Chapter 17: Filming, Release Date, Film Festival
After the warm birthday celebration on the first day of filming, the atmosphere among the actors in the crew became more harmonious.
The filming of "The Night the Comet Came" also entered the fast lane.
Although this script has many contradictions and time-space intersections, it is not difficult to shoot it in a smooth manner.
In the original work, a new director plus three staff members, plus eight little actors who are almost unknown, can finish the film in five nights.
There is no reason why the high-end version of Wu Yuan cannot finish the film in seven days.
In fact, the shooting cycle he set was too loose.
Except for some bumps in the first two days of filming, the filming in the next few nights was smoother than expected.
Wu Yuan repeated the shooting, NG, talking about the play, reshooting, sending the film, watching the film every day...
It only took 6 days and 30 working hours for Wu Yuan to complete all the filming of this movie.
Han Sanye made a mistake in judgment. Wu Yuan really spent nearly 300,000 to finish the film.
The actors and staff didn't spend much on the film pay, and renting the small western-style building for a week didn't cost much, so the total was only more than 60,000 yuan.
The real money was spent on buying film.
Although the feature film of "The Night the Comet Came" was expected to be only 80-90 minutes, Wu Yuan used 200 boxes of film during the filming!
Although Wu Yuan didn't waste film like a pure new director.
However, because of the multi-time and space repetitive plot of "The Night the Comet Came", a large amount of repetitive filming materials were required, the film's film ratio was still pulled to about 1:9.
By the way, the Hollywood film industry system with a relatively mature film and television industry system can reach a ratio of about 1:20, so you can imagine how much film needs to be bought.
And there is even worse news. In just half a year, because of the policy of marketization of movies, the film market has also risen.
Now a box of 400 feet of film costs more than 800 yuan, and this is the internal price of the film factory!
Just 200 boxes of film cost 180,000 yuan, plus the processing fee, a total of less than 200,000 yuan was spent on film.
In addition to the rental of shooting equipment, the purchase of some small props, and the setting, the entire film cost a little more than 280,000 yuan!
Fortunately, this budget is still within Wu Yuan's psychological expectations.
He did not deliberately waste money just because Mr. Han San approved a budget of 500,000 yuan, nor did he embezzle money and buy a straw hat worth 8,000 yuan.
The producer Chen Yuan who followed the group throughout the whole process, after seeing Wu Yuan's experienced shooting techniques and thrifty spending, was satisfied to have a wrap-up banquet with everyone, and then went back to China Film to report to Mr. Han.
Of course, because Wu Yuan was determined to save money and did not plan to hire an editor to do the editing, but planned to go back to school and use the school's editing room to edit the film himself, Chen Yuan did not need to keep an eye on Wu Yuan.
After having a farewell dinner with the actors and handing out several red envelopes, Wu Yuan also took several boxes of finished film materials back to school and went straight into the editing room.
Although the school's editing equipment models are relatively old, this is not a special effects blockbuster, so it's fine as long as the equipment is sufficient.
The most important thing is that these equipment are free!
Seeing that half of the leading actors of "The Night the Comet Came" are students of Beijing Film Academy, and the director is even more concerned about the students, Director Xie did his best to give Wu Yuan the green light, and even found a junior student from the school's photography department to help Wu Yuan, calling it social practice!
In this way, the two of them spent all their time editing films in the editing room except for eating and sleeping.
Fortunately, it is summer vacation now, so there is plenty of time.
After more than half a month of hard work, with the full efforts of the two, Wu Yuan finally edited the film.
The whole film is 92 minutes, three minutes longer than the original version, but about 15 minutes of casual chat plots are reduced, and nearly 20 minutes of dramatic conflicts and contradictions are added!
Compared with the original version, Wu Yuan's edited version of "The Night the Comet Came" has greatly improved its commerciality.
I dare not say that there are no boring moments throughout the whole film, but the suspenseful and exciting atmosphere runs through the whole film, and the tension and relaxation are also well grasped. It can be regarded as a qualified commercial suspense film!
Holding this newly cut copy disc, Wu Yuan couldn't wait to find Han Sanye and ask him to watch the final film.
In a screening room in the China Film Building, Han Sanye and Chen Yuan accompanied Wu Yuan to watch the film.
In the 92-minute film, Han Sanye didn't say a word from beginning to end. It was not until the end of the film that he breathed a sigh of relief: "Well shot!"
"This will be a movie that brings a brand new experience to domestic audiences!"
"There has never been a movie of this theme in Chinese films before. This is an epoch-making work!"
Can "The Night the Comet Came" really deserve this praise?
To be honest, even though Wu Yuan has made an adaptation, reducing the experimental nature of the original film and strengthening its commercial nature.
But this movie is really not a very novel movie.
Hollywood has been playing with the theme of parallel time and space and parallel world since the 1980s and 1990s, and has also made many excellent time and space suspense blockbusters.
This is not a very novel theme.
This movie is excellent in setting and plot, using as little space as possible, a theme that would only be used in science fiction blockbusters.
But this is viewed from the perspective of the world film industry.
If the scope is narrowed to the mainland film industry.
What themes are being shot in mainland films now?
It's a local film like "My Father and Mother", a romantic comedy like "See You or Separate", a martial arts film like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and a satirical film like "The Devil Is Coming".
Or realistic-themed movies such as "Platform", "Get in the Bus and Let's Go" and "Silent River".
Sci-fi? Suspense? Parallel time and space?
No director has ever made a film of this type.
And precisely in Hollywood, movies with this theme are part of the mainstream blockbusters among commercial films!
As the main helmsman in promoting the development of the mainland film market, Mr. Han hopes to see mainland movies flourish like Hollywood, with various themes, big movies and small movies competing for excellence!
After China Film Group was established, the first thing he did was to push director Zhang Yimou to make a real mainland blockbuster, a movie that could catch up with international blockbusters!
The project is now in its early stages of preparation.
At this time, Wu Yuan's "The Night When the Comet Came" appeared.
Although this movie is not a blockbuster, it is definitely a movie that is more "commercial" than other current mainland movies!
Although the film cost only 300,000 yuan, it has a classic three-act structure of commercial movies.
From the opening to the character foreshadowing to the comet crossing to establish the theme, important changing events occurred, dramatic scenes appeared, confrontations and quarrels occurred one after another, and finally the heroine fell into a soul decision, the climax of the story occurred, and the theme sublimated, leaving a thought-provoking ending.
It sounds simple, but it is true that no one in the mainland had made such a commercial movie before Wu Yuan.
For sixth- and fifth-generation directors, such movies are too "simple" and have no artistic value at all, and cannot be called good movies.
But the Chinese film industry needs movies like this to enrich the spiritual life of the public!
Yangchun Baixue's art is too high-end, and the realistic themes are too heavy. Ordinary people who have just escaped from poverty can't really appreciate it.
After watching "The Night the Comet Came", Mr. Han slapped his thigh excitedly, thinking that he could use this movie to test the waters of the Chinese commercial film market!
Although he wanted to make a commercial blockbuster with an investment of several hundred million, he was unsure because he was afraid that the market would not be able to accept this kind of commercial movie!
Now there is "The Night the Comet Came" to test the waters first, to see the market response, to see the public's acceptance and box office response to this kind of commercial film. It will also be very helpful for Mr. Han's blockbuster plan!
"Classmate Xiaoyuan, I think this movie has gone very well. When do you plan to release it?" Mr. Han asked impatiently.
There are not many movie release schedules these days. The only one that can be called a popular schedule is the Lunar New Year slot that was just opened two years ago.
Even during the Lunar New Year period, there are usually only two or three movies released, and the market is pitifully small.
Wu Yuan naturally didn't plan to go to the Lunar New Year stall.
This year's Lunar New Year movies include "Happy Days" directed by Zhang Yimou, "Counterattack" starring Zeng Newei, "Examination Family" starring Song Dandan, "Fuss" starring Yuan Li, and a cannon fodder movie "Beautiful Home" .
I remember that the box office of this year's Lunar New Year market was very poor. Zhang Yimou's "Happy Days" only had a box office of 5.5 million, and he was scolded for being a gangster.
During the Lunar New Year period, the movie with the highest box office gross was 5.5 million, which shows how miserable the film market is this year.
September is not suitable either. There is a movie to be released in September this year, Feng Xiaogang's "A Sigh"!
This is the great director who created the Lunar New Year movie in mainland China. His film has a very high public base. If Wu Yuan had chosen to release it in September, he would really not be able to attract audiences to watch it.
Today's audiences do not have the luxury to watch two movies in a month. Between Feng Xiaogang and the unknown Wu Yuan, the audience will only choose Feng Xiaogang!
"Let's release it in October. After all, there is also the National Day holiday." Wu Yuan said with a smile.
"October?" Mr. Han frowned.
There is no such thing as a National Day holiday. During the National Day holiday, most people who have money in their pockets choose to travel instead of going to the cinema to watch movies.
"Just choose October. It will be released on October 1st." Wu Yuan shrugged and said: "Since we want to cultivate the audience's habit of going to the cinema to watch movies, we must choose a holiday. At least there is a seven-day National Day holiday. It is impossible for everyone Are you going to play outside for seven days?”
“If we can spare one day to go to the cinema and watch a movie, that’s our victory.”
"Mainland movies can't always focus on one Lunar New Year slot. Hollywood still has five major slots!"
"By the way, Director Han." Wu Yuan thought for a moment and then said, "I want to take this film to the Sitges International Fantasy Film Festival at the end of September."
"I think this movie still has a market abroad and can be sold!"
The original version of "The Night the Comet Came" is not a commercial film, only an experimental film. However, the protagonist used 20 years of rich film-watching experience to add some commercial elements to the film.
"Hero" is a commercial movie with a classic three-act structure. The whole story can be summarized in one sentence: an assassin assassinates the king, and finally gives up when the assassination is about to succeed. It is very dramatic.
What makes this movie awesome is not that the plot of the movie is awesome, but that this movie ushered in the era of commercial blockbusters in the Mainland. There are people in the Mainland who dare to be the first in the world to make commercial blockbusters!