Chapter 594 The Importance of Reputation (Happy National Day)

outside world.

The news that the "Parasite" team appeared at the Capital Airport was released online as soon as possible.

It took Gu Wei about an hour to drive from the airport to the company. As soon as he parked the car in the parking lot, he took out his mobile phone and saw that the photo of Zhang Yimou and his group had made the headlines.

Sina Entertainment reported: "The crew of Parasite appeared at the Capital Airport and will fly to Venice today."

Souhu Entertainment reported: "It is reported that Director Zhang Yimou, along with Liu Yifei, Qin Hao, Hu Ge, Chen Minghao and others, rushed to Venice first, and Director Gu was not found among the group."

At the same time, many people in the industry also made comments on the Weibo of Liu Yifei, Zhang Yimou and others, wishing the "Parasite" crew a smooth trip and winning the award. These are all old rules in the industry.

Looking at Liu Yifei's unchanging hand gesture of scissors in the photo, Gu Wei shook his head and smiled, then walked towards the editing room.

Now that the young lady is not at home, he plans to start a high-intensity work mode and use this time to edit the remaining footage of "The Revenant".

After all, when he met with Huang Xiaoming a few days ago, Gu Wei reminded him to make time for the premiere, and the same applies to himself. He can't just be the one to slack off when everyone else is free.

Thinking of this, Gu Wei quickened his pace.

On the second floor, in the conference room.

This is an office specially used by the company for holding conferences or entertaining outsiders. It covers an area of ​​more than 200 square meters. In addition to a huge conference table in the middle, there are also specially equipped sofa areas and negotiation areas next to it.

This conference room is rarely used on weekdays. After all, apart from the quarterly reports, most things can be discussed and decided in Gu Wei and Song Ge's offices.

But today was different. On both sides of the long table in the huge conference room, dozens of people were arguing with each other, their faces red and their voices could be heard through the glass.

Employees in the nearby office area would look up from time to time. Everyone was very gossipy. After all, they were in the entertainment industry and were inevitably curious about the unknown.

The company clocks in at 8 o'clock every day, and there is a 20-minute break after 10 o'clock, which is left for everyone to smoke, chat, drink takeout drinks, and eat snacks.

"Seven... Are you still going to shoot for the weapons...

This was all planned beforehand..."

Scattered sounds were heard in the conference room. A group of young men and women were chatting in low voices and listening attentively.

"Sister Xue, you are quite familiar with Director Wang, do you know what it is about?" The speaker was a young man, in his early twenties. He had just passed a series of interviews and joined the company. However, with his solid technical skills and eloquence, he was popular in the company, especially with the young women.

The person he was questioning was a young woman named Liu Qingxue. She was in her early thirties, good-looking and charming. Most importantly, she was Wang Chen's personal assistant, usually responsible for some trivial matters in life.

When Liu Qingxue heard this, she turned her head and glanced at the handsome guy. She had a good impression of him and when she learned that he didn't have a girlfriend, she planned to introduce her cousin to him.

After looking the handsome guy up and down, he turned his head to look in the direction of the conference room, and guessed that after the meeting, he would probably announce it to the public.

Liu Qingxue pondered for a moment and whispered, "The company is going to launch a new TV series, and Director Wang will be in charge. We are discussing this today!"

The first reaction of the handsome young man Wang Xu was excitement. It was a good idea to start a new project. He heard from the old employees in the company that whenever a new project was launched, the participants would receive a considerable bonus after working for a few months.

Then, Wang Xu frowned slightly, "It's not like there would be such a big fight over starting a new project."

"You don't know this, right? Our company previously filmed a movie called 'The Immortal Sword', which was directed by Zhang Dapeng and Wang Weiting. Director Wang wanted to start a TV series with a new theme, and other TV series directors were busy, so he found them to discuss it!" Liu Qingxue said mysteriously, and then glanced at the other people next to him.

Sure enough, many people showed expressions of understanding.

However, the faint sound of quarrels in the conference room indicated that this matter was not that simple!
...

In the conference room.

"Do you two directors understand now? It's not that we won't shoot the sequel to Seven Weapons, it's just postponed a little until the new TV series is finished." Wang Chen talked for the whole morning until his mouth was dry and his face looked ugly.

Logically speaking, they are all from the same company, so it wouldn't be that difficult for the company to start a new project. However, Zhang Dapeng and Wang Weiting were already preparing for the third part of Seven Weapons, "Jade Knife". Yu Bo and Yang Junyi had already cleared their schedules, and they were also looking for a female lead. It was inevitable that they were a little angry when they suddenly changed the project.

On the right side of the long table, Zhang Dapeng and Wang Weiting both looked unhappy. Although according to Wang Chen, "Jade Knife" would definitely be filmed, it was unknown how long it would take to be filmed due to the delay.

Zhang Dapeng opened his mouth and wanted to continue to refute, but Wang Weiting next to him reacted quickly and pulled him under the table.

"What's wrong?" The two had been working together for a long time. When Zhang Dapeng saw the other's actions, he instantly understood and asked in a low voice.

"I think the key to this matter lies in what Director Gu thinks. Let's go back and discuss it with Director Jiang and ask her to ask the boss what he thinks. It's just work after all. There's no need to make things awkward." Wang Weiting has a more tactful personality. Normally, the two of them work together on filming, and he is also in charge of the literary part. His temper is much better than Zhang Dapeng, who is in charge of the martial arts scenes.

Although Zhang Dapeng has a bad temper, he is not stupid. He looked around and nodded slightly, saying, "Okay, if we continue to quarrel, it won't sound good. Let's do this."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

Wang Chen on the opposite side did not say anything after seeing the two people's little actions. Although he could force the other party to accept this new project with his position, it was like forcing a cow to drink water. If the other party was really unwilling to accept it, he would suffer enough if he made some little actions during the filming.

Thinking of this, Wang Chen took a deep breath, rubbed his forehead with his hand, and said, "Let's stop here today. You can go back and discuss it."

Looking at the sparse responses from the crowd, Wang Chen sighed and waved his hand, "Disperse."

.........

The crew of "Gu Jian Qi Tan".

The morning shoot had just ended, and during the lunch break, Zeng Jia noticed that Yang Mi was not in a good state.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Looking at the dazed Yang Mi, Zeng Jia asked with concern. After all, this is her "money printing machine".

"No, it's okay!" Yang Mi said weakly after being stunned for a while.

Seeing this, Zeng Jia already understood what was going on.

This year's Golden Rooster nomination list has been released, and Feng Xiaogang's "1942" received eight nominations, making it the biggest favorite at the moment.

The next best one is Chen Kaige's "Search", which received four nominations. The others are all movies that no one has ever heard of.

However, "Search" was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and this role was originally played by Yang Mi, but was replaced by Chen Hong due to overlapping schedules.

Although the current Golden Rooster Awards have a mediocre reputation in China and many big directors look down on them and would not choose to participate even if they have works, it is different for actors in the industry.

At least the Golden Rooster Awards for Best Actor, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor still have some influence in China, especially for celebrity artists who lack awards.

During the filming of "Gu Jian Qi Tan", although Yang Mi was the heroine, this fantasy drama had many supporting roles. With so many actors, there was naturally competition, and all kinds of gossip and rumors were flying around.

After Yang Mi finished filming her scenes, she arrived at the lounge and found that some people were discussing this year's Golden Rooster Film Festival.

Wang Luodan, who played a supporting role in "Search", was naturally brought up for discussion. In front of Yang Mi, the others were envious and jealous, and their expressions were suggestive.

Yang Mi is not a fool, so she can understand the insinuations of others, but since they didn't say it directly, what can she do? Should she go up to them to argue and then be exposed, and let the haters mock her again?
Sometimes this kind of weirdness is the most frustrating!

Hearing Yang Mi's weak response, Zeng Jia was speechless. After all, she should also be responsible for Yang Mi's overlapping filming schedule.

"Okay, let's adjust our state and finish filming the scenes on hand in the next two days. Director Guo has already scheduled a celebration banquet, and we will definitely go then." Zeng Jia changed the subject and brought up another matter.

Although the box office of "Tiny Times 2" was not as good as the first one, the combined total of 7 million yuan made Yang Mi a big hit.

If you count other female stars in the circle, there are only a few who can achieve this record.

Although the Tiny Times series has a bad reputation, most of the attention has been attracted to director Guo Xiaosi, which is a bit similar to "A Romantic Affair".

At least in the eyes of netizens, a bad movie and its bad reputation are closely related to the director, and have little to do with the leading actor, unless, like Yang Ying, she can't even act, so naturally she has to take the blame.

"Yeah, I get it." Hearing that, Yang Mi perked up, and at the same time glanced at the other female stars around her, thinking secretly, "A bunch of little sluts, want to laugh at me, it's not that easy."

Looking at the "money printing machine" that had been adjusted to its proper state, Zeng Jia couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

.........

In the company, after Gu Wei sent the young lady back, he stayed on the third floor.

Looking at the 90% completed "The Revenant", he nodded with satisfaction.

"Thank you all for your hard work. After the movie is released, everyone will receive a big red envelope." Gu Wei made the promise in front of dozens of technicians.

"Haha, it's not hard." "Thank you Director Gu!!"

Hearing the completely different responses, Gu Wei smiled. Those who said that it was not hard work were all clerical staff, and most of those who directly expressed their gratitude were science students and technicians.

The idea of ​​this group of technicians is very simple: give me money and I will help you get it done. Nothing else can be as practical as talking about money.

Gu Wei was also happy with this. He preferred this kind of atmosphere and hated those people who were acting all the time and jumping around.

He raised his hand to check the time. It was already around nine o'clock in the evening. "Eat something first. I'll work overtime today to finish the remaining two shots."

"No problem, boss."

We had takeout for midnight snacks as the company didn’t have a cafeteria. We had two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, plus a cup of milk tea per person, so the food was pretty good.

Gu Wei ate the same food as everyone else, and he was too lazy to go out for a meal.

In the office, Gu Wei was chewing rice in big mouthfuls. His assistant knocked on the door and came in to report on his work. The two sides ate and chatted. The assistant left after five minutes.

After a while, Song Ge also came to talk to Gu Wei about something related to the ticket purchasing software.

These two days Song Ge was setting up an online ticket purchasing APP company belonging to the company. As soon as he finished his work, he came to report to Gu Wei.

In the future, the right to speak in film promotion will shift from theaters to online ticket purchasing platforms. If Gu Wei does not want to be controlled by others in promotion, he must make plans in advance. Fortunately, it is not too late now.

Because the online ticketing giants Maoyan Movies and Tao Piaopiao in another time and space, the former only launched a new version of the APP with the function of online seat selection in January 13, and it was not until 1 when it sold tickets on a large scale during the "Transformers 14" that it was considered to have developed. Tao Piaopiao was not online until the end of 4, so it was not too late for Gu Wei to enter the market now.

Gu Wei's strengths lie in planning and foresight, but he is a little impatient when it comes to handling specific matters.

After discussing with Song Ge for a while, the online ticket purchasing APP finally launched was named "Xingchen Movie", a very perfunctory name.

"I really didn't expect that our company's reputation would be so useful. After we dealt with those big theater chains, we had almost no effort to deal with the remaining small theater chains. Many people took the initiative to come to discuss cooperation and said they wanted to join us."

Song Ge talked eloquently and Gu Wei listened carefully. After the other party finished speaking, he put down his chopsticks and drank a sip of tea.

"That's why I always emphasize the importance of word of mouth. It's more useful than money at critical moments."

Hearing this, Song Ge gave a thumbs up, and it was almost as if "I admire you" was written on his face.

Seeing this, Gu Wei continued: "It will be the same in the future. Invest cautiously and don't do the same thing as Tiny Times just to make money."

"Yeah." Song Ge sighed, then glanced at Gu Wei and said jokingly, "Now I feel that I was a little careless when I invested in "The Breakup Master". I made money, but it's a pity that the movie has a bad reputation."

"Uh." After hearing this, Gu Wei touched his nose, looked at the other party and smiled helplessly.

In other words, the two of them get along well. If someone in other companies dares to directly question or make fun of the boss, they might be fired.

"Well, this is a lesson, reminding me to be more careful in the future."

It is generally difficult for ordinary film companies to build a reputation that helps boost box office sales. For example, Huayi, Guangguang, and Bona all release a mixture of good and bad films.

The company and team that truly builds a good reputation in the Chinese-language film market is the future Happy Twist team.

"Charlotte's Troubles", "The Donkey Gets Water", "The Shameful Iron Fist", "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and other works have made "Happy Twist" a golden signboard in the Chinese comedy market.

To put it bluntly, even without Shen Teng, the audience would still look forward to the works of this team.

However, the reputation of "Li Cha's Aunt" collapsed, which destroyed the golden signboard of "Happy Twist". There will never be so many audiences buying tickets just for the four words "Happy Twist".

Afterwards, the two chatted for a while and finalized the details of setting up Xingchen Ticketing.

The specific investment was 200 million yuan from Capital Star Film and Television Company to register it, which is considered a separate subsidiary of the company.

This series of business operations involves many complicated processes, personnel negotiations and document signings, which are too complex, tedious and boring to go into detail.

After figuring out the ticket purchasing software, Gu Wei was in a good mood and even ate the simple box lunch with great relish.

.........

After working overtime until the early morning, when Gu Wei returned to the villa, he received a call from Liu Yifei just after washing up.

"Just arrived? Why are you so late?"

"Oh, don't mention it, the plane is delayed..." Liu Yifei kept complaining on the phone.

Just like that, Gu Wei lay on the bed, listening to Liu Yifei's nagging on the phone.

"The weather in Venice is OK. The temperature is much lower than in the capital."

"The opening ceremony will be the day after tomorrow. I'm a little nervous..."

"I ran into Director Jiang in the hotel, but I just said hello. I know the rules. I can't meet with the judges privately..."

"Hey, hey, are you listening to me?"

Liu Yifei almost got angry when she heard no response from the other end of the phone for a long time.

"Yeah, I'm listening." Gu Wei replied slowly.

It has to be said that accompanying a girlfriend shopping and listening to her nagging are two major tortures for a man. The former consumes physical energy, while the latter consumes mental energy.

"Listening? Then repeat what I said?"

Gu Wei: “???”

I don’t know if Liu Yifei was overly excited and kept talking to Gu Wei. When the call was hung up, he looked at the time and it was already past one in the morning.

The strong sleepiness I had originally felt dissipated a lot. I stood up and poured myself a glass of boiled water. After taking a sip, I felt much better.

The temperature in the capital dropped a lot in September, but it was still hot. Looking at the air-conditioning temperature, Gu Wei picked up the remote control and adjusted it up two degrees. There was no need to turn it too low at home. After all, it was not the time to fight with Miss Liu.

After all this operation, Gu Wei was no longer sleepy and opened the online news on his mobile browser.

The news that the "Parasite" crew rushed to Venice still firmly occupied the top spot on the hot search list.

"One Night Surprise" grossed 1.7 million yuan in three weeks after its release, and Fan Binbin made a high-profile appearance at the celebration banquet.

The next piece of news is that Hong Kong artists all went to Thailand, and the master "White Dragon King" passed away.

Gu Wei clicked on it out of curiosity and saw that many Hong Kong stars who were filming or running errands in the mainland temporarily put down their work and rushed to Thailand to pay tribute to the White Dragon King.

There are many comments from netizens below…

"Uh, why do I feel like my dad is dead?"

"When it comes to superstition, one should look at Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. If you try Mainland China, how many people would pay attention to him?"

"I heard it's very effective, is it true?"

"It's very effective. You don't even go to the graves to burn paper at home. You might as well worship your ancestors instead."

I have to say that netizens’ imaginations are simply unpredictable.

From the death of the "White Dragon King", we can talk directly about feudal superstition, and even worse, we can talk directly about the beliefs of the people in the mainland, and then we can talk about the issue of the Three Pure Ones and Four Emperors worshipped all over the country.

"Don't ask. The only thing is that the Three Pure Ones and Four Emperors worshipped from south to north are not the same."

"Maybe it's because our beliefs and habits are different. We only remember them when we need them, and if we don't need them, then..."

……

.

(End of this chapter)