Chapter 998: Lao Mouzi's Movie

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 is 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 actually sing live when shooting the MV, that doesn't exist at all.

After all, the shooting scene is a noisy bar. Not to mention, if you record on location, just dealing with the noise is a headache, 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 filming the MV, Yang Dongxu was basically fine. Song recording was a matter for the record department, and it was impossible for his 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 various 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 selecting 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 require a day of 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 film from being released after the filming, the name was changed and the script name was different and a good script was missed, he would take a 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 peers 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 matters.

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 the "reading" part of this half-day. The other scripts are piled together for later reading. Then he was holding in his hand the script he was interested in, which 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.

"This is the situation."

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 shooting budget of 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 preparing for this drama, New Picture approached many film companies to co-produce it, but the response was sparse. The reason why no one supported it was not only because the investment was too large and the risk was too high, but also because the script was not adapted from a famous work, but was written by Zhang Yimou himself.

Although compared with others, Zhang Yimou, as a representative of the fifth generation of directors, started with the route of a tall, rich and handsome protagonist, just like God's own son.

After graduation, he won the China Film Outstanding Photographer Award for the first time as a photographer. The first time he shot a movie "Blind Well", he won three Best Actor awards, and one of them was the Best Actor at the Tokyo Film Festival. Not only did he achieve success in China, but he also won it abroad.

The first time he shot a movie "Red Sorghum", he directly won the Golden Bear Award at China's first international film festival. After that, Zhang Yimou's route of winning awards was unstoppable, and he became a frequent guest at international film festivals and a benchmark figure for domestic directors.

But even such a great old Mouzi, although he is favored by various stars and film companies, as long as there is a row of new movies, various roles are fought over, after all, the "Mou Girl" can really make her famous internationally.

But every investment of capital must be considered again and again, because the movies that win awards have one thing in common - losing money!

So Lao Mouzi and Feng Xiaogang can be said to be two extremes among the great domestic directors. Lao Mouzi is an art master and is later called the national teacher by the Chinese, while Feng Xiaogang is a great director of commercial films. Don't worry about how many people scold his movies, how many people say that the logic is messed up, but he can make money.

Therefore, if you say that you will make a movie of tens of millions, investors may still consider it, just as a sponsorship fee for their own stars to show their faces internationally.

You have more than 100 million yuan in filming capital at once, and the cost after filming is likely to exceed 200 million yuan. This sponsorship fee is a bit too expensive. At the same time, if you adapt a famous work, it's okay, and you can still have some reference to measure the risk.

The filming capital of the script you wrote yourself is nearly 200 million yuan, and few people dare to play with it. After all, how can you, Lao Mouzi, win awards? Others see your ability as a director, not your ability as a screenwriter. Even if his name is on the screenwriters of the successful movies he shot before.

But everyone understands this, just like an old professor will put his name on his students' papers. Maybe you, Lao Mouzi, are different. You really made various constructive suggestions on the script before, so you added your name to the screenwriter. But that was just a suggestion, not the editor-in-chief.

Therefore, this movie was very lively during the preparation, because countless stars competed for the casting. After all, this is a movie made with a huge investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, and there is a chance to win awards internationally. As long as there are some ideal stars, there is no one who doesn't want to join.

And the opposite of the seemingly crowded casting is naturally to find investors. Basically no one is willing to pay, and most of them even let their own actors reduce their pay, or even appear for free pay as sponsorship. The real money is the new picture that led the filming of the movie and a Hong Kong company.

But even so, the new picture that supports Lao Mouzi very much can't come up with so much money at once, so the preparation of the film can't wait any longer, and it can only start preparing for filming while looking for investment everywhere.

This script was actually sent to Haina early. After all, although Haina seems to be much more low-key in recent years. But when it comes to wealth and power, even China Film has to give way to it, and the newly emerging film companies are not good enough.

It's just that the investment is too big and Liu Zongsheng has been considering it, and he hasn't given a reply until now. This time, the big boss of his own company is going to personally select the script, so he put it in with other scripts and sent it over.

"How much investment do they still need?" Yang Dongxu asked, rubbing his chin with his fingers.

"It's still more than half, because his choice of the protagonist is our company's Jet Li. So I'm going to invest 5 million to see." Liu Zongsheng said.

This 5 million is obviously RMB, not US dollars, so it's a bit stingy. But the other party is looking for Jet Li because they obviously have their eyes on the box office appeal of their company's superstar at home and abroad. Jet Li has also reduced his salary and said so, so this in and out sponsorship is not a small amount.

"You dare to shoot when you still need half the money?" Yang Dongxu was stunned.

"The boss of New Picture seems to be very optimistic about this drama, so if you really can't find a partner, you are prepared to try your best to pay the remaining money yourself." Liu Zongsheng said.

Yang Dongxu nodded, which obviously means that if you can find a partner, you can find a partner to share the risk. If you can't find a partner, you can go all out. So it's reasonable to start shooting before the money is in place.

"Invite their boss and director to have a meal." Yang Dongxu pointed at the table with his hand.