiled awkwardly and said quickly.

Actually, there have been a lot of news online about Xu Zheng going in and out of nightclubs during this period, but this is his private matter and Gu Wei can't do anything about it. As for directors, especially those in the entertainment industry, many people are vying to get close to him.

Xu Zheng's purpose of coming here this time is very simple, which is to attract investment. He starred in "Lost on Journey" last year. Although the box office was good, there are a lot of directors in the circle who have made hundreds of millions of yuan in box office now. At that time, Xu Zheng's fame was improved well by publicity. Now, after a period of time, his popularity has slowly declined.

This is certainly a situation that Xu Zheng does not want to see. He has finally succeeded in becoming a director. If he were to go back to the past, he would not be able to accept it in his heart.

After explaining his purpose, Xu Zheng looked at Gu Wei who was sitting opposite him with great anticipation. After all, whether the movie could be made and whether Xingchen Film and Television would invest were his biggest concerns at the moment.

"The script company has prepared it. You can take it back and have a look first."

Hearing this, Xu Zheng showed joy.

"However, I suggest you wait." Gu Wei's next words made Xu Zheng slightly stunned.

"Director Gu."

"Listen to me. First of all, this movie is a sequel to Lost on Journey, so it must have the original cast. The actors' schedules must be considered in advance.

Secondly, the first "Lost on Journey" was a small investment, and the second sequel will definitely have a larger investment. You can do some preliminary preparations first, and you should also familiarize yourself with the script in advance. After a while, arrange the actors' schedules, and do the preliminary preparations before starting."

After listening to Gu Wei's words, Xu Zheng nodded subconsciously, but at the same time he realized that he was a little too hasty.

"Okay, Director, I'll go back and plan it out."

...

"Warring States" had terrible box office performance. Until it was taken off the screen, the box office had not exceeded 80 million, and the cost had not been recovered, let alone making any money.

Compared with the box office, the movie’s reputation is also very bad, with a Douban score of 3.9, but the worst thing is Jing Tian, ​​whose reputation of not being able to act spread across the Internet.

Something like "Warring States" promotes newcomers and has a strong background. There are so many analysis posts.

The industry viewed this as a joke.

In Huayi Film Studio, Wang Zhonglei gloated and said, "Hey, do you think there are too many rich people in China? Or do they think that movies are too simple, and they want to make a blockbuster with an investment of over 100 million yuan. Unless they cooperate with a real commercial film director, they are rich and willful. They are dumbfounded now."

Feng Xiaogang laughed and said, "That's right. There are always people who think that it's easy to make money in the film industry. But how many people know that half of the films made every year can't be shown in theaters? Of those that can be shown in theaters, more than 80% can't make money. Only a few can really make a lot of money."

"If we talk about the most profitable film, it has to be your If You Are the One 2. After deducting the cost, it made more money than Earthquake and Let the Bullets Fly.

Xiaogang, why don't you strike while the iron is hot and continue making commercial films? There's no need to rush for 1942."

As they chatted, Wang Zhonglei brought the topic to movies. In order to win over Feng Xiaogang, the company invested in "1942" even though they knew it was a thankless project.

Now seeing that other commercial films in the circle have terrible box office performance, Wang Zhonglei is thinking about continuing to make Feng-style comedies, and the best way to make money quickly is to do so.

Whether it's a historical blockbuster or a disaster-themed art film, you don't even need to watch it to know that it will never be as successful as a commercial film.

After discussing it, Wang Xiao and Wang Da decided to take this opportunity to persuade Feng Xiaogang.

"Boss Wang, let's finish filming 1942 first.

Ten of my 15 films are commercial films, using entertainment to bring the audience closer to us, but I still remember that I have to live up to the title of director and be able to shoot something that I really want to shoot, such as "10", which is very important. "

Feng Xiaogang said in a firm tone that he had high hopes for this film and would not change his original intention.

Hearing this, Wang Zhonglei stopped talking.

...

Previously, Gu Wei had said that he would not take his works to domestic film festivals, and that works produced by Xingchen Film and Television Company would not participate in the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. However, he could not resist the persuasion of Han Sanping and others.

"My superiors told me to advise you to be careful about the impact in China and to go to the selection if necessary.

Your film "On the Beach at Night Alone" can be taken to the Shanghai Film Festival, and it can also be promoted. " "Okay, Mr. Han, at most I won't stop the directors under my company from participating in domestic film festivals, but as for myself, forget it, I won't participate."

Gu Wei's scalp was numbed by Han Sanping's nagging, and he had no choice but to choose a compromise. He would not stop it, but he would not persuade the company's director either. Everything was up to their own wishes.

Later, Gu Wei held a special meeting with Wuershan, Lu Yang, Ning Hao and others to explain the situation.

Lu Yang and Ning Hao said that they would stand by Gu Wei's side. On the contrary, Wu Ershan seemed eager to try and take "Painted Skin 2" to the College Student Film Festival, so Gu Wei let him go.

Generally speaking, the Capital University Student Film Festival is held from late April to early May every year.

The 11th Film Festival in 4 was supposed to be held on April 28, but due to the Capital Film Festival, this College Student Film Festival was postponed for ten days and moved to May 5.

Wu Ershan's "Painted Skin 2" was nominated for Best Picture and eventually defeated Feng Xiaogang's "Aftershock" to win the Best Picture award.

Huang Xiaoming was also nominated for Best Actor, but lost miserably to Ge You in "The Orphan of Zhao".

In addition, "Painted Skin 2" also won the Best Viewing Effect Award, beating "Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" which played with special effects scenes. It's okay for "Painted Skin 2" not to win other awards, but if it lost in the Best Viewing Effect Award, that's a naked shady deal.

But Huang Xiaoming was not without success. He defeated Wen Zhang from "Ocean Paradise" and won the award for the most popular actor among college students.

The Capital University Student Film Festival was bustling and star-studded, but to the surprise of the industry, Gu Wei did not attend the award ceremony. Only Song Ge attended on behalf of the company, and the Best Picture Award was received by Wu Ershan in person.

As for Gu Wei, he is currently busy with the post-production of "2012".

As early as a week ago, Gu Wei edited "2012" into a 161-minute "green screen" version, and determined that the total number of shots in the film would be more than 1400, with an average shot length of 7.5 seconds.

This means that in "2012", on average there is a special effects shot shown to the audience every 0.115 minutes (or 7.5 seconds).

Generally speaking, action movies have the shortest average shot length, which is about 4 seconds. For example, in Marvel's action blockbuster "Iron Man" series, the average shot length is less than 4 seconds.

But "2012" breaks this average time, and perhaps this movie will redefine what a disaster movie is.

The most popular disaster film in recent years is "The Day After Tomorrow" which was previously shot by Gu Wei.

The most popular one is "War of the Worlds" released in 2005. The scenes of the ground breaking and the collapsing buildings in the film are also shocking.

But compared with "2012", it's child's play. You should know that Gu Wei's first special effects blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" had 380 special effects shots, while "2012" shot more than 1400 special effects shots, expanding the scope of the disaster and the form of the disaster several times.

"The Day After Tomorrow" destroyed New York, "War of the Worlds" destroyed London, and "2012" destroyed the whole world.

Tsunamis thousands of meters high, earthquakes of magnitude 10.5, and volcanic eruptions as dense as fireworks have plunged the entire world into disaster.

One of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Jesus Statue in Rio de Janeiro collapsed in the flood, Hawaii turned into a sea of ​​fire, huge waves overturned the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier and crashed into the White House, Los Angeles collapsed into the sea in the earthquake, and the Himalayas were flooded by the sea, leaving only a mountain peak...

In Xingchen Film and Television Company, Song Ge did not ask too many questions about special effects, as he himself was not an expert.

After watching part of the finished film, I sighed a few words, saying that the special effects produced by Hollywood are really powerful and look quite realistic.

Then they said that the Shanghai International Film Festival invited Gu Wei to attend the award ceremony. In addition to the chairman of the film festival, Ren Zhonglun of Shanghai Film Group also hoped that Gu Wei would go there.

Seeing that Gu Wei didn't respond, Song Ge paused and said, "I guess Director Ren of Shanghai Film Group was also commissioned by the film festival, but from what he said, he also wanted to meet with you to see if there is any opportunity for cooperation in the future.

The other party also mentioned in a veiled way that the last time you revealed the domestic special effects blockbuster on the talk show, it seemed that he wanted Shanghai Film Group to get involved and get some investment share.”

Gu Wei shook his head and smiled: "Speaking of which, Shanghai Film Group is also quite frustrated. With the pressure from China Film Group, Ren Zhonglun has a lot of grievances in his heart that he can't say!"

Song Ge said: "There is no other way. If it were another company, as long as the conditions were right, they would really abandon China Film and cooperate with Shanghai Film alone.

But our company can’t do that. We have to consider the situation in Hollywood. When it comes to imported films, China Film Group cannot get around that.”

"Yes, you tell Director Ren that I will not go to the film festival awards ceremony. I will wait until the new film is approved and then notify them to come for an interview." After thinking about it, Gu Wei still considered bringing Shanghai Film Group. In China, Shanghai Film Group still has some weight. After all, more friends are better than more enemies.

"Okay, I'll go give him a call." After saying that, Song Ge immediately left the editing office area.

Watching Song Ge's departing back, Gu Wei continued to immerse himself in film editing work.

……

(End of this chapter)