Six Hundred and Eighty Six - "Assembly Line"

In the spacious living room of the hotel suite, Wayne sat on the sofa and looked at Nina next to him. Apparently, the assistant lady also remembered what happened back then. Both of their eyes were filled with surprise. No one expected that the little girl back then would meet in the East.

No, it should be said that I didn’t expect that Cecilia would come from Xiangjiang.

Wayne reached for the cigarette on the coffee table and asked casually: "Are you an actor now?"

"That's right."

Cecilia g nodded, her ponytail swaying with her movements. If you look at her appearance, she does have the talent to be an actress. At least with this face, she is fully qualified to play the role of a vase in the movie.

"I just want to say thank you for coming here this time."

Many years have passed. If this girl hadn't come to his door, Wayne would have forgotten about that little incident.

He observed the girl carefully again and couldn't help but sigh at the wonder of fate. One of the two little girls turned out to be a Hong Kong movie star, and she was the one who made him feel the most special. Whenever he thought about this girl's future fate, he shook his head secretly in his heart.

In fact, if those bad things were put into Hollywood, they would not be considered unforgivable things at all. If public opinion is guided well, it is very possible to portray her as a sympathetic victim.

"Nina, give her a business card."

After waving to the assistant lady, Wayne whispered an order. After speaking, he looked at the neatly dressed girl sitting opposite and said with a smile: "It's rare. In this way, since you still remember what happened back then, it means that we are destined to be together. If you have any difficulties, you can Make this call.”

Cecilia g curiously took the business card and looked through it. This business card was very different from what she knew. It didn't have any title or introduction. It was even just a white card with an English name and a string of words written on it. Simple number.

"Or you can call me next time you go to Los Angeles, and I'll treat you to dinner then."

Looking at the girl curiously playing with her business card, even though he knew that this girl was very extraordinary, he still said: "Put it away, but don't spread this phone number. This is my private phone number, okay?"

"Yes, I won't spread the word."

Ceciliag suppressed the secret joy in her heart and nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. She knew it was getting late and took the initiative to stand up and say goodbye. "If you have time, can I treat you to a meal?"

"Next time."

Wayne also stood up and shook hands with the girl again. "My schedule here is very tight and I will leave in three days at most."

Watching the girl's back leaving the hotel suite, he was also turning his head hard, recalling the photos he had seen before, and constantly comparing them with the current version of himself who was not yet twenty years old.

I have to say that this girl has a typical oriental female appearance, but she has a Western personality on the inside. As for whether the other party would turn over his business card and make a phone call after he left, he had no doubt at all. Since she could come all the way from Xiangjiang, her purpose was not just to say thank you.

Things were just as Wayne had guessed. The first thing Cecilia did when she returned to her residence was to take out the business card with only the name and number and read it over and over again with a smile on her face.

After that, he directly picked up the phone and dialed. "I met him, yes, things went more smoothly than we thought. I got his personal business card..."

Perhaps Wayne and Warner Bros. pay more attention to the DC movie series and even the mass base of the movies produced by Warner Bros. here. One thing that can be guaranteed is that they have no intention of making a lot of money now regarding the box office of "The Flash".

Anyone who is sober knows that the size of the commercial market here is still in its earliest stages of development. They actually value the future potential more. After all, this is a market with more than one billion potential viewers. They are willing to wait patiently. .

But if you want to find someone who cares more about the box office numbers of "The Flash" in the East, it is undoubtedly the head of China Film Group, the giant that was only established in the past two years.

The day after the premiere of "The Flash", Zuo Shanqiao came to the office early. China Film Group, as the distributor, originally wanted to hold a reception after the premiere in accordance with the other party's habits, but due to some special reasons, the reception was shelved.

With the release experience of "The Dark Knight" the previous year, and the record-breaking movie viewing frenzy of "Titanic", his expectations for "The Flash" this year are undoubtedly higher.

For Zuo Shanli, his first priority is to develop his own film market. If you want to develop the market, the premise is that the audience is willing to enter the theater, which can stimulate the progress of all related industries.

And he made a customized plan and thought it was the best development route. While vigorously introducing Hollywood commercial films to stimulate the movie-watching enthusiasm in our own market, we are also trying to find ways to shoot our own commercial films. To put it bluntly, it is actually "borrowing chickens to lay eggs."

Warner Brothers is undoubtedly the best partner. This Hollywood film industry giant not only opened a branch in Beijing many years ago, but also has a very good relationship with them.

What's even more rare is that this company understands the world of people here very well, and is willing to vigorously promote its own flagship movie series before the market has developed. This is something that other Hollywood film companies have never done.

For example, during the large-scale release of "The Flash" this time, except for Wayne Greenberg, no other Hollywood filmmaker of the same level has ever been here. The world's top film masters like this are willing to fly over to participate in events again and again, and there is no semicolon for this one.

The previous year's "The Dark Knight" was an initial verification of the effectiveness of commercial movies, especially the following "Party A and Party B". It can be said that it was released by him single-handedly. Although it achieved a box office The results cannot be compared with Hollywood blockbusters, but it also proves the correctness of his development plan.

The frequent introduction of big-budget commercial films from Hollywood actually puts a lot of pressure on him. The biggest criticism comes from some local film directors.

Today's film directors basically belong to their respective film studios. Whether it is the Magic City Studio, the Chunchang Studio, or even the Beijing Film Studio, there have been constant criticisms about his approach of introducing Hollywood blockbusters.

But Zuo Shanwei understands better than anyone else that if you want to develop the local film industry, you cannot rely solely on films that "can win awards." The reason is very simple. Those "artistic" films can indeed frequently win international awards, but they cannot attract audiences into theaters.

Not to mention, most of the so-called "award-winning" films were taken out for exhibitions privately. If the content of the film is strictly inspected, 90% of it will be classified as a banned film, let alone a large-scale public release.

Ever since he took this position, he has not been afraid of criticism at all. There is no way out. He strongly supported Feng Pengtong's filming of "Party A and Party B" and even went out of his way to help attract investment in order to set a local example.

"Party A and Party B" is also very impressive. With a production cost of only 4 million RMB, it has won a box office of more than 36 million RMB in this land where marketization has just begun.

And this is only the data that can be checked on the surface. Everyone knows that the theater market is in chaos now, and there are many mountains in each province. Hiding the box office, cheating the box office, etc., and even watching movies without issuing tickets are all common methods of theaters. "Party A" The actual box office figures of "Party B" are definitely much higher than they appear on the surface.

However, as one year has almost passed, most local film directors are not aware of the way out of commercial films. He was still going his own way in making "banned films" and commercial films that stimulated the development of the entire market, but their status was still low in their eyes, which made him feel a little depressed.

"Leader, the statistics are probably out."

Just as Zuo Shanqiao was holding a tea cup and looking out the office window in trance, there was a knock on the office door, and the secretary walked in respectfully and put down a few sheets of printing paper on his desk.

Today's Oriental Market has just started. Box office statistics are all reported by theaters, and then collected by dedicated personnel. But fortunately, it finally came. He put down the big teapot casually, lowered his head and saw the statistics. The corner of his mouth was filled with laughter. Start to pick it up slowly and unconsciously.

"4.55 million RMB! We sold 4.55 million RMB in one night, very good..."

While this number is certainly skewed, it is high enough for this segment of the market. After reporting from theaters showing "The Flash", the final statistical result is that from the premiere last night to the end, the total box office of "The Flash" nationwide was about 4.55 million RMB.

Moreover, at the back of the statistical report, there is also a very noteworthy point, that is, the attendance rate of "The Flash" last night was over 80% on average for every game!

"Starting this morning, all theaters showing "The Flash" in Beijing have already started queuing up to buy tickets. The theaters are also making emergency adjustments. The latest news is that all theaters showing "The Flash" in Beijing have queued up to buy tickets. The theaters have increased the screening rate of this film to over 85%!"

Seeing that the leader was in a good mood, the secretary reported the information he had learned in a low voice. "If we look at the current trend, the screening rate of "The Flash" in all theaters across the country will exceed initial expectations."

"very good."

Zuo Shanwei nodded with satisfaction. Just when the secretary thought the report was over and turned to leave, the leader's instructions sounded again behind him. "I heard that Wayne Greenberg has a very tight schedule this time. Help me make an appointment with him. I want to have a chat with him before he leaves."

"OK."

In fact, Wayne didn't really want to get in touch with these senior executives, because conversations with these people, whether they were so-called small talk or not, would hardly avoid the sensitive area of ​​politics.

However, when the two busy days passed, before boarding the plane, he and Zuo Shanwei sat in a private room of the Capital Hotel. After a brief exchange of greetings, the topic between the two inevitably turned to movies.

"Mr. Greenberg."

Zuo Shandai held the wine glass and asked in a tentative tone: "Without considering the film industry system, what do you think are the major differences between Hollywood movies and current Eastern movies?"

In fact, Zuo Shanqi himself can give countless answers to this question. Even if you ask domestic filmmakers, they will say countless 1234 without hesitation. However, he wanted to hear opinions from outside, especially the one next to him, who was definitely one of the Hollywood filmmakers most qualified to talk about this topic.

"First Evolution"

Hearing this question, Wayne narrowed his eyes subconsciously and did not speak. First, he slowly took out a cigarette and lit it. He used this time to think carefully about what to say.

"As you said, regardless of the film industry foundation, I personally believe that the essence of film is to tell stories."

He didn't talk about the production methods or the capital operation process of Hollywood movies. Instead, he chose a direction that would basically not be criticized or make mistakes. "If you want to tell a good story, you first need a script that is logically rigorous and attractive."

In addition to Zuo Shanying and his secretary, there was also a manager from the Warner Bros. branch and Wayne's personal assistant Nina. No one at the scene expected that he would actually talk about the script.

"To give a typical example, whether it is in a movie or a TV series, if you want to show that a person's financial situation is not good, the screenwriter will usually arrange a plot to make the person have no money in his pocket when he checks out, or... It’s about having money but not enough, and no matter what you want to buy, the end result is that you can’t afford it.”

As Wayne narrated, several people at the table nodded secretly at the same time, and similar images flashed through their heads. It seems that this is really the case. Whether it is TV or TV series, such scenes are indispensable.

Of course, to put it bluntly, the screenwriter hopes to show the poverty of the protagonist through similar scene arrangements. This is the most common and the worst method, and it's normal.

"What's wrong?"

The Chinese manager of Warner Bros. asked with confusion: "Director Greenberg, isn't this a very common practice?"

"Yes, it's very common."

Wayne blew out a large wad of cigarette, crossed his hands on the table in front of him, and turned to look at his personal assistant. "Nina, tell me, what kind of person is it that doesn't know how much money he has? In other words, what kind of person is he who goes out without any money and has to wait until he checks out to realize that he has no money? ?”

"A billionaire like you."

The assistant lady was not polite and said directly: "You are a billionaire who doesn't know how much money you have, so you go out without money, because you don't need to know the price of the goods at all, and that means nothing to you people! "

The woman's words made the other three men in the private room stunned. There are no idiots here, and everyone immediately realized that the screenwriter was just making this up.

"Only rich people who have more money than they can count don't know how much money they have." Nina continued, but there was a hint of indescribable ridicule in her tone.

"For example, my credit card limit is only 5,000 US dollars, and the cash in my bag when I go out does not exceed 50 yuan. So, I will never go into a luxury store to ask about things I can't afford, and embarrass myself... ..."

That's the thing. A screenwriter who can write such a plot is completely self-righteous. In many Eastern movies and TV series, in order to show the poverty of the protagonist, the first choice is to use this most common plot.

"These are just my personal opinions." Wayne tapped the table with his fingers holding a cigarette, and after attracting everyone's attention, he shrugged and continued: "There are many differences between Oriental movies and Hollywood movies, so many that I can't even talk about them overnight. I can’t finish it, but in my opinion, the first thing we need to understand is the difference between the screenwriters on the two sides.

I don’t need to say how important a script is to a movie. From my perspective, I can talk about the film script creation process in Hollywood. Generally speaking, there are no scripts created by a single person in Hollywood. Even if a single person comes up with an idea, it will eventually be created by a professional team.

The advantages and disadvantages of this are obvious. The creation of a whole team of screenwriters means that each individual screenwriter only needs to deal with what he is best at. Some people are good at writing emotions, some are good at writing conspiracies, some are good at writing conflicts, and so on.

This is the mainstream script creation model of Hollywood commercialization. Of course, the process is definitely more complicated than what I said. Many people call this the assembly line and think that it has completely lost the pursuit of film art. This is not wrong, because from the time the screenwriter team created the script, it has inevitably become a part of the Hollywood film assembly line, and it has nothing to do with art. Not related at all.

The advantage is that such a script that is repeatedly polished by a team can definitely effectively reduce the flaws I just gave an example of. The logic will be very rigorous, and from a normal perspective, it will be difficult for the audience to find any problems. Because every section of the script has been polished countless times, otherwise there would be no investment from the film company. "

Simply talking about scripts, this may really be the biggest difference between Eastern and Western film and television. Not to mention now, even in another ten or twenty years, the difference in this aspect will still be huge.

For example, in Wayne's previous life, he had always wondered why the stories written by domestic screenwriters were either about romance or romance. Medical dramas are about doctors falling in love, legal dramas are about lawyers falling in love, and in the end, even youth school dramas are about students having an affair.

Zuoshan withered thoughtfully and took a sip of the wine in his glass. "I noticed that in the column of screenwriters in your works, only your name will always exist..."

"No doubt." Wayne spread his hands and looked at the leader of Eastern film reform. "I will first write the overall framework of the story, and then hand it over to the screenwriting department specially established by Warner Bros. for the DC series. After repeated polishing by the writing team of this department, the script will be handed over to my behind-the-scenes creative team for consideration.

This is the most common screenwriting model in Hollywood. Just like this "The Flash", the final script basically has nothing to do with what I originally wrote. This is not bad, at least no matter how I change the script, it will still be carried out within the framework of my theme. Many producers actually only provide an idea, and the rest depends on the writing team. "

These words seem to be just common sense in Hollywood, but they are not shocking at all. Especially what Wayne said before leaving made him stay in the private room and think alone for a long time.

"The screenwriter department established by Warner Bros. for the DC series has set the standards for recruiting screenwriters from the very beginning. Anyone who graduated from a prestigious school will not be accepted, and anyone who has a little bit of achievement will not be accepted. Yes, anyone who graduated from a prestigious school or has some achievements Screenwriters are born with ideas and creativity.

However, what I need is the kind of screenwriter who is a middle- and low-level Hollywood screenwriter, who can be paid to do his job without any worries. As long as they can work together to write the script I want, there is no need for them to be creative at all, it is economical, practical and fast, and they can just apply the ready-made model. This is the screenwriting team I really need.

As early as the establishment of the DC writing department, I said this publicly to the first members. This is an assembly line factory, and each of you is a very small part of it. Don't ever think that it won't work without anyone. If anyone feels that their self-esteem has been hurt, or that working here violates your original intention of becoming a screenwriter, you can leave at any time! "

The dinner was short, and Wayne didn't dare to try the famous liquor on the table. In this exchange, he was actually more inclined to take a look at this withered man. After all, in his impression, this man has always been the most mysterious film industry boss in the East.

Another point is that the other party will sit in the boss position for many years. Warner Bros. and its own films are destined to introduce less in the future, but what kind of schedule and what kind of publicity scale can the film get? In the end, it is not a word from the other party?

Face is given to each other. As a fake foreigner with an oriental soul in his head, Wayne certainly understands that the world often plays a huge role in this land.

After eating this unique Chinese meal, he said goodbye to Miss Rizao early the next morning. After the two made an appointment to meet in Los Angeles again, they boarded a charter flight to New Zealand with Nina, Sergey and other staff. .

That's right, Wayne doesn't care too much about the specific box office of "The Flash" in the East. At least he didn't have much hope before the year 2000. Now everything he and Warner Bros. are doing is actually for the future. Base.

So before flying back to North America, he has to go to New Zealand to check the preparations for "The Lord of the Rings" there. This is destined to be a job that will take many years, but if nothing else happens, the next phase of actor recruitment will also start as soon as possible, because waiting for the main actors, there are still three months to half a year of action training.

"Boss, Nami asked when you will return to Los Angeles."

After the plane arrived in New Zealand smoothly, when Wayne and his group had just walked out of the airport and before they saw Peter Jackson and others picking them up, Nina received a urging call from Los Angeles.

"It will take at most a week to tell Nami and let her put her heart back in her belly. There is no way I will miss the premiere of "Charlie's Angels"..."